+1. I'm not trying to impress anyone, and only bought 2 Detolfs to impress myself and keep the dust off my G1s.
All I need out of shelving is a flat, stable surface on which the figures can stand/sit...and a set of $20 shelves from Target accomplishes that just as well as some magical cubic zirconium aquarium display cabinet with gamma-ray-dampening plexiglass shielding or whatever. The more money I spend on shelving means the less money I have to spend on figures or, more importantly, the less money I have to save for my retirement. Also, I have no interest whatsoever in whether my collection, or how it is displayed, "impresses" anyone. My toys are for my enjoyment alone.
QFT. That said, those Detolfs are incredibly sexy and not overy priced. I could see getting two of those in the near future for my MPs and SIC collections. But yeah, as far as Classics/Animated/Prime/whatever other line, regular shelving it is.
I can only speak for myself, the most I have ever paid for a transformer is $75 and that's only cause taxes just came in when I bought it. I normally try to stay under the $50 range, and i'm gonna have to pass that just for classics optimus but, in my position in life right now, I can't afford to spend a whole lot of money on my hobby. I did buy matching bookshelves from Wal-Mart and need 1 more. Eventually I would like to do what Sentinel did and get proper shelves. It's not to impress anyone but, I like to have mine displayed to impress me. I can't stand how cramped the detolf shelves look, as nice as they are, I would have to buy lots of them to fit my meager collection, in the way I want them. At least 4 or 5 easy. I like to keep my lines together, classics bots, classics cons, movie bots, movie cons, ect each on their own shelves and the Detolf's won't allow for that, the book shelves I have now which are twice the width barley allows it. Plus there is no Ikea anywhere near me. The closest one is 4 states away. I would rather just use a book shelf until the day comes where I can get either a deal on or actually afford proper shelving. Check out Sentinel's collection, that's how I'll display mine once I lose the 3 kids (once they grow up and move out) and the cheating wife... from divorce, the kids are staying with me.... My collection is in my sig, check it out.. Erland EDIT: The point is not to have the case over shadow, but to help display them so they look nice, to me I can't stand seeing a bunch of figures crammed together, even my own. I like them to be layered and every figure able to be seen and proper lighting and shelving units help to display them so they look EPIC rather than a bunch of plastic shoved on a shelf. Proper shelving units and lighting can help to accentuate a collection not over shadow them. Oh and OP, nothing in this fandom has any logic... just get used to it.... I have..
I'd like to have one of these: BILLY Corner combination - black-brown - IKEA $245 at the local Ikea store. 9. Do Not Steal Bandwidth Hotlinking to an image on another site could result in your image being replaced by a nasty or pornographic image. Use a photo hosting website.
I used to rock the "cheap" shelves/bookcases back in the day when I first started collecting. Then I met my wife.... My wife bought my display case for me. At the time of purchase, it cost her $700. Of course, I was like, "hey!...whoa!...that's a lot of dough!" and she pretty much said the same thing as the OP here.... Why put 2-300 hundred dollar toys on a 10 dollar shelf?...you're just asking for trouble.
I buy the Target $29 White book shelves. They look nice side by side, and do what I need them to do. Thats display my collection
check out another chicago guy's collection http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-collection-showcase/221986-my-gameroom-custom-cases.html < Jason Blue Boosts Collection this is my favorite mancave I've ever seen. Jason was nice enough to give me a little tour a couple years ago too. I'm not sure what he spent on it, but it's all custom. Just an amazing collection/display. that being said, I still think it's up to the collector how they feel about displaying their toys. I know you say it's the "cheap/easy" answer, but it still is the answer. everyone collects differently, everyone is going to showcase their collection differently. honestly I like seeing the variety, it's one of the most unique things about this site. we can all share a common thing in TF collecting, yet all go about it so many different ways. I think that's pretty awesome. Just keep your shit dusted is all I ask
Why spend hundreds of dollars on display cases when you could buy cheap ones and use the saved money for more Transformers? As long as it's not so cheap that it falls apart, of course.
I agree with the general point, I like to take pride in my collection and want to display it at it's best. However, a quality display doesn't have to cost the earth and I'm very happy with detolf + led lighting:
This thread is a bit like people who do or do not use look invert in First Person Shooters those who do / don't think the opposite bunch are completely crazy Right now I'm thinking those who spent $300.00 on a shelf are deranged.
Haven't you ever heard the old adage, "it's what's inside that matters"? Bam, there ya go. I think most consider the mechanism for display to be far less important, and sexy for that matter, than the actual contents. Plus, I venture to say a good percentage of the collecting populace likely have very little left over to spend on high-end display cases after shelling out inordinate amounts of cash on the toys themselves.
Hence the popularity of Detolfs imo. They look great and cost less than an average Masterpiece figure (at least in UK).
