BUT, did you know, there is actually a reason I'm writing this post, other than to announce how lazy I've been. I had to move, and therefor I had to move my 70 figures! And I learned many things! what to do and certainly what not to do.
As a note, I moved overseas, which meant a cargo shipment. Cargo shipments mean hot temperatures. It also meant that my items would likely be handled very roughly, and needed lots of padding. If you're not moving long distances or if you handling the figures yourself, then most of my lessons won't apply to you.
I immediately discovered that shipping the figures "whole" would be very expensive. Basically, it's very inefficient use of space, and would cost twice as much. So to be as efficient as possible, I took the ones that could come apart, apart. That means I have lots of small pieces, and I even decided to break/cut some of the hair or accessories off some of the figures that were still just too large. It took a lot of time to take them apart, and it took a lot of time to put them back together. I did this to save money, so I can't say that I regret it, but it did take a long time.
Lesson 45: Separating the pieces that will come apart for shipment is a good idea. Taking a few pieces off that aren't supposed to come off, just for the sake of efficiency, is ok, but don't go crazy.
I also had a hard time to determine the best way to ship them. Mostly, I just put them in boxes within boxes. I had lots lying around, so I used them. The method seemed to work well. But there were so many of them, I couldn't use things like bubble wrap or popcorn, because that would 1) risk breaking the figures, 2) be a pain in the butt, 3) cost a good amount. My solution was to just use toilet paper!
I bought lots of rolls of Charmin, and had a good ol' time just wrapping the figures like a mummy. Took for freakin ever! But the result is that I had 0 breakages. Worth it!
HOWEVER!!!! On the figures that I had painted, I discovered that when the finish gets hot, it also reverts to a liquid!! The satin/matte finish didn't really have that much of a problem, only a little bit on the pieces that apparently got more hot than others. But the glossy finish!!! it was like TAR to the toilet paper's feathers! It was fixable though, thank goodness, because several of my figures looked like ghosts.
Lesson 46: If on a budget, toilet paper is a good, cheap thing to wrap the figures in. Kind of.... it CAN be a good thing to use, if you use it correctly. Wrap things in saran wrap first! (maybe, thats kind of just a guess, I can't guarantee saran wrap won't have it's own problems). I'm guessing nothing can really solved the problem of the glossy finish melting... maybe just put them in a ziplock bag, so the parts are in 'air' and don't really touch the plastic that much.
Lesson 47: If you do use toilet paper, you really don't need to go crazy. Some places will need padding, but the rest of the figure can be well protected with just 2 layers of t.p.
Like I said though, the tar and feathers were fixable. Water on a cotton swap, gently rubbing the toilet paper lint off the figures, worked. But it took lots of cotton swabs and lots of time. Plus, it doesn't repair everything. The glossy finish did melt, therefore it did get impression in it. It's one of those things that if you look at the finish dead on, you can't see it, but if you look from the side, it's obvious. Thank goodness I had satin varnish (Americana DuraClear brand)! I just used the cotton swabs to apply the varnish to the affected areas, and it effectively smoothed it over to a degree that makes it much harder to see the heat damage. It's not 100%, but I'll accept 99% healed.
Lesson 48: Varnish can repair minor damage to a glossy or semi-glossy finish. Applying with a cotton swab worked well.
But all my figures are here, safe and sound, on the other side of the world. No problems, no damage, probably due to all my precautions.
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