Advice for storing toys?
 

Hey everyone!

I'm going to be moving home in a couple of weeks and unfortunately my toy collection is going to have to stay in storage for possibly a couple of years. I'm super gutted.

Anyway, can anyone give me some advice on storage? For starters it will be stored away from sunlight. My biggest concern is that I don't have time to order acid free zip-lock bags to individually store my stuff. I have a large under bed storage box from whamproducts.co.uk but I was wondering how best to store them inside the box. I have bubble-wrap but I've heard that it doesn't take long for the acid in the wrap to start breaking down and eating the toys.

While I don't necessarily need protective wrap for my Star Wars and Marvel figures since they'll be in a sturdy plastic box anyway, I would like some layer between them so they're not all sat directly on top of each other. And is that type of box okay to have figures directly touching?

I also have a number of NECA Terminator and Gears of War figures that I absolutely want to have some kind of protective padding around since I've already had a couple break on me.

Thanks guys!

Speaking as someone who once had to store hundreds of action figures in the guest bedroom of a relative's house while I was away at school (and living in a tiny apartment that lacked the space for my collection), I completely sympathize with you :(

While this is far from being an ideal or inexpensive method of storage, I have developed a system that has worked well for me in the past. Unfortunately, I doubt that your current storage box will be compatible with this method. To add to the bad news, this approach tends to take up a LOT of space, depending on the size of your collection.

To store my figures, I would stock up on those cardboard Christmas tree ornament organizers (the ones intended to be placed within some sort of box/container), and place them in cardboard boxes. The ornament holders keep the figures from touching each other, preventing frustrating paint rub-off. For smaller figures, like G.I. Joes and Marvel U., a few figures can be placed in each section, and paint rubs are still minimized. If you want to save yourself some cash, try and find a template for these ornament holders online, purchase cardboard moving boxes, and cut those into the designated pattern.

If you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, here's a pic. Lol, I found it online, and it seems to be the work of an amateur, so it doesn't look as professional or high-quality as the holders that I've purchased in the past:

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps5eac4208.jpg

While I've largely had good experiences with plastic bags, I've only used them as short-term storage, but I still would absolutely NOT recommend them, after hearing horror stories from friends. Because of those stories, I'm partial to cardboard, and it has not failed me yet.

Like I mentioned earlier, this approach does indeed take up large amounts of space :( . When I mentioned storing my collection in someone's guest room, I failed to mention that my boxes practically took up the ENTIRE guest room. Despite the space required, I can honestly claim that I did not have any issues with paint rub-offs, crushed figures, or any of the other hassles involved in storing action figures.

I hope that some of this information is helpful in any way :)

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot !!! Frankly, some of the hardest items to store are the accessories of the action figures. After a while, the hundreds of lightsabers, GI Joe rifles, LotR swords, etc... that one tends to amass can be even harder to store than the figures themselves. While they are somewhat expensive, I use Plano tackle boxes to store my accessories. They are made of a high quality plastic, and if my research is correct, they pose no threat to your accessories, and won't gradually "melt" them like plastic sandwich bags tend to do.

Again, good luck :)

Thanks for your response! Since I'm moving I have plenty of standard cardboard boxes. Is this kind of cardboard acid free? I was thinking I could just line the sides of the box with it. Would I have to worry about paint rub? They're going to be moved once into storage and then left for a couple of years (although I intend to buy some acid free bags once I'm settled and then come back to them to bag them properly) so do I have to worry about paint rub? If they were left touching each other will the paint start to stick to each other or something?

I've got a small tub that I keep a bunch of accessories (i.e. second heads, hands, force lightning and lightsaber hilts) and they've been in there for a couple of years and look fine. Is thick storage container plastic generally more friendly to paint and toy plastic?

Any suggestions?

egg crate packing covered with tissue paper, just line the bottom of your box with crate foam, then a layer of tissue paper, one layer of figures, then another layer of crate foam, so on and so on until you fill the box.

Hmmm... concerning the acidity of the cardboard, I honestly don't know the answer to that question. I used cardboard moving boxes, purchased from a local home improvement store, that seemed to be fairly high quality. They didn't release anything that damaged my figures, and they were stored in them for approximately two years.

With the issue of paint rub, to be on the safe side, it would probably be best to have no contact whatsoever among the figures. If they are going to be stored for years, it's hard to predict what could happen. Frankly, when I display my figures, there is typically a lot of contact (example: Colossus preparing to launch Wolverine into one of their "fastball specials"), and I've had no problems, but then again, I am able to observe them and frequently rearrange them for dusting. It would probably be best not to take any chances by having the figures touch while in storage, since sticking is likely to occur, especially if the storage facility isn't climate controlled.
One of my friends actually damaged two DC Direct Flash figures by storing them too closely. The emblems on their chests stuck to other figures and partially peeled off. I would assume that if you wanted to pack them together tightly, that the acid-free bags would mostly eliminate the threat of paint rub, but I honestly can not speak from personal experience. I was just too paranoid to attempt storing mine like that, and kept them at a safe distance from other figures.

And, concerning the thicker plastics, I honestly don't know if thicker plastic is better or not. Since most thin plastic bags (like the typical plastic sandwich bag) are manufactured to be used once and then either dumped in a landfill or recycled, they tend to quickly break down, in order to expedite either the recycling process, or their decomposition in a landfill. Plastic storage bins are intended to last much longer, so I would assume that the better, higher quality storage bins are manufactured in a way that prevents them from "breaking down" (and resultantly damaging/softening your figures and accessories) quite as quickly. But, like I said, that's just an assumption. I honestly don't know if the average plastic storage bin has any sort of serious long-term affect on its contents.
However, when I researched the Plano bins, one of their selling points was the emphasis that they would not release any chemicals that would damage the contents of the bin. I guess fishermen with large collections of expensive lures are just as cautious as we action figure collectors, lol!

Whew... sorry for my verbosity, lol. I hope that you found at least some of this info to be helpful.

Thanks both of you for your suggestions. The box I have should be wide enough to be able to layer the figures without touching and without too much pressure from stacking. Ooh, I'm so nervous. My little babies have to hibernate. Like you I have a lot of figures touching on the shelves and I've never experienced a problem but I'll be safe.

ok you have me worried, i had to take down about 50 figures, mostly mcfarlane, i put them in plastic bags and in 2 plastic egg crate, so what are this horror stories, and melting accesories? im worried now

Just wrap them in paper from down the chippy mate!!! Not the ones what use The Sun or even better, Tha Daily Mail... but the white paper for the fish n chips!!! It should be acid free and cost under a fiver for a proper bunch. If that doesn't work...wrap in kitchen foil...0% acid in there. Think outside the box and get away from plastic.

Didn't want to create a new thread since my question is along the same lines, so I thought I'd bump this one. I just had a decently large high barn shed installed in my backyard to serve as my toy/bicycle workshop space, and I was planning to store my figures in there as well. Where I live, it gets to about 110F during the summer, and I'm concerned about the heat warping the figures (which would ideally be in either a plastic storage bin or lockable metal office style cabinet, each in acid free GT Zip bags). The shed itself has insulated panel bare walls only, with a liner vent along the roof seam for heat to pass through. Anyone ever store figures in a similar space and seen any negatives to doing so? Thanks fellow arkers!

i once had a jangp fett helmet melt, (a full size one not figure), in a plastc box, because i left it in a shed which had panel walls and aluminum roof, not sure if its the same kind of configuration you are talking, but the thing is, the sun entered trough an opening, the lego figures i had stored were fine, so i still dont know what to blame

My high barn shed has a normal "home style" shingled roof with windows facing my house that won't allow for direct sunlight to travel through, so that kind of gives me hope nothing will melt... although, aren't legos made from pretty hard plastic? Not sure what it would take to make those melt.