To display or not display, that's the question now I need an answer

[Kevin G]

Hello fellow Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans!,



I apologize for posting as much as I would like to. I have been very busy with my acting class, work and other things. I have a question that I would like to ask you guys. I apologize if this has already been asked and that it will be a very long post. I need all the advice I can get. I understand that what I am about to ask, really boils down to me. However, I like to hear what others have to say. I know it's really up to me and I can make my own decisions and choices, but I figured I ask people who share the same exact thing as I do: heavily devoted Turtles fan.



In my introduction, I said that I am a die hard Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. Which I am. I have a tote/storage clear bucket that holds all my TMNT figures. I have a huge collection. I have the 1988 figures, 2003 figures, NECA, 2012 figures and the Classic Collection. Lately I have gotten the urge to want to display my figures (at one point I did) on my shelf. However I have a few issues that are preventing me from doing so. One is the girl factor. When I start dating and I bring home a woman, someone who may be a potential girlfriend, I'm afraid that it might make her feel uncomfortable to be in a room with shelf filled with tons of TMNT figures. A lot of my friends would either joke around or be serious and say that if a girl is having sex with someone, they don't want to be looking at toys (or have sex in a room filled with toys). Not that she would be focusing if we were to have sex on my figures, but it may be a distraction. I also heard a lot people say that their wives don't like it when they buy figures. While their are female toy collectors, it's pretty slim I might end up with one or for that matter, someone who is a die hard TMNT fan as I am. I don't want to come off as a horn dog by the way. I don't have sex with someone until we know each other and especially when we are comfortable with one another but I am just talking hypothetically. I also don't want to get that whole speal of "you need to grow up."


Also I hate when people touch my stuff. I am not sure what people say or do when they have friends over and they have their TMNT figures displayed, but my old friends use to constantly touch my figures and it would piss me off. I get that way because I am afraid they might brake the figure or loose an accessory and they use to put my April figure in immature sex positions. When I would yell at them they wound up getting mad at me and say my OCD (which I do have) is showing. Unless it my girlfriend, wife, mother or aunt or me showing my child I don't let anyone touch my stuff.
I also have asthma and I can't be around dust. When I had displayed my figures, the shelf that my TMNT figures were on, it would get extremely dusty.


I don't want to be a horder so I don't know what to do. I figured that they would be safe inside the tote/storage box but being that we will be definitely getting more 2012 TMNT figures, more of the classic collection and I still have more vintage fig rues to collect I don't want to have to have 1-3 of them in my room. I don't (and I have this fear) that I will have a room cluttered with those clear boxes with all my TMNT figures inside. I don't have a small room but it's no where big either. If I do display them I would use either one or two shelves.
But then again, I don't want someone to be freaked out when they come into my room and see that. While as a fan I should be proud of my fanboyism (when my acting teacher made me get up in front of the class and tell everyone about myself, I told everyone that I am a huge TMNT fan and a lot of people gave me "hell yeah" looks) I feel like at 25 what should I do ?


So what would you guys do ? How do you deal with a spouse (I'm sure their are guys who aren't crazy about their wives or girlfriends collecting stuff either) who is not too crazy about you displaying your figures ? Should I display them or keep them where they are ?


I would love to have a room filled with TMNT memorabilia, like Michele Ivey or like others on this board, but reality is not only do I not only have the no space but also the money. I least have (and will never ever part) with my figures. I hope to one day show them to my future child.
When I move and if hopefully has a den or nice finished basement then I would display them going all around, but I live in an apartment.
I should also mention that I have my Cult Classic NECA figures, Mezco's Cinema of Fear and Matty's Ghostbusters figures in their boxes going around my room as well.


While deep inside I love my Turtles, the question is what should I do and am I a bad fan for not displaying my something that I cherish so ?
Sorry for sounding corny or not making any sense, I just need some advice.

[Redemption]

I think it should be displayed. Just tell them to keep their grubby hands off them. Look but don't touch.

[JOEMOE]

Have you ever seen those videos of angry girlfriends smashing their boyfriends xBoxes....?

I get my figures graded so that when my girlfriend gets pissed about me "turtling" all the time, she cannot open/crush/damage them... :D She is actually more critical than I am.. I get figures and she looks at them like they stink if there is even a single surface wrinkle. She likes April (No Stripes) and Under Covers.

To answer your question though, you can just display wall mountable pieces and other stuff can just be brought out when you wanna enjoy it.

[Shogun26]

I'd say, display a few, and store the rest.

I have my opened tmnt displayed *tiny fraction of my collection* and the unopened ones stored.. I do, however, have the benefit of having a walk-in closet. And since I don't own that many clothing items or shoes, all my tmnt fit. Although, I will admit that sometimes I feel like I'm in a giant tetris game when standing in my walk in closet.

In an apartment situation though, you might want to keep in mind the more you collected the more stuff you have to move. Considering how many plastic bins I have, I'm hoping to never move or have bought enough zolo cases to protect the turtles when moving.

Welcome to the forum!!!

[Mona_Lisa]

For what my opinoin is worth I say have one room where you disply what you want... Idk if you got your own place or not but if you do, I wouldn't put Turtles all over the house! Others might find that odd and girls exspecally may think you need to grow up.(I knew a guy who did his whole house star wars is the only reason I mentioned that!).
I have a very small turtle collection, I'd love a bigger Ninja Turtle collection but my wallet will not allow it, LOL! I have all my turtles in my excersize room. I felt like that was a cool place for them to be.
It woud take money but as far as the dust and people touching thing goes a display case or someting of the sort would fix that!

[Heather Breckel]

I would personally never be bothered by a guy having toys displayed as I still have game/cartoon figures and other decorations all over the place in my apartment. If they aren't willing to deal with the things you like, they aren't worth dealing with. (now they don't have to love what you love, just you know, not light your collection on fire or think you're a weirdo) As long as you're living on your own and are a mature and responsible adult, I see no point in having to "grow up" if growing up means hiding away things you like. If I'd "grown up" and stopped caring about those silly picture books, I wouldn't be working on comics for a living now :tlol:

[Shogun26]

I would personally never be bothered by a guy having toys displayed as I still have game/cartoon figures and other decorations all over the place in my apartment. If they aren't willing to deal with the things you like, they aren't worth dealing with. (now they don't have to love what you love, just you know, not light your collection on fire or think you're a weirdo) As long as you're living on your own and are a mature and responsible adult, I see no point in having to "grow up" if growing up means hiding away things you like. If I'd "grown up" and stopped caring about those silly picture books, I wouldn't be working on comics for a living now :tlol:

This is so well said!

[HotJuicyBurgers]

I would personally never be bothered by a guy having toys displayed as I still have game/cartoon figures and other decorations all over the place in my apartment. If they aren't willing to deal with the things you like, they aren't worth dealing with. (now they don't have to love what you love, just you know, not light your collection on fire or think you're a weirdo) As long as you're living on your own and are a mature and responsible adult, I see no point in having to "grow up" if growing up means hiding away things you like. If I'd "grown up" and stopped caring about those silly picture books, I wouldn't be working on comics for a living now :tlol:

Agreed. My girlfriend adores baseball, and I adore Ninja Turtles. I enjoy baseball, but only in passing, and she also has come to actually become quite fond of ninja turtles, but neither of us enjoy the other's hobby as much as the other does. I have some loose action figures posed on about 3 shelves, and more than a few she has purchased for me. If your hobby is to collect action figures, and the person you are seeing can't stand to be around them, or constantly sneers at them or tells you to put them away then they probably aren't the person for you.

[Kevin G]

Thank you guys so much for all your advices :)

@Redemption: I can't tell you how many times I would yell at them lol.

@JOEMOE: Unfortunately I have never seen those videos. That is cool your girlfriend likes April. And great advice about displaying wall mountable pieces (which is what I'm thinking about doing with the 2012 basic figures and the maybe the classic collection if I can find them) :)

@Shogun26: The Tetris reference was hilarious lol. Thank you for welcoming me to the forum :)

@Mona_Lisa: Unfortunately I don't have my own place. I think it's really neat you have your Turtle figures in your exercise room. I feel you on the whole wallet thing. With the classic collection and the basic 2012 figures plus a lot of vintage figures I missed, I better get use to living in a cardboard box.


@Heather Breckel: I have to agree with Shogun26, that was indeed very well said. As i mention before, I don't live on own. I would love to but houses are so expensive, even apartments. What you said I feel like telling anyone who bashes what I like. What kind of comics do you ? I sure would love to read them. The Turtles inspired me as well to do stuff in my career.


@HotJuicyBurgers: I can't tell you how jealous I'm of you man. I would kill to have a girlfriend who bought me TMNT toys. None of the women who I was with ever got me anything. Well, one of my ex's got me Darkman on DvD and a 3D Rocky poster plaque (you know the ones that McFarlane use to do ?) only out of piety because that was the day she broke up with me and another ex got me Blade Runner on DvD but only because she didn't want to look bad. That's exactly what she said.

So I guess display all my figures or display some ?

[Heather Breckel]

Thank you! And I totally understand the living on your own thing! Apartments and houses are pricey no matter where you go.

And I'm the colorist for a few things! I was in the TMNT:Micro Series April issue and do color assists for Godzilla:Half Century War for IDW. I'm also working on Peter Panzerfaust for Image and Number 13 for Dark Horse. I do draw my own comics but not professionally.

[Shogun26]

Pictures 6-11 are of tmnt tetris fun. Make note of the captions.

https://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer?hl=en#photo/110227574483608135096/5732804432403680145/5793479564453907858
:D

[papa_smurf73]

I'll be honest... I'm a closet ninja turtle fan... No one at work knows, or at least a select few do at best... My family kinda knows... However, in my experience, chicks dig a guys who are passionate in the things they do. I proudly display some of my collection at home, and if it makes you happy, you should too. If people are over, sure they giggle a little about it, but one of my favorite things to do is educate people who are looking at what I have... More often then not, it helps them to understand the deeper meaning to the collection. Give it a test run. You won't regret it.

[Kevin G]

@Heather Breckel: YOU DID THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MICRO SERIES APRIL ISSUE !!!??? I don't want to bug you on the thread so I'm going to send you a PM very soon. I love the IDW comics. I haven't had a chance to read it, but I'm curious as to what the black shadow thing is behind April. I am dying to read that issue. I wanted to make that my Facebook profile picture. Oh man this made my night... sorry for the geek moment :toops:

@Shogun26: After viewing your collection my jaw now hurts from hitting the floor lol. I wasn't able to view the first link though but I did click on where it says view my collection and I'm like really jealous and impressed :)

@ papa_smurf73: After reading your comment, I not only respect you but you influenced me to display my collection. Thank you papa_smurf73. If it makes you feel any better, when my acting teacher told us to get up in front of class tell everyone about you, I said I was a die-hard Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan and that I can't wait for the new series. This was before the series aired. I got a lot of "hell yeah" gestures and laughs but I didn't care.
Yesterday, after I watched Rise of the Turtles, I went out with my Leonardo shirt (that I took from my old job) to pick up some of the basic 2012 figures to keep in MOC (I'm going to keep those and the classic collection MOC but I am going to re-buy them since I already own all of them and I got a lot of looks and one person asked me where I got my shirt.

So I am going to display my figures :)
Is there a thread or can someone post their collection so I can get an idea of how to display mine ? I'm talking an up to date collection. I would truly appreciate it :)

[Heather Breckel]

No worries! You can PM me whenever!

[Redemption]

@Heather Breckel: YOU DID THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MICRO SERIES APRIL ISSUE !!!??? I don't want to bug you on the thread so I'm going to send you a PM very soon. I love the IDW comics. I haven't had a chance to read it, but I'm curious as to what the black shadow thing is behind April. I am dying to read that issue. I wanted to make that my Facebook profile picture. Oh man this made my night... sorry for the geek moment :toops:

@Shogun26: After viewing your collection my jaw now hurts from hitting the floor lol. I wasn't able to view the first link though but I did click on where it says view my collection and I'm like really jealous and impressed :)

@ papa_smurf73: After reading your comment, I not only respect you but you influenced me to display my collection. Thank you papa_smurf73. If it makes you feel any better, when my acting teacher told us to get up in front of class tell everyone about you, I said I was a die-hard Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan and that I can't wait for the new series. This was before the series aired. I got a lot of "hell yeah" gestures and laughs but I didn't care.
Yesterday, after I watched Rise of the Turtles, I went out with my Leonardo shirt (that I took from my old job) to pick up some of the basic 2012 figures to keep in MOC (I'm going to keep those and the classic collection MOC but I am going to re-buy them since I already own all of them and I got a lot of looks and one person asked me where I got my shirt.

So I am going to display my figures :)
Is there a thread or can someone post their collection so I can get an idea of how to display mine ? I'm talking an up to date collection. I would truly appreciate it :)

I just bought some Zoloworld cases for my Nick figures. I have 2 of each turtle and 1 of each other figure. All MOC. I bought some super pieces but took me about 2 weeks to find nice ones.

[Weirdo-Warrior]

Hi Kevin,
as a dedicated loose TMNT collector I love to display my figures. If you check my collection pics you'll see that I display them in a wooden case protected by two glass windows. That's actually a very affordable piece of furniture mounted on top of a bookcase of the same type where I keep my CDs.
The glass protects all the figures from dust and prevents anyone from touching them without proper authorisation.

Just my two cents to give you an idea about displaying your figure in a safe and also elegant way.

I agree that you should avoid packing the whole place with TMNT and toys of every size and type, it would be nice to reserve a corner or a little room to them. At the same time, people who have problem with them should be kept at distance from your life lol

[Newton Gimmick]

As long as you can keep a reasonable display, sounds like that might be a good direction for you. Don't try to do it all though. Come up with a theme.

[Ewan]

First time in a while that I feel I need to comment on something. I had the exact same issue when moving into my new apartment. I wanted to display my collection without making it look overbearing and childish. I kept Barney Stinsons apartment in How I Met Your Mother in mind the whole time for some reason. His place looks awesome and mature but in the middle of it all he has a life size storm trooper for christ sake! I ended up customising a classy display case holding my figures in a professional manner and the compliments I get are endless. Not too much and not too little. 3539Good luck in your endeavours dude :)

[Weirdo-Warrior]

I add some compliment, Ewan! Amazing case, looks like you're displaying some rare archeological finds more than TMNT toys :tcool:

[pannoni1]

It sounds like you feel that money is more important than the love deep inside (though I do see your comment in your first post). Simply feel free to display whatever you have anyway you like provided that it isn't too outrageous and distracting to yourself and close company. Hang some on the window if you don't have a shelf or put some on the night stand if you don't have a big table, whether it's a single broken 2 inch figure or thousands of figures. Check out the many photos/videos for suggestions on displaying, or think of your own and be creative. For instance, I'm going to be putting a bunch of figures near the end of shelves on my bookcases for a few days, take a few pictures/videos just to share, and then put them away or rotate the collection. You are basically being your own curator who has to answer the same question.

[I Crave Pizza No More]

Well, my girlfriend actually condones this sort of thing...

Um, no idea why the pic is inverted. iPad quirks, I guess.

[Yep It's A Trap]

I think if you do find someone you really like then it just becomes about compromise. That's what a marriage is about anyway. It's not just "well I like this stuff so you have to put up with it". I think the age old saying even applies here. "Everything in moderation". Display the ones you like the most and find a way to properly store the rest.

[JOEMOE]

Well, my girlfriend actually condones this sort of thing...

Um, no idea why the pic is inverted. iPad quirks, I guess.

The way you angle the iPad might have something to do with it. Sometimes mine will flip pictures like that too if the iPad is tilted at all. Luckily since iOS5 came out, you can edit photos on the iPad device and save the changes. Two of the edit options are flip/rotate.

[I Crave Pizza No More]

In my photo album, the pic looks fine. If does have to do with the position of the device but I guess I wasn't paying attention when I snapped the photo.