FROM SPREADSHEET TO SHELF: I BUILT FIGUREWATCH FOR MY COLLECTION. NOW I WANT TO BUILD IT FOR YOURS.
A couple of years ago I had a month where three Sideshow payments and a BBTS balance all hit in the same week. I didn't forget about them, exactly. I just never had them all in one place, so I never saw them coming together.
If you collect 1/6 scale figures, you probably know the feeling. One figure turns into a shelf. The shelf turns into a cabinet. Then you've got preorders at three different shops, a payment plan you set up eight months ago, and a deposit you can't remember if you paid.
This is the story of how I tried to fix that for myself, and how it turned into something I think a lot of us could use.
How it started
I've been collecting since around 2019, and in 2022 I fell hard into sixth scale. Mostly Hot Toys, plus some InArt. I work in software, so my first fix was the obvious one: a spreadsheet.
It worked for a while. Then I hit about fifteen preorders and it fell apart. Payment plans changed when release dates slipped. Shipping and tax showed up later. A cancelled order left a deposit I never got back, and the spreadsheet had no idea. And none of it let me actually see my collection the way it looks on my shelves, which is half the fun of collecting in the first place.
So I started building an app, just for me. I showed it to a few collector friends, and they all asked for the same things. Can it handle Sideshow plans? Can it show my cabinet? Can it read my orders so I don't have to type everything? That's when it stopped being a spreadsheet replacement and became FigureWatch.
What FigureWatch does
Your collection as trading cards. Every figure becomes a holo card, and the rarity comes from the real edition. Standard figures are Common. Deluxe and Exclusives are Rare. Convention and Artisan editions are Epic. Artist Proofs and anything under 300 pieces are Legendary. Tilt your phone and the holofoil follows the light. You can also pick up to ten figures as your Grails, the ones that matter most to you, whatever the edition says.
Display cases that look like your real shelves. Figures you haven't placed yet wait in a tray at the bottom. Drag them onto a shelf, move them front or back, add risers so the back row shows, and give each one a base with an engraved nameplate. Got one massive figure? Make just that one shelf taller. You can build multiple cases in different styles and share any of them as an image.
Every preorder and payment in one place. This is the part that actually saved me money. Every preorder, deposit and payment plan sits on one timeline. Set a monthly budget, and it tells you when a month is getting tight and which payment you could push to make room. You get a reminder three days before every payment, and on the day.
Orders that add up the way your bank account does. Shipping, tax, fees and discounts get split across the figures in each order, so "still owed" means what you actually still owe. Cancel a preorder and it tracks what you got refunded and what you lost. Seeing my lost deposits add up for the year was educational, to put it nicely.
Less typing. There are four ways to add a figure. Screenshot your orders page and it reads the figures, deposits, payment schedule, and even shipping and tax. Paste a product link or a product page screenshot and it fills in the name, edition, edition size and height. You can also search by name, or enter it yourself. You always review everything before it's saved. And if you try to add a figure you already own, it catches it, which with how many variants Hot Toys puts out has saved me more than once.
The rest. A wishlist with target prices, with a "Got it" button that moves a figure into your collection. Sets that track a whole wave so you know what you're missing. Filters for when your list gets big, like every preorder with a balance due at one shop. It even works offline for viewing your collection.
The honest part
FigureWatch is free, has no ads, and your collection is private to your account. I'm not selling anyone's data. When you look up a figure, product details like the name and edition go into a shared catalog so the next collector's search is faster. Prices, order numbers and personal details are never shared. You can read the full privacy policy and delete your account anytime, from the app or the web.
It's also a work in progress built by one collector. Some things will be rough, and that's exactly why I'm asking for help.
Where you come in
Before a new app can go public on the Google Play Store, Google requires a group of testers to use it for 14 days. FigureWatch is Android only for now, and I'm looking for about 20 collectors to get it there.
How to join (about 2 minutes):
- Join the tester group: FigureWatchTesters
- Opt in using the same Google account on Android Phone or Web URL
- Install FigureWatch from the Play Store, add a few figures, and keep it installed for 14 days.
Founding testers get their name in the app's credits, an exclusive Founding Tester badge nobody else can earn, and 6 months of Pro free when it launches.
The most useful thing you can do is tell me what's missing or what bugs you. There's a Feedback button in Settings that comes straight to me, and I read every one. You can also post on r/FigureWatch, where I track bugs and ideas.
iPhone collectors, I haven't forgotten you. That's next once the Android version is solid.
I built FigureWatch for my own shelf. I'd love for the next version to be built around yours.