Water Damage
So, with my United collection complete, and my e-Hobby sets just clearing customs, I thought I'd rearrange my Detolf to prepare for my 1986 Movie display. I'm currently in between homes (living with the in-laws), so most of my collection is packed away in the garage. Luckily, before I moved, I acquired a lot of actual Hasbro, Takara shipping cartons, so they're packed pretty well. Additionally, I've always saved all packaging so all toys packed away were restored to their original packaging first.
Much to my surprise, in the corner of the garage, I saw a large puddle bleeding into the area of where many of my boxes were stored. Something had leaked water into the garage. I was terrified. The water line was a few centimeters up on a number of cartons.
I slowly started rearranging everything so I could get to the affected boxes. One of the first boxes I got to was very scary. Left over from out epic Henkei Seekers orders, I had two Ganbo Toy Shop shipping cartons. They were great quality so I saved them. I've dug through my boxes often enough that I can usually identify their contents by the box type. While I knew I had two of these boxes, I knew one of them had my Botcon 2007 Games of Deception box set as well as the 20th anniversary Predaking. While I've superseded all of the pieces in the Games of Deception in my display with their Henkei counterparts, that box set is still my pride and joy and easily my most favorite piece of Transformer packaging. So, my heart sank a bit. Luckily, when I opened it up, it wasn't those contents, but rather a set of MIB and MISB voyagers from the Classics line. While the contents of all the boxes seemed intact, the packaging was all warped and moist.
Digging a further bit in, I saw that there were three more very large boxes affected, one labelled Movie '07, another other labeled Animated, and third not labeled. In the case of Animated, I knew that all I had to fear was similar damage to some MISB spared, specifically my favorites like Shockwave and Wreck-Gar. With the Movie '07 box, the only thing I was concerned about was the MISB Premium Ironhide and Blackout I knew was in that box. As I got to the bottom of Animated, I was right and the Voyager boxes were waterlogged, as were a couple spare MISB deluxes, similarly of faves Sentinel Prime and Cybertronian Optimus Prime. When I got to the bottom of the Movie box, I was thrilled to recall that when Robot Kingdom shipped me those voyagers, they were wrapped in plastic, and thankfully, that saved them. I was relieved. Unfortunately, my MISB premium deluxes were not as unscathed. Lastly, was the third unlabeled box. As I opened this one, I was relieved to see a few pieces from the Takara Collection intact on top, as well as Encore 12 Metroplex. As I got further down, I reached a very slightly waterlogged Universe Special Edition Overkill. And lastly, as I got the bottom, there were two VERY waterlogged large toys, an MIB Animated Supreme Rollout Prime, and an MISB ROTF Supreme Combiner Devastator. I suspect that many of you would have breathed the same sigh of relief as I did.
Most importantly of all, my beloved box of Henkei was safe. All in all, I consider myself very luckily. No toys were damaged. Nearly any packaging damaged were spare MISBs.
I put most of the waterlogged boxes in the sun, intentionally directing the clear windows away from the sun as to not add UV to the list of potential damages to the toys. After a half hour or so, I wasn't convinced this was the best idea as condensation began collection on all of the clear panes. Whether this was the best approach, I don't know.
I've discovered today (this happened yesterday) was that the cause was a hot water heater that's just beyond it's years. It was overflowing a bit and starting to burst and leak from the seams.
So, what lessons can be observed and learned? In many cases, I put MISB toys on the bottom of the boxes as they had more structural integrity than the empty boxes. Of course, that meant they were the first affected. So, does that mean you should put empty boxes on the bottom? Probably not. But it is worth considering what is packed on the bottom of your boxes. Additionally, what boxes go on the bottom of a stack of boxes. It might be worth considering boxes up on props of wooden planks exactly for fear of this situation. And of course, as offensive to some as this is, buy spared at retail prices. If I had to hunt down and replace everything that was damaged, the bill would be in the thousands, not hundreds. Luckily, I have no intention of replacing anything. I had always hoped to open and display my MISB Movie 07 Premiums, and the fact that the deluxe packaging it tarnished will only make that decision easier when the time comes (as opposed to maintainer their sealedness).
I'd say that's enough of my ramble. May you gain from my loss. Here are some pictures if you're interested:
1 of the 2 healthily sized critters hanging around.
Sun drying the toys
The busted water heater
The restacking of boxes
The indoor continued drying of the damaged goods
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Originally Posted by Zippo
