The Energon Pub

I had a lot of out of box toys, especially G1, before I decided to collect MISBs as well.

1. How do you protect them from dust? I've seen many people put them in glass cabinets, but there are only so many you can fit in before you have to put them on open shelves, tables, etc.

2. How to you clean them? I tried using a feather duster, even one of those special static types, but I find that during dusting I seem to be attracting even more dust; they seem to rush in to fill in the 'vacuum' left which each duster sweep!

3. Many out of box sellers on ebay advertise as coming from a "pet free" home. I can see how in a house of cats who rub their scent glands to own everything they see could be a problem. What about dogs, or birds, etc? What do having pets in a home actually do to out of box toys?

1. Get another glass cabinet.

2. Open a window.

3. http://www.seibertron.com/forums/viewto ... id=#437945

I have mentioned this a couple of times...my figures are in drawer organizer carts from Staples...no dust gets in the drawers. Each of these carts are about $20. All of my instructions are placed in a binder with plastic covers...again there is no dust on them.

1. i rearrange and dust mine about once a month. i use those swiffers to dust them off with, works well for me.
2. same as above
3.can't help ya there! i have a cat and a bird, but my house is always busy with the kids, so i never noticed and smell from them.

Speaking personally, I'd be much more concerned about getting items from a smoke-free home than a pet-free home. Plastic literally absorbs that <insert expletive here>, can't be washed off. Though baking soda may help, I haven't tried that.

usually I'll use my paint brush (a sable round brush) to dust my figurines. Works well. Also, a seasoned tf collector told me before he dips his brush very lightly in water to dust all the small hard to reach areas.

I find cotton buds help, but take a while to get into every little place

Those compressed spray dusters are great too; if you do it often you won't need to wipe at all. I use the Freon-based ones, but there are also compressed CO2 dusters, but they're more expensive. I also use a soft brush for the nooks and crannies.

Thanks for the constructive responses guys. The problem I have with dusting is that it doesn't seem to completely remove all of the dust. When you swish through your toys, the dust just seems to be circulating into the surrounding air before settling again.

I've seen pictures of some of your collections... like hundreds standing in open shelves and tables. Must be crazy to dust them off one by one and forever too!

Bonecrusher27 wrote:Thanks for the constructive responses guys. The problem I have with dusting is that it doesn't seem to completely remove all of the dust. When you swish through your toys, the dust just seems to be circulating into the surrounding air before settling again.

I've seen pictures of some of your collections... like hundreds standing in open shelves and tables. Must be crazy to dust them off one by one and forever too!

Another tip:

Transform them, move them around.

Sounds crazy and obvious, right? Wrong. It actually works. A fellow collector told me that about three years ago, and he was right. The more you move them, the more they're handled, the less dust will accumulate. Of course you'll need to follow up with a dusting tool, at least a little bit, but it does work.

I have over two hundred figures sitting out, and they're a tad dusty but not like they could be. A simple swish with the ol' paint brush (cheapo at Wal-Mart, $.70) and that dust comes flying right off.

Get a soft bristled brush, that way you can really put some strength in your swings. The bristles will catch all the dust, plus the fanning action will push away the dust you've just wiped off.

Repeat as needed.

Shmax is right! Play with them. Dust comes from standing still and untouched. If you're a figure collector and not an MISB collector, you probably want your toys to be available for play, anyway. I periodically rearrange my display, and the process of doing this keeps anything from getting dusty. Also, moving them off the shelves momentarily lets me take a cloth to the surface on which they're resting, which can gather a bit of dust. If there's a toy I don't enjoy playing with or don't have much attachment to having on display, it should probably go into storage anyway. Cascadia's note about drawer organizers should work here, or if you're cheap, plastic bags in boxes in closets.

my dust in this appartment si more dubious as it's a bit oily... my extractor fan sucks. I clean with a mild detergent and Q tip or dust with a feather duster. I also contain in cabinets.

apart from playing with them, the compressed air does a great job as well.

Bonecrusher27 wrote:Thanks for the constructive responses guys. The problem I have with dusting is that it doesn't seem to completely remove all of the dust. When you swish through your toys, the dust just seems to be circulating into the surrounding air before settling again.

I've seen pictures of some of your collections... like hundreds standing in open shelves and tables. Must be crazy to dust them off one by one and forever too!

get one of those plug in room air filters to clean the air in your room. If you live in a newer house, it may have a filtration system and you might need new filters. Sounds like there is a ton of dust in your room that you need to get rid of.

Bonecrusher27 wrote:Thanks for the constructive responses guys. The problem I have with dusting is that it doesn't seem to completely remove all of the dust. When you swish through your toys, the dust just seems to be circulating into the surrounding air before settling again.

I've seen pictures of some of your collections... like hundreds standing in open shelves and tables. Must be crazy to dust them off one by one and forever too!

get one of those plug in room air filters to clean the air in your room. If you live in a newer house, it may have a filtration system and you might need new filters. Sounds like there is a ton of dust in your room that you need to get rid of.

Q-Tips (cotton swabs) work well for detail dusting when you leave something out for too long and need to get dust out of panel lines, etc.