How to sort your collection ?

I just was in trouble:

1.While cleaning up, I found a lot of Ferrero surprise egg figurines. Many of them are very cartoonish. But even most of the "realistic" figures fit rather less to the "classic" animal figures. Moreover, since my collection is sorted by species/species groups, one has to split the individual series.
Therefore I decided for me to remove these figures from the general collection and to build up an "extra collection" for them.

2. when looking through my collection, however, the question came up very quickly: where do you start, where do you stop ? Because in principle, this group of figures also includes Albert Hein, Bahlsen, Barilla, Cadbury (Yowie UK), Chupa Chups, Furuta Choco Eggs, Omo, Panini, Takara Tomy, Yujin and many many more. These are often referred to as "foreign figures" by the Surprise Egg collectors. But, if you take all these figures out of the main collection, you might as well sort the rest by manufacturer. But I did not want to do this ! Since I also don't own so many examples of most of the other manufacturers of "foreign figurines", I decided to sort out only the following ones:

Ferrero, Troetels, Yowies and Playmobil.

I also took the opportunity to summarize the micro animals and the softplay figures from Bullyland because of their size. These overviews will follow in another post.


Finally, the question: Have you ever been faced with such a decision? If so, how did you decide?


Here first the overall view without further information. Actually, these should already be completely available in the TAW. But I don't think I have seen a picture of all animals in the TAW (the comparison is quite a while ago). Please ask for them if you need them.


Here are my Surprise Egg animals:
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My Dutch Troetels:
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My Yowies:
Series 1 and 4
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Series UK 1 and 2
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Series 2
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Series 3
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Lost Kingdoms Series A
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Series 7 Adventures 2
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Playmobil
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I don't have a special way to sort my collection.
I'd say I have my small collection of composition animals togetehr, then a few vintage plastic models. My foxes are also together as well as my anteaters and even my penguins form a group.
Most of the rest are the favorites among major brands and other modern brands and those are grouped in animal groups for wild animals. Farm animals are just a few but I have them in 3 different groups: Horses, Dogs and also other farm animals.
I plan to build a 1:15 or 1:16 scale little selection to have it constantly displayed.
So, I understand the concept where a collection is the result of smaller collections. Whilst I can think about my wild and farm animals as part of the same collection, I feel like my composition models belong to a different collection.

About your Kinder Surprise models, I agree they look much nicer grouped together in series and not mixed with the other animal figures.
They're defintely a different collecting concept.
Obviously, my Kinder foxes go together with the other foxes but it is just because my foxes are a main subject in my hobby.

I think that regardless of the way you collect, it is always hard to determine borders.
My collecting preferences are very different but it is often a question of how much room I have.
Sporadically I get rid of a few models to open room to newer ones.
Often, it is just replacing better representations of some species. To give you an example, I received recently two African elephants I'm very happy with, namely the current Mojo and CollectA. Thus I got rid of a few older versions I owned.
Though, it is not always easy as it was about the elephants. I can't choose between my Bullyland and Schleich wisents and even if I only need one, I keep both.

We opened recently a section for Kinder Surprise on forum and the less cartoon series are supposed to be listed on TAW.
I confess I'm not doing it myself because I'm convinced only a collector of this kind of figures can do it right.

You have already several series and it is a good decision to sort them together. Kinder Surprise is not yet very popular among us but Yowies series have been popular on forum for a long time. If Kinder continues improving the realism of their figures, I'm sure their interest will grow in this community.

Very interesting topic.

I saw your photos and there are many beautiful birds.

Thank you for sharing so interesting collections!

Great overview! When you say sorting, do you mean sorting for display or sorting in boxes? I don't sort my models for display. I enjoy re-arranging them in different displays. For storage, I tend to sort them by brand and have an Excel spreadsheet so that I can "easily" find which model is in which box.

I have never heard of "Troetels". Do you know more about them?

Great selection of models.I arrange mine by company and have a file where I have a picture of each model and a brief description of the model.

All non-insects and insects on bases are arranged taxonomically on shelves, with some wiggle room as space allows. All of my insects that are not on displays are now in Cornell drawers used to house real insects (after I donated most of my real insects to various museums).

Here is an example in a Cornell drawer:

[url="https://postimg.cc/VdCkrjv2"][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/url]

Also, for space considerations, all of my flat butterflies are in Riker mounts (again, typically used for real insects). One example here:

[url="https://postimg.cc/T5d38HFc"][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/url]

Wonderful

I just want to say how impressive your collection is!! I've been admiring it and drooling over the photos. I love things that are ordered and tidy, so your way of itemizing them is very satisfying to look at.

I've never heard of Dutch Troetels - they are so Cuteeee!! I love these little flocks
you have a wonderful group of them.

Already I have spotted many new figures to add to my wishlist because of your photos!


I collect 1/32nd scale, so about 90% of my collection is that size. The other 10% are just figures I fell I love with and that needed to join it. Most are just a tad bigger than that scale though.

I keep all species in their own box together.
So for example all my zebras are in one box, eles are in one huge box, wolves/dogs/foxes in one box. Donkeys in one box, horses in a few boxes. Sheep in one box. Antelopes in one box, deer in one box. Pigs and wild boards and warthogs in a box. Tigers in one box. Lions in one box. Giraffes in one box. Birds in one box. Usually it depends on how many figures I have of each species and whether they can fit into one box or have to be housed in a few boxes.
I have lots of Britains horses, so they are arranged in a few boxes according to breed. And all foals are kept together.
I keep my tinys in a box together as well, but each breed is in a little self seal plastic bag so I easily see them. Like piglets, lambs, and all the small animals I only have a couple figures of.
The boxes are mainly seethru plastic ones that I got years ago at a paper/printing store, or empty chocolate boxes like ferrero rochers rectangle boxes. Plastic kitchen tubs are also pretty good, but I prefer boxes with straight sides that fit neatly together to save space. I label each box.
And I have a small cigarette tin holding all the broken tails, horns, antlers, ears and some hooves/limbs:( for future operations:)
I like to collect herds, so they all live happily together in their boxes.
Only my very delicate composition models stay together in one heavy duty box, as they are individually wrapped to protect them. And the same as my delicate Kitans with their fine legs.

Most of my figures are stored lined up side by side, in rows with a sheet of thick paper between each layer for the next lot to stand on.
And then for the delicate ones like the Britains gnus and stags and the European older models, each one has a slip of paper/tissue folded around them, and they lie flat in layers. So basically everything is very ordered, and protected.
Some of them have travelled around the world a few times and lived in 3 continents! so I am pretty experienced with packing delicate and precious items
I use photos to catalogue them and notes on paper.

oh, and I want to add that I am a student of Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing/tidiness expert. In 2019 I organized my whole home the Marie Kondo way and it is unbelievable! It is still tidy and immaculate. Every now and again I just retidy parts that need attention.
However, I haven't yet fully applied the Marie Kondo method to my animal collection. Since I have been on here I started to collect models that were not 100% my taste, so I know I can tidy up my collection in the future to only those that I truly love.
If you are curious, she is on Netflix with her 2 series and she has 2 books out.

My collection used to be quite well sorted - I had different bookcases and shelves for each brand, type, or scale. So brands which were the same size and material, like CollectA and Schleich, or Peter Stone and Breyer Traditionals, could share a shelf, or a bookcase, or three bookcases, depending on how many of them there were.
But then I got to the point where I couldn't fit any more of a certain scale in their bookcases, and I had no more wall left to buy another bookcase. So I had to start standing smaller models between the feet of bigger ones. As long as they're still visible from the front of the shelf, they're still on display, right? So even though I was a bit disappointed that the scales weren't all kept together any more, I was resigned to the fact each shelf was going to have several sizes on.

And then I ran of out spaces. I ran out of spaces between spaces. I ran out of spaces behind spaces.
There's models on the floor near bookcases. There's models on boxes and chairs. There's models standing on the top edges of books. There's also now models in other parts of the house entirely - I can't even fit the whole collection in one room any more.
So the concept of sorting it has been totally abandoned, now it's just a case of finding a safe place to balance every new arrival, and moving them around a bit occasionally to make room for more

First, I would like to thank everyone who has given me an inside look at your way of organizing collections.

rogerpgvg wrote:

I have never heard of "Troetels". Do you know more about them?

The Troetels are a savings promotion by PLUS (Netherlands) from January 31 - March 5, 2011 and August 25 - September 28, 2013. For every 15,- EUR purchase you received one figurine. There were 25 different figures per promotion.

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(Search for Troetels)

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(in the menu on the left "Foreign figures from A-Z", then in the second vertical menu from the left: "Plus (NL)", then scroll to the end: 2 links to the Troetels)

bmathison1972 wrote:

All non-insects and insects on bases are arranged taxonomically on shelves, with some wiggle room as space allows. All of my insects that are not on displays are now in Cornell drawers used to house real insects (after I donated most of my real insects to various museums).

This was also my first thought when I started collecting insect figurines. One of my oldest friends (an entomologist) "infected" me early with his enthusiasm for insects. In 2002 I was even allowed to participate in an expedition to the Brandberg in Namibia as a "photographer", when he was looking for living representatives of the insect order of Mantophasmathodea, which he had discovered shortly before (short version: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
But the Cornell drawers were too expensive for me. So I used a standard drawer box system (DIN A4) for the smaller figures (right side behind the euroboxes (=7x5 boxes with 5 drawers each)) and the Euroboxes (60x40cm) for all the larger figures. See here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

George wrote:

... And then I ran of out spaces. I ran out of spaces between spaces. I ran out of spaces behind spaces. ...
So the concept of sorting it has been totally abandoned, now it's just a case of finding a safe place to balance every new arrival, and moving them around a bit occasionally to make room for more

I think your summary describes exactly the way a collector usually goes with a larger collection.

1. joy about every new acquisition, nice presentation on shelves, showcases, displays ...
2. if you are not already specialized: look for an arrangement system, sort with enough space for extensions.
3. all free space is occupied, you start to sort so that the space is used as optimally as possible. (Otherwise there will be trouble with the rest of the family, who will find the hobby strange anyway. )
4. At the latest now you start to specialize to get more space again. And all previous sortings are obsolete.


Conclusion:
Even if there is enough space, there is no "optimal order", but only an individual solution.
Optimal would be to have each figure photographed and with all interesting data (taxonomy, biology and other data) in a database. Also those, which one does not have yet in the collection. Then you can generate wish lists and sort them to your heart's content. However, the result is then only virtual and not to "touch".
In addition, this variant is very time-consuming, especially if you already have a larger collection before you start with the "digitization".

But this way we have enough possibilities to discuss and work with the collection. And this is exactly what is driving us, isn't it?

I see at least two remarkable schools about sorting things.
Marie Kondo which I use to sort my underware. I'm serious and I enjoy it. Though, I am the kind of person who gets all socks exactly the same color and model to facilitate things. The other remarkable school is George's method. I've witnessed many people following that system.

I have started the process of photographing every figure in my collection. Because my wife and I work in different places, we also live in two places and my collection is in two places. To be able to check my figures easily regardless of where I am, it's going to be useful to have photos of them. I have a good Excel database, but it doesn't show me their condition, which is important for many of my vintage figures. I don't know whether I will ever finish this job! I have estimated that if I work hard on it, it will take me about two years ...

Have you considered making an archive/gallery type website? If the photos are as important as the written notes and info, a website might be a more satisfying way to catalogue them

I use my website as my main reference archive, cos I have zero experience with Excel (and by that I honestly mean I have never even opened it - we didn't do it at school, I work outside, and I've always deleted the Microsoft officey stuff when setting up every computer I've ever had )

It might sound like more effort, or too technical, but website builders are very click-and-drop and self-explanatory, take just a few moments to learn how to use - most talk you through the set-up process step by step on screen, so you can't really go wrong.
I use Weebly, so do a lot of model horsey people, Wix is another one offering much the same thing, and I'm sure there's probably others out there too. You just sign up for a free account, pick a template, then fill it with your photos and whatever text info you want to attach to each model.
You can make multiple pages, to divide your collection by brand, or species, or scale. And you don't need to know anything about web design or code - I don't, technology is not my friend and I'm barely computer literate, and have still managed to get nearly 2000 models catalogued, across over a hundred breed pages, and it all works fine

Have a look here, this is the first breed alphabetically : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Then to go through the various breeds, just click the links down the left. As you can see, you can have a LOT of different pages, with unlimited number of pictures on each, the format's very open to allow for as many or few figures you want to display.
If you didn't want your archive to be published for anyone to see, you can make pages which aren't listed on the menu, so only you can look at them.

Your websites are beautifully made, George. At least for the moment, I am not thinking of making a website, because that would be even more work. I'll be happy if I have taken the photos. I need to take several photos of each model so that I can see their condition from all sides and I need to code/name them so I can match them to my database, so it takes quite some time.

I am a bit wary of spending a lot of time putting information on websites and in specialised computer programs. I have cut my fingers a few times because they became obsolete or were no longer supported, and my work was lost. Nothing on the web is permanent.

George wrote:

Have you considered making an archive/gallery type website?

Really a very nice site ! And 2000 models ! WOW !

A website is really very helpful !  Without picture galleries I would also hardly find my way in my collection. But here again there are of course many ways. The most time-consuming thing is to collect the data and to take the pictures. I have something between 10,000-15,000 figures in my collection. Since the collection takes up a lot of space, I also have no fixed photo corner. But even with such a "photo studio" it is a huge task. Because if I already photograph a figure, then also from all sides ! Afterwards all pictures have to be named and sorted into folders.
If one has arrived at this point, then a web page is however no more large problem.

My method:
(I am in no relation to the mentioned programs!)

1. i use a folder structure that corresponds to the box stacks or the drawer rows, where each box/drawer has its own identifier. Additionally, if needed, there is an "Info" folder for each box: This is where additional photos, tables, notes end up. And there is also an "Unlabeled" folder. More about this later.

2. I only photograph overviews, i.e. the individual boxes and drawers. If only individual figures are added, I photograph this figure in an empty box. So that the scale (the bottom of the box) always remains the same. From these "single pictures" the figures are then cut out and inserted into the corresponding overview picture. (I use COREL-Photopaint out of old routine)

3. little by little the pictures are labeled:
(a) for the collection: manufacturer, item number, ID in the EXCEL table. Here I work with the free program "Faststone Imageviewer". Works the easiest for me. Disadvantage: the label is irreversibly inserted into the image when saving. Therefore the folder "unlabeled" with the unlabeled images.

b) for comparisons (like here in the forum): in empty boxes the desired assemblages are arranged and photographed and labeled with additional content: species, series etc. I make these labels as vector text with COREL-Draw. This way the labeling is preserved and changeable. The photo is then only inserted as background. Only for the publication both are merged in a JPG image.

4. on a second hard disk I have duplicated the folder structure (and adjusted it a little). However, only the images are contained there. This structure serves as the basis for the webgallery. I just have to remember to add new or changed images here. (This could also be automated). I then create the webgallery automatically with the program "jAlbum" (fee required, but cheap) (all settings remain locally on the harddisk) and upload it. Thereby the program recognizes all updates automatically and uploads only these. This saves a lot of time.

One could still simplify the workflow. But this way I always have all data and images backed up multiple times at the same time. In addition, I try regular backups of all the data.

Wishes:
- Photos of each figure
- have all interesting data written into the image file (EXIF, IPTC)   (so the data always stay together with the picture)
- Webgallery with search function in this data. Then you could create and show any content dynamically( all polar bears, all Bullyland, all polar bears from Bullyland before 1999, ...).
In "jAlbum" you can apply different skins to your gallery and change them without loss. There should already be galleries with search function. With the EXIFTool from Phil Harvey seems to be pretty much everything possible to edit and write EXIF and IPTC. However, it is a command line tool that needs a lot of learning time to understand what is possible (e.g.: take over folder structure as keywords, batch functions ...).

I hope that this discussion helps one or the other to develop his own "method".

For the last couple years, I only photograph figures as they come up daily for my daily 'Museum' thread, or if I am reviewing the figure for the Animal Toy Blog. However, I think I will start photographing figures as they arrive, that way I have the images handy.

rogerpgvg wrote:

I have never heard of "Troetels". Do you know more about them?

Troetels are small figures, from the Dutch supermarket Plus, in 2011 and 2013.
For every 15€ and special groceries you would get a smal bag with one animal and a sticker.
The figure is plastic with a furry/floc cover.
There was also a sticker album, and 2 cardboard island/playworld

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I sort my Army of Bears as follows.

Regular figures per species: brown bear, polar bear, panda, black bear, other bears.
Species per pose: walking, standing upright, laying down
And then by size, the taller bigger figures are on higer shelves. The smallest figures lower.
(this gives that most major brands bears are next to each other, like schleich, papo, collecta, as they are roughly the same size)

Antique and composite figures have a special shelf, mostly sorted by species

Non-regular materials, glass, crystal, gems, metal, wax, wood, jewlery, have a special shelf, mostly sorted by material

Other various stuff like glases, bottles, drinks, alcohol, cups, mugs are stored away at the bottom shelf, of in boxes/storage.