Storing LPS

Photo of stored FairyWinkles sets from the 80s Toy Ark.

When I decided to pack all of my LPS sets into boxes and store them, I tried to be as mindful as possible: I separated each set into a plastic baggie to keep pieces together and stored some sets in my playcases.

Still, when I opened up those boxes of LPS sets years later, I was disappointed to see that damage still occurred - rubbery pets, like the Mini Surprise Pets, apparently didn't have paint that would withstand the test of time very well...any plastic surface that they had been touching in storage had a bit of tacky paint on it from the pets, who ended up having splotchy marks on them from the paint damage.  Water leaked out of the ponds in my Sparkling Pond Pets sets, and anything that contained batteries - like the Pond Pets, the X-Ray machine for the Care Center, etc. - had to be cleaned thoroughly because the old batteries had leaked.

(The sad truth is that LPS sets, like most mass-produced toys, were made on the cheap.  Cheap paint, cheap plastic, cheap glue.  It doesn't hold up well).

Besides all the damage, I discovered that some pieces were still mixed up, despite all of my efforts to keep accessories together!

I'm fortunate to be able to keep my LPS in cabinets now, but a lot of collectors need to keep their collections stored.  What's the best way to store LPS sets in order to minimize damage and make sure that pieces don't get misplaced?

I have a few thoughts...

1)  Remove all batteries!

2)  Dust all of your sets and ensure they're as clean as possible.  If you use water to spot-clean them, make sure they're completely dry before storing.

3)  Keep sets with leaking potential, like the Sparkling Pond Pets bases, in separate waterproof plastic baggies, even apart from other accessories.  Leaking is practically inevitable with those things.

4)  Wrap any rubbery-plastic pets or accessories (the babies from the Mommy & Babies sets, etc.) in acid-free tissue paper.  If you're gentle with each set, the hard plastic pieces shouldn't rub paint off on each other - those rubbery pieces are the ones to worry about most.

5)  Put each set in an individual plastic bag or an individual storage compartment.

      a)  Go one step further...inventory your sets as you package them!  You could either photograph each set and place it in the bag as well, or you could write/type a list of what pieces you currently have in that set.  If the set is incomplete, that can really help you to see at a glance what you're missing without having to take everything out of the bag.  It will also help you to double-check your accessories as you package everything up.

Photo from the 80s Toy Ark: FairyWinkles collector AngelBear took a photo of each set and included it in the plastic storage bag, along with a label with the set's name.

Photo by Saradavo - Sara stores each set in a plastic compartment in a larger plastic container and has a text map with the set names.

6)  Store the individually-packaged sets in boxes/bins or tote bags.

What would you add to this list?

Display dilemmas

I recently bought another cabinet for my LPS collection, since my sets were feeling awfully cramped.  It has been wonderful having some more room for the pets to stretch their legs (so to speak), but it has left me with that strange dilemma of modern life: too many options!!

I'm trying to decide how to display my sets, and I'm finding myself doing the same thing with my LPS collection that I do when we get a new piece of furniture: fretting about where things will go, as if moving them in the future or changing the arrangement isn't even possible.  I always want things perfect, now! - and as Voltaire said, perfection can often be the enemy of 'good'.  It's funny how even the little things in life - like my LPS sets - can teach volumes about patience.

I decided to stop wringing my hands about where to put everything (so much new space - three whole shelves!!), and I started setting up the sets and rearranging.  (The extra room even allowed me to release my SeaWorld sets from their cavernous box).  

Setting up the new cabinet!

My instinct was to group sets into little "environments" - I have a few shelves dedicated to my wintry pets, as you see in the photo above...there's ample room for a color variation of the Twinkling Sledding Party pond, if I ever manage to grab one, and I love having all of the snowy, icy sets near each other.  My ultimate plan is to decorate all of my shelves with backdrops and grounds that fit their themes, so I'll find some fluffy cotton snow to put underneath the igloos, etc.

The categorization-nut in me, though, is just a tad bit distressed about separating sets from others in their assortments - so I'm not sure how I feel about having the Twinkling Sledding Party so far away from the Water Garden Kitties, for instance.  As an adult, a big part of the way in which I get to "play" with LPS, since my childhood play was gone a long time ago, has been to categorize and organize the collection.

After setting things up, I decided to look back at my collection photos from childhood, and I was a bit surprised to see that a lot of the setting up of my collection that I've been doing echoes my childhood arrangement so closely - without having looked at those pictures for reference!  I know, it's not exactly shocking - but it was really lovely to find that I had sort of "invoked" a bit of my younger self when arranging these important pieces of my childhood.  

A bit of my childhood display...

In this picture of my childhood display, you can spot the Polar Pets & Twinkling Sledding Party hanging out together in their little winter wonderland.  I laughed a bit to see that my Country Fun Pets were sharing the stage with the Hop 'n Hide Bunnies and the Swimming Ducklings - I still keep those ducks and bunnies with my Country Fun Pets rather than with their respective assortments, because they always looked so at home with the swans & other country pets, and in my childhood LPS world of stories, they were always neighbors.  Without referencing my childhood photos, I recreated most of the displays.  

It's as if 11-year-old-Sarafina, with all of her LPS tales and world-building and youthful creativity, was peeping up to remind the 30-year-old-Sarafina - an adult who lost the ability to play a long time ago and gets caught up in categories and organization - that the important part of collecting is the nostalgia and the honoring of youthful play.  Just set them up, remember their stories, and enjoy!  Don't fret!  Setting up by assortments is great and I'm sure works for many - but this is where my instincts led me, so I followed.  And now I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. ;)

At any rate, I've found that this method of creating environments works for my set-ups, but everyone is different.  How do you display your collection?