ok, i'm moving to another city, since there is work to be had there, and none here, a few of my figures have boxes, mostly the takara stuff (mps, ths, ml, ehobby, etc) but the rest have none, threw them all out in favor of some space here. have over 400 figures that need to be transported including some customs, what would be the best way? i don't like scratches on my figures at all
Convert them to their alt-modes so that they're compact. Wrap them in bubble wrap and tape, then seal them in ziploc bags.
alt mode is a given, no loose parts to break off, bubble wrap is costly for that many figures though,
I did this back in November with a boxed collection of around 200 figures (at the time). I just got lots of good sized packing boxes and made sure everything tessellated. wherever a gap presented itself where the boxes could potentially have room to slide around or knock against each other I just packed in t-shirts, socks, towels... anything soft that I could use to form a kind of 'cement' between the 'bricks' of the boxes. It takes a bit of patience and trial and error to work out what fits best with what and in what combinations but it's worth it. My collection came out safe and sound at the other end. I find voyagers and leader boxes go great in the same box, but the bubbles on deluxes can be a pain as they don't fit tightly enough and require a lot of extra padding.
It's the best way to prevent scuffs and scratches. Each figure only needs enough to get wrapped around once.
Well, during my previous move, I moved a ton of figures in a couple of HUGE boxes and packed them in with tshirts/boxers/socks... you name it lol. Everything looked pretty good when I unpacked them.
Incoroporating some of your clothing or fabric items, like pillow cases seems to be a good alternative to bubble wrap. Maybe even wrapping figures in some tissues, or paper towel, and then placing them in a ziploc could do as well.
lol, I forgot to refresh this page and completely missed your post. Yeah, use your socks but obviously.... maybe now would be a good time to buy new ones lol. Don't use the ones with holes I can't help it because my dog just loves my socks for whatever reason and he always puts a big hole near my toes.
I just got done moving a few months ago so I will let you know how I moved mine. First I got a bunch of plastic storage bins and took a bunch of clean towels, sheets, sweaters, and anything soft that was also moving. Then I took one of the towels etc and placed on the bottom of the storage bin. Then I transformed a figure into the mode I thought best suited moving in (most of the time it ended up being the alt mode) and took all missiles, guns, etc and placed them in a ziploc bag. Don't forget to also pop any pieces that often pop off a figure into the bag (think Universe Onslaughts guns). Wrapped the transformer in a nice thick paper towel (don't use news paper the ink may wear off on the figure) and placed into the storage bin. Once the storage bin had a layer of transformers on top of the towel etc I zipped up the ziploc bag and placed it with the figures. Put another towel etc on top of the figures and repeated the process until all were packed up. As for anything I had MISB, I again used storage bins but used soft pillows and packed the boxes loosely into the storage bin. Luckily I don't have much MISB so that wasn't much of an issue. As for the customs and anything delicate, I would suggest getting a box or something a bubble wrap and then put into a storage bin and move similar to the MISB stuff I mentioned above.
About a year and a half ago, all my TFs were packed and moved to my inlaws for storage. I wrapped each one in a piece of paper towel (just one layer) then wrapped each one in multiple layers of newspaper. All then got packed into boxes while leaving a slight amount of 'wiggle' room in the box so if they got dropped or shifted while being transported hopefully nothing would be broken. Everything I have unpacked so far has come out unscathed (my G1 collection is still packed until I have room to display it). If you do go with the newspaper route, make sure to use the Paper Towel or something else so there is no chance of the ink from the newspaper rubbing off on your TFs. But anyway, I found this to be a fairly economical and way to pack a fairly large collection (it was around 300 figures). Also all the weapons were put into zip-lock bags and packed seperately from the figures, unless they fit into/onto the alt mode without sticking out or causing unnecessary awkward projections.
Large storage bins and Ziplock bags. Put a toy in Ziplock bag with weapons and seal bag with plenty of air in it. Repeat the process until you fill the bin. If you leave air in the bags then it will be a series of self protecting air bags.
Ziploc bags are also great just in case any limbs or pieces pop off. They won't get lost in the packaging.
When I moved house about eight years back I had a couple thousand or so figures (90% being loose ones) to pack up. I didn't do anything fancy, just put them into their most compact modes (including half-transforming some of them if need be) and slotted them together in suitcase-sized cardboard boxes. No bubblewrap or anything. Everything survived the move fine. Not a single breakage. And the removeals people weren't careful with my stuff either. They certainly couldn't read the words 'This Way Up' or 'Fragile'. Let's just say it was worrying when they opened the lorry back at my new house to see the box with my computer tower lying in its side and a chest of drawers placed on top. Even now my stored loose figures are boxed the same way. Never had any problems with doing that.
