Nah I'm not worried. Paint is paint. If some wears off, so be it. Loose ball joints can be worked out with some fingernail polish. The tires on most of my RiD toys have deteriorated and split, so I super glued them. If the white plastic yellows a little bit it's not going to take years off my life. They're just toys, I didn't buy a single one with the intent to try to sell it for monetary gain later so if they're not in pristine condition I really don't care.

 

Sorry, but I'm part of a hobby where the high end of figures available can date from as far back as the 1960s, and are made of vinyl to boot. I have zero interest in worrying over toys that will "only" be ten or twenty years old and don't have G1 stuff to concern me.

 

I'm mostly worried about rubber tires...

I've had issues with just about ALL of my RiD Prime's tires cracking and breaking... so far, none of my Car Brothers tires have been problematic... so far.

 

Not really worried about the resale value [if I want to re-sell something I'll leave it sealed], but about what the figures will look like or how they'll pose in the coming years.

Had my RID Prime and Magnus for years [3 years I think] and they were each sitting in their boxes at the shop for 4 years prior to that, no tires breaking on me. Most of my BW figures are battered like hell because of the play abuse they received when I was younger, and the G1s fare the same.

I'm beginning to worry when worry seeing pictures of new figures with joints I presume will be problematic [eg MP Megatron's arm joints will not hold up that cannon and will soon loosen the entire arm].

 

I take care of my stuff, after all is my duty to keep them clean and neat.

So I worry about my figures, almost always I buy duplicates of my figures so if anything happens, I have another one to replace it and almost all my collection is safely stored.

 

Well I still have TFs from 20 years ago at the moment so not really, and plastic is incapable of rusting so the TFs we have now will still be around for a looooong old time yet.

 

Be kind to ball joints. I had two Nightwatch Optimus figures (exactly the same figures) and I transformed them so much, but always carefully, slowly. Then a friend of mine transformed one of them 4 times rapidly, and in a few minutes his ball joints were loose and I still couldn't nail polish them perfectly. The other one, for comparison, is still OK.
Ratchets.... hmmmm.... I fear for them whenever I hear them moving. Doesn't sound too good.
yellowing: I keep mines in a shelf under the window so they're not exposed to sunlight at all. I hope that will save them.

 

Not Transformers, but I've got Marvel figures from 10-15 years ago that are all still in great condition. Paint apps are what they were when I bought the figure, and joints are just as tight as well the last time I checked on them. Mind you, I did more displaying of my figures than playing with them. But they're all mostly in good shape as far as I know. They've been in storage for the past 2 years, so I'd have to check again to make sure.

 

Even the Mona Lisa is falling apart...

Do what you can to preserve them. Enjoy them in the meantime.

 

What can you do to protect rubber tires? I'd like to prevent any future damage to the tires if I can but I'm not sure what I can use.

I read on this board once that you can use white vinegar but I wasn't sure about that. Armor All?

 

As many have said, the only problem I have is with the Transmetals type of shine. I worry about the flaking and scratching but, it doesn't stop me from getting my war on.

 

some G1s like Shockwave hell yes as those are all 20 years old already but with newer figures not so much but itll be a sad day when any of my G1s start to fall apart T_T

 

Best bet for longetivity is leave them in their alt modes and stored away from sunlight or flourescent lighting and at room temperature.

I keep mine in ziplock bags with each color accessory also separated by smaller ziplock bags as to not rub against different paint schemes for scratching/flaking. I still have a minty fresh C-10 colgate white G1 Jetfire (stickers unapplied) that looks right out of the box. 24 years and still going strong!

 

Remove all the cylinder batteries. (AA, AAA, D, C,) and 9 volts.

Battery corrosion is really the only thing that frightens me on long term durability.

Otherwise I got everything else covered. The sun and moisture are foul. No food or Drink in my toyroom.

 

Good advice!! I need to remove the batteries from my Omega Supreme, now that I remember.

 

I don't build my colection with the intention of ever re-selling any of it so I'm not overly concerned with deterioration affecting resale value. When I die whoever inherits them can worry about that.

But I think all my G1 stuff that's 20-25 years old now is still holding up just fine. Sure things start to show there age to some extent but that will be true for all the figures that exist. I think if the reasonable steps are taken most stuff should survive just fine long in to the future (such as avoiding direct light, proper storage, not playing with older toys and just handling them delicately).