Two Different Methods of Displaying Your Stuff

PotionMistress

I have noticed that there seems to be two general camps for displaying your prop replicas, and I’m not sure if this is gender oriented or not, but it seems to me that there are:

• Object Displayers: These people generally display there items on shelves or cases to be admired on an individual basis, very much as a museum does. Some people have beautiful and elaborately showcased their collections with back-lighting and direct lighting and have descriptive tags, etc, very much like an exhibition.

• Environmenters: These people try to incorporate their collectibles and replicas in a ‘total environment’, an area that encompasses a place that those objects may be appropriately found, sort of like a holodeck does. These people seem to want to immerse themselves in the sources of their items, and the surrounding in which their replicas are placed, are almost as important as the objects themselves.

Personally, I think I am more like B, an Environmenter, although I have displayed my various collections both ways. Some collections do not lend themselves to environments, of course.

I have thought perhaps, being a woman, that it is more my nature to incorporate my ‘nesting instincts’ with my hobbies, but I can’t help but think that anyone would want to pursue what holodecks do in the Star Trek universe and BE THERE, if you know what I mean.

Any thoughts on how you prefer to display your ‘stuff’?

DanielS

Well, for the time being I am displaying my stuff as if in a museum. But I would love to have more of an environmental style to it. Gives you more to look at
I don't think it's gender related though. But more of an aesthetic choice (did I spell that right?)

Delmustator

I guess it really comes down to what space you have available. Basically I have a 2nd floor sitting area that I turned into a gaming area. Displayed all around are props from different Sci-Fi movies.

Our formal dining area is called "The Oriental Room" and has a Japanese theme. Our formal living room has a billiards theme with Coca-Cola signs, billiard related stuff, etc.

If I had a floor that I could dedicate to a specific theme, I would do it.

PotionMistress

Oh, I love the idea of rooms having individual themes. It really accentuates a family's passions and uniqueness. It sure beats the normal cookie-cutter neutral that most people seem to think is ideal.

wannab

You forgot the third method -- "Encasers"-- those who keep most of their props in cardboard receptacles on storage facility shelves.





Doug

elro

My partner and I make costumes, and one day when we have our own house we want to make a corridor with perspex cabinets (with wood edging, and lights - very much like what samurai armor is normally displayed in) so that visitors can walk down the corridor and look at our work

As for now... Parts and outfits are in cupboards / on my floor / not really on display ><

Pete SSS

I'm a guy and an Enviromentalist I think. I spend as much time and money on furniture and displays as I do on the actual props. I generally try to keep to the vague/broad theme of a Victorian style collection of miscellany, a "collection of wonders" kind of thing. Not a specific franchise. This allows me to indulge a variety of interests (lotr, hp, sw, dr who, along with fossils and furniture) but keeps them looking like they kind of fit together.

Hmm, i'm not sure that makes much sense without any pics...

Jedifyfe

There are also the DUSTY's. These are people that leave their props out and dust covers them so much that they never dare move them for fear of having to clean.

Organic Mechanic

I think I qualify as a quasi-dusty. lol

I do make certain to dust them whenever I play with them though.

PotionMistress

I think you can be an 'Object Displayer' and an 'Environmenter' at the same time as being an 'Encaser' and a 'Dusty', because I know that I am all of the above!

Jedifyfe

I think I fall under the ENVIRONMENTER OBJECT DISPLAYER category

PotionMistress

Pete, I think I know what you mean. You sound like you could be one of those interesting people on the (American) TV show called ‘Oddities’! These are the most unique and interesting people/collectors who surround themselves with an abundance of different but ‘like’ items, as if creating around them their own antique shops of an eclectic mix of similarly odd, unusual and often gruesome aesthetic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5K69kIcPAM

Perhaps another category of ‘Eclectic Antique Shop’? Not sure if this is an accurate description of what you describe or what I mean though.

ONEYE

http://www.therpf.com/f12/amazing-co...-ideas-125223/

I like many of the ideas in the thread above.

PotionMistress

ONEYE: I would categorize most everything in your attached thread link as Object Displayers. Great and fabulous examples, to be sure!

Alan Castillo

I plonk things down, and if they look OK, they stay there. If not ... musical chairs it is until they look right ... whatever it takes

Commander Max

There is one more.

There are so many items on the shelf you can't see any of them.
You could call that the cluttered, or better put the "Packrats".

Sourdoh

I definitely fall into the DUSTYs category. Here in Arizona it is very dusty. You dust one day and the next day there is a new layer of dust. Even in an enclosed case, the dust infiltrates somehow. After a while you just quit dusting on a regular basis out of frustration.

PotionMistress

Well, I'd say if your prop replicas or collectibles are not part of a complete ENVIRONMENT, they all fall into the OBJECT DISPLAY category.

I'd guess at least 90% fall into Object Display (dusty or not)!

senjak

Or a third method... ...give them to a cosplaying teenager.

Course then you end up with other people wanting stuff as well!

whoever

Lolz. Being a fellow dusty state dweller, I end up taking my non-fragile items out and spraying them off with the air compressor.

Commander Max

What else would you expect when living in a desert.

It sure beats earthquakes, tornadoes, and snowstorms. I have no desire to live somewhere where mother-nature is trying to kick you out feet first.
The heat is not that big a problem when compared to the other options around the country.

When displaying stuff, I prefer to display items in context(that is where it's possible). They look best in their environment with like items. Preferably with references to scale, or something that is relative to our own world. Nobody has any real idea of the scale of some subjects(like studio models). Sure they can recite numbers, but since nobody has seen a real starship(or served on one). People do not have any idea just how big some of these models are supposed to depict. So the easiest thing is to place something like a car, plane, or what would be best illustrate scale would be a person.
(This is what I get for attending architectural school).

benhs1898

I don't know what I am. I play around with some of them so often, that they're basically always just in the room where I am at the time. Kind of like a sort-of environment person in the way that they are strewn all over my environment.

I need good shelves then I'd be kind-of an object displayer. Still, I would take some of them down, and they'd never return.

CessnaDriver

Detolfs and other display cases stuffed to the hilt.

FuseNova

SciFi Fusion Environmental Object Display Encaser and lighting is everything. A lot of time is spent on preparing the displays, mounts, etc to bring it all together but its never quite there. I have a relatively large prop/office but there comes a point where it becomes cluttered - consequently I have a lot of items boxed up and I pass on a lot of items.

This hobby never ends. First it was weapons, then helmets, screen used, wall hangers/light panels, models and back to helmets. Nothing beats a good helmet

And like many of you, I have about 20 unfinished projects.

Wes R

I'm guilty of this. My props, books, and Transformer collection is pretty dusty. I even made a dust cover for my xbox 360 so i don't have to dust it