A memory for the obscure & a combination of boredom/obsession to follow up on my assumptions :lol:
She refers to MC as a "kid", so assumed a preteen. Supporting characters a girl the same age and a scientist. Trio of villains seems likely. Stated goal is item collection (as opposed to dueling, searching for missing parent, finding a way home or other typical trope). Description of one item sounds like they aren't all the same sort of thing. Dragons and other fantastic monsters as opposed to robots. @Rizzoli refers to herself as a little girl when she watched it, so adult themes unlikely and probably on television.
I remember the series being part of Fox's "4kids" block during that time frame , so it had a fair amount of exposure, but never really became popular, so memories of it would probably be sketchy. My initial post was just a picture of the main characters to see if it rang a bell. But ... I was bored last night and have trouble letting go of a train of though once I start so decided to dig a bit into the series climactic battle. Found references to a multi-headed dragon creating a black hole to suck-up all the MC's allies, so tracked down the scene in question on Youtube. Seemed like the more pieces I found, the more it seemed to fit her description. Unfortunately, if this is the series she's looking for, it apparently never got a dvd release & currently isn't licensed by anyone. So Youtube videos will probably be the only source.