Any Suggestions on how to organize and display Star wars collections??

[Carbonite Jawa]

Hi everyone
I was wondering if anyone out there had any good suggestions for displaying a good size collection. I have a spare bedroom in my house that I have designated for my "Star Wars Room". I have every vintage figure and most figures from 1996-2004. I have a few hundred 3 3/4 figures and a good size collection of 12" including the vintage collection from 1980. I have exclusives and 4 or 5 dioramas. I have vehicles and cinema scenes and well you get the idea. How the heck do you go about organizing something like this to display it properly? Any ideas?? :banghead:

 

[Barada]

Loose or packaged? A loose collection is much easier to display. For the figures, I would suggest a large display cabinet interiorly lighted, with glass shelving and glass doors. I've seen this used elsewhere, and it works great, especially since the shelving saves floor space.

You can also use shelving for the vehicles and 12", and if you're really ambitious, use hooks and fishing wire to suspend vehicles from your ceiling. Just watch the weight distribution if you go this route, or you may end up with your ceiling crashing down on your collection.

As far as organizing, it's up to you. You can place figures into scene specific groups (ex. all Hoth together, Bespin, etc.), or split them up according to lines (vintage, POTF2, Ep. I, POTJ, Saga, etc.) You will probably want to place the 'rarer' figures up front to make them more visible though.

Hope this helps.

Barada

 

[darthskellington]

Welcome to the site Carbonite Jawa There are a million different ways to display a collection. I'm looking for good ideas myself.

Shelving, be it glass cases or whatever, are probably the most efficient way to display figs and other toys. I currently have a small room which is 90% Star Wars. In it is a legal bookcase (one of the bookcases with the glass doors that lift up and slide back). I bought this inexpensively from the late Service Merchandise, and it has served me well for displays. Glass of course keeps things much cleaner. In my case, I've built a stair-step unit and covered it with fabric to place my vintage figure set on. My set isn't quite complete, so it fills one shelf in the case nicely. In the past it's held 12" figures, cardboard Cantina/Jabba's Palace dioramas, a Darth Maul themed collection, Sigma Ceramics, and currently holds my Hoth World Micro Collection diorama and a Jabba's Palace themed figure display.

I'm currently thinking about building a plexiglass covered wall shelf to hold 250+ modern figures. I have wall space in my room, but no floor space thus making this a practical way for me to many figures. The unit would be only 4 inched deep, but would have about seven shelves holding thirty or so figures. Actually, it would be two side by side units for practical reasons.

Dioramas are great looking, but take up a lot of space and time/skill. I'm a novice in the diorama department, but enjoy looking for ideas from other builders. Out own Amshak has some impressive dioramas hosted here (see SECTIONS -- Dioramas). Many other Bothans also have nice collections and dioramas here in the forums.

 

[Carbonite Jawa]

Thanks Barada and Darth for your input
I appreciate your ideas and thoughts and I will definitely use some of them when I take on this project. As for your question Barada, my vintage is loose although I have alot of the packages for the figures. My modern collection is mainly packaged however I have purchased alot of doubles for opening. These are used for dioramas which I recently started to make mysellf. Darth I am familiar with Amshaks work...it is incredible As a matter of fact I just spoke with him via E Mail because I used his Jabbas Palace diorama as reference pix for my own Jabbas Throne Room. What can I say about Amshak Not only is he really talented but hes also a great guy and very helpful. A good diorama sight for beginners as well as pros is Niubniubs Universe. When I first stumbled onto his site I was kind of clueless about dios but like Amshak he was real cool and helpful and his "Making of" section really transformed my dioramas. I made the Bacta Medical Center and I was blown away with the results. I couldn't believe that I actually had done it. If you like dioramas some good advice and I'm sure Amshak will back me up on this is Be patient, take time(dont be in a rush to get it done) do research on the scene you are trying to recreate and add all the little things like tables pillows wall decorations lights Etc. I do agree with you though that dioramas can take up alot of room. I have 4 or 5 dioramas and almost everyone are kind of big. I have made the cantina, Jabbas Palace, Bespin Freeze Chamber, Bacta Medical center and a Hoth diorama that takes up quite a bit of room because it has 2 AT ATs in it. Its fun but alot of work. Thanks again for the input and good luck with the dioramas.