Review Figure Maintenance: What to Look For
This is a working guide to review figure maintenance for new collectors: what the terms mean in practice, where the money goes, and which details are worth paying attention to.
Polystone Care in Three Rules
Support the base, never lift by the head or an arm, and never reach for a solvent when a stain appears. Polystone is brittle under point impact and slightly porous, so handling and cleaning decide how a piece looks in five years far more than the initial paint job does.
Storage vs Display Care
Out of rotation, use the original carton and moulded foam, or acid-free tissue with a silica gel sachet replaced every six months. Store upright when space allows, never stacked, and keep the certificate with the piece rather than filed away where it is separated from the number it proves.
Carton Sizes That Fit
A 32 cm piece such as the ASH 1/4-scale polystone bust needs an inner carton near 40 × 30 × 30 cm and an outer near 50 × 40 × 40 cm. The 34 cm LIN YUANZHE 1/4-scale articulated bust with extended armour wants 42 × 32 × 32 cm inside and 52 × 42 × 42 cm outside, plus 4 cm per side if the panels are posed open rather than closed.
Orientation and the Shake Test
Ship upright, base down; on its side the full mass rests on the thinnest casting, exactly where breaks start. Close, lift 5 cm, set down and shake two seconds — any rattle means packing is not finished. Tape with the H-method and label fragile on at least three faces, then photograph the sealed box beside a scale.
Dusting and Cleaning
Dust open shelving weekly, enclosed cases monthly, with a 2–3 cm soft brush working top-down so debris falls away rather than into panel gaps. For cleaning use lukewarm water with one drop of pH-neutral soap on a nearly dry microfibre, then buff dry. Compressed air drives grit into seams, so a brush is the safer tool.
If the specification is vague, treat that as the answer. Good manufacturers publish the detail because collectors ask for it.