Care, Display & Storage

How to Pack Figures When Moving

Last reviewed

The original figure box with its moulded tray is the best packing material you will ever have for that figure, so use it if you kept it — but place it inside a larger outer carton with void fill rather than shipping or carrying it alone. Wrap unboxed figures in acid-free tissue rather than newspaper, whose ink transfers, and avoid bubble wrap directly against painted surfaces, which can imprint in heat.

If you kept the boxes

  • Reassemble the box, seat the figure in its tray, and tape the box closed so the tray cannot slide out.
  • Put boxed figures inside an outer carton with roughly 5 cm of void fill on every face. The figure box protects against a shelf; the outer carton protects against a move.
  • Do not stack heavy cartons on figure cartons. Mark them and load them last.

If you did not keep the boxes

  • Detach anything designed to come off — swords, capes, effect parts, alternate hands — and bag them individually, labelled per figure. Parts loose in a carton become scratches.
  • Wrap each figure in acid-free tissue paper first. Newspaper ink transfers onto paint, and it is not removable without a solvent you should not be using.
  • Then bubble wrap over the tissue, never directly against the figure. Sustained pressure plus heat can press the bubble pattern into painted PVC.
  • Individually wrapped figures go in a carton in a single layer if possible, with void fill between them, not nested against each other.
  • Keep the carton upright and mark which way is up. A figure lying on its side for two days bears its own weight on one arm.

What breaks, and why it breaks

Almost all transit damage happens to thin parts: sword and spear tips, hair spikes, translucent effect pieces and the peg joining a figure to its base. They break because the figure was carried loose or in a box with room to move, so the part acted as a lever every time the carton was set down hard.

The second failure mode is heat rather than impact. PVC softens in sustained high temperature, and a carton in a closed vehicle in an Indian summer gets very hot — which is why a figure sometimes arrives bent rather than broken. Standing it upright in a cool room for a day often lets it relax back.

On arrival

  • Unpack figures before furniture if the cartons have been in a hot vehicle — heat damage worsens the longer they stay compressed.
  • Stand everything upright and leave it a day before judging bent parts.
  • Keep the packing materials until you have checked every piece.
  • Reattach detached parts only once the figure is at room temperature. Forcing a cold, stiff peg is how bases crack.

How to Pack Figures When Moving — frequently asked questions

What should I wrap an unboxed figure in?⌄

Acid-free tissue paper against the figure, then bubble wrap over the tissue. Never newspaper — the ink transfers onto paint — and never bubble wrap directly against a painted surface, because sustained pressure plus heat can press the bubble pattern into the PVC.

Is the original box good enough to move a figure in?⌄

It is the best material you have for that specific figure, but not on its own. Tape it shut so the tray cannot slide out and place it inside a larger outer carton with about 5 cm of void fill on every side. The figure box is designed for a shelf, not for a move.

My figure arrived from a move with a bent sword. Is it ruined?⌄

Probably not. PVC softens in sustained heat and cartons get hot in transit, so bending is often heat deformation rather than damage. Stand the figure upright in a cool room for a day and it may relax back on its own.

Should I remove accessories before packing?⌄

Yes, anything designed to detach — swords, capes, effect parts, alternate hands. Bag them individually and label them by figure. Loose parts moving inside a carton are a common cause of scratches, and thin accessories break far more easily attached than bagged.