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LEGO minifigure display – a DIY project

(Written by Stephen Collins)

I am a long time reader here and today I would also like to contribute a little by showing you my first LEGO do-it-yourself project. It is a display for my ever growing collection of LEGO minifigures. First I built a small bleacher from LEGO for my minifigs, which was okay, but as their numbers grew I had to come up with something else. So I decided to create a bulletin-board style display for them, which allows me to showcase 137 minifigs per board. 🙂

LEGO Minifigure Display Details

To build the LEO minifig display, I started out with a 35×23 inch bulletin-board. I sanded down the edges to remove the laminate and give the frame a distressed look. Then stained it with Espresso Stain by Minwax, and finished it off by polyurethane coating. I like the dark edge better than the original as it frames the minifigures nicely, but you can also keep the frame whatever color it comes in.

LEGO Minifigure Display Board

The next step was to add large LEGO baseplates to cover the surface of the bulletin-board. A total of four 48×48 stud X-Large Gray Baseplates were used. Two baseplates were left uncut and used in the upper right and middle of the board. One baseplate was cut and used for the bottom left and bottom middle of the board. The last baseplate was also cut and added to the far right of the board.

LEGO Minifigure Display Baseplates

The baseplates fit in very snuggly, but since they are rounded at the corners, there is a small gap at the intersection of one of the uncut baseplates and three of the cut pieces. However this was not a big problem as in the next step the baseplates get covered with 137 2×2 angle-plates (item #3956). I added these in 11 columns of 7, and 10 columns of 6. They are 8 studs apart (top and to the right/left).

LEGO Minifig Display Brackets

Here is close-up of the LEGO minifigure display-board with the minifigs added. All 137 of them! As there is enough space between the angle-plates, there is plenty of room for their accessories too. 😀

LEGO Minifig Display Close-Up

All in all this was a fun and easy enough project, and if I need room to display more minifigures I can easily make more boards. They don’t take up shelf-space like the bleacher did, and the minifigures are accessible and removable for play at any time.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO bulletin-board display? Any suggestions for improvements? Feel free to share in the comment section below. Also, if you have any questions about building your own LEGO display, you are welcome to ask. 😉

You might also like to check out the Care & Feed of LEGO section for more storage and display ideas or select from the following related posts:

{ 25 comments… add one }
  • D.B. Bricks September 20, 2013, 10:05 AM

    A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

    • ninja of stealth September 20, 2013, 1:14 PM

      dude, that is rad! 😀

      • ninja of stealth September 20, 2013, 6:01 PM

        hi guys! i’m still the same person but I changed my email! 😎

        • ninja of stealth September 20, 2013, 6:12 PM

          ok, I take back that last comment! I was just trying to get a avatar on here! 😕

          • ninja of stealth September 20, 2013, 6:17 PM

            yay! it works!

        • ninja of stealth September 20, 2013, 6:16 PM

          trying out my gravatar! sorry 🙁 but hopefully it works.

  • Fikko3107 September 20, 2013, 10:26 AM

    Nice..!

  • Chi-bacca September 20, 2013, 10:54 AM

    Wow, cool idea but way too much work for my taste 😉

  • fugle September 20, 2013, 11:52 AM

    That’s a pretty nice creation. Well designed. I would have issues with cutting my LEGO bricks, so I would have to make my own board that matches the dimentions of the baseplates, but the angled plates are great!

  • Andy at www.smallplasticbricks.com September 20, 2013, 12:03 PM

    This is very nice, but I agree with the other commenter…too much work for my test. I prefer a pre-made product or something made entirely of Lego, like vignettes or shelves for each minifig made entirely of Lego bricks.

  • Juli Murphy September 20, 2013, 2:03 PM

    Love it. Looks wonderful.

  • Squirrel Bait September 20, 2013, 3:42 PM

    Awesome idea! Thanks for sharing!

  • YTjedi September 20, 2013, 3:43 PM

    I’m currently working on something similar, but mine is a magnet board

    • admin September 20, 2013, 5:08 PM

      Hm… interesting. I myself use a painted metal board with magnets from the magnet minifigs. I like that it is easy to move them around as I want. 🙂

  • benny September 20, 2013, 3:50 PM

    hi, long time no see tbb. this is cool but I agree with chi-bacca. just if your interested I just e-mailed LEGO about another chima series where chima gets invaded by a similar land called khima with red chi called khi. I think its really good and so do some people I told. do u like it??

    • admin September 20, 2013, 5:10 PM

      Hey, benny, long time no see! Is that khima and khi thingy your idea? 🙂

  • Carbo September 20, 2013, 8:19 PM

    Looks like a great project/display board!

  • Strider September 23, 2013, 2:24 PM

    Benny I love your idea :). Then all the Chima tribes could unite and there could be some suspense as to whether or not Cragger could be trusted. Or Cragger could turn good but his sister could join the khima tribes.

  • vie September 25, 2013, 12:16 PM

    Saving this todo!! thanks

  • jeremy May 26, 2014, 11:55 AM

    what kind of glue did you use? how is it holding up?

    • admin May 26, 2014, 1:03 PM

      Jeremy, you can use any kind of glue that is recommended for wood-working projects. You can ask at your local home improvement or hobby store. There are many different brands that would work.

  • Gary August 5, 2014, 2:24 PM

    I can’t tell from the picture. Does the mini fig just have to sit on the bracket loosely, or does it have studs on the bottom “shelf” part?

    • admin August 5, 2014, 2:28 PM

      Gary, I’m not sure if I understand your question, but those brackets have studs on the top, and that’s what the minifigs are standing on, so the connection is very secure.

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