Storage for miniatures?

[Dykstrav]

Right now I'm sitting on (conservative estimate) about 3,000 minis of various releases. What I've been doing to store them is seperating them into distinct catergories (humans, elves, giants, dragons, et cetera) and stowing them in old Giants of Legend boxes. Said boxes are stacked atop my book cases of gaming material.

It's getting to the point with my latest War of the Dragon Queen order that I've got about three or so boxes full of each critter type. It's getting cumbersome tearing through two or three boxes of minis looking for the specific critters I want. I'd like to do something different to store all these minis but I just haven't come upon anything else that seems to work.

I've considered getting some plastic storage bins (the clear ones that are stackable), but I'd rather avoid this route as it'd take up valuable floor space.

Any suggestions?

 

[kaomera]

Any suggestions?

You can get smaller plastic storage tubs, I actually use the "semi-disposable" (and hence cheap) tupperware-type freezer containers, they come in various sizes that should all fit atop a bookshelf. I have a sturdier "shoebox" type of bin, with a handle and everything, but it doesn't work to stack stuff on top of it, so I'm not so thrilled with how it works. Grab a sharpie and you can put a label on the side... I also sub-divide my minis within my bins in ziplock baggies. Just don't get the "snack-size" ones, they're too small to hold more than four or five figures each.

 

[Dykstrav]

Sorry, I should clarify

I don't want to get the smaller plastic bins that'd fit on top of the bookcases, as it'd be essentially moving the problem from too many small cardboard boxes to too many small plastic boxes. What I'm looking for is not only a method of storing lots of minis, but preferably also being able to look down at a glance and see the mini I want without having to dump the whole box out on the table to look for it.

Right now I do have the colossal red dragon and the gargantuan black just on the floor beside the bookcases. I'm seriously considering getting another bookcase/shelving unit just for minis and doing the small plastic bins. With four bookcases, my gaming stuff would take up an entire wall at that point.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I have about six of those plastic drawers for tool parts (see link below) and they've been good for organizing minis. That being said, they're not the cheapest and they take up quite a bit of space. Starting with the last series, I just bought one of those big Tupperware bins with the removable lid and just dumped everything in it (after putting the minis in ziplocks). It takes up a lot less space but it makes it harder to find things quickly. I'd recommend labeling ziplocks though, or putting one of the cards in each bag to help find stuff.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/p...older_id=1408474396672976&bmUID=1165692259610

 

[The Lemon Merchant]

I use the clear plastic fishing tackle boxes, you can somewhat customize the size of each partition. More importantly I can just look at the top of the box and see what mini is where.

 

[SHazle]

Cases

I use tool organizers that I found at Home Depot. They are about 18inx12inx3in, gray with yellow highlights and clear covers. You can customize the compartment sizes. They take up some space but are very useful, as I also catagorize my minis as you do. Huge mini's don't fit so I just have shelf space set aside for them and use extras as decor. I have 7 cases and I'm about to get 2 more.

This is it (if the link works)http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDU...e=Shop+Hand+Tools/Storage+&+Tool+Boxes+online
Go to the shop by catagory/storage organizers, it's the third one. At $9.98 they are a steal.

 

[Agamon]

I have a shelves in my game room for my minis. They're all easy to see, all group according to type and within reasonable snatching distance of my DMing chair. Plus the players find it impressive looking. I would guess I only have around 700-1000, and with each set that comes out I pare the collection down some with an eBay auction. One only needs so many orcs, kobolds, gnolls, dwarves, etc.

 

[Hawkshere]

I started out with a nice hardware organizer, with drawers and resizable partitions, all that. This works fine if you only have 1 to 3 sets worth of minis; it scales very poorly beyond that.

My biggest issues are shelf space and WAF, and there is no way my small horde of plastic monsters is going to occupy high rent real estate in my condo, like shelf or closet space.

Current solution: each category of minis (orcs, monstrous undead, elementals, etc.) gets its own labelled heavy-duty plastic zip bag of the appropriate size, and the bags all go into a long underbed box. This heavy plastic box from the Container Store is approximately 36"x18"x6", and easily holds thousands of minis. (I have another one of these under the bed containing all my extra electronics cabling, adapters, computer parts, and such, which the S.O. particularly loathes, hehehe...)

 

[kigmatzomat]

Tackle boxes. Our two big mini collectors get the mega-sized tackle boxes (about the size of a hefty cooler) that have a couple of built-in trays and then hold about 8 more lidded, removeable boxes. They use the built-in trays for the highest priority minis (the PCs, horses, typical summons, etc) and vary the removeable trays according to their own organizational system, typically thematic (one tacklebox for goblins & humanoids, one for quadrupeds, one for outsiders, etc)

The more meticulous of the two keeps an index of minis in each box with the trays numbered.

 

[Lilaxe]

I use the large plastic tubs that I get my chinese soup delivered in. they are sealable, and will hold huge figs as well. they are about 7" tall and stack very well. as they are see-through, you can generally look to see what figs are in each tub - and I also sort them by type as well, labeled on the top. i do need to do a better breakdown, as I have the most popular races in their own tub, but then I have monster monsters all mixed up, and that can take some time to pull creatures just encountered...

another way I am working on is to make a huge excel spreadsheet of the figs I have, and when a creature is encountered, I can look on the list, and see the numbered box/tub the fig is in and then go dig for it...of course, making sure to put them back in the right tubs after a huge battle is what is holding me up from doing this...