December 16th, 2009 omo
Ikea this holiday season is selling their DETOLF display cabinets for $60. Believe it or not, anime figure collectors all across the world uses this, because it’s so cheap.
I’ve looked around. The kind of cabinets I want run usually for about $300-400. If I get a break on price I can probably score something I like for under $250, but, well, that’s still a lot more than $60. And the DETOLF is serviceable. If anything, picky people can try to repaint the top and bottom slaps of wood to match their interior decor. I just went with what the walls were painted like.
And for $60, I’m rather satisfied with it. The only real issue I have with it is that, well, it’s flimsy like most Ikea furniture. In essence, the DETOLF is 3 tall panes of safety glass held together by two slabs of wood top and bottom. The thing that keeps the cabinet together are these two sets of metal railing, in which you screw into the top and bottom wooden pieces. It also holds the glass shelves inside the case. The two railings are flimsy as all heck! If they were solid and doesn’t vibrate when you walk next to them on hardwood floor, maybe I would be a happer man. If they don’t hit the glass sides of the cabinet when the shelves are empty and make that cheap rattle sound, I’ll be even happier. For extra credit, if the DETOLF was about a foot shorter, I would also be very happy because then I can set it on top of this drawer/desk combination, rather than setting it on the floor.
Setting it on the floor, if you’ve seen a DETOLF (top link has picture), means it is a display case meant for a larger room with more open spaces. Or how else can you see the stuff in the lower shelves? Elevating the DETOLF is the only other way to go. Those more expensive display cabinets all do this, of course. There’s another issue–a lot of figures I own (and probably a fair reflection on what’s on the market) tend to be sculpted with a frame of reference that is even or below the horizontal plane of the figure. In other words, a lot of these figures are meant to be looked UP at, rather than looked down at.
I think my dad’s pottery collection goes better than animu figurines on these shelves.
At any rate, I got a pair of these set up. I also tore into a backlog of figures that I bought over the past 12 months which remained in their boxes. That half-price Ciel I bought via AmiAmi was quite nice, to my surprise. Ureshiko-san donned her umbrella. Tamaki-nee’s chains were a pain to put on, but now she kneels like the eroge giant that she is. Also need to figure out where to put that OTHER Ureshiko-san and the SUPER LARGE Mai Tokiha (is she 1/6? Way too big for 1/6). I probably should also move that surprisingly lovely Itsuki Kannagi/Musumi Shimoyama figure, since that is just 1/10 and looks ridiculous next to a 1/6. Aegis Figma was cute, but probably funnier than cute; my first Figma, too.
As for the bottom shelf, I stuck Etopen there. It’s quite large for a little thing like that, or rather, I think the scale of it in the anime is spot on.
That is on top of all the other figures I already had out in display. Sigh.
Tags: figures
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