PlaymoFriends
General => Collector's Corner => Topic started by: Oliver on August 07, 2021, 11:20:44
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This has probably been discussed and I just can't find it...
Anyway, I'm back home and reunited with my Playmobil, and I suppose I should try and bring some order to the chaos. So I wondered how other people sort their collections.
I have lots of Steck that sorted by part currently (so all the floor plates together), but I'm inclined to try and sort them back into their original buildings and maybe put the parts into labeled zip-lock bags, and then box those up.
But for smaller stuff, I decide if it makes more sense to sort by type (so a box for weapons, for kitchen things etc) or to try and organised them back into the original sets ??? But if I sorted them into sets, then I would have to put the figures back with the sets, but if I want to play with the figures then they should be separated and sorted by type.
It all seems a bit overwhelming :lol:
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Mine are all either in ziplock bags and bins (the loose collection), or else in their boxes (my favourite sets eg 3666). Storage-wise my main problem is pirate ships as I have a few of those and they!re not easy to put away due to all the rigging. I will probably end up selling most of them because I have nowhere go display them and nowhere to store them intact.
I will probably also end up selling some of the bigger pieces that can’t be dismantled easily, like the colisseum and the pyramid.
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Luckily I only have 2 pirate ships that are assembled ( in fact, the problem of storage is why I have a schooner still in it's box!) I do have the pirate island 3799 which is another bulky one to keep. I'm ok for space for now.
I don't have many boxes, but it makes sense to store sets in their boxes if you've got them. That would probably be the ideal, if you had unlimited space
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I think it depends upon what you are going to do with it. If ‘this’ building is only ever going to be this building, then I’d leave it intact (or, at least, in the same storage container). And if ‘this’ piece of furniture is only ever going to be used with this particular building, then it may as well be stored with it.
But if you might use this thing with that thing, or maybe this other thing instead – then it is a lot easier to find if you keep all those same sort of things together.
I started organising by moving things into ziplock bags and then the ziplock bags into containers, all under the same theme. For example, all buckets went into a bucket bag, then the bucket bag went into the Farm container. When the contents of the ziplock bag became too much for the bag, or too much to locate one particular item, they got divided further. The smaller the part, the quicker it was divided – and put into those flat containers one might put nails and screws in.
My most precious things – and the most easily breakable – are stored in a cupboard. I’m fortunate in that I have big cupboards that can house most things. But only three pirate ships. I had nine of them. The rest sat on the floor, covered by a sheet, and became quite annoying. As much as I loved them, I sold them all in the end.
Klickies: I originally had them all together. Then I divided into female, male, and children. Now each of those categories are divided further - skin colour, summer, winter, click-on-dress females – with separate containers for theme klickies (construction, knights, fairies, clowns, whatever), and yet another for older ones (divided into their colours or themes in ziplock bags).
I have some rather vague-sounding containers (‘Outdoors 1’ and ‘Outdoors 2’ for example), and some that still could do with further division one day (‘Fences’ always daunts me – they are divided into ziplock bags by type, but it is a big container, and there are so many of them…), but as long as I know where something is, that is good enough in general.
Oh, and I don’t always put things away properly, and I currently have a pile of things to sort out – organising is an on-going task – but I think if you choose a system, make it ‘good enough for now’, you can make a start, and always fine-tune it later.
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I think that seems the most rational way to look at it.
I instinctively want to organise it in a very regimented way, but its completely irrational to sort it by sets if it means having to remember which set has a basket or jug that I want to use. But I do think I'll keep the buildings in their original form, if only to see what I've got. Now I just need the energy to face doing it 8}
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I think one should only keep a set together as a set only if it means something special to him or her. For the rest, mix and match, which is half the fun. I mean, I see people on IG and here coming up with great customs and geat dioramas, and it wouldn’t be possible if you kept going exclusively by ‘set’ …
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A lot of my stuff is currently on shelves, but even more are stored in their boxes (in other boxes). Smaller sets (Specials, mystery figures with no playset home, etc.) I've managed to keep together by using Fishing Tackle boxes - the old Plano 3700 and Flambeau 5007 are both excellent for action figure (and therefore Playmobil) storage with adjustable compartment sizes and clear construction so you can see your various clowns and ghosts and things that may not always be on display.
One thing I've been wanting - that is impractical - is a parking structure of some sort. Not a huge one - maybe a stackable thing with capacity for 6ish cars per level - for Playmobil and/or my Transformers. It'll be perfect for the Seinfeld theme we'll never get, and also the many licensed cars and vans we're getting these days.
I also picked up what I believe is a clear lipstick point-of-sale display rack which I need to mount somewhere eventually. It's sized perfectly for Playmobil figures.
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My main issue is - WHERE do I put the stuff full of playmo?
Large boxes, small boxes, medium boxes, huge boxes, icecream boxes, ferrero boxes, zippers, containers, drawers, whatever. Plus the splatted playmoboxes, instructions, cats, ships, planes, system WHY stuff, et.. WHERE?
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When I first became interested in PM it was when I was sorting my children's collection into sets. This has become an obsession for me now. I have to have a complete set for all the things I am interested in. Few of these are in original boxes. I store sets in themes, largely. If I want to find a specific part, I usually have to use PlaymoDB to find which set it is in. I often have a struggle then to find the set! Some sets have to share parts with other sets in order to be considered 'complete' but I often buy a duplicate part to prevent this.
I have all the Specials, most of the Special Plus and Playmofriends sets, all Caparisons, all Fi?ures, all Hoop skirts, most of the Exclusive figures, nearly all the Fairies and all the fixed-wrist Singleklicky sets on display in cabinets, but I am running out of wall space and will struggle to accommodate the Series 20 Fi?ures when I get them!
I also have quite a massive amount of spare parts which duplicate what I already have stored in sets, or which belong to sets or themes I don't collect. These are sorted in flat compartment trays by theme (weapons, crockery, plants, hats, hats, more hats and yet more hats, etc.), with larger parts and klickies in IKEA tray units. Very useful for creating scenes without hunting through all the sorted sets...
But I guess everyone's way of sorting and arranging will be different, as others have said!
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I have all the Specials, most of the Special Plus and Playmofriends sets, all Caparisons, all Fi?ures, all Hoop skirts, most of the Exclusive figures, nearly all the Fairies and all the fixed-wrist Singleklicky sets on display in cabinets, but I am running out of wall space and will struggle to accommodate the Series 20 Fi?ures when I get them!
:picsplz:
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When I first became interested in PM it was when I was sorting my children's collection into sets. This has become an obsession for me now. I have to have a complete set for all the things I am interested in. Few of these are in original boxes. I store sets in themes, largely. If I want to find a specific part, I usually have to use PlaymoDB to find which set it is in.
Have you thought about doing your own inventory using something like excel? Then if you wanted to find all your green apples you could do a filter search and the results would be specific to the sets you have.
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It's a good idea, but it would be a massive file, let alone how long it would take to create. I find using an Excel file to keep tabs on which sets I have and using PlaymoDB to track down specific parts works well enough for me. Mind you, for early sets, where the DB is rather incomplete, having my own database or spreadsheet would be useful and I have made a start on that.
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It certainly depends on how you play with and display your Playmobil, but I find Raven's multi-container approach to be quite intuitive. This approach allows you to organize from general to specific, using any categorization system you choose, and can be adapted depending on how much you have of various items. White flowers in a small baggie, pink flowers in another, yellow in another, etc.; all of the smaller baggies go into a larger "flowers" bag; this "flowers bag" goes into a larger container called something like "plants," which could include trees and vines and ferns; the "plants container" could go into a larger "outdoors/nature" container along with animals.
Personally, I find steck pieces a joy to organize neatly into boxes by type.
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Personally, I find steck pieces a joy to organize neatly into boxes by type.
Steck I manage well enough... though since it's by type, ANYthing I wanna do requires poking in several crates, in heavy crate piles. But I see no solution for that.
How about SystemX? How do the experts organize those? I really don't know all the parts and such, so.. it's complicated. I just know the darn holes are usually NOT where I need them. I must be doing something wrong. :-[
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The real question is not how someones organizes the collection; rather it is where to store the collection. I think most of the "old" collectors are running out of space! ;D
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The real question is not how someones organizes the collection; rather it is where to store the collection. I think most of the "old" collectors are running out of space! ;D
True. I STILL think space IS the biggest problem. Except if you won the lottery or something, I find that a bigger issue than money, on the long run.
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Are you saying there needs to be more...Playmospace? :paddy:
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Are you saying there needs to be more...Playmospace? :paddy:
:lmao:
Wallet: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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The real question is not how someones organizes the collection; rather it is where to store the collection. I think most of the "old" collectors are running out of space! ;D
Whenever I´m lucky, I can still find the fridge. (And no, I don´t want an app that makes it shout where it is.)
And though I sleep indoors, I do that MISB (Mostly In Some Boxes). ::)
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Whenever I´m lucky, I can still find the fridge. (And no, I don´t want an app that makes it shout where it is.)
And though I sleep indoors, I do that MISB (Mostly In Some Boxes). ::)
:lmao: :lmao:
(though.... you may be on to something...............)
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I take older camper trailers (caravans) gut them out, build shelving units inside and then pack them full of playmo. My workers took the bottom story of my barn for farm related work and I have not been upstairs in quite some time . Way too busy with family, work , life etc….
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For me who mixes Playmobil with dollhouse accessories, it is all about finding the right one at the right time since my scenes are often packed full with details. This does not stop from raging when I am doing a photoshoot looking desperately for THAT accessory that I saw just a few days ago and is nowhere to be found :lol:
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Ahhh, 'organization'....I'll bet we could all write a tome on our processes! When I started into this Playmobil madness in earnest, I followed the advice of a friend; when collecting, specialize. He loves stamps, but not EVERY stamp, so he specialized in local product. So, I told myself (cuz sometime you HAVE to...) to decide which PM I NEEDED, WANTED....it came out as "houses". Then I read up, quickly coming to the conclusion that I had to start somewhere, and Victorian wasn't going to be the place! So now I have several 'modern' houses. And loads of accessories, furniture, etc. All in plastic bins, and the small fiddly stuff in smaller, divided bins. And all my connectors and tools in a divided bin- my 'building bin'. Thank you to the ideas of so many creative organizers here, I've put the bedroom stuff together, kitchen, garage, patio...you get it. Then tables and chairs, and things can can go in 'any room'- the fillers/detailers that I love in the dioramas I swoon over. So I've broken the 'rules'; I rarely keep sets together, rarely keep boxes, and get rid of the things I gather that aren't in my 'specialization'. I have a lovely binder where I keep track of the sets I have, and little inventories so I can compare when I see a good lot. And the longest entry in my binder- my WISH LIST!!! Thank you for your posts! Now, I have to finish painting, construction, and decorating....
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I love your update :wave: