How do you store your figures?

I currently store my figures in a plastic box with a desiccant packet, and thus far it seems to work without issue. Humidity isn't too much of an issue where I live, so the desiccant packet is a just-in-case. The plastic box isn't air tight though; will that be an issue? How do you store your figures when not on display?

Follow-up question: do any of you use display boxes? If so, which do you recommend? I looked into getting some, but the ones on SideShow are more costly and currently out of my budget. There are some foldable ones on Amazon, but they seem flimsy.

Hello and welcome!

Like you, I keep everything in plastic boxes, and so far it has worked. Sometimes I keep things in plastic ziploc bags within said boxes, for extra protection.

Unfortunately I'm still trying to figure out an affordable display set-up myself....

I do like Sky. Put dessicant packets in each plastic bag. Maybe more than one in any larger plastic box. Don't keep them where they are exposed to frequent or constant sunlight, or directly next to a heating feature or vent. All this applies especially to sets or figures including materials that are more "sensitive," like TPE (often mislabeled "silicon") seamless bodies and plastic leather-like materials ("pleather").

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond; it's greatly appreciated. Using plastic bags for extra protection is a great idea! I'll do that and throw in extra silica gel packets, once I buy more. Right now I have the boxes on the floor my closet. Once I work out a shelving situation I'll get the boxes off the floor.

Thanks again for the responses!

I do the ziplock baggie thing and put stuff in some of the sturdier boxes that boxed figures come in (like the ones TBLeague uses). I number each box, and record on a computer document the number of the box, it’s location, and all of its contents). Each baggie gets a silica packet in it and is labeled for the character who it belongs to.

Sorry for a longer answer, but I hope it may be helpful. That said, I must be the crazy one here because I don't do any of this with plastic bags/boxes/bins/anti-moisture packs. For clarity's sake, I will only be referring to the TBLeague Seamless bodies as that is what I own. I also live in the midwest USA, and if you have ever lived there you know how absolutely pointless it is to guess how the seasons will go, and thus the temp and humidity.

So what I do is I just let them stand on display. I have two figures in open-air dioramas (one of which I am very, very protective of), the rest are on shelves and a table. Sunlight does come into the room, but it is more natural light than it is "direct and blinding." I have a protective shield in place for that to protect what is in the path of the harsh light. Avoid direct sunlight if at all possible.

I do, however, routinely perform "maintenance" on them:

- First is setting a baseline. A few months back I took every single one of them, stripped them down, and re-applied baby powder to the entirety of their bodies, then redressed them. That way I know they are all as protected as possible in that regard.

- Second is the "touch test." This is meant to be a spot check, where I will gently run my finger along whatever happens to be the most exposed part of the body to see if it has turned tacky. Tackiness tells me that the humidity has nullified some of my protective work. Smoothness tells me that everything is likely fine. Fully clothed figures I do not worry about as the clothing protects them as well (especially when combined with the powder).

If I feel tackiness on the most exposed area, then I check others and respond accordingly with a soft brush and a bit of baby powder. Any powder on clothes is dealt with by an air duster. This process has protected all the figures I own for about 2.5 years now. No torn arm-pits, crotches, or other areas.

Granted, I have done similar damage from accidents while working with them, but not from them just hanging out in the open air.

Any "touch up" is a 10-15 minute process that I likely won't have to do again for another month or two.

- Finally, about every 5-6 months I do the full strip-down of them and reapply the baby powder. Again, so far so good. Probably about an hour or so process, but I also don't have as many figures as some of the others do.


Another thing to keep in mind is the pose of the figure, especially if a seamless body like TBLeague. A natural pose will likely work best in keeping things alive and well, but you can still get away with longer periods of more dramatic posing. Just be aware of it and change it often.


As for display case kinda things, I do like IKEA shelving and enclosed displays. Decently affordable and decent quality, they have treated me well.

Hope this is helpful!

Any boxed set figures I don't have on display get sold. So I don't have a storage problem there.

I do of course have multiple bodies and accessories waiting to be put to use. I have the 1/6 bodies all in a cupboard standing in museum poses.
I am more forgiving on the 1/12 bodies, meaning I do have a few I only intend to use for drawing reference photos. I store those in a small plastic compartment box, which is in the same cupboard.

I display my figures in Ikea's Besta units with battery powered fairy lights taped to the inside of the framed glass door, which works beautifully. (I would prefer the all glass look of Detolf, but I don't have the floor space for it.) I have several silica packs in there, but otherwise I don't do any protective work. It is a dark corner, so no sun issues. One is also right by the fireplace and the other right underneath an infrared radiator panel, which both got used almost daily in previous winters. No issues.

I haven't applied baby powder or anything to my figures and they are many years old and in perfect condition. I don't handle them much though. I minimally repose them maybe once or twice a year, usually to make room and incorporate a new figure.

I haven't considered Ikea; I'll have to check the shelves they have. My end goal (more of a dream) is to have enough shelving for the figures I have, as well as all my books and video games.

Thanks for all the responses and ideas!

TACO.Collector wrote:I haven't considered Ikea; I'll have to check the shelves they have. My end goal (more of a dream) is to have enough shelving for the figures I have, as well as all my books and video games.

Thanks for all the responses and ideas!

Ikea seems like a 'go to' source for a lot of 1/6 scale collectors. I don't yet have the space to put up a huge display, though it's my dream someday, too. :')

Detolf’s are okay if you don’t plan to have anything too heavy in them. You can use the bottom shelf for that, but overall, as much as I’ve used Detolf’s, they feel a bit too unstable for my liking. I bought cabinets from Ikea with wood-framed glass doors, but the frame blocks about 8” in the middle, and I had to modify them to allow for one less shelf and room for larger figures that come with some of those big bases. They are also not air tight as there is about a 1/4” gap in the middle between the doors. Overall, though, they are far more stable then the Detolf’s. I can’t remember what they were called though.

Well, I had my extremely negative experience with Detolfs a few years ago (two of them shattered all over my intended display area), so I don't think I'd be getting any more of those. In the end I decided I didn't need glass display cases anyway since I almost never have any visitors. Detolfs seem to exist solely to show off one's collection to visitors, so they are pretty useless to me, lol. At the moment I prefer to keep things in closed cupboards, or in the plastic storage boxes, depending on what they are.

I converted a low cost bookshelf into a display case. I made a door for it from plexiglass, which shuts snug. I added magnetic strips to the top and bottom to hold the door closed. It's not completely air-tight but close enough.

Unfortunately my collection is starting to outgrow it. I'm not sure if I'm going to rotate the figures on display or get more shelving.

That's a good idea -- but just curious, how did you get the plexiglass to fit it precisely?

skywalkersaga wrote:That's a good idea -- but just curious, how did you get the plexiglass to fit it precisely?

I ordered it cut to size. Still I had to do some trimming as the shelf wasn't straight as an arrow as it turns out.

m76 wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:That's a good idea -- but just curious, how did you get the plexiglass to fit it precisely?

I ordered it cut to size.

Ah ok, i didn't even know that was possible ...

For the well known Ikea Billy (at least here, I presume they're also available elsewhere) bookcases there are also glass doors available. Not airtight, but I have a few (for storing books) and there's hardly any dust coming in.

My Phicens (about 21 meanwhile) lead an active life so I do not really store them. They just lay, stand, sit, sleep, eat and drink on a shelf.
The climate isn't really a problem in north-west Europe as long as you don't go outside. And as long as I don't use the attic or garage as storage space.

I personally wouldn't have an issue with leaving my figures 'out' on a shelf solely based on worries about 'climate' or room temperature conditions. Rather, the only reason I keep them enclosed in cupboards or storage boxes is my concerns about dust. Until recently, I had two large dogs in my house, so the amount of hair and dust floating around has been pretty intense. And even now without my beloved dogs (they have both sadly now passed ), there's still enough regular dust build-up simply from two people living in the house that I can't just leave things out on shelves like that.

I'm honestly not sure how people who do leave things out on display with no protection can stand it?! Dust is my biggest pet peeve, since shows up in close up photoshoots of 1/6 scale figures.

Mine move often so no worries about dust but getting dirty, that's the problem.

I’m honestly so lazy, I can’t be bothered about dust. Most of my mannequins are covered in it, as are the shelves, etc.. I should take better care of this stuff, but again… Lazy…

Mine reside in a big plastic bin that’s made to be stored under a bed with all of the desiccant packets I’ve accumulated. I don’t maintain a display. I’m far too lazy for that.

I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated room in which to store my more delicate TPE/seamless figures - nothing fancy, just a (usually) spare room that doubles as a home office - which gets little hard light and stays cool all day. I've got around seventy seamless figures, now and the numbers are still steadily growing. There will surely come a point where Mrs Willikers will say 'enough is enough'.

The most 'precious' of these seamless figures are kept unclothed in airtight plastic boxes, each figure dusted and separated by hard plastic dividers covered in a layer of bubble wrap. To ensure there's no chance of them 'sticking' to the wrap I also dust the wrap with talc and regularly move the figures around.

More 'ordinary' permanently-clothed figures (mostly those with jointed bodies) are simply left out in the open, displayed on modified shelving.

I live in the North of England, so there isn't much hard sunlight or humidity to worry about.

GeeWillikers wrote:I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated room in which to store my more delicate TPE/seamless figures - nothing fancy, just a (usually) spare room that doubles as a home office - which gets little hard light and stays cool all day. I've got around seventy seamless figures, now and the numbers are still steadily growing. There will surely come a point where Mrs Willikers will say 'enough is enough'.

The most 'precious' of these seamless figures are kept unclothed in airtight plastic boxes, each figure dusted and separated by hard plastic dividers covered in a layer of bubble wrap. To ensure there's no chance of them 'sticking' to the wrap I also dust the wrap with talc and regularly move the figures around.

More 'ordinary' permanently-clothed figures (mostly those with jointed bodies) are simply left out in the open, displayed on modified shelving.

I live in the North of England, so there isn't much hard sunlight or humidity to worry about.

That makes sense, seems like a good compromise. I also have a dedicated room (well, it's more like the size of a walk-in closet, lol), but I still don't have the courage to leave things out and uncovered. I live in Yorkshire and thankfully our current house is one of *least* damp housed we lived in so far (we also have a dehumidifier running most of the time, just in case). But I'm still just so paranoid about dust.

I used to be on the same page as memyself&I, in that I just stored mine in open air on my desk, out of direct sunlight. With occasional cleaning and maintenance.

Most of my figs are in the region of 3 to 6 years old, mostly seamless.
Sadly the heatwave last summer wreaked havoc on my figures, causing tearing at the pits and crotches of most figures.
I now use zip locks and bubble wrap and keep most of the still good seamless stored in a cupboard. The damaged ones have been glued and left on display.

I'm looking to get some perspex cut to size and make my own almost airtight display case. When budget allows.

I got myself two of these for Christmas.

They have just the right shelf spacing for 1/6 figures, and the full glass constructions means figures on the lower levels aren't completely invisible when standing.

If I had the space I'd probably get more.

They are not airtight, but I think it prevents 99% of the dust from getting in.
Assembly was a bit scary handling the huge glass panels, but I managed not to break any.