Review: Minifigure Display Frame
Posted by Huw,
MinifiguresDisplay has been manufacturing high quality display solutions for some years and now offers a wide variety of frame sizes, colours and backing cards to meet all of your minifig display needs.
Recently the company offered to send me one of their newest offerings, a 105-figure display case, to review. I wanted to fill it with something before doing so and I've just made up my mind what to put in it: Every Harry Potter minifigure from 2004 - 2011, i.e. the fleshies.
The frame is 52cm square and 5cm deep. It comes complete with a sheet of plexiglass, which is far more practical than glass when it comes to shipping them.
Unlike those from other manufacturers, which are often customised Ikea Ribba frames, those sold by MinifiguresDisplay are designed in Spain, and hand-made.
It comes in five parts which incudes a spacer that fits inside the frame to provide 3.7cm of clearance between the plexiglass and the backing card.
The one I've been sent has a black frame and black mounting slopes but a huge variety of other colour combinations are available.
Here's an image from the website:
The mounting slopes, which are genuine LEGO, are very neatly bonded to the backing card: there's no sign of glue or anything,...
...and they are in perfect alignment.
This 105-figure frame has 7 rows of 15 mounting points. If you're planning on putting CMF series in them, one with 7 rows of 16 is also available.
It was dead easy to affix the figures, the slopes are very securely held and none came off!
The end result looks great, and I even have space for some of the new figures at the bottom!
3.7cm enough depth for a 2x4 plate to be added on top of the slopes should you have any oversized figures to accommodate. There was certainly no problem fitting Hagrid in.
I case you're wondering about the order I've put them in, they are in chronological, then BrickLink minifigure number order.
The only issue I had, and it's not a fault of the frame whatsoever, is that peeling the protective film from the plexiglass leaves it with a static charge which seems to be attracting cat hairs!
I showed my wife and daughter: they were impressed by the frame but said I should have elected to put more colourful figures in it! I Now they mention it, they are nearly all browns and greys...
This particular frame costs £61.86 / £79.06 which sounds like a lot but this is a quality product that's finished to a high standard. If it helps get your valuable and attractive figures out of their plastic boxes and to somewhere dust-free where they can be seen and admired then I reckon it's money well spent.
As I say, there are dozens of variations available at MinifiguresDisplay, starting at about £25 for a 16-figure frame for CMFs, so go and take a look. If you're stuck for something to put in them, you'll also find minifigures for sale there as well.
The frame was supplied by the manufacturer for the purposes of this review, which is an expression of my own opinions. Brickset will not receive a commission on any orders placed via the links in the article.
77 likes
38 comments on this article
website currently under maintenance it would seem, showing little to no products
The frame looks great and very professional.
Might even get the small 16-figure one.
Thanks for the review.
Grey may dominate but I think the selection is quite colorful without being garish.
You may even say it looks elegant!
Compared with the potential value of 105 minifigures the price may even represent - almost - next to nothing.
Does anyone make one of these with an opening front? I want easy access to my figs!
@JonMarten you can just leave the transparent plastic sheet out and the figs will be easily accessible :)
I've considered that, but then you lose the primary advantage of putting them in a display case, namely that they don't get dusty. I might as well just build one myself otherwise.
Thanks a lot for your wonderful review!
Our website is currently under maintenance :-( We'll inform when it gets operative again in our social networks
I keep looking at these....... Silly questions. How much does yours now weigh (including the random collection of but mostly full minifigs). Have you hung this on a wall ? Would the 105 one full of minifigs need any kind of special mounting or just 2 screws and rawl plugs ? I.e. Can they be mounted on any plasterboard wall?
Thanks for the review!
Can it hold the "71001-2: Medusa" figure?
Hello. We're going to answer some questions:
@Lego34s The display weight is about 4lb (1.8 Kg.) without minifigures. It comes with a fixation to be wall mounted, and you can hang it on any type of wall, using the appropriate hook and rawlplug, you only need one.
@peku Yes, Medusa fit in the frame. You just need to use this brick: Lego® Plate 1x2 with 1 Stud (without Bottom Groove) (3794) - x1. We sell a brick plates pack that includes this brick, in case you don't have it.
We're also pleased to attend you at: contact @minifiguresdisplay.com
The display frame looks very clean and I think I have enough minifigures laying around to make use of one.
Besides, I was just reading the article on the Advent Calendars for this year and I was wondering if those mini-builds would fit as well. I like to display most of my minifigs alongside the sets they belong to, but if those mini-builds fit inside that would be very cool!
Ikea Ribba frame?
At 105 figs per case I need 10 of these cases to display my collection, but it would be dust free! Do they offer discounts for large orders?
Thanks for this product review. As I already have Lego display cases (purchased on LEGO.com) I have hesitated a few times to get one of these. Because of the price, and of course because mine are already filled and displayed. The quality is of course much better, as Lego's are 100% plastic made. And cost 35€ each for 16 display cells. That means one can put about 32 minifigs in, depending on the style and accessories of each. So eventually all compared, those high quality standard cases seem to be a good deal. And I have to say that they look great when filled and hanged or on a shelf, referring to your pictures, even better than Lego's when they are stacked on each other. I wonder : is the acrylic window really trans clear as a glass could be? Because low quality acrylic can have the issue of being a little "foggy" or I could say not 100% trans-clear (sorry but don't know the exact word in English) ?
Are there pics of these with Bigfigs? I can’t really display my Marvel guys without Hulk:)
IKEA Ribba is good enough, https://farm1.staticflickr.com/530/19861196803_12f29c4c2f_c.jpg
@tprzem: To me, the IKEA Ribba image that you posted looks better - there's enough spacing between the minifigs and they don't look all bunched up.
These frames are deeper than Ribba and you don't have to glue the slopes on yourself. And if you want one less densely populated you can buy a different variant.
Very nice. But how could Queen Amidala be displayed?
What about non-standard figures such as Daddy No Legs and Pythor?
Awesome, people might find it useful with the upcoming Overwatch series.
Is the Plexiglass UV filtering?
While I'm sure these are great quality, they are a bit expensive and the shipping to the States make them cost prohibitive. I got the small RIBBA at my IKEA for $9.99 ($14.99 for the large one), spent $1-2 on slope pieces on Bricklink and $0.50 on superglue. They want $54 for a small frame and and $140 for the large one with shipping. I'll stick with making my own...
Hello. Our website is operative again!
We'll also solve some questions:
@CreativeTim @fulcrumbop The maximum depth that you can add to the display is 4 studs to can be closed with the plexiglass cover. To fix sets with more depth, you should remove the plexiglass sheet.
@supervir2 @Greendude Do not hesitate to contact us in the email below for questions about special figures, we have some pictures with the Hulk minifigure.
@Brick't The plexiglas is 100% transparent and it look great.
We're also pleased to attend you at: contact @minifiguresdisplay.com
I don't think the Medusa collectible mining will fit!!
@hammerdragon take a look at this picture https://flic.kr/p/LyBs72
Damn genius! With 15 pedestals for each line, I can't place a single standard collectable minifigures serie in a single line.
The frame is beautiful, the cost is a bit high compared with other frames I usually look for but the way the minifigures are shown is excellent.
@76veedub If you want, send an e-mail to contact @minifiguresdisplay.com and we're pleased to attend you for large orders.
@Calabar We have a 112 frame with 16 bricks each line: https://www.minifiguresdisplay.com/products/112-minifigures-collector-edition-white-frame-display
I like it but i think it would look beter with a border between every row of minifigs.
Shipping is a bit steep (to the US), but looks great
Looks good, especially the depth of the case! And a comprehensive review.
As a polymer-pedant though, the LD-PE symbol shown with 'Plexiglass' (sic) written next to it is simply incorrect; they are not the same plastic.
As for UV filtering, it's more likely that they have used a grade of acrylic sheet (aka: Perspex, Plexiglas) which is transparent to UV light, rather than more expensive treated acrylic.
I have one of these, in which I put many of my SW and LOTR minifigs. It does look great, but it has one serious issue: the clips used to close the back are not very solidly plugged into the wood. So if you are like me and tend to open the frame often to take away or put back minifigs, the clips will end up totally loose at some point... Consequently, I am not buying anymore of these frames until they have a better closing system.
Have to admit these look pretty good, especially when populated, as with your Harry Potter figures. Have experimented with a multitude of display and/or storage solutions which for myself need to be practical and allow easy location of a particular figure, which gets harder as my collection grows. My only bugbear would be accommodating all the weapons, tools, accoutrements etc that go with the figures eg HP094 Harry's wand, lantern, broomstick and potion bottle when the figure itself has only two hands .....
how much the mail price ship to Hong Kong?
Not bad at all. I'm starting to like these display cases as you can display your favorite minifigures in them. I don't have a lot of custom figures, but I do have a decent amount of figures at the moment. This might be nice to clear out space and display my favorites, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get one of these, even if they're nice quality. Plus, I'm bad at converting prices for things lol.
Thanks for your comments. We love to get feedback to improve our products.
@Fillone We have this plates pack, that you can fix on top of a brick to add some accessories with the minifigure: https://www.minifiguresdisplay.com/products/brick-plates-pack?variant=12069394513993
@lsdvincent It depends on the size and number of products. The shipping cost is calcullated automatically when you proceed to checkout and write your address, before place the order.
I want a display where I don’t have to peg the feet on my figures, I collect mint figures, and pegging them to slopes just to display them... is not worth the damage to their foot. I always wondered if other collectors are concerned with such things?