The Energon Pub

If you don't own a business that sells toys, they should be opened. That being said, If the Box has a window Display and looks nice, I'll put them back in the box for displaying purposes. If the Box is just a box, I usually just keep the box, and throw it in storage, as if ever one day I get rid of it, the newer owner can have everything that I had.


Prices only go up when people get desperate. They are toys, open them, transform them, play with them, you know you do, you don't have to tell us. I'm just saying, do what you bought em for.

I say open them, only because I rarely sell them later on and see no point in having them just to stare at them.

Nothing will EVER be rare enough not to take out of the package, at least for me. I don't care if it's an MISB Fort Max(HA! Dream on cheapskate!), if it's mine I'm going to open it!

WeatherManNX01 wrote:It's a Transformer. I can't transform it if it's still in the box!

For me, that was part of the draw of the cartoons and the toys as a kid - that it isn't one thing, it's two, and I can go from A to B and back again. I love seeing my collection on a shelf, but I get a lot more joy out of converting the figures.

Same here...... They are meant to be taken out of the package.

Digging out this thread just to share something.

I do collect some sealed toys. But only if they are doubles or if they'll soon be.

I have the Botcon TF:Prime "exclusive" figures from the HTS (NYC Comic-con double-pack comming soon). Their packaging are awesome and they will be great collector items. I'll fiddle with the normal ones that will come out soon.

I have a very big Starscream collection. Bercause they are cheap, I'll keep DotM and Gen Thundercracker sealed because they are only the repaints of my open Starscreams.

I got a seal Randy for very cheap. But he'll stay sealed for GPS reasons.

All of them, I have twice. One open, one sealed. Got the doubles because they were on sale:
Gen C. Optimus Prime, DotM deluxe OP, DotM Leader Ironhide, RtS Perceptor, Marvel Crossover Hulk (tank), RtS Voyager Lugnut.

I also have a promo Kreo OP (free with some purchase at HTS) and a Stealth Force Starscream because you can still play with it on packaging and that packaging is a good display base.

All the rest, I open and played with. Even the Masterpieces and some toys I could only have sealed like Energon Prime and United/Henkei Animated Rodimus.

Picture related, my entire collection so far.

I keep a good deal of my toys MISB, they are easier to move that way. Once your collection exceeds what you can display, why open them unless you really want to play with them? I really think it depends on where you are in your collection. I also keep Titaniums, Encore, Alternators and Masterpiece MISB. I have duplicates of a lot of my classics toys so some are on display and some are opened.

Most of mine are still in boxes but part of that has to do with the lack of display space & boxes are easier to stack. I'm in the middle of fixing up/gutting my brother's old room with my dad, but it's a job we can only do on weekends (and sometimes we have to skip one). My bedroom is rather small and my display space is literally confined to the tops of one moderate sized bookcase, one very small bookcase, a small storage table thingy and a small section of my computer desk, which amounts to about 34 open guys. Each is surface, quite honestly, is over crowded.

My boxed guys are stored in the hall, stacked on top of the two bookcases out there, and my closet. Once my brother's old room is done I'll have WAAAAAY more display space (it's easily twice the size of my room, if not 2.5x). I'll likely open a few more of my guys up when I have the room to put them somewhere.

I tend to keep the guys I personally find "valuable" (quotes a sure part of that word) in their boxes, unless they're in a box that won't self destruct upon opening (like the Leader and Voyager boxes). If I feel like opening a deluxe box I throw out the plastic and keep the tech specs stored in a file with the instruction in case there comes a day when I need to sell them (tech specs/bios are just a fun things to keep in my opinion). MISB is nice but 1/2 of me want to open and fiddle with the toys, the other 1/2 is an OCD collector. Lmao. But that said, I never keep my tin toys in box, so it's kind of an a** backwards systems in my head. It works for me though and that's all that really matters.

I've only ever kept one figure in its packaging, and that's my 2nd Dirge with his incorrect 'Cons symbol variant.

Not for any reason than my correct symbols Dirge is open and I don't need to display double the Dirge-y goodness.