How to Care for Your Action Figure Collection
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Taking good care of your action figure collection is easy. It takes very little time, and will help your collection last longer, making for nice displays and maintaining their collectible value. Just like any other collections (stamps, coins, comic books), action figures can be susceptible to environmental factors and aging. A few simple steps will help keep your action figures looking like new.
Why Do I Need to Care for My Figures?
The materials that action figures are made from are far from indestructible, and can, over time, show signs of aging. Paint can chip or rub off, the plastic can become discoloured or dirt, grime and dust can build up.
Your Action Figures' Most Dangerous Enemies:
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- Direct Sunlight: Too much direct sunlight can cause the plastic to become faded and blotchy.
- Heat: Intense heat, usually in conjunction with direct sunlight, can cause the plastic to become soft and misshapen.
- Humidity: High humidity can cause the paint on the action figures to peel and chip, can cause decals to fall off and joints to loosen, causing your figures to have a hard time maintaining their poses.
- Dirt and Dust: Dirt and natural oils from your fingers can cause a grimy build-up on your figures if handled too much. Dust, while not really harmful to the figure, can build up and make for a less than pleasing display.
How Do I Care for My Figures?
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Here are a few simple steps that will help to keep your collection in great shape. It's smart to get into the habit of regularly maintaining your collection, perhaps by setting aside one day a month to devote to the upkeep of your figures.
Helpful hints:
- Keep your figures displayed in an area where no direct sunlight can reach them. If they're displayed on a bookshelf or display case, make sure they are set in an area of the room farthest from any windows that allow in a lot of sunlight.
- Keep your figures stored or displayed in a room that keeps an average comfortable room temperature. Do not store your figures where excess heat can affect them, such as a garage or an attic. Nobody wants a melted collection!
- If you're storing your figures in boxes, use sturdy plastic storage containers with lids that seal on in order to help keep out excess humidity. Consider sealing each figure in its own zip-lock plastic bag before they're put into the container. Cardboard boxes are not ideal for storage as they let in heat and humidity as well as often contain acids that over time can destroy plastics and discolour paint.
- Fight off dirt and dust build-up by handling your figures carefully. If they do get dirty, most figures can be cleaned by letting them soak in warm soapy water and scrubbing gently with a soft-bristled toothbrush. Dust can be easily removed with a can of air-propelled dust remover like you'd use on computer equipment and keyboards.
"Mint In Package" Action Figures
If you choose to keep your figure in their original packaging, the packages themselves require some care. The materials used by the toy companies are meant to be temporary and thrown away after the figures are removed, therefore they often use cheap materials that were never meant to be kept for a lifetime.
Common Dangers to Packaging:
- Heat and sunlight can cause the plastic bubble that encases the figure (called a "blister") to become extremely brittle which can lead to cracking. Also, heat and sunlight can cause the glue that holds the blister to the cardboard backing (called the "card") to loosen, making the blister fall right off of the card and now your figures can be considered "loose" whether you like it or not.
- Direct sunlight can wreak havoc on the printing inks on the card, bleaching and fading the graphics in a matter of weeks and destroying its "mint" value.
- Be mindful of the backing card as it's made of inexpensive cardboard that can easily bend, crease or peel apart if handled improperly or dropped. Also, your finger's natural oils can cause the inks on the card to discolour or bleach if handled too often. All of these things will lessen the mint value of your figure, as other collectors look for these problems when buying or grading a "mint on card" action figure.
Displaying an Action Figure Collection in a Limited Space
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A major problem that almost all action figure collectors must face is how to display your collection even though it has outgrown the amount of space they have to devote to it. This can stem from simply living in a small apartment, or trying to limit the area in which your figures cover in order to keep the rest of the house from looking like a toy museum, or probably even more common, keeping your display to a level that won't annoy your significant other.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the space you have allotted to display your figures are rather small, say, a single shelf in a bookcase. It's easy to see how quickly that space could fill up with figures and it's only a matter of time before you'll need to either take some down to display newer additions to your collection, or your newer figures will never get a chance to be properly enjoyed.
We're going to take a look at a couple of ways in which you can enjoy all of your figures in a limited space, without suffering from the dreaded "toy sprawl" or the even more dreaded "I forgot I even bought that syndrome".
Rotation
One great way to get a chance to enjoy all of your figures in your collection is to develop and implement a rotation schedule for your figures. This simply means that one a month, or perhaps once every couple of weeks, you switch out figures that have been on the shelf for a while with some figures that haven't gotten much shelf-time.
Out with the Old, In with the New
One obvious way to get a rotation rolling is to simply take down and properly store the oldest figure on the shelf whenever a new figure is added to the collection. This can work with several figures, of course. Three old figures come down when three new figures go up.
This easy system will keep your collection looking fresh and is a great way to ensure that all of your figures get some great shelf-time.
Display Themes
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Another great way to display your collection in a limited space is to think of the various themes that you may have within your collections and display them that way. While this doesn't necessarily allow shelf-time for every figure in your collection, it does show a pleasing method behind your collection which can make for an awesome display. Here are some ideas for the types of themes one could use in their displays:
- Movie & TV Figures: A display of nothing but Star Wars or Smallville figures can show a focused devotion to a particular movie or TV show. This type of display can say a lot about you, the collector, besides what it says about what you collect.
- Particular Brands: A display of nothing but, say, McFarlane or NECA action figures shows that you have a liking for that companies style of figures, perhaps due to their detailed sculpts or intricate paint applications.
- Vintage Figures: Many collectors only collect, or at least only display, figures that they had from their childhood, and a display of strictly vintage figures (usually 20 years or older) will show an appreciation for the history and evolution of action figures while giving an almost museum feel to the collection, which can be incredibly satisfying.
- Specific Characters: Another great way to display your collection is to stick to one character. For example, you may be a Superman fan or just really love the Boba Fett character from Star Wars. A collection of nothing but Superman or Boba Fett will show an elevated level of devotion on the part of any collector. Also, this can be a fun way to collect for people who enjoy the hunt of finding all the various figures of one single character.
- Random/Crossover Themes: One last idea for displaying a theme is to simply make one up yourself! Perhaps you've noticed that you seem to buy a lot of action figures with wings, or many of them seem to be robots. You have your new theme right there! You could get as strange as you'd like; figures with skull heads, figures of centaurs, and figures with beards. Truly, the choices are limitless and the only real rule you need to stick to is that you have fun.
Enjoying a Small, but Well-Maintained Display
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| random figures with something in common like Iron Suit |
Whatever type of small display you decide to put up on your shelf, remember that it all boils down to your enjoyment of your collection, so there are no hard and fast rules. Also, part of enjoying a collection is taking good care of it, so remember to keep the display out of direct sunlight and as free of dust as possible. All of those Boba Fetts will appreciate it!
Enjoy Your Collection!
Following these few simple rules will help you to better enjoy your collection, make it more impressive when you show it off and keep their resale collectible value high and hopefully profitable down the road.
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