Answer: No. At worst, dust just makes your figures look dirty; however, that’s usually the worst thing it can do. Dust does not damage your figures.

If you’re looking for some items to use for cleaning the dust off your figures, I have listed some resources here.

How Dust Can Indirectly Damage Your Figures:

If your figure or figurine is displayed out in the open and not inside an enclosed case or cabinet, dust will build up over time, and eventually it will become caked into the crevices of your figure. Though these layers of dust do not damage your figure, when you clean the figure off, its possible you may end up pealing off some paint or chipping something while trying to clean your figure. This is not a result of dust build up, but rather other environmental factors. Action figures do deteriorate over time, and that process is aided by things like sunlight, exposure to humidity—heck, air all together will cause deterioration. Its a slow process, and we don’t like to think about it, but it happens.

On a side note, if your figure happens to to have stickers, its more than possible that you could end up partially or completely removing those stickers while trying to clean off the dust, depending on the method of cleaning you choose. The same could be said about chrome finishes. If your figure has a chrome finishing, it is very likely that you could end up chipping away at the chrome while trying to clean the figure.

How Do I Stop My Figures From Getting Dusty?

Dust will build up if your figure is sitting in one place over a long period of time—that’s just the way dust works. It goes without saying, that if you’re frequently moving your figures around, dust really won’t build up. Most people who have collections, however, aren’t “playing” with their toys, and even if you do fiddle with some of them on occasion, you’re definitely not playing with all of them on a regular basis. They’re standing on a shelf at attention or in some action pose, and they will be that way for months at a time. Dust will build up.

The best way to prevent your displayed figures from getting extremely dusty is to have them in an enclosure of some kind. Displaying your figures in cabinets is a good way display them and slow down the dust build-up. Glass cabinets and enclosures are popular because you can protect the figures from the dust while still being able to see them. Just make sure that the figures aren’t getting too much sunlight—sunlight will do more damage than dust ever will.

If you have a very large collection and are unable to display them all at once, or can’t manage to get an enclosure big enough for all of them; a good solution would be to store some of the figures safely away in plastic tubs while they are not being displayed. You may want to bubble wrap the individual figures or put them in small plastic bags while storing them. Generally, bubble wrap with small sized bubbles is going to be a better option than the large sized bubbles for most of your figures. Of course, for significantly larger figures, go with the larger bubbles.

I’ll also note that there are certain rooms in your house that are more ideal for your collection than others. This kind of depends on where you live, but there are certain areas such as your garage that just aren’t ideal at all for storing any fraction of your collection. And, to be perfectly honest, if you’re storing figures in your garage, dust is the least of your worries.

How Do I Clean The Dust Off My Figures and Collectibles?

Cleaning collectibles really does deserve an entire post of its own, but we will cover the basic things you need to know about dust removal and prevention.

When dusting (whether you are using a duster or compressed air), its a good idea to have some kind of vacuum on hand. If you can manage to, try to suck up the dust in the air by holding the hose about a foot or so above your figure while/after dusting them. This might seem a little silly, but, think about it, when you blow the dust off of your figure, it has to resettle somewhere. You are not going to suck up all of it, but anything you can get is a win.

Regular Home Upkeep:

Cleaning and running a vacuum regularly are some good preemptive measures you can take to stop the spread of dust. Dust settles everywhere—your shelves, your bed, your floor, etc. Simply walking around in your room is enough to kick up dust from your floor. When your make your bed in the morning (assuming you do), shaking your blankets and pillow is spreading a ton of dust. Doing regular upkeep goes a long way in preventing dust build up.

Another great preemptive measure you can take is purchasing and installing register air and dust filters to reduce the amount of dust being spewed out by your vents. These AC Furnace Air Filters might work well for you–just make sure you pick the appropriate size for your vents.

Cleaning Dust that “Sticks”:

While regular dusting works for minimal dust build-up and using compressed air is good for minimal to moderate build-up, sometimes we have let are figures go for far too long without a good dusting. The dust tends to settle after a long period of time, and it gets to the point where the dust has actually started to “stick” to your figure. Once this happens, even blasting it with compressed air at close range is going to have very little effect. You are actually going to need to clean your figure at this point.

There are number of different things you can do to clean dust once it has settled and started to stick to your figures. There are different methods, some would include using an instrument like a tooth brush with soft bristles, Q-tips, paint or make-up brushes, rags, or paper towels—whichever one suites your needs really. Now, some people will recommend dampening the tool first. This may work very well for dust removal, but, keep in mind, water is not good for your figures either. If they are not thoroughly dried off you could end up with mold, paint damage, or any number of problems. Keep that in mind before letting water near your figures.

If you’re looking for some items to use for cleaning the dust off your figures, I have listed some resources here.

Safety Measures:

Don’t get too enthusiastic during the cleaning process. Remember what I said at the beginning, its possible to damage paint, stickers, and chrome finishes when cleaning your figures if you’re not careful. Small projections such as antennas can be easily broken as well. When you’re using the vacuum hose or shot vac to catch the dust, don’t hold it too close to your figures, especially the small ones, or else you going to be cleaning your piece or figure out of a mountain of dust and whatever else you’ve used the vacuum to clean up.

As a rule of thumb, the more frequently you dust off your figure, the less in-depth the process needs to be. If you only dust your figures once a year, you may want to bring out the rags or brushes your using to clean them, and put on a podcast or that show you’ve been meaning to catch up on because it will take you some time.

But That Doesn’t LOOK Like Dust?

What we traditionally think of as dust isn’t the only thing that can build up on your figures. If you’re someone who handles your figures quite a bit, or you have kids who play with your figures, its possible dead skin could build up in the cracks and crevices of your figure. You don’t need to be roughhousing your figure for this to happen, some people just leave more skin particles than others. Maybe you’ve noticed this on your Playstation or Xbox controllers, or perhaps on your keyboard or mouse. Its something to watch out for. In my humble opinion, dead skin build-up looks allot worse than dust build-up.

What is Dust?

Thought I’d end with a brief definition of dust. What exactly is covering so many of our collectible and shelves we display our collectibles on? Maybe a brief explanation will make some people think twice about leaving their figure exposed to it. First off, where there are people, there are bits of human skin and hair particles in the air. If you have pet, then there is also animal hair and skin particles in the air as well. Depending on where you live, there are all sorts of things from the environment that could be floating around in the air: pollen, sand and dirt, volcanic ash, insect feces, pollutants, meteorite particles—yeah, really—METEORITE particles! Just some food for thought, in case anyone was wondering.

Keep your figures clean and away from the elements, and they will last long and look good!

If you found this article useful, be sure to check out this one where I cover the effects of UV rays (produced by the sun) on action figures and collectibles.

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