You want to hold onto your Sonic items forever, so keeping them in good shape is important for their longevity. With this page you can find tips, instructions and photos illustrating how to keep your Sonic goods in as nice of shape as possible. This includes display options, storage options and more. If you've got stuff (or LOTS of stuff) take a look to be sure you're doing what you can to keep it nice for years to come.
Sunlight is great for you, but bad for your items. Sunlight and the various types of UV Rays that reach this planet are the bane of dyes. Sunlight can fade anything from paint, to paper, to stickers and plastics. Some items fade faster than others, but pretty much everything will eventually fade if it's exposed to direct sunlight for too long. Even cloth, rubber, dyed wood, plush fabric, and item boxes can be affected. There are VERY few Sonic items which would not be, and those are solid un-dyed metal and glass objects.
When keeping your collection remember:
Don't let things in sunny windows
Don't hang posters or wall-scrolls where sunlight shines on the wall most of the day
Don't keep items inside the car
Most items are pretty resistant to the star's rays. You don't have to house your stuff in some dark cave to keep it safe. Avoiding direct exposure is mostly all you'll need to have a vibrant collection for years to come.
Moist areas
Extreme heated areas (attics, etc)
Dirty clothing
Sweaty clothing
Food stains
Dark drawers that are unused
Dark closets that are unused
Cardboard boxes
Pet hair covered items
Damp weather
Sealed off items with little air
Items exposed to fresh air often
Dry places
Disinfectant
Extremely cold places
Sun exposure
Movement
Soap
Here, you can see shirts set up in bags. If you fold and roll, you can fit several of them into one of those clear bags news papers come in. Make sure to use clear, un-dyed bags for maximum safety. Squeeze all the air out and tie it off at the top. Bagging will keep out most air, moisture and dirt. This works for shirts you're not wearing or displaying.
Don't panic, it's fix-able. First, lay the item out on the floor, and use a lint roller or clothes brush to brush it off. Keep brushing until you don't see any more white stuff. Turn it over and do the other side (even if you don't see any!) then, turn it inside out, and brush both of the inside-sides. If it is somewhere, it is everywhere on the item. Alternately, you can put it through the washing machine (but NOT the dryer! Always hang out all Sonic clothing) if you know that the design is sturdy.
*The shirt seen above does not have a sturdy design. It was brushed to remove the substance.
Then, spray the shirt with disinfectant spray. Make sure that it is not just one of those 'scent removal' fresh sprays, or an air freshener. The objective is to kill the substance, so use something like Lysol or another real disinfectant. Spray all the outsides and insides by holding the can FAR from the shirt and letting the mist fall onto it. You don't want to soak it (thus risking a stain) but you have to try and kill the stuff.
Set the sprayed shirt in a breezy area of the house (but not outside, spores or pollen could fall on it) and be sure that the spray thoroughly dries up. You don't want to fold up the item while it is still wet with spray, because the chemicals might cause a stain later on.
Isolate the shirt
Put it in a bag by itself. There's no way to prove if the stuff is really gone or not, and you don't want the 1 stray particle of the stuff getting into the rest of your collection. Then, you can store the shirt in a safe place, inside it's bag. You can also add it to a shirt frame, or re-frame it if one of your framed shirts caught this problem. (though that is unlikely, due to the nature of framing)
What do do if YOUR item gets drawer rot (staining yellowing kind)
This type is worse, but the item is not doomed. Yellowing is usually treat-able with bleach, regular washing-machine soap will not remove it. With a sink full of VERY diluted bleach (dilute with lots of cold water) dip in the affected part, trying to keep any of the logos/inks/colored areas dry. Keep dipping it in and wringing it out, you can also scrub at it with a clothing brush. Soaking it for 10 minutes may also help. This advice is good only really for WHITE shirts--but then, white shirts are also usually the only ones affected by yellowing.
When you're done, hang it on a hanger somewhere to dry. You'll need to repeat this process at least 3 times, to cure most yellowing completely. Let it dry thoroughly every time. Some items may need more.
Closet Rust (little brown specks/stains) have no current known cure.
This yellowing and rust staining is ESPECIALLY sensative to already-worn clothing and is easily spawned by sweaty clothing. Any clothing with sweat residue can be vulnerable. Be extra careful with washing.
Where can you find SpaceBags?
Try local home-goods stores like Bed Bath & Beyond. Some department-stores also carry these in sets. If you can't find them locally, there should be buttons to push for spacebags on both sides of this page. They come in many styles/sizes so you usually don't have to get more than you need.
Figure Care & Display Guide: This website has a decent article on figure care and display. It ALSO has images of what happens to figures if they're not well cared for. It's figures of all types, but Sonic does come up in their examples, so it's worth a look and a read.