The Energon Pub

After some hunting around, I finally saw some very nice display cupboards from IKEA that would serve my purpose. Glass panels and doors, and also built in lights.

My question is, is it harmful to the toys to actually have lights? Would it cause discolouration, or would the heat eventually warp plastic, etc? Is it better to have yellow or white light? And what is the distance between the light source and the TF that'd be ideal and safe?

Thanks!

I asked this a few months ago and received enough wary responses about cabinet lighting that I avoided it while researching glass cabinets for my collection.

I would suggest lightless glass cabinets, with tracklighting for your ceiling, so the actual bulbs arent anywhere near your bots.

Some of the horror stories I have heard about brittle G1 plastic due to years of direct cabinet lighting warded me away from any in cabinet lights, halogen or not. Something about the uv rays from a bulb, even though they are minimal will eventually damage plastic. You have to think, your collection might be in these cases for years and years.

Anyway, that is my two cents, I would say avoid them because if it turned out your collection showed signs of damage ten years from now due to the lights, you would be left with damaged bots and no recourse but to replace them.

Thanks for the reply, Sid! You definitely sound like you've done your research! Thanks, I think I can ever save some money if the cupboards are lightless. The display set showed items like glass or crystal; I don't suppose they had toys in mind when they constructed this cupboard!

Incandescent or LED lighting should be okay at a distance, but avoid halogen (too hot) and flourescent (discoloration).

Lapse Of Reason wrote:Incandescent or LED lighting should be okay at a distance, but avoid halogen (too hot) and flourescent (discoloration).

Incandescent SHOULD be ok, and I am not second guessing you Lapse, but it just seems safer not to put it to the test.

Bonecrusher is right when he said that these cabinets were not designed with toy collectors in mind. Vases and other figurines like Royal Doultons wont be affected by in cabinet lighting, Your vintage megatron might.

Safer than sorry is my opinion. Some nice track lights pointed towards a glass top cabinet will give a similiar effect but without the risk of slowly turning your bots plastic brittle.

Plus you save some cash which never hurts.

I'm in the market for some good display cases.

WHat I'd really like are the display cases you see in sports card shops, or department stores where htey show their jewerlly/watches.

I think I was looking at a 2x2 foot display case, 3-4 levels, all glass. Then there was a bigger version, 2x4 feet but it had double front doors and i don't want some division in the middle of my case, though I could turn it around.

I was thinking about lights too, but I guess I better stay away for now!

Anyone have any good display cases that they know of, where did you get them?

I bought my display cases from IKEA (Detolf). You can get them with black, white or oak colored tops and bottoms. They consist of 4 display levels and each shelf holds up to 13 lbs.

I put lights in mine but I don't use the lights as I don't want to get discoloration. I've also put black board behind the cases so it gives the case a better look rather than seeing straight through to the wall behind. I also build black risers out of the black board so I can display more figures on each shelf. If I didn't you wouldn't be able to have many figures on one shelf as they would block eachother.

I've got one case which is my G1 case and the other is my movie/classics/voltron case (I'm waiting for my complete classics line to arrive in the mail so I have an empty shelf and some space on others as I haven't decided what I want to take out of the boxes to fill those spaces yet.

Good cases for the money (60 US) and my wife doesn't mind that they take up space in our office/spare bedroom as they look decent. Good luck and I recommend these cases.

Mark

Very nice. Do you know if there is one that is twice as long as what you have?

They have a few different styles but the Detolf is only this size. 64 inches high by 16.5" wide.

They had another case that had more of a metal frame but I beleive that only came in red.

They had a really nice display cabinet that was actually a china cabinet. I couldn't get the wife to go for that as it was about $380.

It was about the same height (maybe a little larger) and it was about twice as wide with two doors that swung outward.

If I had more space and a larger budget I would have gotten that.

Check their catalog for it if that sounds like it might suite your needs.

Mark

I just bought the same cabinet tonite that mark has in his picture but im using mine for GI Joes. I like the idea if the risers as right now there is a huge gap between shelves.

Mark94 wrote:
I also build black risers out of the black board so I can display more figures on each shelf. If I didn't you wouldn't be able to have many figures on one shelf as they would block eachother.

That's a good idea too! It really does pay off to be good with your hands doesn't it! By the way I notice you have three different Golions. Are they all the same or of different make? Love them!

Yeah the risers really help me to pack the most I can into the cases otherwise I would have about 6 cases. At first I was going to buy acrylic risers but figured I would try making my own... why buy something when you can do it for free and they came out pretty good. Plus I made them to the size I wanted according to the size of the figures I was going to display.

I've seen a few people here with this case and it is hard to see some figures due to them blocking eachother so I thought I would share my idea to help some fellow TF fans out.

The Golions are all different. One set is the Japan GB-36 set, the other is the rarer recalled Taiwan version (recalled due to lead in the paint) and the third is the Masterpiece version.

Mark

Mark94 wrote:Yeah the risers really help me to pack the most I can into the cases otherwise I would have about 6 cases. At first I was going to buy acrylic risers but figured I would try making my own... why buy something when you can do it for free and they came out pretty good. Plus I made them to the size I wanted according to the size of the figures I was going to display.

I've seen a few people here with this case and it is hard to see some figures due to them blocking eachother so I thought I would share my idea to help some fellow TF fans out.

The Golions are all different. One set is the Japan GB-36 set, the other is the rarer recalled Taiwan version (recalled due to lead in the paint) and the third is the Masterpiece version.

Mark

I've been looking for cases for a long time, can you send me a link to IKEA or i can look for myself but i wanted to make sure that i got the right thing, your cases look awesome dude. Is the risers made from wood that you cut yourself, i thought earlier you said it was black board or something... I would definitely like to have your kind of setup up shown here.

Any advise and links would be greatly appreciated. $60 thats a steal for what i see here in front of me!!!!

I think I found them http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10011055

What type of figures are those on top of the first case (w/ Metallic finish), also still would like some help on how you created your own risers?!

Skiman wrote:I think I found them http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10011055

What type of figures are those on top of the first case (w/ Metallic finish), also still would like some help on how you created your own risers?!

Best Buy Megatron and Ratchet

Briggs wrote:

Skiman wrote:I think I found them http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10011055

What type of figures are those on top of the first case (w/ Metallic finish), also still would like some help on how you created your own risers?!

Best Buy Megatron and Ratchet

Where was I when these came out, was this a release from the Best Buy store whenever the movie first came out?!

Yup, you have the right cases.

Best Buy Metallic Ratchet and Megs as already mentioned. They were released on the same day as the DVD. Unfortunately I had to buy mine from ebay since I didn't get to the store on time.

The risers are simply made out of black quarter inch foam core board. I just cut out 5 pieces (top and four sides) and taped them all together from underneath using duct tape.

I just made a bunch at different heights and lengths depending on what suited my display layout. 6" high ones in the back with the largest figures on them, 3" high ones in front of those for the second level and then the front row figures stand on the glass shelf for 3 rows on average. Very easy process.

Good luck.

Mark