Toy Room Display and Organization Ideas

[Justice]

If I were storing my figures I would definitely store the accessories with the figure but almost all of mine are on display.

 

[JakeEkiss]

You guys really haven't sold me on keeping the accessories separate from the figures. So much easier to have them in the bag with the figure. My kids use accessories more than I do, and they'd be bugging the hell out of me to find accessories constantly if I kept them separate. Even when my kids grow out of figures it seems far more efficient to keep them together.

The missing part of the conversation is that you all who keep them separate probably don't store your figures, do you? I know a lot of people are opposed to that entirely, but we haven't brought that point up yet. If you're going to own it why wouldn't you display it is the idea, and I totally get that. I know TSI has said he curates his collection to always be small enough to display for example. My own answer to that is I store them because I don't have enough shelf space to display more than about 5% of what I own, and I enjoy swapping figures in and out of displays every few days, weeks, months, or whatever I have time for.

Depends on what you mean by store. My collection is about 130-ish figures according to my spreadsheet, which is a lot, but probably small potatoes compared to most of the folks here. Most of mine are stored in a closet right now as I finalize all my shelf displays (I'm moving towards diorama building after having them on detolfs for years in the "class photo" style display).

My ultimate plan is to have a sort of rotating display that I change every 3-4 months or so. Maybe on a two year total collection rotation. I'm also looking at minimizing the collection overall to facilitate that. I know I want more than just what I can display out, but how much more is at present an open-ended question.

As for accessory storage, I think optimally I would store them with their respective figures, but at present I can typically remember what all each figure came with as the bulk of my collection is Marvel Legends and they tend to be accessory light. I don't think this is necessarily the best way to go, and definitely if my collection were bigger I'd go another way, but this works for me at present. I think once I hit the end of my ML collecting (which right now is looking like it'll happen whenever Rachel Phoenix is released, all my other wish list stuff is out or will be soon) I'll probably do a full collection evaluation.

 

[akajomiha]

Good lord. I didn’t know how many figures I had despite keeping a list. I added them up and I have 554. I only have enough room to display about 1/3 of that. I need to adopt TSI’s methodology and get rid of what I can’t display.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

It's worth mentioning that my bag for accessories inside the bag for figure inside of a larger storage box solution was primarily driven to maximize efficiency for my twins getting to figures without me having to be involved without accessories getting lost. Both my son and daughter constantly play with them and pose them, and they both have about a half-dozen friends that also play with them. I let one of those friends take figures in and out of bags, but most of them are too spastic about it as most kids are (including myself at their age) and rip the bags or rapidly pull figures out while launching accessories stuck in a figure's crevices across the room. Friends get to play with stuff, but only if one of my kids I've been training for years to be careful take them out and the friends don't get the accessories since they usually leave them in random places around the house when they do. A few pics of them doing poses are below wrapped in a spoiler tag to improve thread loading time including one of the spazzes.

They're 9 now, and when (or if) they outgrow them I'll probably sell a TON of Legends and focus more on Mafex and Figuarts. Or maybe I'll finally implement a more scalable, neater storage system like Thwipster has and keep it all, who knows. It'll probably be the Thwipster route. I may change the way I store the figures in bags when they stop playing with them, but right now I'm not sure why I would. I'm sure I'll see someone with a better storage system that I use instead, but so far besides improving my storage and display shelving in the way Thwipster does I haven't seen an improvement.

Spoiler: Kids posing figures

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

One way I have seen that seems like an improvement over my own storage is to have bins with dividers. Finding any given figure in my 37 quart containers can be challenging, and the advantage of using the dividers is that you can far more quickly locate figures by scanning them all visually without having to move any around. Below is a video example of this, but I never could work the issues out with this. I don't even remember why I didn't go down this route, but I heavily considered it about 4-5 years ago and had one container organized like this for a few weeks.

 

[hmmberto]

Really enjoyed this thread before and glad it's restarted. I bought a house last year and all of my collection has been in storage, mostly in tubs in a closet. I've been trying to work out a good arrangement for display and storage together. I have an office in which I technically could display most of what I have, but our house isn't very big and I don't want one whole room totally overtaken by plastic. I'm hoping to design something and build it myself with what little DIY skills and tools I have but that's at the bottom of the home improvement list.

According to Legendsverse I have 1,293 figures. Yowza. I don't do a good job of deleting what I have sold (I track that separately) so maybe that's off by 50 at the most. That is...a lot. I already decided to give up Joes this year, but I haven't decided if I'm getting rid of what I have. Duplicate Marvel characters are a big thing - I like the idea of having versions of characters across different eras, but it really adds up.

 

[hmmberto]

It's worth mentioning that my bag for accessories inside the bag for figure inside of a larger storage box solution was primarily driven to maximize efficiency for my twins getting to figures without me having to be involved without accessories getting lost while making them as easy as possible to get to. Both my son and daughter constantly play with them and pose them, and they both have about a half-dozen friends that also play with them. I let one of those friends take figures in and out of bags, but most of them are too spastic about it as most kids are (including myself at their age) and rip the bags or rapidly pull figures out while launching accessories stuck in a figure's crevices across the room. Friends get to play with stuff, but only if one of my kids I've been training for years to be careful take them out and the friends don't get the accessories since they usually leave them in random places around the house when they do. A few pics of them doing poses are below wrapped in a spoiler tag to improve thread loading time including one of the spazzes.

They're 9 now, and when (or if) they outgrow them I'll probably sell a TON of Legends and focus more on Mafex and Figuarts. Or maybe I'll finally implement a more scalable, neater storage system like Thwipster has and keep it all, who knows. It'll probably be the Thwipster route. I may change the way I store the figures in bags when they stop playing with them, but right now I'm not sure why I would. I'm sure I'll see someone with a better storage system that I use instead, but so far besides improving my storage and display shelving in the way Thwipster does I haven't seen an improvement.

Spoiler: Kids posing figures

This is a lot of fun to see. I've got 3 nieces/nephews that will be this age in the next ~5 years, and I've got a box of older figures set aside for just this reason. I'm not brave enough to give them access to the actual collection though!

 

[joshsquash729]

You're a good Dad, EC! If and when I ever have kids, I think I may have to be that lame dad that gets my kids their own version of a figure so they won't play with mine. Part of me can't wait to have kids so I can play with them, but the other part of me dreads what they'll do to my precious plastic. Nothing that can't be fixed with some glue, wipes, or TLC, I'm sure, but still frustrating. I'm that guy that reads books in a way that it won't damage the spine.

I like the bins/baggy idea where you keep a figure with their accessories. Like others said- if I buy, my intention is certainly to display, but sometimes I'll have to store things if I have too little space, or the property hits a lull in my interest, etc. But I really need to get better about storing said stuff; the figures are nice and neat in a couple plastic bins, but the poor accessories have been scattered all to hell. I fear it's too late to go through and divvy them up, but from here out I can be smarter.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

If and when I ever have kids, I think I may have to be that lame dad that gets my kids their own version of a figure so they won't play with mine. Part of me can't wait to have kids so I can play with them, but the other part of me dreads what they'll do to my precious plastic. Nothing that can't be fixed with some glue, wipes, or TLC, I'm sure, but still frustrating.

Most of the Mattel, Hasbro, and McFarlane stuff is VERY durable, and it hasn't been an issue. Of the ~1000 figures I have they've probably broken around 10 to 20 (I'm sure I've broken 5 to 10 myself on figures with QC issues) and lost a dozen or two accessories, but 98% of the time it's fine. But they're with me constantly so I've trained them since they were 3.

If they were nieces and nephews like hmmberto's then that's different; kids you see occasionally would rarely be as careful as the ones who live with you and want constant access to dad's toys. That situation is roughly equivalent to my kids' neighborhood friends who don't get free access to toys without having my kids act as the toy librarians and fetch them for their friends. Every once and a while my own kids are careless and get access to toys temporarily taken away, but that hasn't had to happen for years now.

They periodically ask for Mafex and Figuarts stuff, but that usually doesn't go well so they usually give up on that to avoid facing dad's wrath. My son is now buying lots of Figuarts anime figures with allowance and holiday gifts, and I'm pretty sure he hides the breakages on those knowing it'll just delay me giving him access to my own import figures the next time he asks.

 

[TheSameIdiot]

Good lord. I didn’t know how many figures I had despite keeping a list. I added them up and I have 554. I only have enough room to display about 1/3 of that. I need to adopt TSI’s methodology and get rid of what I can’t display.

It's easier to keep track of what you have when it's all on display. Speaking from experience, I can remember what it was like to go through my bins and say "oh, I forgot I had this." At that point you can either put it back or get rid of it.

I sympathize with folks who have never cleaned house or haven't done so in forever. If you're selling it, it's a lot of work. I'm selling about 10 things now, some in the trade forum here and some on eBay, and it takes a lot of passive brainpower/willpower.

If you want to sell but can't imagine the headache, I'll tell you it's worth it. Even if you're only selling it bit by bit, you'll make a serious dent faster than you think. Take that with a small grain of salt, though. I get a rush like no other when I get things out of my house.

Duplicate Marvel characters are a big thing - I like the idea of having versions of characters across different eras, but it really adds up.

This part of having a small collection sucks. The only duplicate characters I own are Spider-Man (classic & symbiote), Wolverine (brown & Astonishing), Batman (Hush black & Knightfall blue), and Magneto (classic bad guy & X-Men '97 M costume). Because of my small collection, Magneto is the only extra that makes sense. I have the red and purple on my X-Men villains shelf and the purple M costume on my X-Men shelf. The other duplicates are shoehorned into an "overflow" shelf with odds and ends characters I can't fit elsewhere (Hellboy, Cable & Deadpool, Swamp Thing, and Constantine).

I'd love to have dedicated spaces for the Astonishing X-Men, New X-Men (come on, Hasbro), and Uncanny X-Force. Realistically, though, that'd be three extra shelves. I don't have any to spare right now. I could make exceptions for those teams, but that'd mean adding an entirely new display case I don't have room for. It's always a give and take between what I have, what I want, and what I have space for. I don't have everything I want, but getting it involves making space I don't have.

The other option is buying the figures and storing them in a bin when they aren't on display. I'm not opposed to that for a small team like the Astonishing X-Men, but I know myself well enough to know I'd start making exceptions for others, and then I'd have a closet full of figures that aren't displayed.

Predictably, my post is veering into the quitting/putting on pause thread territory.

 

[akajomiha]

Sad fact: I have sold about 1200 figures on eBay over the last 16 years. My ratio is pretty good in that respect, but I still thought I had done a better job at keeping my "have" numbers low.

 

[hmmberto]

Sad fact: I have sold about 1200 figures on eBay over the last 16 years. My ratio is pretty good in that respect, but I still thought I had done a better job at keeping my "have" numbers low.

I have a pretty regular flow of sales going on, and have for many years. My records show 151 lots sold between Jan 2022 and today. That represents way more figures since I sold plenty in lots, complete sets, etc. I'd guess around 300-500 figures sold in the last 3 years. Kinda crazy I still have as many as I do, but it has been a 20+ year collection!

It's easier to keep track of what you have when it's all on display. Speaking from experience, I can remember what it was like to go through my bins and say "oh, I forgot I had this." At that point you can either put it back or get rid of it.

I sympathize with folks who have never cleaned house or haven't done so in forever. If you're selling it, it's a lot of work. I'm selling about 10 things now, some in the trade forum here and some on eBay, and it takes a lot of passive brainpower/willpower.

If you want to sell but can't imagine the headache, I'll tell you it's worth it. Even if you're only selling it bit by bit, you'll make a serious dent faster than you think. Take that with a small grain of salt, though. I get a rush like no other when I get things out of my house.

This part of having a small collection sucks. The only duplicate characters I own are Spider-Man (classic & symbiote), Wolverine (brown & Astonishing), Batman (Hush black & Knightfall blue), and Magneto (classic bad guy & X-Men '97 M costume). Because of my small collection, Magneto is the only extra that makes sense. I have the red and purple on my X-Men villains shelf and the purple M costume on my X-Men shelf. The other duplicates are shoehorned into an "overflow" shelf with odds and ends characters I can't fit elsewhere (Hellboy, Cable & Deadpool, Swamp Thing, and Constantine).

I'd love to have dedicated spaces for the Astonishing X-Men, New X-Men (come on, Hasbro), and Uncanny X-Force. Realistically, though, that'd be three extra shelves. I don't have any to spare right now. I could make exceptions for those teams, but that'd mean adding an entirely new display case I don't have room for. It's always a give and take between what I have, what I want, and what I have space for. I don't have everything I want, but getting it involves making space I don't have.

The other option is buying the figures and storing them in a bin when they aren't on display. I'm not opposed to that for a small team like the Astonishing X-Men, but I know myself well enough to know I'd start making exceptions for others, and then I'd have a closet full of figures that aren't displayed.

Predictably, my post is veering into the quitting/putting on pause thread territory.

I tried for a while to at least keep myself to one figure per character - my goal was to have as many characters as possible, but just the one, most iconic version ("yearbook" style, - does anyone remember Bah!? I used to love his displays). But as ML started expanding into multiple different teams across eras, I realized I wanted to have all of these different representations. You can't have a proper display of Giant-Size, 90s/Jim Lee, and Astonishing X-Men with a single version of Cyclops. It's probably the expansion into the different 90s X-Teams that made by broke my rule. If they hadn't committed to making Excalibur, X-Factor, and X-Force I probably could have stuck to it.

It's been many years since I've been able to display the whole collection (again, not wanting it to swallow up a whole room in our small house, even though it is "my" space). So effective storage has really become a priority. My setup is not dissimilar to what EC has (and partially inspired by other conversations a few years ago) and it works well. Once I build out shelving in the closet it will be even better. Longer term I'd like a full wall of display shelves that start about three feet off the ground, with removable glass or plexi covers, with cabinets or slideouts drawers underneath to store everything. I need a lot more practice before I can tackle something like that, though.

 

[Justice]

does anyone remember Bah!?

I was just thinking about him today actually! Didn't he have the old TB Sasquatch as his avatar. That seems to be stuck in my mind.

 

[hmmberto]

I was just thinking about him today actually! Didn't he have the old TB Sasquatch as his avatar. That seems to be stuck in my mind.

Yes! I wouldn't have remembered that on my own but I'm fairly certain that's right. I sorta vaguely remember him coming up a few years ago but I can't remember what was said. Even all these years later I think of his displays and pics.

 

[akajomiha]

Yep, I remember Bah as well. We could do a whole thread on old "where are they now" Fwooshers. Waiting, ActorJez, Long Road (?), ChurchofZod, 33%b-boy, Chupacabras, Left Field, Jin Saotome (just kidding about that one).