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After starting this collection hobby I’ve begun to notice some do’s and dont’s when I play with my figmas, or just generally maintaining their appearance. The figures may be made of PVC, but they are incredibly fragile, and their paintwork even more so. Making mistakes is easy, so I thought I’d share some useful tips for maintaining your figures.
Dusty figures are a sight for sore eyes. But they do happen. I used to try and dust them with a feather duster but that tended to miss spots. My next attempt was using microfibre cloth, but little microprotrusions on the surface of the figure and intentional ones like Shana’s ahoge tended to pull off pieces of the cloth.
So recently I bought a soft painting brush to do the job for me. And surprisingly, it does it very well. The paintbrush helps you to removed dust from the surface of the figure real easily, including those that don’t come off when you blow the figure. Also, the brush lets you dust hard to reach places and remove particles from between hair and under the neck easily. Simply blow slightly while you are dusting the figure and the dust should all come off after you’ve brushed it several times with a brush. Its great because you don’t need water too.
Remember to buy the softest brush you can get your hands on. Here I’m using a brush with very little hair. It isn’t sable, but its some sort of very fine white nylon. The bottom line is, the softer the brush is, the more effective it is against dust and there are less chances of it chipping paint off.
Perhaps some of you are figma collectors like me. And like I used to do, leave most of the accessories that you don’t use in the box, even the way they were when they came. Well, this is all fine and dandy but you want to be mindful of getting the boxes thrown away while the accessories are in it. Scary thought. I know.
The thoughtful people at GSC and Max Factory have provided with every single figma a resealable plastic bag for you to store your accessories in a more sustainable way. However, I tend not to use these because its a hassle. I play with my figmas a lot and end up always having to open each one of them and shaking out the pieces. Besides, they don’t really stack well, and when you have a lot of them, you tend to throw them in a plastic bag, since that’s the best fit for another bag with things in it.
What I do is I buy little multicompartment plastic boxes like these. They are dirt cheap and do the job of storing the pieces so well. For those of you who enjoy playing with your figma often, you’ll find that you end up throwing pieces around instead of putting them back into the bag, because its seriously troublesome when you start exchanging hands lots, unless you’re really disciplined. But still, I find this easier.
As you can see I try to separate the painted parts as much as I can. I dumped all the Lucky Star hands into one compartment because they are all the same. They might differ in shade slightly, but they don’t really make a difference in my pictures (I’m sure none of you have noticed any of my Lucky Star figma hands have different colors yet, not that I have posted many pictures fof them). But if you feel annoyed by the fact that you are mixing hands, you can always choose not to and put the hands in separate compartments.
You can also use the plastic that accompanies the figmas to wrap or pad around the painted parts if you prefer not to have the parts bump into each other when you move the box around. Any improvisation will do, and I assure you, with these boxes, I find myself spending less time opening and closing packets and shuffling them around to look for a correct one. Besides, you can even label the boxes from the outside or inside depending on your preference.
Also, make sure that whenever you play with your figmas, remember to CUT YOUR FINGERNAILS so that they don’t get in the way of you pulling parts like hands out. Some figmas’ hands are really tight, and take a bit of twisting before they come out. I had a close call when I almost used my fingernail to scratch the sleeve of Haruhi when trying to pluck her hand out. Lucky the paint held, but it was warning enough to make sure my fingernails are short when I ever do something like that again.
Well, that’s it! I’ll post more stuff on caring for your figures as I learn more new things. Also, feel free to drop a comment if you have any more interesting and useful tips to add to keep your figma shiny and happy!
March 1st, 2009 at 10:28 pm
LOL.. the box seemed like those one used for Racing car around 10 years ago ^.^
stored up tyre, wings, gear….
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:05 am
You mean Tamiya scale models.