Collection Archive

Keeping track of one's collection can be quite the feat. Over the years I've strived to keep a running total of everything I've owned, going back and forth from physical lists to excel spreadsheets complete with pivotables (not something I'd suggest).

But in the end, I always come back to the pictures. Like many things, my collection is always evolving, so in this space I will endeavor to create a visual chronology of everything I've owned (and given up!) through my lifetime.

The Early Years: 1984-1995

No photos of my "collection" exist from the 80's as far as I can find. The best I have is from Christmas 1987 or 1988, I can't remember which.

This is literally the only picture I have that could qualify as a "collection" picture, and it's just five pictures put together where I was photographing my figures on our ugly as sin couch. This was 1987.

This blurry photo is one of the few I have from the early 90's, showcasing Devastator's might. Keep in mind, back then these pictures had to be taken with film, then developed before you could ever tell if they were blurry or not. Picture is from late 1993 or early 1994.

Another set of four from the same batch. Back then pictures were a lot more time consuming and hard to keep track of than they are today.

A Collector is Born: 1996-2006

By the time I entered High School (1996) I was in full-on collector mode. Beast Wars was on TV, I had a driver's license, which allowed me to drive out to the Flea Market every weekend and search for cheap G1 figures and I finally had some disposable income from my job. Of course, I was still living with my parents at the time, so these pictures are from my basement room in my old home. And yes, I kept them on the floor that flooded :/ (Pics are sometime in 1998).

My first "display" on top of my old TV cabinet.

I attended my first Botcon in 2001 and after that, my collection more or less exploded. Because I was in college by this point and still didn't have a dedicated space of my own, my parents' house was where my collection remained. And because I lived relatively close, I came home most weekends as I preferred my room to the dorm.

By this point I had obtained some shelves (as well as built one) to hold all the figures I was acquiring.

 Pictures are from sometime around 2003.

Once I was out of college I packed everything up and it stayed packed up for three years as we moved around.

Dedicated Space, at Last: 2007-2009

In 2007 my wife and I moved to a new city and bought our first house. And for the first time I had my own dedicated room that I could do as I pleased. Unfortunately it also had to double as our workout room (hence the Bowflex), but I didn't care, it was finally a display room. These pictures are from 2007 as we were moving everything into the room after I'd put up shelves.

Unfortunately I can't find pictures of the finished room. We were only in this house for less than two years, so I didn't have a lot of time to experiment with the display.

A New Home: 2010-2013

In 2009 we moved into a new home, this one with a larger and more robust room where I could display everything. It took a few months (and a few more Detolf cabinets), but I finally managed to get all the shelves up and the room completely situated. These pictures are from early 2011.

As my collection continued to grow, I decided to move all my G1 figures to behind glass cases in the middle of the room. This required upping the 4 Detolf cases to 9 and then moving the rest of my figures to the shelves around the outer part of the room. This next set of pictures is after that change, in late 2011. You can see I also started to buy more Billy bookcases for the corners of the room.

Continuing to refine my room, I realized I needed better lights to show off the G1 figures. This next set of pics is from 2013 when I added new LEDs to the Detolfs and removed the old circular lights you see in the tops of the cases as seen above. These are from May 2013.

Display Focus: 2014-2015

After Charticon, I decided to focus more on curating my collection, which meant selling off a lot of items and focusing more on the aesthetic of the display rather than trying to pack as many items into one room as possible. I removed the shelves on the right side of the room and replaced them with more Detolfs and I have to say the result was impressive. I may have lost some display space, but the way in which everything looks was much improved! This batch is from June of 2014.

You'll notice I'm also experimenting with backgrounds here on the Billy cases for my MP figures.

Because the Detolf cases along the wall looked so good, I realized that focusing on being able to see what was on the shelves was the right direction. My next task was to experiment with other display options, because I didn't like the glass back of the Detolf. While the cases looked good, being able to see all the way through wasn't ideal.

Instead, I decided to go with Billy cases, and using glass shelves, I could then diffuse the lights from the top all the way through. Ikea also used to sell glass doors for the Billy's that were very non-intrusive, and together, I thought this was a winning combination. I started by removing all the rack shelves along the back wall and instead filling it with Billy cases. 

Finally, with some help from Heroic Decepticon and HeraldofUnicron, I decided the best way to present my figures were to show them in all modes. Which meant buying multiples of every G1 figured I owned.

This is how that turned out. Pictures are from November 2014.

You can see I still have a desk in here at this point and half the room is still "dark"

By this point I've sold off a lot of Generations/CHUG/Movie/etc figures to make room.

The unfinished corner remains

I eventually decided to abandon the backgrounds for a cleaner look. As you can see they are now gone.

I also began looking at labeling every figure for that true "museum" feel.

Bringing Everything into Focus: 2015-2019

With my plan set, I was finally ready to make the biggest change to the room yet. I took countless trips to Ikea, moved the old furniture out, brought in an electrician to set up new outlets and to erect a power pole in the middle of the room and I set about to brining the room into its final form.

I kept all the Detolfs, but moved them to the center of the room to make a large "island" of 4x4 cases. (Crazy that it started at 2x2). I then completely enclosed the room in Billy cases, and installed lights in each. By this point I didn't yet have all the doors, but the bones are all there. I had also sold off everything that wasn't G1, Masterpiece and a few select figures from the lines that I'd enjoyed the most.

These pictures are from August 2015.

Finally, everything had led up to this. All the bookcases had glass doors, most things were labeled and there were spaces for the items I had yet to obtain. I managed to fit almost all of the US series G1 in the cabinets with multiple modes for each display, robot, vehicle and in some cases, other. Sixshot has six different copies on display. 

This was the final culmination of everything I'd been working on for about three years. I'd rid myself of the "clutter" and focused solely on what I loved. And in the center cases, I kept items that were significant to me, but not part of G1, along with the Masterpiece collection. This was the "museum" at its zenith, and it stayed mostly unchanged until late 2019.

The Dark Ages: 2020-2023

In late 2019 I decided that I needed a change. Check out this post if you'd like to learn more. But in mid to late 2019 I decided to begin selling off the collection, starting with the Japanese and rare figures. 

It hurts that I had to let these go. But I stand by the decision.

All boxed up and ready to be picked up.

Of everything, I couldn't sell my Charticon items. These stay with me forever.

Quite the change.

After I sold everything I worked on transforming the room into something more usable, a room where I could relax. And with the help of my wife, we managed something cozy yet functional.

Those windows hadn't seen daylight in a decade. I had to get an electrician to come back and remove the pole in the middle. You can see where I had to patch the wall from the original shelves that I installed way back in 2011!

Not a trace of a Transformer anywhere.

Originally I was going to get rid of ALL the cases, but my wife convinced me to keep the back three, in case I wanted to display anything ever again. We used the liquor bottles for a short time, but eventually transitioned to putting LEGO sets in them. That was, until...

A New Beginning: 2024-Present

It started small...like everything great does. A few figures from a flea market here, a couple of online exclusives there and before I knew it, I was back in business. And those three shelves filled up quick. I realized I needed to expand again if I wanted to hold everything I'd purchased.

Thankfully, I already had a tried and true method for display. And while they don't make the same IKEA doors as the ones on my old cases, I happened to keep a few when I sold everything off. But I knew the existing lighting wouldn't be sufficient. If there was one thing about my old room I could have upgraded, that would have been it. So I decided to do it right this time. You can easily see the difference between the old lights and the new, stronger LEDs below. This was early 2025.

A new focus on the '86 movie with Studio Series '86!

The collection as it stands in mid 2025.

And that is the journey! Thanks for taking the time to come along with me. There have been many ups and downs over the years, but if there's one thing that is constant, it's that the collection is never "done". It's always in a state of change. 

Sort of fitting, don't you think?