Just wanted to know others displayed their figures with the cap. Someone times I see them with the cape up and others its turned down.

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1018929/
usually up for me

IMHO it looks better down!


I've never been a fan of popped collars! lol

I always had them down except for the Tusken Raider. Luckily I only collect MOC's now so I don't need to make these life altering decisions

For me it was always:

Cape Up = Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Tusken Raider
Cape Down = Princess Leia, Bespin Leia, Vinyl Cape Jawa and Lando Calrissian

How bizarre I always fancied asking this question, at the moment I have left my how I received them in there up or down state.

How where the originally packaged?

Thanks

Its Cape Down for me I think they look better that way

I prefer folded down too. I leave "up" to Flash Gordon collectors

I have most of my collection stored except for 20ish figures. I try to make as little impact on the cape as possible so it's up, unless the cape have been down so long that it might be damaging to turn it back up. Those on display varies depending on the capes condition.

I keep my capes down, I feel like they slide off if they are up (especially on Leia) & then it knocks the weapon loose & then I'm digging around in my cases with the grace of Godzilla.

I was gonna ask this too.
I thought up would be good to help keep a cape that had little to no existing indents already preserved as is and if there was a good crease or denting already going on to keep it down to help hide it and keep it that way.

For me, I like em down for the looks and the Godzilla factor that RetroRewindToys described.

For long term preservation, I would recommend leaving the collar up. When the vinyl is folded,
it creates natural stresses along the folds. Over time, I'm seeing more and more capes that are
either ripping, or have small tears in them. I think this is in line with general wear, and plastic
degradation, so for toys that are over 30 years old, it's certainly time to start thinking about
preservation over aesthetics

Bill

Bill

Honestly that's a solid point. Never really thought about that.

I've heard that dipping a vinyl cape in boiling water for a few seconds restores the cape to good as new like appearance. For example the holes around the arms shrink and return to their original size and any creases vanish. Its like the plastic has a kind of memory and by dipping it in very hot water for a few seconds restores it. Although i'm not sure what long term effects this would have on the cape, especially in white or light coloured capes, this could cause discolouration.

chris.75 wrote:

I've heard that dipping a vinyl cape in boiling water for a few seconds restores the cape to good as new like appearance. For example the holes around the arms shrink and return to their original size and any creases vanish. Its like the plastic has a kind of memory and by dipping it in very hot water for a few seconds restores it. Although i'm not sure what long term effects this would have on the cape, especially in white or light coloured capes, this could cause discolouration.

It does make it pliable but not perfect. I've done it a few times. It looks really good (especially if you flatten it in a book) but it's never 100% back to normal.

Obviously a brittle cape or cracked cape won't repair itself either.

Overall though, it's pretty effective. Don't leave it in too long or use crazy hot water. If you have a water cooler, the hot water out of the spicket is perfect

chris.75 wrote:

I've heard that dipping a vinyl cape in boiling water for a few seconds restores the cape to good as new like appearance. For example the holes around the arms shrink and return to their original size and any creases vanish. Its like the plastic has a kind of memory and by dipping it in very hot water for a few seconds restores it. Although i'm not sure what long term effects this would have on the cape, especially in white or light coloured capes, this could cause discolouration.

I tried that when taking some pics for the main Gunnery site following John's advice. It worked quite well with very hot water but not boiling - and only for a few seconds. The vinyl capes I tried were fairly creased but otherwise in good shape - don't think I would've tried it if they had have been brittle for example. It was also a good way to get all the dirt out that had stuck deep into the grain of the vinyl. There were still a few light creases to the capes after I tried but they looked a whole lot better for the photographs.

Thank you very much for the advice guys, so you think the long term affects would be negligible if you dont use boiling hot water and if you don't do it too often, and not brittle or stressed capes.

In regards to the cape being up or down, i'm kind of all over the place: down for Leia Organa because imo, it looks better. Up for Obi Wan, down for Vader, up for Tuskan, down for vinyl Jawa (not that i have one yet), up for Lando and up for Bespin Leia. But of course thats just my humble opinion.

I tend to keep my capes in the same position as when they come to me, but that's certainly a good point to keep them up for preservation and not having creasing/tearing.

What about fabric capes? Any suggestions on getting them looking nice again? I've got some little Jawa capes that have odd creases in them near the cuffs or by the hood that keep them folded in weird directions. I've also got a Jedi Luke cape that looks a bit like a crumpled paper. I was thinking about putting them inside a sock or a shirt or something and ironing on low heat. Do you think that would work or would that cause harm? Any other suggestions? Crinkle Cape Luke is kind of silly looking but maybe just with time it'll flatten out back to normal again.