No one wants to show off their collection and have their figures be a dusty mess! Making sure that you keep your figures clean and dust-free makes for a much cleaner and more impressive display overall. The issue that presents itself is what is the best way to clean your figures? When you have figures worth several hundred dollars the last thing you want to do is to do something to damage the integrity of the collectible. With that said, we will be going over on How To Clean Your Action Figures.
There are several variables of a collection that can potentially impact the integrity of the collectibles within. For the sake of discussion I will be using my own collection and method as reference, as well as incorporating a few things I have heard from other collectors. Getting started, let’s look at some possible issues collectors might have and how to solve them.
The Potential Problems
One of the major things I have seen that is so easily preventable is keeping your figures out of direct sunlight. Overtime the sun will damage and degrade your figure and it is easy to prevent this. All you need to do is have your shelves not near a window, or utilize heavy curtains. These are extremely easy solutions to a potentially devastating issue.
Keeping dust from getting into your cabinets and collectibles is nearly impossible. Depending on your display it can be a little or a lot, but regardless it always tends to be quite annoying. Pet dander is the same way, even with doors on the shelves it seems like hair still manages to find its way in. You can invest in sealed shelving which will mitigate the issue, but they can at times be unreliable and expensive. We offer some solutions below on how to clean your action figures.
The Solutions
Dust is an easy issue to take care of! You can invest in a can of compressed air to clear out loose dust from shelves and figures, as well as Swiffer pads to wipe down glass. I find myself opening up my cases about once a month to clean. Another issue with dust is that it embeds itself into fabric outfits on figures. My Hot Toys Deathtrooper attracts dust like no other. I use small lint brushes to brush down my figures if they get really dusty.
All of the items I have described are cheap and easy to obtain. You can get these at your local super market, but there is a more collector friendly option as well! Sideshow Collectibles offers their own maintenance kit. Included is a brush, lint roller, cloth, tweezers, as well as scissors. All of these are useful for the issues that I have listed above, and more! Loose threads can be a huge pain on figures, so a nice pair of tweezers and scissors can make taking care of those no issue. All of these issues I have gone over are not huge problems that can’t be taken care of. If you’re ever wondering how to clean your action figures, you can come back and take a peek at this article if you need any tips!