To Open or Not to Open?
 

For me this is a question that only came about my last 2-3 years of collecting.. When you buy figures do you rush home like a kid on Christmas and devour the packaging to unveil a new collectable to add to your collection or do you reach for the push pin and add another carded figure to your wall>?
My question to you guys and gals who love toys do u open your figures?open select ones? or is everything in the package and mint? and What percentage of your collection is open or sealed?
Personally I collect mainly Marvel and Iron man and all my figures are opened.. I do have a spawn on throne mint in box as well as a few mighty muggs and Heath Ledger 6'' figure sealed.. I personally believe it partly depends on how much you spend.. $10-15 I would through the packaging away and open it.. But if I were to invest in say a $300 Hot toys Iron man figure I would open him but atleast hang on to the box... 90 % opened 10 % sealed

Great question, let me be the first to answer. I open all of my figures, Mainly cuz there is never enough room on my walls to keep my paintings and figures up. 'Sides, I love to pose them even with other figures, like Wolvie in his brown and orange (unstoppable object) v.s Bizzaro (unmovable object). For this i bought two display cases from IKEA and plan to get another, running out of space.
Now If I were to spend $100+ on any figure/bust/statue....hmmm yeah I'd still open it and display it.

Thanks for question!!!

I almost always open all my figures. I only collect Marvel Universe figures right now (and I have some older ML figures). For me, it's satisfying to be able to first examine the figure, then pose it, then put it on the shelf next to the rest of my collection. Since I enjoy doing the "teams" thing, and I also make custom figures, there probably won't be any unopened figures in my pocession, lol.

I only collect MISB/MOSC toys.

i prefer to open, there are some figs that drive me crazy as to wether to open or not tho, like my original release with bases NECA Turtles or my Japanese versions of the what we got as TF alternators. Still have them in the pkg and want to open them but man are they nice in the pkg, look great on the wall and going for some $$$

I'm in a similar predicament. I'm winding down in terms of collecting, where as I really don't buy much anymore. Maybe 4-6 things a year. So far I've been keeping everything MISB but I'm also running out of room to store them. I just got encore Sky Lynx and I always had it in my head that I would display, but the one I bought, which I thought was MIB, ended up being sealed. And I hate throwing away the box now too. So I don't know what to do.

i open all my toys for the most part

I open mostly all my toys, but I've got one or two MISB/MOSC ones.

I almost never open them simply because almost all of my chilldhood toys would have made me big money today if I didn't open them. If you invest in a nice display case, the toys still show well without having to open them too. I collect Joes and MU and I think its cooler to display not only the figure, but the package art as well. I open a few but 95% are in package and in a large in glass display case. I get to enjoy the whole toy, not just the actual figure.

Like most people who've already responded, I collect Marvel Universe and I open all of mine. I have an SDCC Frozen Captain America MOSC/B which is cool. I don't need a loose black and white cap and inmo the packaging makes it look cool because he appears frozen. Plus MU I think it made to be opened now that they have stands and those cards which are fun.

I've been recently buying some older toys from the 90's and.....I feel like I should be flogged for opening them.

I've opened almost all of my toys, though I do keep some MIB and a few others MISB. Most of the time the unopened ones are duplicates or redeco/remolds of other figures I already own and the MIB ones are usually exclusives for which I want to keep all the packaging (but still wanted to open).

For example, I have Armada Unicron opened, but my Energon Unicron (Dead version) is still sealed. I also have two of the TRU Soundwave reissue (one opened, one sealed).

One rare exception is my 25th G.I.Joe collection. They're all MOSC and I bought dupes of certain characters just so I could open them.

I've got one of all the MUs sealed and on display on shelving. I like the card art too. I have other MU dups and MLSD opened over my desk at work. 90% sealed. 10% opened.

I just realized I have an unopened MU Guardian for some reason....? That's weird, lol.

Yea, I'm definitely 1% unopened, 99% opened. I DO keep all my packaging tho.

i used to keep the packaging but when all the space under my bed was full i said to hell with and threw it all away,even the MOTUC boxes.

I admire your ability to keep your collection sealed. Do you collect only the parts of MU that you want?

Things like statues I hold onto the boxes for. Most of my collection is Opened, but some are unopened. I used to hang on to the boxes, but i recently stopped that.

I open everything almost as soon as I get it, mainly because I don't have space to keep packaged toys. I would say 95% of my collection get resealed in bags and packed away, and the rest rotate out on the shelves.

On rare occasion I'll get a good deal on a packaged toy, but if it's worth anything, I sell it or pass it along as quickly as I can. With my kids around, a MISB toy is a ticking time bomb of depreciation and shredded packaging.

I'm trying to be a completeist. Missed Fury cause I didn't want to pay $30 for a $8 figure, but I guess we've all got 20/20 hindsight on that deal now.

I'm fairly new to the collecting game (last year) so I guess I haven't run out of room yet. But I can already feel the urge to open them just to make more shelf space. Especially since the comic packs take up so much room. When Galactus show up, my MOSC stuff might all get opened up. Although that Galactus box art work might be too got to NOT display.

All my stuff at work over my desk is opened though. I have locking cabinets in my cube.

Hmm I'm not sure what you mean about hindsight regarding Fury. Like you wish you did?

I kinda wish I kept some of my MUs on card, like the rarer one's such as "on flame Human Torch", Bullseye, Classic Ms Marvel etc

I'd love to see photos of your collection if you ever get time

Most of my collection was proudly displayed in either movie accurate dioramas or cool groupings before I moved, when I have the space I'll set it up again. Generally I believe you can't fully appreciate an action figure till you open it.I do have some pieces that are MOC,(certain exclusives or if the mint figure was better displayed than loose for example the McQuarrie Star Wars line)

thanks for the responds 1st time posting a thread here didn't know what to expect.. thanks for the honest feedback.. I think if its a limited edition or "wallmart,target,k-mart,etc" exclusive you can almost bet if you hang on long enough the value went up.. I was recently at wallmart few weeks back and seen the 3 3/4'' Wolverine origins figures... a few pegs full, all on sale for $2!! I couldn't believe it.. 90% of it was 2 diff versions of logan but there behind it was 2 deadpool unmasked figures.. mint .. opened 1, kept 1 sealed... then I went May 6th scouting Iron Man figures.. found a black widow MU, as the extremis Iron man, looked for the 6'' exclusives didn't find any.. but looked way up and found 2 racks of them... got myself a war machine and Iron man IV or VI... sweet figures.. looking back I should of bought another war machine as they're selling for double right now on ebay

some toys now a days have 2 many options not to open yet if you pay over $100-1000 you need to atleast hang onto the packaging in my eyes,

Such a good question. Like everyone else, I have beat myself up over this very question. I have seen it one of two ways: if you collect to make money, you don't open. If you collect for the fun of it, you open. I am more of a model kit person myself, so I have to open, but my finished models go into the old trusty Ikea glass case. My boxed figures that I do get, are still boxed because I am always considering the value of it.

It seems like IKEA is the place to go for figure display.

It all comes down to this. If you are buying because it is something you want to enjoy yourself and you have no intent to resell, then open it. If you are buying it with the thought that it will go up in value and you may resell it for profit then leave it MISB.

If you don't plan to resell then it doesn't matter if it will go up or not in value. So you may as well open it up and display it.

The only other reason I can think of to keep it in the box if you don't plan to resell, would be just so you can say you have one in box still when your toy becomes a sought after collectible. Bragging rights.