Bringing everything out into the light

I've had a bin of Lego minifigures that's been getting fuller and fuller for a few years now.

I started the bin at school a few years back when I was in my first stint as webmaster. I had a weird dream of taking the Viking Lego chess set - the only set with red and grey Vikings - and producing a bunch of photos for news items on the webpage. When there was a soccer story, for example, I would post a picture of a red Viking with a soccer ball. That meant hunting down various Lego minifigure accessories via the Lego grey market. From there - and in the addition of the various sets of collectible minifigures - the collection has grown and grown.

Last week I sat down and sorted them, putting together as many unique figures as I could manage, sorting them into categories - spacemen, superheroes, city folks, policemen, collectibles, Vikings, basketballers, soccer players, whatever - and then putting them into category-specific zipper baggies...back in the bin for now.

I'm still in need of some more Lego city folk to hold my awesome collection of accessories - and of five of the nine released series of collectible minifigures (checkin' ebay), but more importantly of somewhere and someway to display the minifigures so that I'm not keeping them buried in the bin anymore.

Here's what I've found as possibilities so far...

Possibility #1 - some version of baseplate in a display case with figures stuck to them...

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Because so many of my figures have backpacks, they will require some sort of offset from the baseplate (available in an extra-large size that I like), maybe a stand like one of these. It's a possibility, though, and is currently the second choice

Possibility #2 - individual cases for each minifigures - maybe stuck together

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At $2 per display case, though, that makes for something like $300 for me to just buy the clear, plastic cases - much less the framing bricks. Plus they're only available from one vendor in the US (or one in Europe, but they won't ship the me.)

After checking a few forum discussions, I found that there are more options than I would have thought.

Possibility #3 - collectible storage boxes of hard plastic

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That might be good for keeping the figures nice, but I can't imagine hanging six or so of those on my walls. Plus the boxes don't look big enough for all the tall accessories that I have.

Possibility #4 - A nicely modified shadowbox

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I'm more than a little envious of the Star Wars collection that the builder has there. Luckily, the builder has posted full instructions here.

To get something looking that nice, I'm going to have to do some work hunting down shadowboxes, comparing measurements (interior, most importantly) and cost, and then doing some cutting and spray painting. That's looking more like a Spring Break/summer project. Plus I want to see if I can get some shadowboxes that open in the front so I can take the figures in and out easily.

Possibility #5 - There's no way The Girl lets me hang these things on the wall...plus, honestly, they look like they're for a kid's room, not an adult's wall.

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