The Energon Pub

Personally, I don't like to keep my transformers in my box.
I like to display them for all their glory.

So now comes the question, what is the best way to preserve the toy as it is displayed?

I thought of wrapping them with shrink-plastic and keeping them away from the sunlight, is this a good or bad idea?

Any suggestions or comments?

-ed

Prolonged exposure in plastic or shrink-wrap bags is bad for the figures. For display, keep them out of direct sunlight, and in a glass case. IKEA has some nice cases I heard. But do NOT wrap them in plastic.

Plastic wrapping of any kind = very bad.

Yer I would just go with the rest. Glass cases are quite good, plastic smudges it a little bit. But basically I just keep it out of sunlight and leave it in my room on the desk. It looks quite good.

What about figures/parts that are sealed in plastic by the manufacturer? If you have a mint figure still sealed in plastic does it have the same issues or is this only for ziploc/sandwich bags?

SnapTrap wrote:What about figures/parts that are sealed in plastic by the manufacturer? If you have a mint figure still sealed in plastic does it have the same issues or is this only for ziploc/sandwich bags?

Any.

The reason being is that the materials used in the creation of plastic bags have trace amounts (or sometimes noticable amounts) of finishing chemical on them.

This is what fumes over time and causes the plastics to break down.

So does that mean that if all those MOCs from G1 and G2 were actually opened, they would fall apart?

Not that I have anything to worry about...When I was a kid in the `80s I KNEW that TFs would be collectable, and would go up in value, but I just did not have the discipline to actually leave my TFs MOC or MISB. That, and my family was lower-middle class, and I just didn't have the money to buy two of everything. I wanted to, because I just knew in my gut that they would go up in value, but I couldn't. My G1 collection is relatively small because I was poor, not because I lost or sold my TFs. I still have all my TFs from when I was a kid. Some of them survived pretty well, but a number of them are either in serious played-with condition, or actually broken.

But after all these years, we've now learned that keeping plastic toys mint in their plastic is actually BAD for them?? Man, I would have never even guessed at that.

Most G1s weren't stored in plastic but rather foam. Different processes and chemicals involved.

Shrink wrapping should be fine as long as you pop them all open like once a year to let them breathe.

I have actually been debating this myself.

I just happened to work retail some time ago and if you have ever seen a pallette of items shipped from your distributor/corporate/warehouse to your location, they usually arrive with saran wrap-like shrink wrap plastic stuff wrapped around the items on the pallette to provide for extra stability so stuff doesn't fall on you and etc.

I felt bad just throwing it all away, so i kept some of it.

I decided to use it to wrap around some of my MIB and MISB tf's.

I kept them in my window sill as i live in the basement of a house, no sunlight directly hits them and there are even sun screens on the windows, further minimizing light intrusion.

I got lazy and stopped shrinkwrapping all of the tf's in the window sill though.

At that time, i was usually at my gf's house for like a week at a time and such. So, i come home one day and go into my room and i smell something.. something.. musty.. and then this wave/cloud of humidity hits my skin and i'm like "oh no.." I look around and don't see anything out of the ordinary until i walk toward my mib/misb tf's and then i hear the carpet squishing as it was soaked with water.

I inspect the tf's to make sure they're okay, when i realize that water was dripping out of the cieling and down onto the window sill from a leak in the plumbing upstairs... and alllll over the tf's. It was like one of those threads you see that says "If your house was on fire/flooding, which tf would you grab?" so i start picking through the tf's as gingerly as possible; apparantly they were sitting in the water for more than 4 days and the boxes were as warped and water-logged as cardboard sitting in water for a few days could be. I accidentally tore one box just picking it up. it was a misb collector's nightmare!

So what's the point?

Some of those boxes had been wrapped up in plastic. Even though they weren't burn-sealed/melted airtight closed, i wrapped them tightly like you would with giftwrap. This significantly reduced the water damage to some of the boxes. But not entirely. It depends on what angle and how much water hits the box, and where the seams are of the plastic-wrap-job you did. In some shrink wrapped boxes, no water got in, in others, i had to take off the plastic and let them airdry for like a week. My Universe Nemesis Prime was one of the lucky tf's to survive in his plastic bubble of safety goodness. He was actually sitting in a puddle and managed to "walk away" from it unscathed. Universe Razorclaw, universe Ramjet, 2 of the three RID Trainbots got watered too, one more than the other due to plastic protection. The Superlink Bruticus giftset that my gf brought back for me when she went to japan was basically destroyed.

I would argue that plastic wrapping tf boxes is a good thing, but i don't know about the whole fume/vapor thing. but, if the plastic isn't ON the figure directly, would it still have the same effect?

DeathAura wrote:I would argue that plastic wrapping tf boxes is a good thing, but i don't know about the whole fume/vapor thing. but, if the plastic isn't ON the figure directly, would it still have the same effect?

1. The fume/vapor thing is legit. My fiance' is a chemical engineer.

2. It probably won't affect boxes, because the whole idea is that this is a plastic thing.

I admit i'm a little paranoid about it still. Still, it protects against dust and water.

DeathAura wrote:I admit i'm a little paranoid about it still. Still, it protects against dust and water.

Why not go with rubbermaid containers then? The kind of plastic they use for those does not degrade the same way.

I'd feel funny about shrink wrapping any Transformers, unless they were in their box. I just don't like the idea of them being exposed to blasting hot air.

Saya wrote:I'd feel funny about shrink wrapping any Transformers, unless they were in their box. I just don't like the idea of them being exposed to blasting hot air.

::Hrm, an open door...::

...like we're blasted with hot air everytime you post?

yes! Inter-web burn!

rubber maid containers become not-practical when you have a collection over 200 strong, all comprised of mib or misb items.

But i hear you. It's definately one of the ways to go with it.

I always hear it would degrade the figures. I am sure it is true, otherwise, no one would be warning everyone about it.

I store mine on the shelf, away from sunlight, in a cool, dry environment.

But I put them in OPEN ziplock bags in a Rubbermaid container, so they will not scratch one another if they are lose figures.

Every week or so, I inspect them, but I have no need now, seeing as I display them all now.

So even shrink-wrapping unopened boxes are not good for the toy?

what about bubblewrap? I have a really good condition G1 metroplex that i got off ebay a while back, the seller encased it in bubble wrap nicely for me and sent it in a carboard box.

now at the moment i don't have any space to display my TF's so It's in the cupboard in the bubblewrap, in the box. and we may be moving soon so I was just thinking of leaving it in there.

what should i do guys? keep it as it is or remove the bubble wrap and keep it in the cardboard box? what could i use for protection? (I heard that Metroplex's waist is prone to breaking)

oh and do plastic bags degrade boxes? I have a MISB predaking giftset and MISB Energon fattimus prime and to protect the boxes I put then in plastic shopping bags and in my cupboard.

gaaarrr what do i doooo?!?!?

Star Jammer wrote:what about bubblewrap? I have a really good condition G1 metroplex that i got off ebay a while back, the seller encased it in bubble wrap nicely for me and sent it in a carboard box.

now at the moment i don't have any space to display my TF's so It's in the cupboard in the bubblewrap, in the box. and we may be moving soon so I was just thinking of leaving it in there.

what should i do guys? keep it as it is or remove the bubble wrap and keep it in the cardboard box? what could i use for protection? (I heard that Metroplex's waist is prone to breaking)

oh and do plastic bags degrade boxes? I have a MISB predaking giftset and MISB Energon fattimus prime and to protect the boxes I put then in plastic shopping bags and in my cupboard.

gaaarrr what do i doooo?!?!?

Don't panic. The degradation of plastic takes atleast a year. This is not instant by any merans. I still have some more anonymous TFs in zip locks that aren't worth more than 10 20 bucks that I haven't bothered repacking in years and they're fine. Its a potential problem, not a definate catastrophe. The bubblewrap, I wouldn't sweat at all. It is not airtight, hence there is no issue.

Now, if you were to sell a figure and mail it, let's say...shrinkwrapping for something that temporary wouldn't hurt 'em. It would be a nice way to keep 'em dust free and complete with their accessories all in one bag.

And rather than use heat, (which isn't a good idea, which was mentioned before...) Wal-Mart sells these little battery operated bag sealers (in the chips/snack aisle) for around $4-5.00.

You could put the TF in a ziplock bag (or some other form of plastic) and seal it shut with that. No heat to the figure, so no damage, plus if you want the air out (and I've done this before with other bagged items)...stick a straw in one end, and push all the air out before sealing the bag, and just before it's finished sealing, suck the air out through the straw. Seal it the rest of the way and it's air tight.

But I wouldn't store them long term, that way.

Oh no.

What about plastic cabinets?

My office has been attacked by termites lately.

So i abandoned most of the built-in wood cabinets.

I bought several cabinets made entirely of plastic. 5ft tall, 2ft wide, and 12 inches deep. Each it divided by shelves into 4 compartments. Even the transparent sliding door is made of plastic.

Initially they were for all the books displaced by the termite infested cabinets. I have great respect for books.

Lately, I move all my transformers to the same cabinets as well. I devoted 2 entire compartments for them. 1 for Classics, the other for Movie and Binaltech/Alternator series. As my Movie collection grows, they will eventually have to occupy a 3rd whole compartment.

Now that you've mentioned shrink-wrap plastic fumes... I wonder if it covers plastic cabinets as well.

I always take all my transformers out of the packaging. So they are all bare and sitting inside the cabinet, which functions also as a giant display case.

Anyone, pls advise me on this.

Thanks.

i never thought plastic could cause so much trouble.

Does ANYONE have any idea if PLACTIC CABINETS are safe for transformers?

Auto Bot wrote:Oh no.

What about plastic cabinets?

Hard plastics are not the problem.

Bags and flexible thin plastics are.

Hard plastics do not have the same process which creates them. It's the process which manufactures the things that is the problem. Bags and such are technically 'blown' into shape. From what I understand, it's a chemical that makes them pilable. It's the same process and chemical that can become a real problem.