Forgive me Tenjin for a know not what i'm about to do

[SpacePirateNeko]

So basically, i'm still unemployed and have two days to find a place to live ( no luck so far). Boo Hooing aside, i have decided to throw all my valuables into storage for 6 months....this includes all of my models.

Then it hit me, why should i have 9 large boxes taking up the small storage space when i can get rid of all the boxes, put the kits in separate plastic shopping bags with their instructions and prob fit them all in 1 or 2 boxes.

So i'm wondering, how many of you actually keep the boxes of kits you model before and after you build the models? Ouch this is gonna hurt....but really i mean..i dont need these boxes....(keeps telling himself that over and over)

Edited June 27, 2012 by SpacePirateNeko

[sketchley]

I've recycled the majority of my boxes.

More specifically, I've kept the biggest/most awesome, and used them to store:

a) instructions and folded up box tops (by fold, I mean flattened, then the sides are folded under the top)

b) leftover parts (at one type I was storing the leftover sprues too with the crazy idea of melting them down to create... something. But have since put them all in the circular file)

What happened to the unprinted bottom part of the boxes? They've been reused (or will be. It's nice cardboard. Great for making card backers, a project with the kids, etc.).

Suffice to say, 15+ boxes are now reduced to 2 boxes + a pile of flattened box bottoms.

EDIT: that said, you should probably keep as many boxes as you can fit all the kits in (with some room for scrunched up newspaper or something to prevent the kits from banging into each other).

Edited June 27, 2012 by sketchley

[SpacePirateNeko]

thanks, in the process now of bagging the smaller stuff, hasegawas etc, gonna keep the larger stuff boxed five star stories etc and the rare stuff. Hopefully i can narrow down 200 kits to 3 boxes

Edited June 27, 2012 by SpacePirateNeko

[Vifam7]

So basically, i'm still unemployed and have two days to find a place to live ( no luck so far). Boo Hooing aside, i have decided to throw all my valuables into storage for 6 months....this includes all of my models.

Then it hit me, why should i have 9 large boxes taking up the small storage space when i can get rid of all the boxes, put the kits in separate plastic shopping bags with their instructions and prob fit them all in 1 or 2 boxes.

So i'm wondering, how many of you actually keep the boxes of kits you model before and after you build the models? Ouch this is gonna hurt....but really i mean..i dont need these boxes....(keeps telling himself that over and over)

I never keep the boxes. Once the kits inside are built, the boxes alone are worthless. The only value of the boxes (IMHO) are if you don't build the kits and end up selling them.

If you really like the art on the boxes, just buy the artbooks (IMHO).

[anime52k8]

I just cut off the sides of the box lid and recycle them along with the unprinted bottom of the box, so that the only part left is the top with the art on it. They stack and store much easier that way and you can staple them to walls as posters.

[PetarB]

Boxes with good art get trimmed out, laminated, and stuck on the walls of my 'man cave'.

[MechTech]

For duplicates, I double them up in one box. In fact, sometimes I forget what's in what box. IF the boxart is worthy, I keep it. Otherwise it goes when the model is built. - MT

[SpacePirateNeko]

I only have a day and a half to find a place so after 3 or 4 nicely trimmed box covers i just gave up and cut out the names so i could find what was what faster. Stepping on those beautiful boxes was heartbreaking, i used to love to see the stack of boxes in the closet. Oh well, not really in a situation to worry about such things.

[Jefuemon]

Kit is boxed until the model is built, then the box gets torn down and thrown in the recycle pile, along with the instruction sheet.

All the excess kit bits go into the plastic recycle pile. Only thing I save is unused decals.

[sketchley]

Kit is boxed until the model is built, then the box gets torn down and thrown in the recycle pile, along with the instruction sheet.

All the excess kit bits go into the plastic recycle pile. Only thing I save is unused decals.

... ah... I recommend holding onto those excess kit bits. You never know when they'll come in handy. (In my case, I've put a bunch of them to use in a kit that came with Dengeki Hobby. The base kit was a simple unjointed snap together. But the expanded instructions have you doing things like slicing open the legs, inserting polycaps, sprues/tubes to plastic panels glued over the holes and so on. I'm halfway through, and finding it a refreshing challenge.

I'm also feeling like I have roughly half the parts to create a model out of the leftovers. 15 more kits to go and I'll be able to make a complete model out of the leftovers!

[Jefuemon]

I just don't have the room to store them (yes, even though I know the bits are very small), or the inclination to do anything with them. I very rarely have parts left over anyways. Am I doing something wrong not having extra bits?

[Model-Junkie]

I also really need to bag my kits or store the same kits in one box as my stash takes up one entire room (and then some) in the house. The only thing that stops me is that the boxes make storing / stacking the kits easier and it takes too much time to go through all of my kits. I think my stash is currently 300+ kits, I really need to catalogue them!

[sketchley]

Am I doing something wrong not having extra bits?

Yes. Those and ductape. It get the girls.

"if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red

[SpacePirateNeko]

On an aside and i know i'm going off topic a bit here, but i just dropped everything in storage and paid it off for a year. I see a few people from across the Pacific here, im finding no places available in LA for what little i have left in my bank account and I'm currently without employment....im starting to get that itch. The itch that gets you on a plane and randomly going to Japan and trying to make something happen because frankly it's now or never (love being in Japan, hate LA). Wouldn't it be ironic though if i did that......eventually importing back all the models i originally brought back from trips to Japan. Ah well, we'll see if i go nuts in the few remaining days and just take a leap of faith.

[sketchley]

Wouldn't it be ironic though if i did that......eventually importing back all the models i originally brought back from trips to Japan. Ah well, we'll see if i go nuts in the few remaining days and just take a leap of faith.

I've done that with the "better" books in my anime/comic collection. But model kits? Nope.

That said, I am planning to bring my 1/144 VF-11MAXL Kai on the return trip the next time I go. BUT the only reason for that is it's small. Anything larger... it's actually more cost effective to just buy a new kit here and make it from scratch.

[Spitfire_BR]

I only keep the box covers and instructions. everything else go to reciclate.

[Ghost Train]

On an aside and i know i'm going off topic a bit here, but i just dropped everything in storage and paid it off for a year. I see a few people from across the Pacific here, im finding no places available in LA for what little i have left in my bank account and I'm currently without employment....im starting to get that itch. The itch that gets you on a plane and randomly going to Japan and trying to make something happen because frankly it's now or never (love being in Japan, hate LA). Wouldn't it be ironic though if i did that......eventually importing back all the models i originally brought back from trips to Japan. Ah well, we'll see if i go nuts in the few remaining days and just take a leap of faith.

Don't mean to sound harsh but looks to me like your going through some tough times, but despite this your priorities seem to be misplaced. It doesn't make any sense to relocate across the Pacific out of the blue with the hopes of something happening (unless of course you do have prospects lined up). Also... Japan and LA, if you want to narrow your future down to 2 places, that seems to be a pretty extreme and unusual choice don't you think?

Please try and spend your time securing employment, and spend your limited resources perhaps learning a new skill or something instead of sinking it into a ticket to uncertain prospects abroad. I say this out of compassion and not spite, as I've been in a similar situation.

Regarding the boxes, I would chuck them, hoarding only makes sense when it's something of value, since the Hasegawa kits are pretty widely available, it does not meet this criteria.

[Noyhauser]

Don't mean to sound harsh but looks to me like your going through some tough times, but despite this your priorities seem to be misplaced. It doesn't make any sense to relocate across the Pacific out of the blue with the hopes of something happening (unless of course you do have prospects lined up). Also... Japan and LA, if you want to narrow your future down to 2 places, that seems to be a pretty extreme and unusual choice don't you think?

Please try and spend your time securing employment, and spend your limited resources perhaps learning a new skill or something instead of sinking it into a ticket to uncertain prospects abroad. I say this out of compassion and not spite, as I've been in a similar situation.

Regarding the boxes, I would chuck them, hoarding only makes sense when it's something of value, since the Hasegawa kits are pretty widely available, it does not meet this criteria.

I don't think you're being harsh at all... you're right on the money.

Personally the box is one of the first things I throw away, particularly because I often buy them on my travels and they take up space.

[SpacePirateNeko]

Don't mean to sound harsh but looks to me like your going through some tough times, but despite this your priorities seem to be misplaced. It doesn't make any sense to relocate across the Pacific out of the blue with the hopes of something happening (unless of course you do have prospects lined up). Also... Japan and LA, if you want to narrow your future down to 2 places, that seems to be a pretty extreme and unusual choice don't you think?

Please try and spend your time securing employment, and spend your limited resources perhaps learning a new skill or something instead of sinking it into a ticket to uncertain prospects abroad. I say this out of compassion and not spite, as I've been in a similar situation.

Regarding the boxes, I would chuck them, hoarding only makes sense when it's something of value, since the Hasegawa kits are pretty widely available, it does not meet this criteria.

Don't worry you're not coming off harsh at all. Sometimes though you have to take a weird leap like that to find your way, anyway i hopefully may have found a place tomorrow. As for the boxes, i crushed those up a few days ago. I just stacked plastic bags into boxes, when i can get things together, a small job and finish school ill worry about em. Moving back over the Pacific, thats a bit aways in the future.

[Jefuemon]

This may be a little bit of a thread hijack, but have you actually ever lived in Japan, or just visited? If you've only ever visited, then I'm gonna post a huge font of information you should be aware of (used to be active on Yahoo Answers, and I swear everyday someone would ask about moving to Japan, so I just compiled as much info as I could into Standard Answer #1).

If you have actually lived here long term before, I'll shut up now.

[Shaorin]

I only have a day and a half to find a place so after 3 or 4 nicely trimmed box covers i just gave up and cut out the names so i could find what was what faster. Stepping on those beautiful boxes was heartbreaking, i used to love to see the stack of boxes in the closet. Oh well, not really in a situation to worry about such things.

sounds exactly like what i went through around 5 years back, when i moved to my current locale.

i must've had around a hundred built-up kits, collected since i first got into Anime and plastic modelling back around 1993-ish,

mostly 1/144 and 1/100 GUNDAMs, but some vintage MACROSS and other 80's series kits in there for good measure.

(i gratefully grabbed what i could, back in those make-do, pre-internet days, and 90% of what i was forced to make-do with, of course, was invariably GUNDAM-related)

- i had all those kits, built-up, -mostly quite poorly- in their boxes, -with parts frames and everything- all neatly shelved in my closet at the time.

my dad had often joked about me having my own hobby shop in my room, in fact.

anyway, when it came time to move, around 2006/'07, we all began cutting way back on the excess around the house,

and i had decided that the majority of those kits really weren't all that terribly important,

so i went ahead and collapsed all the boxes, separating them all at their glue joints, disposing of the bottoms and parts frames,

and filing all the instruction manuals in a little filing caddy.

i put all the box-tops in a rubbermaid case, and did the same with the models themselves.

they have been in storage since, and i just haven't missed them at all. i'll likely be throwing the lion's share of them out, first chance i get...

[SpacePirateNeko]

This may be a little bit of a thread hijack, but have you actually ever lived in Japan, or just visited? If you've only ever visited, then I'm gonna post a huge font of information you should be aware of (used to be active on Yahoo Answers, and I swear everyday someone would ask about moving to Japan, so I just compiled as much info as I could into Standard Answer #1).

If you have actually lived here long term before, I'll shut up now.

I lived there for a little bit but couldn't stay because of too many loose ends here and no job there. I stayed with a good friend who has lived there since leaving high school, whom i talk to often. Beside that i have also been there quite a few times, around 6 now. I understand its ups, i understand its downs, i know its problems and i understand the issues involved with living there. I know the economy is also terrible there right now and will likely be getting worse in Japan both politically and economically in the coming years.

However i have also lived all over the States, i have lived many places, i have liked none of them in the ways i have liked London and Tokyo ( though i prefer outside of Tokyo). They are just places i feel more natural in and places i enjoy for numerous reasons. None of those reasons have to do with anime, meeting girls in bars, or any other weeaboo tropes, i just know what i like.

I have been stuck in LA for quite awhile now and i know whenever i think about life back in Nagoya, it makes me immensely happy. Were i to come into some kind of immense fortune right now, i would own a house in Japan, England and Italy, 3 places i love, however realistically i would like to drive my goals towards the things i enjoy and that make me happy and comfortable. I don't go in blindly with any misconceptions, i just drive slowly towards these goals.

This is way off topic for a modeling thread though ( my fault) i would happily talk to you in PM.