How do you organize large quantities of minis

[jodyjohnson]

Seven 5-shelf bookcases with 2 additional shelves added to each.

Gargantuan and larger minis on the tops.

But, looking for a new system since it looks like I might need to give that room back.

 

[Festivus]

I use ziplock bags, the kind that what a white bit so you can write on the outside of the bag with a permanent marker. Then I put smaller zip locks of groups of things within.

So for example, undead 1gal bag contains quart sized skeletons, zombies/ghouls, spirits/ghosts. All the bags fit neatly into recycled paper boxes for storage... and it cost me only a few pennies to accomplish.

BTW, this works for my dungeon tiles as well.

 

[Crothian]

I give most of them to a buddy and let him deal with that problem.

 

[kitsune9]

Last night I reorganized my minis. They're now in a 7-drawer organizer (not all the drawers are used for minis). Each drawer has a general theme, and within each drawer specific groups of monsters are sandwich-bagged together. Here's what I ended up doing (the bulleted lists are the bags in the drawers, also have loose minis that didn't fit a theme):

Drawer 1: PCs & Uniques
Primarily human, elven, dwarf, gnome and halfling minis which are interesting and/or that I only have one or two of, making them good for PCs and also for unique characters who I want to be recognizable.
*Halfling
*Dwarves
*At some point I'll probably go and bag the rest of them into general themes, i.e. armored, casters, etc.

Drawer 2: Mooks
Human minis which I have lots of copies of, bagged by theme.
*Archers
*Guards
*Bandits
*Cultists

Drawer 3: Adversaries
Primarily-evil humanoids and other minis uniquely suited for adversaries.
*Undead
*Drow
*Goblins
*Kobolds
*Orcs
*Gnolls
*"Saurian" (lizard-like people, e.g. lizard men, medusae, draconians, dragonspawn...)
*Demons & Devils

Drawer 4: Animals, Elementals & Constructs
Like the name says... The stuff in here is all "neutrally-aligned." No bags, it's all loose.

I'm curious how others have organized their minis for ease of access during a game.

I dont think I have that many minis as you do but I do have a few boxes and a large tacklebox. Since the tacklebox fits a good deal that I'll ever need, I put the top drawer is adventurers, the second is monsters and undead, and the third is miscellaneous. I have a bin part where I stick all the big minis in there.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Like many others here, zip-lock bags were the answer to my problems. I also keep my PC minis (i.e. humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, half-orcs) in a separate plastic storage box to my monster minis.

My Huge-sized minis and many of the overly-large Large-sized minis are kept in a third under-the-bed style plastic storage container. It work really well for the bigger minis as the container is quite shallow, but long and wide so you can fit a lot of minis in there, but they aren't stacked on top of each other so you can quickly find what you need.

My PC minis are separated into:

Weapon and Shield
Single Handed Weapon (No Shield)
Two Handed Weapon
Two Weapons
Ranged Weapons
Exotic Weapons
No Weapons (i.e. farmers, prisoners, etc.)
Casters
Cultists
Halflings and Gnomes
Half-Orcs
Dwarves

My Monsters are normally divided into zip-lock bags by type. Some examples are:

Orcs
Goblins
Kobolds
Troglodytes
Swarms
Animals
Elementals
Demons and Devils
Dragonspawn
Mephits
Underdark
Drow
Zombies
Skeletons

As I got more and more minis I have found that my divisions have become more specific. I used to have an Undead bag. Now Zombies and Skeletons have their own bag.

In addition to my zip-lock bags and storage containers, I have a couple of Plano Prolatch Stowaway boxes. The 4/24 size box fits most Medium-sized or smaller minis (as well as some Large-sized ones). The 4/15 size box fits most Large-sized or smaller minis.

I use these to keep the current PC minis in, as well as some of the minis that I plan for my PC's to encounter in the next few sessions.

It takes a bit of time to sort out all your minis, and you will end up with a few monsters that just defy categorization. However I have found the time spent to be well worth it.

Despite having over 1,500 D&D prepainted minis I have found that with my system I can generally find the mini I want in under a minute. I often grab a mini out of my collection during a session and I am able to do so without telling the players to have a 5-minute break to dig through the collection for it.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Mark]

10 gallon tote filled with zip lock bags.

 

[Ryndal]

2 rolling 4 drawer file cabinets (plastic drawers) and 1 smaller 3 drawer container

Each of the 4 drawer containers has 2 large drawers (6 in) and 2 smaller drawers (3 in)

11 drawers total broken down as follows:

1. Monstrous Humanoids (Goblins, Kobolds, Gnolls and Orcs)
2. Monstrous Humanoid - Other
3. Large Monstrous Humanoids (the larger minis) (Large Drawer)
4. Elementals and Constructs (Large Drawer)
5. Animals
6. Demons and Undead
7. Monsters (Large Drawer)
8. Dragons and Giants (Large Drawer)
9. Elves, Dwarves and Halflings
10. Evil Humans
11. Good Humans

 

[mac1504]

Oddly, I'm also in the midst of inventorying and re-classifying my 2500+ minis collection. Is it something in the air?

I use THESE. I have about 40 categories (e.g., "Weapon-and-Shield Warriors," "Arcane Casters," "Dwarves," and so on), so I have four of these.

I use colored plastic slide-out bins, 14 or 15 of them, for my Large-based minis.

My Huge-based minis sit on shelves that circle my game room, and my Gargantuan- and Colossal-based minis have their own shelf, up high and out of the way.

Going the card-house route was the smartest choice I ever made, in terms of storage. I can have a suitable mini for pretty much any encounter in 10 seconds, and I can have a specific mini in 30 seconds.

I also use an Excel spreadsheet to track my inventory (including things like what's stored where). I'm just now wanting to learn how to link an image to a cell, so I can click on, say, "Cleric of Order" and have the image of that mini show up in the worksheet.

I also track my inventory (only about 1,200 minis) through Excel, and as I often can't recall what a specific mini looks like, I link to a system of folders of pictures. If you right click on the cell of that minis name, for example, you can create a hyperlink to the file. When you click on the link, it will open up a window with that minis picture in it. The links are absolute, so you'll have to keep the file structure the same to keep the links valid. I have about 95% of my spreadsheet now linked, and its very nice to have that reference.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I also track my inventory (only about 1,200 minis) through Excel, and as I often can't recall what a specific mini looks like, I link to a system of folders of pictures. If you right click on the cell of that minis name, for example, you can create a hyperlink to the file. When you click on the link, it will open up a window with that minis picture in it. The links are absolute, so you'll have to keep the file structure the same to keep the links valid. I have about 95% of my spreadsheet now linked, and its very nice to have that reference.

I also have my inventory listed in Excel. Being able to link to the pictures is something I hadn't thought of. I might give that a go.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My unpacked metal minis are organized in grey Chessex boxes, each with a Half-dollar sized label that says something like "Undead #1", "Spellcasters #2" or "Sci-Fi Minis #1." I also have my Chainmail minis sorted out by Warband..."Kilsek", etc.

My Dwarven Forge stuff is stored in a set of large stacking drawers that are about 2' wide.

My unpacked plastic minis are stored in towers of 16" Sterlite stacking drawers.

My packed metal minis- largely Ral Partha, Grenadier, Reaper, Chainmail, and Rackham Confrontation- reside in tubs in my attic.

My packed plastic minis are stored in (or stacked on top of) a large sized Elfa cart.