Hello. I'm fairly new to lego collecting and brand new to here. I was wondering if I should take all the air out of the plastic bags I store my minifigs in, or if I should leave it there. Its air tight bags.

Thanks!

Not necessary. There may be a few million oxygen molecules in the bag, but there are many times more polymer chains. Whatever reactions happen will happen slowly and over time, a.k.a. normal aging. It's not like your minifigs will burst into flames over rapid oxidization of every molecule. Also you cannot evacuate enough air in a meaningful way, anyway. That would require lab equipment and/ or replacing the oxygen with non-reactive/ lazy gases. With that in mind it's much more important to take care of other factors like exposure to light, heat and moisture. Just keeping your minifigs in a dark box in a not so hot room will do more for their longevity than just putting them into bags.

Mylenium

You don't get many completely airtight bags... assuming you're just looking for storage and not some form of inert stasis like Mylenium implies then just get a bit of air out and put them away like that. As you fill up space with them they'll slowly let small amounts of air out as the pressure of other bags puts a light force on each and it leaks around the seal.

Why would you want the air out? You could vacuum seal the bag but that would lead to increased touching / surface area between the plastic bag and the figure. That is more likely to cause stickiness on the surface of the figure than leaving it in air.

4 hours ago, MAB said:

Why would you want the air out? You could vacuum seal the bag but that would lead to increased touching / surface area between the plastic bag and the figure. That is more likely to cause stickiness on the surface of the figure than leaving it in air.

I'm trying to keep the figures in great condition. Plastic bags are the only way I know how.

7 hours ago, Mylenium said:

Not necessary. There may be a few million oxygen molecules in the bag, but there are many times more polymer chains. Whatever reactions happen will happen slowly and over time, a.k.a. normal aging. It's not like your minifigs will burst into flames over rapid oxidization of every molecule. Also you cannot evacuate enough air in a meaningful way, anyway. That would require lab equipment and/ or replacing the oxygen with non-reactive/ lazy gases. With that in mind it's much more important to take care of other factors like exposure to light, heat and moisture. Just keeping your minifigs in a dark box in a not so hot room will do more for their longevity than just putting them into bags.

Mylenium

Wouldn't a bunch of minifigs in a box together cause issues? Also wouldn't mostire be trapped in the bag too?

6 hours ago, CastleRail said:

You don't get many completely airtight bags... assuming you're just looking for storage and not some form of inert stasis like Mylenium implies then just get a bit of air out and put them away like that. As you fill up space with them they'll slowly let small amounts of air out as the pressure of other bags puts a light force on each and it leaks around the seal.

I am looking to keep them in great condition with the bags.

I think you are overthinking this. There is nothing wrong with >>>some moisture<<< since it stabilizes the polymers (water attaching to open ends of molecules and preventing them to break down and all that good stuff). You just don't want it to be too high. I probably should have written "excessive moisture" from the get-go and now that I think of it the proper better term is relative air humidity. Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much. Even though summers get hotter in Canada, too, it probably will never reach a level where you need to put minifigs in cold storage. just keep them in some nice dark boxes or a shadowy room not exposed to direct sun and you should be fine.

Mylenium

48 minutes ago, Mylenium said:

I think you are overthinking this. There is nothing wrong with >>>some moisture<<< since it stabilizes the polymers (water attaching to open ends of molecules and preventing them to break down and all that good stuff). You just don't want it to be too high. I probably should have written "excessive moisture" from the get-go and now that I think of it the proper better term is relative air humidity. Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much. Even though summers get hotter in Canada, too, it probably will never reach a level where you need to put minifigs in cold storage. just keep them in some nice dark boxes or a shadowy room not exposed to direct sun and you should be fine.

Mylenium

Thank you. I plan on keeping the plastic bags in a box under my bed. Do you also use plastic bags?

I think that you are better off keeping them in plastic storage boxes rather than soft plastic.