It's All About The Box...

Back when I first started getting serious again about collecting TransFormers toys rather than just the Masterpiece figures and Binaltech, I started ordering the Japanese versions of certain toys - most notably the majority of Galaxy Force - since their Hasbro-released counterparts seemed lacklustre by comparison and, at the time, they were super-easy to acquire via a web-based company that seems to have since gone out of business. Getting these large, ornate and beautifully-designed boxes in the post started me down the path of keeping the packaging of all my imported toys - the rationale being that I'd need 'em if I moved house. This then led to me keeping the packaging from certain special Hasbro releases as well. This new strategy soon grew to include packaging from older, obsolete lines.

When I did eventually move into my flat, about ten years ago, I brought with me a large collection of boxes... And this collection has since grown to include even more boxes and bubble-cards for Takara Tomy toys, event exclusives, Hasbro special editions... and, of course, the mass of Third Party toys and accessories I've picked up in the intervening time.

It reached a head recently when, glancing around my lounge, I realised that an uncomfortably large portion of my floorspace had become occupied by boxes, because I'd already filled the space over my four Ikea 'Billy' cabinets, plus the shelf installed at the same level over the TV, plus a good chunk of the space under my sofabed, one of the draws under my bed, and a good chunk of space in - and on top of - my wardrobe.

At that point, it dawned on me that my box-retaining had become ridiculous, and was beginning to pose a serious problem - if it carried on, I wouldn't have any floorspace in the lounge... I'm already basically out of display space and will need to think long and hard about what I want to do about that. I can chuck older toys into plastic crates to make room for newer toys on the shelves, but where am I going to put the crates? There's literally no space anymore, except on the floor.

As a result, I've decided to part with the boxes for all my mainline toys - Hasbro and Takara Tomy - and keep only things like the Masterpiece boxes (except for the likes of Hasbro's Rodimus and Grimlock, whose 90% plastic boxes were just too annoying), limited edition/event exclusive boxes and, of course, the Third Party packaging. It's possible that I could simply flatten some of them to save space, but the plastic shells inevitably contained within would still pose a problem, so I figured it's better to clear out as completely as possible, rather than allow myself to start rationalising irrational systems for retaining packaging.

I read online recently that having the packaging doesn't appreciably increase the resale value of a toy, should I ever wish to go that route, and my experiences on eBay certainly bear that out. I find it bizarre, for example, that people are selling G1 toys without their Tech Specs... But then, the Tech Specs were one of the reasons I got into TransFormers over Robo Machines/GoBots in the first place. To me, these little cards were as much a part of the toys as the guns and missiles. Then again, there are folks on eBay selling all kinds of toys without any of their accessories...

It's an awful lot of packaging to dispose of, so I'm working through it bit by bit, putting out an extra couple of bags of rubbish each week, so it'll likely take several weeks to get through all of them... It still leaves me with a mass of Third Party boxes, but I think I can more comfortably accommodate them, as I generally make fewer Third Party purchases over the course of an average year. When I get to that stage, there may even be a few of those that I can get rid of - accessory sets that I'm unlikely to stop using, for example, or boxes that are falling apart due to poor construction.

Part of me is struggling with the concept of making so significant and so swift a change to an element of my collecting behaviour that has become so ingrained over the course of the last fourteen years (am I doing the right thing? Am I going to regret it later, such as when I next move? Am I sure I don't want to keep these beautifully-designed Takara Tomy boxes that show such pride in their contents?), but I know it's for my own good...

Conversely, I've had no trouble disposing of Studio Series boxes and their dioramas, and they've been made specifically for keeping and using to display the toys. I really don't have space for dioramas and the boxes - while far more sober than the packaging for The Last Knight and Age of Extinction's toys - aren't sufficiently interesting to keep. I've used a set of them to raise my lightbox a few extra inches over my coffee table, but that's about it. If they had G1-style Tech Specs, I'd cut them out and keep those... but they don't, so chucking the boxes is a complete no-brainer.

And, let's face it, despite my misgivings about the upcoming War for Cybertron toyline, I'm sure to end up buying some of it, so having some space to rotate out some of the older toys, where necessary, will be a huge advantage.

The Battle Has Just Begun...
(please excuse the state of my ceilings - they'd been papered over by the previous occupant, but the paper started peeling off during hot weather a few years ago, and I just haven't got round to sorting it out yet!)