Personal tips when moving your toy collections to a new home.

Initial packing I did, still have another half of things to pack

Well, the day that I dread the most had finally arrived. It's finally time for me to pack up my toy collections and move them to our new home. I have not been updating this blog as regularly as I want to because majority of my stuffs were already all packed up and ready to go. I didn't realize that I was able to amass a huge number of toy collections since I last moved to a new home. For this entry, I'm going to try to share my experience and a couple of personal tips on how you could pack your collections in an effective way, preserve them, and how to be able to display them in their new homes seamlessly.

Action Figures still in their original packagings

Some still Mint in Card collections

Tip No. 1. If you have plans on moving in the future, don't open your MOSC/MISB collections yet

I've got a couple of items that are still in a box and unopened. I intentionally did not open them because I knew that I would still be moving to a new home in the future. And also, I no longer have enough display space for them. So it really came in handy when I finally moved to a new home.

Empty boxes for reuse

Tip No. 2. Prepare lots of Ziplocks, Plastic Cellophanes, Bubble Wraps, and if you can, keep the boxes intact and don't throw them away.

In my case, since I've got more than a hundred figures to pack, The thing that I find the hardest to do is to put all of them in bubble wraps or zip locks. So what I did was to just cherry pick on some items (the most valuable to me) that would be needing zip locks and let the other items be packed as is. Meanwhile, the other figures that still had their original boxes were returned to their respective boxes.

Half filled containers with more items to come

Tip No. 3. Pack them strategically to avoid breakage

The trick I did in order for the figures not to be piled up too high on each other is to fill half of the containers with figures/items that are still in a box and fill up the other half with loose figures. By doing this, it lessens the probability of the figures on the bottom end to be broken due to the weight of the figures on top of them.
 

Weaponless TMNTs

Tip No. 4. Separate the accessories/weapons from the figures and place them on a smaller container (i.e. ziplock, small plastic container/tupperware)

I separated the accessories from the figures so that I could avoid loss, breakage, bent plastics, and other problems that I might encounter once these figures are stored in the containers. It also will be easier to locate them in the container once you start redistributing it to it's rightful owners. Be sure to remember though which accessories went with whom. 

Chinese Martial Arts related action figures

The Beatles

Vintage Rambo and MOTU Battle Cat and Panthor

Tip No. 5. Categorize the action figures by genre/toyline/theme or whatever you could think of for your display when packing them in a container.

One dilemma of mine is how to display them in their new homes. Since I've got a number of action figures from different toy lines, the solution I found is to categorize them according to a certain theme (i.e. DC, Marvel, Pop culture). There's no problem for DC and Marvel action figures since they are my main toy lines and they would be accommodating a larger space in my new cabinet. But for the other toy lines, I'll have to be a bit more creative so that they'll look seamlessly a natural fit when mixed with other toy lines.

NBA Action figures

Fast food toys

As an example in my collection, what I had in mind is to categorize Non DC and Marvel action figures into a family. For example, my Beatles yellow submarine action figure collection will go with my Bruce Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and vintage Rambo action figures as a display group featuring pop icons from different countries. ThunderCats will be grouped with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as they will represent the sword wielding warrior themed cartoons of the 80's generation. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will have it's own display. The NBA action figures will also have it's own separate display. Power Rangers/Masked Rider/Dragon Ball will form another group. Others not mentioned will I guess be on sale if I could not make them fit in a group. I also realized that I've got a couple of superhero related fast food toys. I might sneak them along with the vintage DC and Marvel displays that stands at 5 inch below. These fast food toys actually would look cool for my son's room. But I'll have to check first if I could sneak them in.

Boxes I used in my comic book collection

Boxes I used in my comic book collections

Tip No. 6. If you are also into comics, secure boxes that has a snug fit to your comic book collection.

Before I went into toy collecting, I was (and still am) actually a comic book collector. I've managed to amass a huge number of comics that were concentrated on Superman for DC and X-Men for Marvel. I think for the Modern Age Superman, I have in my possession around 75% to 80% of all the issues released up to the last Superman story before the New 52 reboot happened. For X-Men, my collection is mainly concentrated on the Chris Claremont/Jim Lee X-Men 1 (Early 90's) up until the Grant Morrison run. I kinda gave up on X-men after Morrison's run as I felt that the stories were keeping on repeating but with different characters taking on the roles. I also have a good mix of DC and Marvel titles ranging from Justice League to major DC events and Marvel's Avengers related titles and a couple of Marvel's major events. As seen on the photo, I think I've got around 6 or more boxes full of comics in my collection. I got lucky that I was able to purchase these storage boxes that houses my comic books nicely. We can prevent creases, tears, and damages by choosing boxes or storage that has a snug fit with the size of your comic book. 

DC action figures on the left, Marvel action figures on the right on my old main cabinet

Extra action figures without a home

Slowly filling them out

Tip No. 7. Take a quick snapshot of your old display showcase.

To help you remember how you displayed your collections before storing them in those boxes, taking a quick snapshot is advisable. By doing this, it gives you an idea how to redisplay them in your new cabinet if ever you decide to retain the same look. Personally, I've always loved to display my DC and Marvel action figure collections on opposite sides. These 6 inch (and above) action figures of my favorite comic book universes are my favorite of all my action figure collections. So much so that I decided to build those two universes in action figure form in my collection. With that said, they will have the priority space in my new display cabinet. 

My new Display Cabinet

Tip No. 8. Plot your display space distribution in advance

The thing that excites me the most is when I actually start re-displaying them. For most, it would look tiring and daunting to display more than a 100 action figures. But for me, this is my stress reliever. Days before the actual moving in, I decided to plot where I would place the action figures on the new cabinet. It gives me a good perspective of how I would be able to present them in a more orderly manner. I'm actually eager to see if this new display cabinet would be able to house all of my action figure collection and avoid encroaching on other rooms/cabinets. One of the headaches that I had in my old home was that my action figure collections were scattered all over the place due to the lack of space. By plotting the spaces in advance, I get to have a head start on how I could keep them all in one room and in one display.


Well that's it for now. Hope you guys like my personal tips. I'm sure there are other better strategies out there than mine. If you have one, feel free to share them in the comments section below so that we can exchange ideas and help out other fellow toy collectors out there. I'll be taking a photo of my collections in their new display cabinet once I'm done displaying them. Will be sharing it to you guys here. Promise!