So in my basement is my man cave with my Transformers and comics. I've had flooding once, but just like an inch so nothing was damaged. I know that if I had a much bigger storm, it'd flood pretty bad. Comics would be ruined, but did anyone go through damage with flooding to their Transformers? Would they really be ruined? I guess it'd depend how long they're soaked and the kind of water that flooded, but I'm curious of others experience. Thx
I've never had any damage from a basement flood. I bought a MISB Korean boxed Beast Wars II Megatstorm off ebay. The seller didn't even bother putting the item in a box. Dude just wrapped brown paper around the Megastorm box. To make matters worse, it was delivered on a rainy day, left to sit on my porch in the rain until I got home from work. The box was absolutely destroyed. Thankfully, the figure was OK. This next one is a complete mystery to me. I had a few vintage MOC 1980's Star Wars figures. They were in clear clamshell cases to protect the cards. I had them stored in a box. I open the box to discover that ROTJ Han Solo (trench coat) has water all inside the clamshell. The card was destroyed. It wasn't even good for a mint loose figure because the figure was discolored from the heavy amount of mold growing on the cloth trench coat. All I was able to salvage was the black gun and the head. None of the other figures were affected. Not even a hint of moisture on the other figures. In fact, I couldn't see any hint of moisture anywhere else in the box.
OP: I haven’t had that with TFs, but with joes. You don’t want those screws and springs rusting. Stickers would peel too.
My Animated Ultra Magnus on the roof (It was making lots of noise) and a rainstorm hit it, causing it to completely yellow, crack, and boke electronics. I'm ordering a new one soon.
Yeah, it can be a pain replacing rusty screws in GI*JOE's. Sometimes the screw is so rusty it can strip easily. Plus you have to make sure you have the right screws for the right year figure. I can't even imagine the damage it could do to Transformers. Not just screws, but pins and even entire metal body parts.
Not a flood, but my parents house had some roof issues so some my old g1 stuff was rusted fairly badly and took some work to try to get old screws/pegs loosened. A lot of stickers were faded but still stuck on. Some plastics were brittle, but It was Dependent on type (combaticon blue/green was especially weak). Most seemed to hold up just fine, from a play perspective since my kids are playing with them now but probably not as a collectible/value standpoint .
I forgot about electronics. So stickers and screw rust would be something I'd worry about the most I guess? Was it just leaving the toys submerged in water lead to the cracking? So was it like a force of the water hitting them? Thx
I dealt with a flood. Most were completely submerged. Everything survived 100% ok. I pulled out my bins immediately after noticing (probably sat for two or three hours. Was able to manually dry them a few hours later (with a lot of help from some amazing friends). I think if you notice it and can address it quickly you've nothing to worry about, I think long term submersion though might have more dire effects. Heres a pic of mine drying out 7 years ago.
You already stated that for the comics, those would be a total loss. The reality is that just like anything, flood water isn't just plain tap water, you have all the crap that's would be in that water. The electronics are a given, they'd be toast.. the whole "rice" (silica gel is the proper thing to do) could help but I wouldn't trust it. The screws would most probably rust depending of how long they soak and how fast you dry them The odds of contamination is from bacteria and mold and could be a really bad thing. Even if they look dry on the outside, the insides could end up being a very bad risk and end up as a culture that could end up making people sick. So.. the best advice is pretty stereotypical: do everything possible to prevent it from ever happening. The money you might invest in precaution will pale compared to the results and damage from a flood as you might lose everything.
