Inspired by the actions of some other bloggers, I recently decided to purchase a tool kit for the purpose of organizing all those loose bits that just seem to pile up after a while...

Personally, I'm not a heavy-user of alternate parts. I appreciate both their inclusion in PVC releases and the incentive to customize a figure they foster but aside from those rather general endorsements, they just tend to take up space. Take, for example, my recent acquisition of Wave's 1/8 scale Nia Swimwear PVC. After deciding on a display plan suiting my taste (Alternate Long Hair with Gurren-Dan Beach Ball), I was left with multiple parts that simply couldn't be used to complement the figure (the very purpose of accessories). For anyone who purchases Figmas or other customization-intensive figures, this conundrum is a familiar one. Just what do you do with all those extra parts?

I suppose the simplest answer would be to just horde them. There might be a time when you decide to rearrange your set-up or experiment with swapping parts between figures. Thinking back, the latter of the two has helped me out on more than one occasion. I remember having difficulty applying the included glasses on Megahouse's 1/8 scale Cattleya PVC. For whatever reason, be it my unsteady hands or complete lack of grace, I couldn't get them to stay in place. It then dawned on me that I had an alternate pair of glasses from Kotobukiya's 2006 re-release of their 1/8 scale Yomiko Readman PVC. Yomiko's glasses were thicker (librarian etc.) but they fit Cattleya's head and didn't look out-of-place in doing it. Just a utilitarian example of what accessories can accomplish.

Until recent, though, I had been keeping extra parts in a Keroro Gunsou gashapon capsule about the size of a clenched fist. I knew it wasn't the best arrangement, making them prone to paint transfer and breakage, but I had little else to contain them. After seeing some fine examples of accessory organization from fellow Dannychoo.com members, a tool kit seemed so deceivingly logical that I jumped on the idea. After perusing through the various options at my local Target, I found a case for manageable $8. You can see how I compartmentalized various types of parts in the first picture of this post. For now, I'm quite happy with the set-up and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to de-clutter their collection. Keeping parts organized and separated has also lead me use them more often; both on their respective figure and otherwise.