Moving Figures

[Hat Sharpener]

I'm going to be moving across the country in the not too distant future... Any thoughts on packing loose figures?

I was thinking of just wrapping them in tissue paper and piling them in a box, but a lot of the paint rubs off rather easily, so I'm not too sure... As a kid, my friend had a big set of those little drawers for nails that he used for his star wars figs - we called it "The Morgue," or the "B-Ark" (HHGTTG). However muppet figures are much too big to fit in the little drawers.

Any ideas?

I shoulda kept the packages...

- Derek

 

[Drtooth]

Bubble Wrap or p[acking peanuts would be my suggestion... but it seems all too expensive.

And taking them one by one would take quite a bit of time...

 

[Waldo C Graphic]

I'm gonna be moving too next month. I've got all my toys packed away except for my Muppets right now. I had planned on just tossing all of them in a big box. Maybe I don't love my little Muppets enough

 

[bats1972]

I would put each in a little sandwich bag and then pack them in a box. That's how I moved my figures 5 years ago. Worked well for me.

 

[Baby Animal]

Could I suggest something like this?

You could wrap them all in ziplock bags or whatever and then put them all in the large boxes, like your friend's old morgue. You can usually find larger boxes big enough for muppets at Walmart or Home Depot.

 

[Drtooth]

Try wrapping them in newspaper after you put them in little baggies...

then they will be a little safer...

 

[Irving Bizarre]

Soak them in vinegar overnight and then dip them in a warm soapy bath for a few minutes, then wrap them in dead fish and finally throw them over your left shoulder and the ones that stay in one piece are fine and the broken ones, well you don't need those anymore because they're broken right? Thus you've reduced your weight to box ratio by 60% and you don't need a large box for them after all, and because you've stripped all the paint off with vinegar you'll have no problem with squishing them all up into a small box without packing materials so you've cut your overheads down by 80%.
Sorted.

Or you could do what I do and buy a large plastic lidded tub, buy some garden fleece (used for wrapping delicate plants in winter, cut the fleece into a long strip the width of the tub and lay a strip down in the bottom of the tub so it hangs over the side. start at one end of the fleece and lay your figures down on it with their accesories beside them, then when you cover the bottom of the tub you fold a layer of fleece over the top so it ends up hanging over the side again and you keep doing this until you have all your figures layed out in layers with a layer of fleece between each 'slice' of figures. It works best if you alternate the way the figures lie, so one layer is north to south and the next is east to west etc. Spreads the weight a little more evenly.
This is how I packed up my entire star wars collection for moving. Wrapping figures individually is a pain so be economical and do it in layers. Fleece with protect your figures from rubbing against each other and chipping paint, plastic bags might keep dust off them but they can still get knocked and scratched by other figures through thin plastic. Obviously you can get different thicknesses of fleece so go for something of a medium thickness like a quarter inch to a half inch. And if you can't find garden fleece then fabric stores will have the stuff they use in quilting in various thickness. For the sake of protecting your figures it's worth spending a little I think.
The stuff I bought was five foot wide and ten feet long and I got two long strips out of it that did me three large plastic tubs worth of figures getting roughly nine layers of star wars figures to a tub.

 

[Hat Sharpener]

Actually, I'm not a completist, so I think that individually wraping figures will be the way to go for me. I think I will go with tissue paper, paper towels or something. Just gotta make sure they're in there tight so they don't rattle around too much.

Though if someone finds a special Muppet-Figure-Transporting case custom molded to the figures through Series 6 be sure to let me know!

- Derek

 

[Fozzie Bear]

What I've done in the past is go to the dollar store someplace and ask for boxes with seperators in it (like for shipping jars/glasses in) and then I put papertowel around each individual figure and put it in it's own place, then tape the box shut.

Another idea:

Get a box and several sheets of foam (1" thick) and lay down foam, place the figures over it, lay another sheet of foam over that, figures, foam, etc, then after the last layer of foam is in place, fill the rest of the box with newspaper balls and the foam will keep them from falling all over the box and getting mussed up.

 

[bats1972]

Get a box and several sheets of foam (1" thick) and lay down foam, place the figures over it, lay another sheet of foam over that, figures, foam, etc, then after the last layer of foam is in place, fill the rest of the box with newspaper balls and the foam will keep them from falling all over the box and getting mussed up.

I like that idea too.