Many of us either have collections or thought about starting one. Our collection might be small with just a few items, in the middle with quite a bit, or very large that includes everything that we can find on the subject.

This series of articles is intended to give ideas to new collectors and for current collectors, I hope to bring a smile and some nods–maybe even a few new ideas.

All the pictures posted in part one are of my own collections, hopefully they will give a good idea of how much joy or possible sorrow (joke!) that a collection can bring.

Part one will focus on starting a collection and display.  Part Two will focus on some helpful Do’s and Dont’s, alternating due to space and also storage.  And Part Three will focus on miscellaneous info and the negative end (selling, loss, ect…) of a collection.

To begin, ask yourself: “what are my interests?” Do you like action figures in general or are you a fan of Superman? Do you like movies or music? What are you’re interests?

After you figure out what you want to collect, the next step is figuring out where to get what you want. For music and movies in general, any online store that sells visual or audible media will probably have what you are looking for–unless it’s out of print, then in that case you have to hit the auction or specialty sites.  For specialty items such as box sets OR focusing on just one property such as the “Evil Dead” series, you would usually have to stick to specialty stores.
Using the “Evil Dead” property as an example (a friend of mine has a lot!), a collector would go for all of the “dips” that were offered on DVD such as the “book(s) of the Dead”, all the regular movies and then get into collecting the action figures, video games, posters, ect…

Action figures: Wow! What a huge amount to choose from! I will focus on MY favorite, which is G.I. Joe.
The focus of my personal collection are the action figures–IE: the current selection which is between the 25th anniversary line and the Movie figures. The collection consists of specific pieces that were chosen because I simply liked them. (After all, that’s why we collect now isn’t it.)
An alternate way to collect from an action figures line, from a specific property is to get EVERYTHING there is including figurines, books, visual media, party supplies, clothing, sporting goods, ect… In the case of my collection, it includes just the figures and vehicles that I wanted and a little extra thing here or there. The main focus is still on the individual characters that I personally wanted.

Remember, there is not a right or wrong way to collect, it’s all based on the personal interest of the collector.

Display: Unless you live in a castle with a hundred rooms and wall to wall shelving most people will eventually run out of space!  Even though most people would probably keep their collection in the living room of a home, I keep a minimal in mine.  I find it best and safest–from people and pets, to keep the collection in my bedroom.  My layout is currently 4 shelves.  1 mounted on a wall consists of some costly Anime statues and rare DVD lunch box sets.  This is up high to keep the cats away and to make sure that they are safe from just about anything but dust.  {See Photo.}

The next is a floor shelf that has my Transformers Animated collection on top and on the third shelf down are loose and mid-value boxed collectibles including the Toys R Us reissue of Soundwave and the Soundwave MP3 player from Japan.  The shelf pretty much does NOT serve it’s purpose due to the TF Animated figures being stacked on top of each other, however they are displayed well enough.  {See photo.}

Next is a tall floor shelf that has the 25th anniversary line of G.I. Joe.  Each figure is encased in a protective shell which also allows the carded figures to stand to be displayed.  The shelves are set with “retail” planning going Cobra, Joe, Cobra ,Joe, then misc at the bottom.  The very top shelf displays the large items in a clean manner to my personal satisfaction–talk about being obsessive compulsive!  Each individual shelf is planned to having the upper (safer) shelves with my more personal favorites including the harder to come by items such as the 2008 SDCC Cobra Commander and the Mail Away “Doc” figure.  {See Photo.}

The final shelf is the largest and contains most of the G.I. Joe movie collection that I own.  The rest consists of doubles of my favorite figures which are kept boxed in a closet.  There are also figures that I don’t need to have out because the character is featured in my favorite version.  The set up is the same as the other shelf, however there are loose figures that are posed to my liking and are positioned to corresponding characters along the first inner shelf with the one beneath that contains all loose figures.  The shelves are set by favorites with a feature character in the center of each.  The top shelf has the larger items including the 12″ Baroness “doll” in the black “Cobra” package.  On the wall above it all is a promotional poster.  {See Photo.}

For the most valuable pieces in my collection–stemming off the Anime statues and Transformers–I keep them in a glass front cabinet in the dining room that is meant for fine china serving ware.  Sacrificing the space for these pieces is better than having them out collecting dust or anything else that may be in the air.  They are 99% protected and are enjoyable to look at during meals!  {See Photo.}

One of the best things to get to display items is a lighted curio cabinet.  The cabinet is usually made of wood with a glass surround and it has lights throughout.  The problem is they are not cheap–however shopping around has found them for about $200.00–still not cheap!

To open or not to open?  That IS the question!  A lot of collectors will open a piece to properly display it and that is really the ideal way to do it.  How can you enjoy things like Transformers if they are trapped in boxes?  But, sometimes you really have to think about it and decide to keep the item stored and displayed in it’s package.  First, it keeps it mint, that’s for sure.  By keeping it mint you can one day sell it if you collect for investment.  The next reason to keep it packaged is –the box art is beautiful!  With that you can’t go wrong.

Remember, the choice always belongs to the collector on how to display the collection.  This part of the article was intended to give a visual idea of what some collectors do with their pieces.  It’s always advisable to protect the most valuable and rare pieces because paying the cost or doing the “leg-work” to find them again in case of damage is never fun.

If you have a collection that you would like to show, feel free to use our Forum.  You can post under action figures or any section that corresponds to your collection.  Just copy and paste the link from an online photo site!

Happy collecting!

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