As anyone who collects toys knows, your collection will go through a lot of changes over the years. Maybe you change focus, maybe you decide to downsize, or maybe you have to pack it all up and move it.

I really liked my old setup in my old house. It was quiet, isolated, and had lots of shelving. I re-did that basement by hand, and it was full of love.

But when you have four kids like i do your small 3 bedroom house no longer can accommodate the rapidly growing family. A change of venue was in order, and in October we bought a new house. of course, while I was house hunting, one of my requirements was that the new house have a place for the office/collection.

We found a new place about 15 minutes from our old house. It didn't have an office, but it had a downstairs kitchen that would convert nicely

First we gutted the room - sold the appliances and re-did all the drywall.

Around Christmas time, drywall was done, walls were primed

Shelves were installed - all from Ikea

Finally, the first few toys were added

Now, a month later, things are starting to take shape.

The shelves above the desk are starting to fill in, but placement on things is not final. Half the collection is still packed up, so many more things are to be added.

I think I have my themes set out though:

Top shelf will be Voltron / Dairugger. Next shelf will be Abegas and Golion, and maybe others... depends on how much space Abegas and Golion take up.

Top shelf here will be all things Mazinger. May include Grendizer, not sure yet. Second shelf will be Getter Robo, and maybe Gaiking. I doubt Gaiking will fit though, I have a lot of that. Bottom shelf is Real Robots, specifically Patlabor and Dougram.

Both these shelves will be nothing but Raideen

The shelves on the right, from the top down will be various robots, Orguss/Votoms, Action Figures then Sofubi.

Festival masks over the door

The right column will have in order from the top down Macross/Mospeada, 80s robots, Transformers and Machine Robo, TBD, TBD

The bookcase houses a bunch of random mini figures as well as reference books and other crap.

Of course, toys aren't limited to my office. My large glass display case that will house most of the vintage stuff will be in the game room:

Godzilla Sofubi watch over the DVD's

The collection will even greet you when you come in the door.

So yeah, things are in a state of transition. I just thought it would be cool for you to see things as they are now, maybe to compare them when i finally have everything set up. Thats why most of these images are on Flickr - I don't want them to be part of the permanent record of my collection. Consider it a snapshot of a work in progress.

Thanks for indulging me!

~Josh

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