Storage Solutions Part 1

We all love our toys, and we all need a way to store them. I thought I would share my solutions to this great dilemma.

Image used without permission

I have been a gamer and collector of metal soldiers for over 30 years. My first storage solution was the box the figures came in! Back in the day, a boxed set of figures came in a foam tray... look familiar? Maybe someone from Grenadier Miniatures should sue!!

In this post, I will focus on how I store my HeroClix figures. The bags are Totes brand that I found at a bargain store. Sadly, I was only able to acquire 9 of them before they stopped getting more in, and have not found a suitable replacement.

Inside the bag are a mix of Plano, Isis, and Rubbermaid Storage Trays. The trays can fit either on their "spines" as pictures, or flat. If I were store my 40K/D&D minis in these cases I would place the trays in flat. But the HeroClix pieces are light and durable--any minor shifting does not cause any wear.

Here is one bag unpacked. All large figures go in the big shoe box clam-shell trays while the regular sied figures are sorted by team in the divider trays.

All four bags opened.

You can see that one of the bags has one less tray to accommodate books, papers, rules, army lists, etc. I forgot to take a picture of it, but one of the side pouches does not have a storage tray. It has 2 trading card boxes storing all the game cards.

Here are the bags in their resting place. I have 4 other bags storing various collectible miniatures games (CMG). This system is essentially functions like a Battlefoam carrying cases at a lower cost. The CMG figures are much more scratch resistant and can withstand the foam-less housing.

Unfortunately, the cost of this storage solution likely has little relevance to anyone else as this will be hard to replicate. Also, I had the advantage of buying these over the coarse of 3 years about 15 years ago. But for the curious, the cost per bag is $13 for the bag + about $35 for the trays, totaling roughly $384 for all 8 bags.