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After buying all of the Collectable Minifigures (Series 1 - 4), I had been storing them in plastic storage boxes. I wanted to actually display them rather than just store them, so I decided to build my own display stand for them, and I built it out of Lego of course!
During the 'May the Fourth' promotion on the Lego website, they were offering free shipping to Australia, so in addition to a few other Lego sets I decided to order a few parts from the Pick A Brick (PAB) selection. You could probably get these parts cheaper on BrickLink, but you might have to get them from several sellers, and pay multiple shipping costs, so in this case Pick A Brick was just easier.
An interesting side note: although the Lego website says that the Pick A Brick order will take a few days longer to ship than normal Lego sets, I have found that in Australia they usually arrive first in most cases. I think this is because they get shipped directly from Denmark, whereas the other Lego sets get shipped via a distribution centre in S.E. Asia somewhere.
Before I ordered the parts, I modelled the display stand in MLCad, only using parts that are available in Pick A Brick, and I decided upon this design:(Click on the images to see larger versions)
I didn't get the Tile, Modified 4 x 3 with 4 Studs in Center parts from Pick A Brick though because they only come with the Collectable Minifigures. If you want to display other minifigures but don't have enough of these parts, you can get them from BrickLink, or use some Plate 2 x 3 parts instead (you will need 32 of them).
I didn't get these baseplates from Pick A Brick either. I actually used a different type of baseplate, which I'll show you later (you'll need to keep reading to find out!).
After receiving my Pick A Brick order, this is what my first display stand looks like:
And populated with Series 1 Collectable Minifigures:
You may notice that there is a Technic pin hole on the side. There is another one on the opposite side, and one on the back too. This is so that a Technic Pin can be inserted to join two (or more) display stands together:
The join isn't strong enough that it makes a rigid connection, but it does keep the display stands aligned and stops them from getting knocked apart by accident.
The photo above also shows how I have purposely offset the minifigures in each row so that they don't get hidden by the row in front of them.
Alternatively, you can place the display stands one behind the other, and use Brick 2 x 2 x 3 parts to raise the back stand up to the correct level:
As I mentioned above, I didn't order the baseplates from Pick A Brick, I actually planned for these display stands to be put on a X-Large Gray Baseplate. Each display stand is 24 studs wide and 12 studs deep, so eight display stands fit on the 48 x 48 studs of the baseplate, and creates a nice set of bleachers:
My bleachers have room for eight series of Collectable Minifigures, but only four have been released so far, so it is half empty at the moment. Perhaps I'll fill it up with other minifigues for now.
On the right half of the stand, I have used the Plate 2 x 3 parts, but when more Collectable Minifigures are released, I will replace them with the Tile, Modified 4 x 3 with 4 Studs in Center parts instead.
You can view all these images, building instructions, and MLCad file in
my BrickShelf Folder (once moderated).If you want to see the Pick A Brick parts list, or the BrickLink XML so that you can add the parts to your BrickLink Wanted List, expand the 'Spoiler' section below:
Spoiler
Constructive comments and feedback welcome.
Edited by Splat, 10 April 2013 - 03:31 AM.
I've been meaning to do a similar display case before, and I think these elevated stand concept is the best solution to effectively show each minifigure in the collection. With regards to the color, I for one, like the all-black scheme as it highlights more the minifigs, while using other bright colors might be a bit distracting and take away the attention from the minifigs. Overall, this is really a great idea as it's easy to do, the parts are readily available, can be expanded depending on the future additional series, and it really looks like a professional way to display one's minifig collection.
You should patent this design - I know I for one am going to copy it! 
Quite inexpensive too.
The problem would be that the second stand would have rows with 6:5:6 which adds up to 17, so doesn't really work with the Collectable Minifigs, but if you were using these stands for other minifigs that wouldn't be a problem and would probably be a better solution.
Yours, however, looks beautiful, and I hope I'll someday be able to display my figs. How do you keep them dust free?
