Hey peeps

Imagine if you will, you have a piece of software, an app on your phone or tablet, a program on your laptop, or even a web based system you can log on to.
What it does, is helping you keep track of your collection. Think database: each item you enter will have a set of parameters. Once you have entered a few (or all) of your items, you can get overviews, lists, graphs, tables, everything to please you inner geek!

About those parameters, the obvious ones are:

-Name of Item
-Category
-Picture
-Year
-Brand
-Condition
-Value
etc

The goal of this thread is to brainstorm about possible parameters. What would YOU like to have in such program?

Right off the bat, let's define 2 types of parameters:

-parameters that go for any and all object in a collection (more or less such as the ones listed above, and then some)
-specific parameters that go for just a group of items (for example it might be cool to have "clear bubble" as a parameter for mocs, but it's not needed for loose figures)

any and all input, from smalltime beginner to specialist hoarder, very much appreciated!

like these? Just a few randoms:

boxed items (eg vehicles, jigsaw puzzles) - MISB/MIB. Sealed/shrink wrapped. Pop intact. Inserts. Catalogues. components in Baggies.

loose/moc/vehicles/diecast/others - graded/ungraded

Moc - missing pop/nameplate. Punched/un.

vinyl records/cassettes/Readalongs - sealed/opened/7"/12"/pressing coo

underoos - worn/unworn

Hey Wouter,

Just some brainstorming for licensed toys, hope it helps:


LOOSE FIGURES

• COO description: Made in HK, Made in China, Taiwan, Made in Taiwan, Made in Macao, Japan,…
  
• COO Number: Following Wolff’s current or updated future guide.
  Preferentially something like III-4, IV-2, ect. Roman capital stands for COO family, number for the specific COO.
  
• Licensee: Kenner, Palitoy, PBP, POCH (early PBP), Meccano, Tol Toys, TopToys, Glasslite, Lili Ledy, Takara.
  Maybe also include a description “European” for figures which were released on a variety of European cards (PBP, Palitoy, German Mills, Trilogo).
  
• Typical figure characteristics: Pale face, Black neck, Fat lips, Light blue body, Orange hair, Vinyl cape, DT,..
  
• Weapon: Colour and mold (V1, V2,..) as indicated in imperialgunnery.com, or absent.
  
• Flaws: For instance faded limbs, imperfect welding,…
  
• Grade: AFA X, UKG Y, none.
  
• Field for additional remarks: as there is always info you might want to add but which was not covered in the previous sections.

MOCS

• Era: SW, ESB, ROTJ, POTF, Trilogo, Droids, Ewoks.
  
• Licensee: Kenner, Kenner Canada, General Mills, Clipper, Harbert, Palitoy, PBP, POCH (early PBP), Meccano, Tol Toys, TopToys, Glasslite, Lili Ledy, Basa, Takara, Popy, Tsukuda, Basa.
  
• Cardback: 12A, 41C, 30B (Palitoy), 41 (POCH)
  
• COO on the card: Made in Hong Kong, Made in Mexico, Fabrique a Macao (sticker), ….
  
• Offer: Nien Nunb offer, Coin offer, £1.59 New Figure,…
  
• Import Stickers: Clipper Stars, Clipper Mini-Catalog, Swedish import sticker, Basa Sticker, Tsukuda Sticker,..
  
• Other stickers: Kenner Canada Transition Sticker,…
  
• Figure characteristics: Pale face, Black neck, Fat lips, Light blue body, Orange hair, Vinyl cape, DT,..
  
• Grade: AFA X, none.
  
• Field for additional remarks:

BOXED STUFF (VEHICLES, PLAYSETS, CREATURES,..)

• Era: SW, ESB, ROTJ, POTF, Bilogo, Trilogo, Droids, Ewoks.
  
• Licensee: Kenner, Kenner Canada, General Mills, Clipper, Harbert, Palitoy, PBP, POCH (early PBP), Meccano, Tol Toys, Glasslite, Lili Ledy, Basa, Takara, Basa.
  
• COO on the box: Made in Hong Kong, Made in Mexico, Made in France (Sticker),…
  
• Condition: MISB, NRFB, MIB, loose.
  
• In case of MSB: Indicate presence/absence of original contents:
  
  1. Toy (sticker applied / unapplied)
     
  2. COO of the Toy
     
  3. Figures in baggies
     
  4. Instructions
     
  5. Inserts
     
  6. Sticker sheet
     
  7. Catalogus
     
  8. Other paper work
     
  9. Parts in sealed bags
  
  
• Offer: Special Offer, Rebate Offer,…
  
• Grade: AFA X, none.
  
• Field for additional remarks:

Off course we can extend this to bootlegs as well.

Cheers

It would be Great if u can have a option for a number (that way can u mark your stands and ziplock baggies and it's easy to keep track Of your figures)

hyver, can I ask, are you planning on or starting to develop something?

I ask because I have just started the exact thing this past week or so. Right now, mine won't have the ability to add personal collections until the meat and potatoes are done (backend db of figures, coo, accessories, packaging, variants, etc) and initially populated.
The idea for the initial data so people could pull from known, confirmed items.
I am building mine with the main idea is you can quicly look up a single figure and see every known detail of it on one page. From there, the secondary feature would be to add one like it to your collection and tweak the coo, variant, packaging, etc, as you wish. No required fields other than figure really. Every other field optional, including custom images.

FWIW: here is my db start (only Luke has enough initial seed data to show proof of concept) - SWFCdb

...and a similar project I have completed and maintain can be seen at myForzaGarage.
I have rebuilt and tweaked that site for the past 4 versions of the game and it grew to be a little popular in some circles in the Forza world without advertising it (850+ users / 90000 hits on the car list).
It contains a full list of all known cars in the XBox game Forza (all data and specs for it are filterable/sortable ) and if users optionally registered, they can add cars from that list to their personal garage and choose to show or hide them to the public, share with their club or have it just for them.
When adding cars to the garage, users could upload pictures of the cars, define custom parts and specs, etc.

I bring that all up since essentially it is the same thing I am starting for the SWFCdb but for figures (well, the SWFCdb will be a lot more complex).

Another FWIW: I am not a trained programmer by any means. I have just hacked things together for a decade or so with PHP, mySQL and a sprinkle of JS as needed. I do this for me fun. And I know that sometimes my code and best practices aren't the prettiest things you will have seen.

I am curious to see if these will completely overlap in basic concept or not.

I can possibly see your being freeform, allowing users to have a set number of defined fields in which they can add whatever data they wish. Where as mine focuses on the confirmed nitty gritty (by TIG members I really hope) for people to use to see what really exists, what they might own or what they might need to restore a figure to its original form.

OK, my brain is thinking too many scenarios right now before I even know what your plans are so I will just stop now before my brain explodes.

hyver, please let me know! Feel free to PM me as well if you have any questions about any of my current stuff (mFg or SWFC).

cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

edit:
I forgot.... I haven't officially announced the SWFCdb yet, although I have mentioned it when I was trying to figure out the total amount of vintage figures. I was waiting until I had the background relationships set and at least Luke's data populated to really prove the whole concept.
anyway..........

waw nice input so far guys!
i'll take the details in later tonight and start puzzling/commenting
psybertech - we need to talk

Hyver wrote:

psybertech - we need to talk

I am around all day - I'm GMT - 4 and should be up and around till say 10 my time.

I am banging thru a bunch of little things on mine right now. I think I am done with accessory handling and I am about to move into COO stuff now.
SO if anyone happens to visit the page and things break, wait a few seconds and refresh.
I am not sandboxing this project, so I am trying to be careful as I edit the live pages.

@wouter and anyone else that cares......
I have made a bit more progress in the relationship workings... I have updated the single figure page with coo and packaging routines LUKE FB EXAMPLE.

I just need to work out variants and get a full list of companies and the main layout will be complete.
Then the hard stuff of getting it all populated with real data for every figure.

Anyway........

everyone, good points, thanks!
i've tried to compile your input in the following musings:

regarding packaging, i'm thinking a cascading hierarchy set of parameters:

an item is either(with their specific parameters):
loose (
or
boxed (sealed, shrinkwrapped, inserts, instructions, catalogue, sealed parts,...)
or
carded (punched/unpunched,...)
or
tagged (...?)

i'm probably missing another type of packaging here, but the point is to think in terms of all things starwars, including (especially ) the oddball stuff. In other words I don't need a "kellerman matrix ID nr" on a moc Eraser...

keeping parameters concerning condition of the item global, right now i'm thinking a c-scale entry, a "complete" checkmark, and a entry field for condition related notes (any length of text)

"graded" also global.. from what i've seen they grade just about anything these days! (note to self, when graded is checked, insert grading value and/or code/link - i know nothing about grading.. am i making sense here? lol)

The first step in filing a new item in your collection is choosing the correct category (from up to 3 levels of dropdown lists), followed by the packaging type (listed above)... so on to the specifics:

MOC (under action figures)
-card coo (list)
-debut
-offerless/special offer (list)
-cardback (list)
-miscard
-import sticker (list)
-...
conditionwise: yellow bubble, cracked bubble, reseal, warped (not sure about this.. maybe the global condition bits are enough, leaving the user room to type in any or all flaws...)

Vinyl records (under AudioVisual)
-7"
-12"
-33,3rpm
-45rpm
-pressing coo
-...

Underoos lol
underoos fall in the clothing category, under Apparel & Accessories. I like the worn/unworn tag for the whole clothes group actually thanks Paul!

Loose (under action figures)
-COO
-COO nr (good one!)
-Euro (i'm not sure i'm getting this, but i'm sure you can explain to me in dutch
-typical figure characteristics (interesting, how big would a comprehensive list be?)
-weapon TIGcode (once again, nice one!)


licensee is what i called Brand, which is a global field
flaws under condition (same question as with mocs arises)

definitely add a field for additional remarks, apart from the one pertaining condition
(i might use the first field to note down where i bought it from, or had it signed, and the second to note a stressmark on the bubble.. then later down the road i want to make a printout of my items for sale, so i can add the condition related note but not the personal one)

on Era: i called it "logo" and is a global parameter (with an added n/a option)

Boxed (under action figures)
-box coo
-stickers applied
-coo of contents
-sticker sheet
-other paperwork
-offer

Personal Tracking Number - you bet! I was already thinking of which type of stickers/labels to best use


Jay - good talking to you, although our time-karma seemed a bit out of sync tonight.. talk more soon!

wow Jay, you've been busy!
pretty nifty in that yellow stripes design too, i like!