Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve actually done one of these, hasn’t it? Between computer issues and time I haven’t been able to work on a day-long anti-clutter project. So this week I was lucky to actually be able to work on one. At issue was the set of cardbacks left over from a previous organizing project. I cleaned out the folder box but there was another set of these and I thought I’d go over them at the same time. Then the delays happened. No delays this week.

You’re probably wondering why I save cardbacks from the various Transformers figures. Perhaps you don’t remember the days of tech specs on Transformers figures, something that’s fallen out of fashion for various reasons. One of them was the need for multi-language packaging at one point. When that ended they never really went back to the old spec cards, something you’d clip off of the back of the packaging. These would include the character’s personalities and stats. While Hasbro has included this in packaging the old tech specs remained at a set size (sometimes reduced for smaller figures) but that doesn’t exist anymore. It had been a goal of mine to create new tech spec designs, but with the internet serving as a way to find examples and information I don’t really have to have this big pile of cardboard. So this week I planned to cut that down a little.

The last ones had been kept in a folder box but some more were in this box, the original box for my Transformers comics before other publishers brought the franchise back to comics. Now it holds some collected UK comics from Titan Comics, though they didn’t publish all the comics never seen in the US. (I think IDW did some more but I don’t know if they’re now all available in some form.) This is pretty much where I stuffed them, so everything came out. But while the main project was to toss some cardboard I did take a little time to work with the trade collections as well.

Here are the collected UK comics. The larger ones feature some of the biggest stories of Simon Furman’s UK run. For some reason I’m a bit more forgiving of these stories than I am in his US run, for those of you who also follow my storytelling commentary and review site, BW Media Spotlight. They aren’t quite in order. The collections jump around a bit, trying to connect stories. The smaller books have black and white backup stories and do the same thing. Before returning them to the box I did want to do a little organizing here.

Though the collections themselves were released in order of popularity and some of the comics appear later in say collection 3 than the ones in collection 4, there is a certain order to them according to the TF Wiki, so I used that to put them in the closest thing I can to chronological order. The bigger books were done by number and the smaller books by letter just for simplicity’s sake. I used some leftover labels from old VHS blank tapes, which come in surprisingly handy when trying to label some things. I don’t really use the letters or numbers for the tapes but they’re quite useful for organizing.

There are a few other things in this box. Genesis: The Art Of Transformers is something I should review for either this site or the other at some point. It’s the first ever Transformers art book as far as I’m aware, and contains box and comic art that shows even art based on toys is still art. It fits in this box the way I store it.

I also have a couple of magazines in here. The Transformers Armada comic magazine I reviewed for the other site, while on the left is the new magazine format from the official collector’s club. It must have just started before I stopped subscribing or my timeline is a bit off. Either way I also put these in there.

And here’s everything fit into place. I either forgot to take pictures of the cardback part of this week’s project or they got lost in some issues I was having with the phone yesterday, but it’s easy enough to explain. The carbacks in the way the specs were posted later on became way too large for my tech spec album, a photo album where I stored tech specs. I could have sworn I had discussed this before and took a picture of it but I can’t find any evidence of it. Did you ever see that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Worf ends up in some time anomaly (they’re all over the place in the Trek universe) where every few seconds he shifts realities but only minor differences happen between some of them? I swear to God there are days I feel like I’m trapped in one of those, where something I could have sworn I did or something someone told me suddenly didn’t happen!

Anyway, there were a few I kept because they were small or had Bumblebee in them. He’s my favorite Autobot. I was going to toss all the rest out, but then I got to thinking. If I sell off a Transformer (and there are already a few on the Clutter For Sale section) adding it’s card back, especially if it has some information about the character, may not be as amazing as a sealed box or card but still might make for extra incentive for someone. I did find one for Air Attack Optimus Primal and I added that to the page, but didn’t raise the price. I don’t think it’s worth as much as if I had a full card back. Ones I already reviewed or are already convinced I’m keeping but don’t want the card went into the recycle bin while the rest awaits its owner’s review, after which I’ll either add it to the sale or toss it. I may still go ahead and design my own tech spec for those figures but I have the internet to get what I need for that project.

The end result is a more organized UK comic box and a lighter load. I think I did okay this week. It was nice to actually do a proper de-clutter project this week, even if some of it waits for another project. I’ll be reviewing more Transformers in the future though.

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