The Energon Pub

I am looking into purchasing some glass display cabinets with overhead lighting for my bots. The bulbs would be no heat halogens.

Any thoughts, risk of damage from the light?

Any feedback is appreciated, I dont want to unintentionally damage my Transformers.

Just get it. Its acually better without heat. Could melt em

i dont see the risk as long as the toys wouldnt be extremely close to the bulb, if u do please post pics, would love to see the collection

i dont see the risk as long as the toys wouldnt be extremely close to the bulb, if u do please post pics, would love to see the collection

that would be lush, personally i would have a coloured bulb, red or purple seen as i only collect decpticons

You could have a divider. Red light for the autobots on one side and purple/black for decepticons on the other...

I have been using glass display cases for many years(longer then the age of most posters here) with no problem, they use incandecent lighting which don't get very warm and the light seems have no fading effect.
you will love adding your transformers to a good display case looks great, and you can have fun changing them around now and then, as well as they are kept cleaner more time to play then having to dust.
I will post a picture if you like.

Clusterprime

Sid Burn wrote:I am looking into purchasing some glass display cabinets with overhead lighting for my bots. The bulbs would be no heat halogens.

Any thoughts, risk of damage from the light?

Any feedback is appreciated, I dont want to unintentionally damage my Transformers.

Got a link to what you were thinking about? I have been thinking about doing the same thing and wouldn't mind seeing what you are looking at.

I have been looking for some decent display cabinets, floor or wall. I cannot find any that arnt finished in a wood effect. They all seem to be geared towards collectors of Dinky cars or models tanks and there is nothing modern for a Transformer display.

I have seen some but they are built for retail outlets and cost a bundle.

This thread which DeathAura and I responded to has many pics of our collections:

http://seibertron.com/forums/viewtopic. ... id=#249229

DeathAura's even have the lights that he describes well what the best options are for not damaging your TFs.

Hope this helps!

http://www.allendisplay.com/store/pc/co ... oduct=1467

This was the type of thing I was thinking of, they also have corner cabinets in the same style

They offer an upgrade to halogen lights, which as I understand it give off little to no heat.

Let me know what you guys think, I will be moving into my new home in december, I will have an entire room for my collection.
I was thinking two cabinets like the one in the link plus a corner cabinet, all linked in an L shape

Clusterprime wrote:I have been using glass display cases for many years(longer then the age of most posters here) with no problem, they use incandecent lighting which don't get very warm and the light seems have no fading effect.
you will love adding your transformers to a good display case looks great, and you can have fun changing them around now and then, as well as they are kept cleaner more time to play then having to dust.
I will post a picture if you like.
Clusterprime

Please do, my main concern is the bulbs in the cabinet, I dont want to take any chances with my bots. Heat of any kind should be eliminated with halogen lights, but are there any other concerns from the lightsource?

http://www.allendisplay.com/store/pc/configurePrd.asp?idcategory=257&idproduct=1467

This was the type of thing I was thinking of, they also have corner cabinets in the same style

Wow now thats a display case...
mine are more like furniture I live in a apt so no real room for kickin cases like that atleast yet.
the first pictures are of shadow boxes they work great and are easy to find room for.
The second picture is of a $169.00 case
I paid a mere $169.00 2.5 foot by 6.5 foot finshed in black all ready put togeather and that was the kill deal from what I can find in my town.
It does not get very hot if at all and I do not leave the light on all the time, after years of using this type I have never had any issues with figures.

Clusterprime

Clusterprime, I am in love with your displays. What a beautiful cabinet filled with TFs you have. What did you use to make the shadow boxes? They look like a great way to display TFs when you have little to no space.

SB

I am in love with your displays. What a beautiful cabinet filled with TFs

Thank you,

What did you use to make the shadow boxes

I found them mostly at michaels craft store, I bet just about any craft store would carry them, they have some really small to really big, there fun to set up and easy to find room for.

Clusterprime

Halogen lights are actually very hot. Flourescent lights are cooler and produce a white light.

I think lightings may not be a good idea.

I have a friend who's got a very long stretch of cabinet on the wall. Hundreds of Transformers.

He's got colorful Christmas lights strung around the edge of each shelf.

The bots look ok, after 20 or so years.

But when he took some out, recently, and tried to transform them, that's when we discovered that the toys became brittle all these years. The head just simply broke off into several tiny pieces.

Scary.

I'm iffy about incandescent lighting as this produces a wider range of radiation, from infrared to ultra violet. I believe it is the UV rays that do the damage but i am still not sure of it. I think the worst light would have to be direct sunlight. I live in arizona, summers are known to reach 120 degrees farenheit, and the sun will warp plastic in a matter of minutes.

With that said, i doubt anyone is going to put Heat lamps in their displays.

But light is still a touchy issue and should not be treated lightly.

Some of the older G1 items may yellow over extended periods of timee.


Not sure about the newer figures however.

I use a pvc cabinet with transparent doors.

No lights.

I just depended on the room light to see the display inside.

Sometimes i cover the front with cardboard to minimize effects of lights.

I've been thinking about getting these lights for a few months now, just to put under/over some of the gems of my TF collection. I saw them today at walmart and took some pics; what does everyone have to say about these? Anyone think they would harm the paint?

I have always wondered about the best lighting choice.

Those LED lights are not very bright. Flourescent lighting should be okay. I personally have incandescent light strips. They are essentially just like the Xmas lights, but mounted in a narrow casing. Those are OK, although a bit dim.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:Halogen lights are actually very hot. Flourescent lights are cooler and produce a white light.

There is an upgrade in some cabinets to a "no heat halogen"

does that sound right? the whole issue makes me nervous, I want to display my bots of course but not if they are going to be slowly destroyed.

Are we too paranoid? these bots do generally sit on shelves under massive lights all day for months in department stores

Auto Bot wrote:I think lightings may not be a good idea.

I have a friend who's got a very long stretch of cabinet on the wall. Hundreds of Transformers.

He's got colorful Christmas lights strung around the edge of each shelf.

The bots look ok, after 20 or so years.

But when he took some out, recently, and tried to transform them, that's when we discovered that the toys became brittle all these years. The head just simply broke off into several tiny pieces.

Scary.

That is scary, do you know for a fact that this was due to the lights? maybe just normal degradation?

Sid Burn wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:I think lightings may not be a good idea.

I have a friend who's got a very long stretch of cabinet on the wall. Hundreds of Transformers.

He's got colorful Christmas lights strung around the edge of each shelf.

The bots look ok, after 20 or so years.

But when he took some out, recently, and tried to transform them, that's when we discovered that the toys became brittle all these years. The head just simply broke off into several tiny pieces.

Scary.

That is scary, do you know for a fact that this was due to the lights? maybe just normal degradation?

Don't really know.

But i do know that long exposure to mild heat will make plastic brittle.