What have I got?

[Sir Gareth]

 I don't live in a huge house in fact I live in a 2 bedroomed dormer bungalow, so I don't have a lot of space to display my collection. I have it all boxed and stored away in my roof space and the only sets I have on display are usually my most recent purchases. I usually only keep things out on display for about 4 weeks before it too joins the rest in the roof.

For about the first 4 years of my collecting I just bought stuff displayed it put it in the roof and basically forgot about some of the sets. One day I decided to empty my roof and make a record of what I had stored in there. I was amazed to find how many sets I had duplicated, mainly smaller ones like specials and DS figure sets.

After a few weeks of scanning and taking photos of boxes and plans the task was complete and I had all of my collection stored on the computer and backed up on discs. I then decided that from that day on when I got a new set I would record it's details before I stored it and back up my work.

My good idea never really worked due to not having much spare time I didn't record my new sets and just put them in to the roof and I never continued to back up my work. Nearly 2 years ago now my computer crashed, my hard drive stopped working and I had to get someone in to repair the damage. As you can guess a lot of work was lost plus some unsaved holiday photos but I had my back up discs with part of my collection on them. Problem was I could only find one of the discs that just covered 2 of my main themes.

My operating system at the time was windows ME and I was told then it wasn't the best and Windows stopped updates for it. So last year I went onto XP and was really pleased with what you could do with files. November last year I started to empty my roof and take stock once again and I have nearly completed it and backed it all up.

I now know what I have got in my collection and this is how I have recorded it all using Windows XP.

[Sir Gareth]

XP is great, it allows you to put a thumbnail image onto the front of the folder unlike my older ME which only let you title the folders. I have several Playmobil related folders, the one I will show today is my plans folder.

The first image of my plans folder shows you how I have put the theme icons onto them, I got the images by scanning them from catalogues.

Once I click onto the theme that I want to work from it then shows all of the sets that I have plans and images from. Here in the 2ND image you can see what is behind my Knights folder. Again you can see the great advantage of being able to put an image of the set onto the folder and just title it with the set number.

[Sylvia]

I love the way you've personalised your folders with different Playmobil icons. That looks really neat, Garry!

About 2 years ago, I did the same thing - made an inventory of all my complete and near complete sets. When you have a large collection, it's sensible to make a record of it. It can also be really satisfying if you're the sort of person who enjoys making lists.

Don't be tempted to upgrade to Vista like we did, btw. Despite the hype which surrounded its release, I find it's not as good or easy to use as XP. Even after several months of using it daily, I still have difficulty locating certain functions. And some appear to have been completely removed for no good reason.

One that really bugs me is viewing images within folders. In XP, you could have a strip of pictures along the bottom and a larger picture above. I think it's called "Filmstrip." This makes it very easy to click from one image to another and back again without losing your place or needing to go through each image individually. Very handy if you've taken several photos of the same thing and want to compare them. This option is not found in Vista.

[Sir Gareth]

I just simply then pick out the set I want to view.

Inside these set folders I either scan or take photos of the box front and back and any sides with scenes on them. I also take a photo of the figures since they can look a lot different without accessories on them such as armour. Figures can also have print on them mainly on their backs that you don't always get to see on box images.

I then scan plans and any stickers that may come with the set.

When you get black and white paper plans, after scanning you can see a ghost image of the other side of the plan. I correct this in photoshop by adjusting the brightness/contrast.

[Sir Gareth]

Hi Sylvia,

I use the filmstrip function inside the folders of my sets, I find it easier than thumbnails.

You got in just before my 3rd post, I forgot to reduce one of my images and had to pop back to photo shop.

[Gepetto]

Very nice Garry,

My accumulation is all in storage also and I started scanning boxes but gave up due to time constraints, but now when I come upon some the earlier scans I realize I had forgotten about many of the sets I picked up so I think I will start again.

Your icons are great and it would really be worth the investment in time to start because it doesn't get easier over time. Thanks for the ideas and pictures.


Gepetto

[surfergirl]

This is exactly what I need to be doing!

I recently bought a house after moving back to Scotland. In the 4 years I lived in England some of my collection was with me and the rest was in my parents loft...about a 50/50 split. One of my main objectives when finding the house was that it had enough loft space for my whole collection.....as it happens, we had a spare room so the collection gets a whole room to itself. We moved in 4 months ago and it was only then that I actually saw exactly how much playmo I actually own!!!!

I had kept lists on paper so I always knew what sets I had and where, but I would really like to catalogue everything now...especially for insurance purposes. I would guess that any insurance inspector would not really believe that a grown-up with no kids would own 915 Playmo sets!!

I have so far only taken photos of the sets as they are stored in plastic boxes stacked to the ceiling but I really must set out to make some kind of thorough record like you guys have done. Thank you for the knowledge on how to do it.

Claire

[playmofire]

I had kept lists on paper so I always knew what sets I had and where, but I would really like to catalogue everything now...especially for insurance purposes. I would guess that any insurance inspector would not really believe that a grown-up with no kids would own 915 Playmo sets!!

Claire

You may need to specifically mention your collection in your insurance policy.

[playmofire]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of your system, Gary.  It certainly gives me something to work with as my collection, like Claire's has expanded and expanded and needs proper cataloguing.

[Martin Milner]

I love threads like this - I can show my wife how really I'm just paddling on the shores of the Playmobil Ocean, while many of my Playmofriends are in full deep sea diver mode.

Don't be tempted to upgrade to Vista like we did, btw. Despite the hype which surrounded its release, I find it's not as good or easy to use as XP.

Isn't it odd how so many "upgrades" actually reduce user-friendliness and functionality.

Who can recall the "friendly" paperclip who insisted on popping up and annoying you every few keystrokes? "You appear to be typing a letter, can I help?" "No, you annoying little twit, I know how to type a letter, I've been doing it for 30 years"

They soon ditched that annoying little tyke when the negative user feedback filtered through.

I have an mp3 player that insistes on creating folders for me labelled Library A, Library B and Library C, for my comfort and convenience. If I delete them, the come back! I'm quite capable of creating and organising my own folders, and giving them more useful labels than this.