Safe Figure Storage.

Hey all,

So I was over on MWD and one member mentioned leaving dolls in sealed plastic boxes is bad for them. Now jokes about them suffocating aside. I'm not sure if this applies to fashion dolls, Barbie dolls, Phicens or all of the above.

Chemistry also isn't my strong point.

So basically I bought twenty plastic boxes, 14 inches long with a folding closing lid and proudly stacked a bunch of my main characters in them. Now I'm wondering if I am slowly killing my dolls or dooming them to a life of brittle joints and miscoloured skin.

Can someone shed some light on this? Does the TPE of the TBLeague bodies just offgas inside the containers or something? Could this be avoided by drilling holes at the end of each container. Or should I store them in their packaging? Or open air.

I put a lot of my figure stuff inside clear plastic boxes as well, its the easiest way to store them, you just need to be careful what figures you put in there, regular jointed figures are no big issue, but the silicon rubber coated ones should not be stacked above one another like that, because sooner or later the stuff can fall apart, so you need to warp them up, with something soft, or have boxes for each figure. You also should regularly inspect them and take them out and not leave them in there for years.

ZeroDelta wrote:I put a lot of my figure stuff inside clear plastic boxes as well, its the easiest way to store them, you just need to be careful what figures you put in there, regular jointed figures are no big issue, but the silicon rubber coated ones should not be stacked above one another like that, because sooner or later the stuff can fall apart, so you need to warp them up, with something soft, or have boxes for each figure. You also should regularly inspect them and take them out and not leave them in there for years.

So would it be better to put my Phicens in cardboard?

My understanding is that Colin aka LondonRoadHog uses plastic tubs like you are suggesting for his TBLeague/Phicen figures.

Chip at the AMMO forum has used similar plastic tubs for years without issues.

I use larger plastic tubs - Sterlite 15qt and 27qt sizes - and put multiple figures in each tub. I have never had an issue with a doll or figure reacting with the tub.

I also seal most of my figs - hard plastic or seamless type - in Ziploc plastic freezer bags.

One time... one time... I had a Monster High plastic accessory, a pink soft plastic necklace, "melt" in to goo when it was in contact with the Ziploc bag. The necklace turned in to a blob and melted completely through two or three layers of Ziploc bag material, affecting some nearby plastic accessories. No dolls or figures were impacted; I don't know if that was pure luck or if the doll plastic is less reactive than the accessory plastic.

Other than that, I've had Pullip dolls, Monster High, Bratz, Barbie, GI Joe, various action figures, Pinky Street, and of course Phicen (TBLeague) and Jaiou sealed up in plastic bags inside of tubs for anywhere from a couple of years to seven or eight years, and I only had that single instance of a doll necklace melting.

If you're using translucent or transparent plastic tubs, definitely keep them out of direct sunlight if the lids are sealed. They can get extremely hot inside when subjected to direct sunlight. A warm room doesn't seem to be an issue, but in direct sunlight, a sealed tub will become much warmer inside than the surrounding air.

To keep dolls and figures safe, you should be okay if you wrap the bodies in tissue paper so they do not directly touch plastic bags, plastic tubs, or other plastic figures.

You know to remove black or dark colored clothing, particularly vinyl, of course. I've had black vinyl leach and stain Phicen bodies, although the stains, even though very dark, bleached out completely with the "zit cream" treatment.

I normally keep my WIP figures using Tbleague bodies each in one individual plastic storage box of their own. Never had any issues with them stored like this. The finished figures I keep standing up on their stands in neutral poses inside a storage cupboard. (Because I now run a dog care business out of my house and have dog fur flying everywhere, there is little other option if I want to keep my figures dust and fur-free.)

But I keep my extra/spare/not-yet-used Tbleague bodies in plastic ziploc bags (with the absorbant pouches inside) in one box all together. They are mostly the petite/smaller female tbleague bodies, and I honestly hadn't even considered this would be an issue. I used to just keep unused tbleague's in their original box, but over the last year I've had to do a lot of cleaning and getting rid of things that were taking up too much space. So the original boxes had to go. Can someone explain why it would be a problem to stack them on top of one another? I know it's not good to keep tbleague in poses, but all of these are stacked while in neutral pose. Is it just a concern about too much weight or pressure on top of them? I don't intend to keep them there forever, but I need to put them all somewhere until I actually have time to create the intended figures.

I keep them in Ziplock bags, but I put them in with those silica packs, and then put them in large plastic tubs. As I’ve mentioned many MANY times, all of them are kept in a pitch-black finished basement with a medium/low humidity and cool temperature all year round. This helps significantly.

That sounds ideal, Stryker. Unfortunately, since I don't have air condititioning, I have absolutely no way of controlling the temperature and humidity in my house. I just have to make do without it.


ETA: I do have a dehumidifier but it can only do so much. ;p