On whether to keep the boxes of my transformers or not...

I'm a loose collector, but I keep the boxes. I still have all the boxes of my animated purchases which is almost the entire line, and I still have the boxes of all my movie 1 transformers. I don't know if I should throw them out or not, I'm just in love with the artwork on the animated boxes. I do need room for the new rotf, so I need your guyses opinions on if I should or should not keep the boxes. All help is appriciated, thanks.

-rikkuluverx2

 

I don't keep my Animated boxes, but of the stuff I trash, they're the only ones I've considered keeping because of the artwork. I only keep boxes for MPs, reissues, Classics 1.0, Mighty Muggs (go figure) and the occasional one that catches my eye (SE Dragstrip, for example).

 

I keep all my Deluxe cardbacks side to side on a shelf. The voyagers though I usually keep all the boxes and put the toys back in them when I'm done looking at them.

Lately though I've been contemplating cutting out the back of the box (for the art and bio) and just keeping them as cardbacks.

Personally I'm torn, I like keeping them boxed, keeps them clean, away from light, etc. But they're taking up so much room it's crazy.

Plus I feel like if I have all these toys I want to SEE all these toys. What's the point of having them all if they're all boxed away and out of sight?

So I say keep the boxes, but my views may be changing on that very soon.

 

Just toss em, they're not gonna help you later down the road, that's just my opinion. Most voyager boxes mess things up by hot gluing thee plastic twisty tie bed to the cardboard, so you have to destroy things to get the bots free. What happened to just sliding out the plastic they're settled on?

 

Hot glue? What? I never noticed any glue. I just untwist them (sometimes cut em with nail clippers) and pull the figs out, no problem. Put em back in and retwist the ties. I tend to feed the ties through the back and twist them in the front of the figure. Makes it alot easier to get them out and put them back again.

Personally I think I just have to break down and buy a bunch of those $70. glass display shelving units they sell at Ikea and put all the figures in there. For some reason I just can't leave them sitting out where dust gets on them. I hate the look of dust on TF's and once you've got a bunch of them dusty it takes forever to clean them off really well and get all the little nooks and crannies. Then you're using damp Q'tips trying to get into tire rims and all that craziness.

I think I need to set them up like a museum where air just can't get to them much but I could still get them out and play with them when I need to.

One of these days some brilliant TF fan is going to construct the perfect shelving unit and the fandom will rejoice. (and he'll probably be rich, lol)

 

Yeah, sometimes the plastic bed they're in isn't inserted through the back and taped on the back like it should but, it's just cheapily hot-glued on some occasions or really stuck to the cardboard that houses all the twisty ties. It's hard to explain, but I usually end up destroying everything just to get the damn toy out of there.

I use a small paintbrush to get dust out of hard to reach nooks and crannies.

 

I keep my boxes, but throw out all the cardboard and plastic inserts. I break the boxes down flat and store them that way. Very space efficient.

 

I would start by tossing the Deluxe ones and see how that makes you feel. I still have a bunch of stuff to go through. It took me years to throw out all my CD cases (probably about 500 of them), but after moving them three times, I finally said screw it. For me it was a big relief, but some people are more partial to their stuff. It feels good to toss out some junk every now and then. I am considering getting down to just Leader Class and above for boxes, but Im not sure that I even need those.

Start small, and see how it goes.

 

if you ever plan on moving to a different house then keep them if you are worried about keeping them in top condition. Transforming them back into the way they came and putting them back into the box when you move keeps them from bouncing around in a box loose, which could lead to peices either scratching the paint of each other or getting caught and bending or snapping. It's a pain and is time consuming, but I think it's worht the time and extra space it takes up in a truck.

 

Hmm, this method intriques me sir. Can you pop the boxes back open into a box shape? Or once they're flat are they pretty much done?

 

I too have this dilemma. I have like 3 large boxes overflowing with my boxes and cards/plastic in my basement. As of right now I do have the extra space, but eventually I'll have to come to some decision on them.

 

Yes, all TF boxes can be reformed into their original shape. I can take any of my voyager or leader boxes out and reform them into their original form. When you first break them down just be careful with undoing all the cardboard tabs and cutting the tape.

 

I collect to play with them, so I toss mine.

 

Throw them out. I never saw the reason to keep the boxes. The only things I keep are the character pictures on the sides of the voyager boxes. No need for them to take up space.

 

i keep instructions and throw away everything except henkie/and other korean/japanes writing. or expensive toys like the music label soundwaves...all 3 and scourge and alternity and alternators.........sounds like alot but i not really...

 

+1 to "toss them."

 

thanks alot for the help guys, i guess i should just toss them. i guess i can always look at the box art on some transformer galleries or something. thanks again. :]

-rikkuluverx2

 

If the reason you keep the boxes around is the artwork why not scan the art into your computer? That way you still have the art but can toss the box.

 

I keep all my cardbacks for the stats + bio. As for the boxes I cut off the back with art and info and toss the rest. It's more space efficient that way.

 

i am glad we get screwed with our deluxe packaging here, now they give a nice fold out poster for the bio and artwork and put the wave mates on the back of the box, makes it easier to toss the boxes (except mps, ses, ml, some alts, and other nicer figs)