Soooo...
I kept my AA/DST figures all boxed up until about 2015. Then I opened them all up at once and put them into hole-punched ziploc baggies and into some bins where they have sat ever since. (After looking at them in-box for so long I had no desire to pose them on shelves at that time in the short-term.)
I was getting them out for some re-arranging over the weekend and here's what I noticed:
1) Riker's hands really liked turning reddish. On the first Riker figure, one of them had some red stuff on his right hand which effectively looked like he had just murdered the king. Not sure if it came out of the box that way. Nothing in the bag for it to have rubbed off from. The other hand had a reddish tint to it. Then a later Riker also had reddish tint showing up in his hand paint. Another Riker (AGT I think) had normal hands, and no other figure had this problem whatsoever.
2) The weak link on these figures is apparently the double-ball joint holding their shoulders in. All Good Things Geordi's broke in half all while he just sat around, so his right arm is off now... I encountered this once before, too -- I took out First Contact data a couple years ago to display and his broke as well when I tried to swap the arm out for the borgified one. Fortunately, FC Data's extra arm includes another entire joint piece in it -- but it was pretty hard for me to get the first broken balls out of their sockets, even when I boiled him in water (which I won't try again, I have discovered hair dryers are the way to go). (Also fortunately, I had bought a duplicate FC Data, so I'm covered!)
3) I had purchased both the Avon 3-pack of Kirk/Spock/McCoy, as well as the separate releases of the same 3 figures. Not sure which was which, but one pair of Spock/McCoy had gotten cloudy around the edges of their insignia badge...as if the copper colored paint had been seeping out through the rubber or something. Not the case with the other two, which were both stored right next to them the same way.
4) Wow, some of these are now pretty expensive on the 2ndary market when still in package!!!
5) Don't store those giant display bases from the first TNG waves inside of the same bag as your figure or the silver paint will want to rub off on their legs, especially Riker...but it did wipe off with a wet rag.
6) Wow, these are kind of huge. After years of collecting Black Series and Marvel Legends now, which are called 6", and having also accumulated NECA 7" and a few DC Collectibles 7".... I kind of felt like these were closer to 8"... I didn't get anything else out to compare but they just seemed pretty gigantic by current standards. I should go home today and compare Riker to DST's own Venkman or Stanz and see if it's just them or what.
Several other observations as well. I can tell you one thing, I doubt we will EVER get a line of figures that went as deep as this one did, and that's not saying much unfortunately but it is what it is (now I am hoping McFarlane's will be big enough to stand next to them seamlessly but that seems less likely to me). Nevertheless, I'm glad I've got 'em and am thankful that DST kept it going as long as they did. But at the same time, like every other DST figure I've ever purchased (X-Files, Ghostbusters, a few other odds and ends) they have duller paint than other lines, and in general it just seems like DST products are made to look good in the box and the quality assurance ends there. I know, I always sound whiney and complainey about DST, but I'm just giving my honest thoughts.