Displaying LEGO creations and LEGO minifigures is a dilemma LEGO fans are bound to face as their collection grows. This issue has been especially heightened with the release of the Collectible Minifigures – which, after all, are meant to be collectible and displayable. LEGO did release two sizes of minifigure display cases (see here: LEGO Minifigure Display Cases), however they may not be everyone’s cup of tea. First of all, the colors are too bright – which may fit well in a child’s room, but not so much in an adult’s room or workspace. Also the compartments for each minifig are quite small, limiting the options of displaying them with their accessories.
LEGO fan and minifigure collector Stephen Kwok has pondered over this dilemma and decided to do something about it. With the help of professional designers who work with plastics he created display cases for LEGO minifigures that he feels are more suitable for adult LEGO fans and collectors. Stephen was nice enough to send me some samples of his display cases, so I thought to share them with you.
First of all these LEGO minifigure display cases come in black or white only – quite sophisticated I would say. They look really nice in a more adult-ish setting, like living-room, home-library, office, den, etc. The plastic is very substantial and excellent quality. It has a sleek shiny finish on the outside, and a subdued matte finish on the inside where the minifigs are displayed. I wish I could show you this subtle difference in the finish as it is very thoughtfully done, but hard to show on pictures. Also, although on the picture below the minifig cases are stacked as all white or all black, they look really good mixed black and white as well.
Also, as far as I know, these are the first-ever display cases made for LEGO minifigures with name-plates. This gives them a professional and sophisticated look. The name plates are removable and stickers are included to attach to them. By the way, I also discovered that the holes for the name-plates can hold minifigure accessories really well – just an idea. 🙄
These minifigure display cases are not compartmentalized like the ones made by LEGO, but they have one big compartment only. So if some of your minifigures need more room to stretch out, they are free to do so. There are studs for eight minifigures in each unit, and the display case is big enough to hold Hulk as well as minifigures with larger or longer accessories.
If you want to store more minifigures in the display case, you can attach regular LEGO plates (or even LEGO bricks as there is plenty of head-room) behind the name-plates, or for even more minifigures you can remove the name plates altogether, and cover the whole surface with standard LEGO plates. (The storage compartment is 6 studs deep and 41 studs wide). You can fit 30+ minifigures this way in each unit.
These LEGO minifigure display cases are stackable (there is a row of studs on top), and there are also hooks at the back for wall-mounting. One caution I would make is that if you are planning to stack these and hang them on the wall, use more than just the two top hooks to hang them. Although the display cases do stack very snugly, there is only one row of studs holding them together and as you open and close the front of the cases, and with time, that one row of studs can easily come loose, making the bottom display cases crashing down. So be smart, and use both top and bottom hooks.
If you are planning to display these on a shelf, of course the above is not an issue. You can stack them as much as you want. And you can also build stuff on top of the display cases because of the LEGO compatible studs – if you are inclined to do so.
Each of the LEGO minifig display cases comes with a clear plastic cover. The cover is made of high quality clear plastic and protects your minifigs from dust, dirt and grime. The covers are easily removable even when the display cases are stacked on top of each other. A very nice design!
Since these LEGO display cases don’t have compartments you are not limited to just displaying minifigures in them. You can easily put in a small diorama as seen in the pictures below.
In summary I would highly recommend these LEGO minifigure display cases, especially for adult LEGO fans with a valuable collection they would like to display in a professional manner. You can just get one display case to show off some of your most prized minifigs, or stack up a bunch for a full collection. Stephen has them listed on his website for $24.99 each at BrickDisplayCase.com, so if you like what you see check them out!
And if you have any questions about these LEGO display cases feel free to ask them in the comment section below. Stephen will come by to answer them for you. 😉
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