Collecting figures, acrylic standees, and other character merchandise is a joy. Each piece represents a favorite character, a beloved series, or a treasured memory. But as your collection grows, you face a common challenge: how do you display these treasures effectively? Simply lining them up on a shelf can look cluttered, boring, and doesn’t do your favorite pieces justice.
Expensive glass cabinets or professionally made dioramas aren’t the only options! With a little creativity and some basic materials, you can create stunning, personalized display setups yourself. This guide will walk you through DIY approaches to elevate your character displays, protect your collectibles, and showcase them in a way that truly reflects your passion – without breaking the bank.
Why a Good Display Matters
Putting effort into how you display your collection offers several benefits:
- Protection: Enclosed or well-arranged displays can help protect items from dust, accidental bumps, and sometimes even UV light damage.
- Enhanced Visual Appeal: A thoughtful display turns a simple collection into an eye-catching feature piece.
- Creating Focal Points: Guide the viewer’s eye to your favorite or most impressive pieces.
- Telling a Story: Arrange characters to create scenes, group them by series, or build miniature environments that add context and narrative.
- Organization: Prevents clutter and makes your collection look curated rather than just accumulated.
Planning Your Custom Display
Before you start cutting foam core or splashing paint, a little planning goes a long long way:
- Assess Your Collection: What are you displaying? Consider the size, scale (e.g., Nendoroids vs. 1/7 scale figures), and quantity of items. Is there a unifying theme (specific series, genre, color scheme)?
- Choose a Location: Where will the display live? A dedicated cabinet (like the popular IKEA Detolf), wall-mounted shelves, a bookshelf section, or even your desk? Consider ambient light (avoid direct sunlight!), available space, and visibility.
- Set a Budget: DIY is cost-effective, but materials still cost money. Decide how much you’re willing to spend on things like foam core, paint, fabric, lighting, or risers.
- Sketch Your Ideas: Even a rough sketch helps visualize the layout. Think about levels, backdrops, lighting placement, and how figures or standees will be arranged.
DIY Display Base & Backdrop Ideas
Elevate your items beyond the flat shelf surface:
- Simple Risers: Create different height levels easily!
- Painted Wood Blocks: Cheap, sturdy, and easily customizable with paint.
- Covered Boxes/Books: Wrap small cardboard boxes or unused books in fabric, decorative paper, or paint them for instant, varied platforms.
- Foam Core/Insulation Foam: Cut and stack pieces of foam core board or thicker insulation foam (available at hardware stores). It’s lightweight, easy to shape (you can carve terrain!), and paints well.
- Themed Backdrops: Add context and visual interest behind your items:
- Printed Scenes: Find high-resolution images online (game backgrounds, abstract patterns, textures like brick or wood) and print them on cardstock or photo paper to fit your display space.
- Fabric Swatches: Use interesting fabrics (velvet for elegance, textured burlap for rustic, patterned for specific themes) as simple, effective backdrops.
- Simple Dioramas: Use craft foam, paint, and basic modeling supplies (like flocking for grass) to create simple environmental elements (e.g., a patch of grass, a section of wall, a space corridor floor).
- Budget Lighting Integration: Lighting makes a huge difference!
- Battery LED Strips: Flexible, adhesive strips are easy to hide under shelves or behind backdrops for an ambient glow.
- LED Puck Lights: Small, battery-operated puck lights can act as spotlights for specific figures or areas. Many come with remote controls.
Showcasing Specific Items Effectively
Different collectibles benefit from different display techniques:
- Figures (Scale, Articulated):
- Use risers to ensure figures in the back are visible.
- If articulated (like Figmas or SH Figuarts), pose them dynamically rather than just standing straight. Create interactions between figures if possible.
- Group figures logically – by series, character type, or even color scheme. Give them breathing room; don’t overcrowd.
- Acrylic Standees:
- These unique items bridge 2D art and 3D display. Their flat profile but custom shapes work wonderfully against interesting backdrops.
- Subtle backlighting can make the acrylic edges and printed colors pop.
- Group standees from the same series or artist together, or use a larger standee as a centerpiece surrounded by smaller figures or items.
- Of course, a great display starts with a great standee. While this guide focuses on the display setup, getting custom acrylic standees made with vibrant printing and clean cuts is the essential first step. High-quality standees from reliable suppliers provide the perfect canvas for your DIY display efforts, ensuring your favorite characters look sharp and professional.
- Other Collectibles:
- Pins: Display on a corkboard integrated into your backdrop, or frame them in a shadow box.
- Keychains: Hang from small hooks attached to a grid wall or the underside of a shelf.
- Art Cards/Prints: Use mini easels or small frames within the larger display.
Step-by-Step Mini-Project: Themed Shelf Insert
Let’s create a simple diorama base for a standard bookshelf cubby (like an IKEA Kallax):
- Choose Theme & Gather Materials: Let’s do a simple “Forest Path” theme. You’ll need:
- Foam core board or sturdy cardboard cut to the exact inner dimensions of your shelf cubby (back and base).
- Craft paints (browns, greens, grey).
- PVA glue / Mod Podge.
- Craft flocking (green for grass, maybe some fine sand/gravel).
- Optional: Small twigs, pebbles, fake moss/plants, printed forest backdrop image, small battery LED light.
- Prepare Base: Glue the back piece of foam core to the base piece at a 90-degree angle. Let it dry thoroughly.
- Create Terrain: Paint the base brown. While wet, or after applying more glue, sprinkle sand/gravel for a path area. Paint the remaining base area green. Once dry, apply glue over the green area and sprinkle generously with flocking for grass. Tap off excess.
- Prepare Backdrop: Either paint the back piece with sky/trees or glue your printed forest backdrop image onto it.
- Add Details (Optional): Glue small twigs upright like trees, add pebbles along the path, tuck fake moss into corners.
- Lighting (Optional): Affix a small LED puck light to the “roof” of the cubby or hide a strip light behind the backdrop for ambiance.
- Arrange Your Items: Place your figures or standees within the scene. Use small, clear acrylic risers (store-bought or DIY) if needed to elevate certain pieces.
- Insert into Shelf: Carefully slide your completed diorama insert into the shelf cubby.
Display Style Inspirations
Need some aesthetic direction? Consider these styles:
Style: Minimalist Elegance
- Visual Concept: A single figure or standee on a clean, white or clear acrylic riser against a plain, solid-color backdrop (grey, white, black), perhaps lit by a single, focused puck light.
- Key Elements: Simple geometric shapes, neutral colors, focused lighting, ample empty space around the item.
- Best For: Highlighting a single prized piece, high-end scale figures, creating a museum-like feel.
Style: Dynamic Action Scene
- Visual Concept: Multiple articulated figures posed mid-battle or interacting on uneven terrain (DIY foam rocks, rubble) with a dramatic backdrop print (explosion, cityscape).
- Key Elements: Action poses, varied heights using risers/terrain, themed base, potential for dramatic colored LED lighting.
- Best For: Action figures (Figma, Figuarts), mecha models, creating narrative and energy.
Style: Themed Diorama
- Visual Concept: Figures/standees placed within a miniature environment matching their source material (like the forest path example, a classroom, a sci-fi corridor, a street scene).
- Key Elements: DIY base and backdrop, use of miniature props/accessories, attention to environmental detail, appropriate lighting.
- Best For: Creating immersive scenes, figures/standees from series with strong environmental aesthetics (e.g., slice-of-life, fantasy, sci-fi).
Your Collection, Your Stage
Displaying your cherished character merchandise shouldn’t be an afterthought. Creating custom displays is a rewarding extension of the collecting hobby itself, allowing you to inject personality, enhance visual appeal, and better protect your items. You don’t need expensive tools or advanced skills – simple materials like foam core, paint, and creative lighting can go a long way.
Experiment with different materials, themes, and layouts. Start small with a single shelf or riser project. The goal is to create a display that you love looking at and that does justice to the characters and stories you care about. Happy crafting!