Author Topic: The "Space" Issue  (Read 6865 times)

SilverZ

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #15 on: August 25, 2004, 03:16 PM »
I decided a while back, when I moved, that I wasn't going to even display my stuff until I had a room large enough to do it properly, so all of my stuff is in storage. When I do get that room, I still figure a lot is going to have to stay packed away (mostly boxed vehicles) so rotation is the key for me, too.

No, with moving out come all sorts of horrible realizations.  For example, toilet paper costs money.  No one told me that. :-*

Not if you're just starting out and working in an office environment. I always treated TP as in the same category as office supplies... it's an employee loss leader, so take a roll home.  8)  :-[ Those were the days.

Offline Brian

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #16 on: August 7, 2008, 11:27 AM »
This is an older topic, but I was wondering - particularly with the recent releases (Falcon, AT-TE) - is anyone else dealing with space issues with displaying your collection?  Its funny for me looking back at my original post a few years ago how I was going to "focus on Star Wars" and only buy a couple of Spidey figures.  Man, how things have changed.  I probably should have stuck with that plan, but now I find myself buying not only Star Wars, but Spidey/Marvel, DCUC, Indy, and Joes.  I find myself oddly relieved when I hear rumors of lines dying down/changing/etc., because it makes it easier for me to stop.  Anyways, I personally haven't grabbed the AT-TE, but I'm starting to re-arrange things now to make room for the Falcon (and new figures), and finding its getting more and more difficult to keep this stuff out and on display.

I would make things a lot easier on myself by avoiding the vehicles (which take up a ton of room) or even just focusing on the OT ones - but I haven't been able to do that yet.  Is anyone else having troubles finding room for everything?  If so, what has been your solution (storage, cutting back/selling, rotating)?

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #17 on: August 7, 2008, 03:04 PM »
Since the lost of my star wars office last year to my daugher, I've pretty much had to put everything away in the garage. Loose figures and toys fit into boxes alot easier than carded. I've only bought a couple of ships in the past year that are up in the rafters of the garage. Any figures I have on display are in my office cube. It's kind of depressing not having too many figures out at once. It makes me think, "Why buy these figures when I'm just going to put them in a box in a week or two to make room for more." We really need to move or add on to get my star wars office back. It would be amazing.
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Offline Muftak

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #18 on: August 7, 2008, 06:50 PM »
As a kid, I never would have thought to display my Star Wars toys...they lived in the vehicle boxes in the closet for the most part, though for trips and vacations my favorites would get packed into my Darth Vader carrying case.

Back in '95 I bought the POTF2 line and started lining figures up on my dresser in my room at my parents' house...as that line continued into '97 I mounted shelves on my wall and displayed the complete collection there(including the vehicles sans the X-Wing and Falcon rereleases that looked just ugly to me.)

In '98 I moved out (which was a good thing because I was beginning to run out of wall space in the bedroom) and got an apartment I shared with my girlfriend. The toys got packed away then, but those favorites of each character wound up on my computer desk, along with any new stuff I found...which wasn't much as '98 pretty much saw the line die.

I bought a few of the key Episode I toys but nowhere near as complete as I had been, and things would get set out on my desk for a time and then get retired to the big box of figures. I actually still have the three original cardboard boxes from ten years ago labelled: Figures, Ships, Playsets/Creatures in my basement.

I moved around every couple years then, and when the Ultaramas came out my figures made their way back out of storage on a rotating basis to fill those shelves. I'd do themes like Aliens, Droids, Rebels, Imperials, combining the collection in different ways.

In 2002 I remember having an office space with a long (12 foot or so) black shelf the previous owner had put up. I set that with a big Star Wars scene that I remember fondly, with Anakin and Obi-Wan standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Han and Luke, fighting the combined forces of Vader and the Empire and prequel droids (and a squad of clones lead by the one and only Atha Prime.) I wish I had pictures of that set-up, I really enjoyed that.

Also that year I had been to the Celebration and wound up burning most of the weekend in NiubNiub's diorama room, learning the craft and putting my blood sweat and tears into the Docking Bay 94 centerpiece that was given away. From that point I was hooked on diorama building and went home to build a Star Destroyer bridge set. After that I tried a couple more pieces that didn't work out, and eventually built a Death Star playset and most of a Cloud City playset. During this time the figures became dressing for my "projects" more than a collection unto themselves, and even my Ultaramas wound up staying in storage at the next move. I was still buying all the new OT product, and PT stuff as I liked it or needed it to fill that "new toy fix." Most of it was destined to get put into storage whenever the desk/workspace got too cluttered.

A couple years back my wife and I moved into our current house, and the dioramas and all wound up staying in storage this time, to await the day we finish the basement as my toy room. In the meantime, I eventually wore down my wife's reservations and was given the ok to turn the walls of our office into my "collection display area" for the time being. I combined my current situation with my love for diorama making and came up with multiple shelf display projects that I have been enjoying completing this past year.

As I conceptualized what my collection was going to entail, I came to the decision that there was no way I wanted to try and display everything--I had collected a bit of the PT stuff, as well as all the upgrades of OT stuff along the way, so alot of the stuff I had just didn't feel like it belonged. At the same time, I wanted to make sure all the cool Cantina aliens that haven't been made yet would have an eventual home. In the end, I spent an afternoon coming up with my version of the ultimate collection, just basically going through the movies by memory alone and writing down every character I wanted a figure of. If I couldn't think of 'em, I must not need 'em. It wound up being about 350 figures, definitely modest collection-wise. (For the prequels, I decided I would stick to the "top 12" from each movie, to recall the vintage original 12). And that will be my collection. As for ships, my office has a drop ceiling, so I look forward to hanging my stuff (OT only, and then not all of that) from the beams. The BMF is getting the one wall I was holding off as the "wild card" slot in my original plans.

Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #19 on: August 7, 2008, 07:01 PM »
Space is a huge issue for me in how I display items.  I wanted to do walls of carded figures, but ran out of room, so I decided to just display loose items...this has actually caused me to open quite a bit of stuff that I had not opened previously.  I'm still having some issues on exactly how to display items in my office/collection room, but it's a bit of a learning process as well as acquiring furniture to display items on/in.

It's kind of fun to work on though.
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Offline Brian

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #20 on: June 10, 2014, 11:26 PM »
Old topic here, but one that always seems relevant. I've been going through all the tubs/collection lately, partially to get another look at what I have and partly because I'm taking up too much storage with my "crap" (as the wifey says).  It's funny this topic was originally from 2004, and most of us said we were out of space then. Now, 10 years later, it is still a problem. It is funny how creative you can get with the space you have, but it runs out eventually. Have any of you had to make changes to your collecting habits, display, etc. or will be looking to? Looking towards a future of Star Wars movies every year, it really makes me think about what I want to collect and/or keep. I think I'm a little better these days, but going through some tubs there have been a few items where I thought "I bought this?"  The ongoing downsizing goal continues....

Offline Jesse James

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #21 on: June 11, 2014, 01:46 AM »
I've adjusted stuff, built shelving, all that stuff...

On my property I own a whole separate building.  Two actually, but one was built (block garage with a wood 2nd floor for a wood shop).  I've stored some things up there but the garage isn't heated, nor air conditioned.  Costly projects for another day.

The other buildings on the property came as part of a deal where old coal mines on the neighboring property were purchased when the owner passed away and his wife offered them to us.  I guess he was always going to, but just never got around to it, so she did for a song.

One of the buildings is a large garage I could get 3 cars into if not for my brother's lazy ass wasting some of the space (he "works" out of it from time to time for extra money).  It's got enough room inside I could easily build a loft within it and virtually double what space it gives me.  It's just a stone block building and isn't in the best shape, but it functions and could function a lot better.  It was once the "mule barn" that housed the mules that pulled the mine carts in/out of the mine dug into the hillsides.

There is another building right beside it, much smaller, but it's had the windows and door removed now, and I'm keeping mostly scrap and lumber in it.  I think I may convert it to a mini-garage for mini-things though like my garden tractors and the tiller.  It could work for that junk.  In the interim it works ok for storing scrap and used oil and junk like that.

There was another building too on the property but it's collapsed...  It was also on the other side of the creek that they used to pump water from and things.  This was a blast to grow up in this area and play, let me tell you.  :)

It's left me with space I can use, but it's all space that's going to take work to maximize it.  I'm still cutting down/back...  At the same time I find new things I want now and then too, so I'm torn.  I can easily see cutting back a lot of Star Wars stuff I have that, honestly, I don't even like now.  I really could see unloading my old toys from my childhood too, even for a song, just to have less clutter.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #22 on: June 11, 2014, 07:25 AM »
I ended up moving to a bigger house for a variety of reasons.  It has a larger space than my old house, but I don't want to jusr cram everything in like I did before. I'm trying a strategy where I've allocated certain shelves for a type of product like 12" figures.  If I get something new, it needs to fit in that space, likely replacing something else that will then get sold off or donated.  We'll see how that goes.  The majority of my stuff is still boxed up from the move.
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Offline Dave

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #23 on: June 11, 2014, 10:59 AM »
I'm downsizing / focusing my collection.

I recently sold my complete packaged 12" collection, which probably accounted to close to an 1/8th of my collection by volume - some of those boxes were huge.

I'm also going to dump my (nearly complete) Galactic Heroes collection.  I had hopes that my toddlers would enjoy playing with those, but they never latched on to them and immediately preferred the 3 3/4" stuff I had lying around.  Most of it is still packaged and I expect that this will clear out another large chunk of stuff.

I also continue to slowly sell off my extra 3 3/4" stuff as well, but that effort has been weak lately.

I'm debating whether to turn the open space in to a nice display area, or just leave it for now knowing it might get filled with Rebels and Episode VII stuff. 

I've got aspirations of displaying a carded figure (Stormtrooper or Clone Trooper) from each of the product lines since 1977.  I might use most of the space for that.

Offline P-Siddy

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #24 on: June 11, 2014, 11:07 AM »
Yeah, I've got space issues.  My Billy cabinet is pretty full and I've included some ships in there and that has taken most of the space that I only display OT stuff.  I'd like to get another cabinet, but I don't see where I'd display it here.  I do need to go through some of my old figures and weed them out.  I guess I wish I knew which figure was the best (definitive) so I didn't have to go through each box and find all the Lukes or Obi-Wans, etc... Or Stormtroopers, even.  That way I don't get rid of the best Stormie out there.  I suppose it would be easy to just go with what feels good by me.  Anyway, another project for another day.

Offline McMetal

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #25 on: June 11, 2014, 03:52 PM »
I was in a pretty good place at the point they shut down the Clone Wars line, I had just enough space to house a complete carded/boxed collection. And after that the SW stuff I was still getting were just random one-offs here and there. Then I decided to jump in on the 6" line and figured I would at least open these to conserve some space. Ok, no problem.

But with the announcement of the new Rebels line, I may be screwed. That's going to be another one where I will get everything MOC/MISB. If this goes a couple of years it will present some real challenges. Something will have to go.  :(
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Offline JediJman

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #26 on: June 11, 2014, 04:00 PM »
I was in a pretty good place at the point they shut down the Clone Wars line, I had just enough space to house a complete carded/boxed collection. And after that the SW stuff I was still getting were just random one-offs here and there. Then I decided to jump in on the 6" line and figured I would at least open these to conserve some space. Ok, no problem.

But with the announcement of the new Rebels line, I may be screwed. That's going to be another one where I will get everything MOC/MISB. If this goes a couple of years it will present some real challenges. Something will have to go.  :(

+1 ...definitely feeling your concerns there McMetal
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Offline Rob

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #27 on: June 11, 2014, 04:49 PM »
My whole collection is in a very small room... about 8x11.  Unfortunately this has left me with no room to do a display with the legos, which I think will be really impressive once I get to it.

As long as it continues to fit in one room, I'm holding out until we buy a place in the next 1 to 5 (?) years before I go downsizing again. 

Offline Jesse James

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #28 on: June 11, 2014, 08:03 PM »
I bought Legos early on and bailed...  I consider, often, selling those early kits...  The first TIE Fighters, B-Wings, etc.  I just can't see keeping them. :(  I've taken a lot of my micromachines and other early 90's stuff and just done away with it, usually to Goodwill to avoid hassle. 

Legos, since I bailed on buying whole sets eons ago, are probably next on the block.  This is back when guys were still yellow even.  No clue how much interest those kits get even these days.  :-\
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Offline BillCable

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Re: The "Space" Issue
« Reply #29 on: June 12, 2014, 09:46 AM »
Still sealed those old LEGO sets are money.
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