D&D Miniatures Storage

Run Run Run

Hi, with 4E comming up I plan on starting my career as a GM.

I probably will need quite a few miniatures for the tiles, but I have no clue how to transport them
and keep them save.
Are there special boxes or cases I can buy to hold them in? How do you store your miniatures?
I am open to all suggestions. Thank you.

UncleChet

I have about 300 or so mini figs and I'm a terrible mini's daddy. I have them seperated by set, in gallon size ziplock bags. I pull out the ones that I'm going to need for the session and the rest go back into the bag. The minis are plastic, and reletively sturdy so they're not hurt much. You can, if you like get specialized minitures cases, but it's not a big deal. Some people are very into their mini's and really go all out, but i'm not one of them, and my mini's are still in great shape.

Cryogen

As a Warhammer player i'm used to transporting around large number of miniatures!

You can buy cases specifically designed for carrying miniatures, look for some third party stuff on websites that sell warhammer figures (the games workshop cases cost a lot for what they offer). Sorry i cant give any links, a) i'm at work and b) i bought my cases ages ago when a local gamestore was closing down.

Plenty of guys i know also buy large fishing tackle boxes and a few sheets of spongy foam, and line all the little sections with the foam to protect the figures. Or briefcases using the same foam cut into layers, but thats basically a DIY of the cases you can buy designed for mini storage.

Grizzled

If you want a nice case I can recommend anything by these manufacturers:

http://www.saboldesigns.net/home.html
http://www.chessex.com/figure%20boxes/Figure_Storage_Boxes.htm

However, if you are talking about the collectible plastic D&D minis, you don't need to take so much care with them. I keep all my HeroClix jumbled together in shoeboxes or similar, that should be enough.

If you want something a little in between, I just got one of these:
http://www.thewarstore.com/EconoBoxFigureStorage.html
and it is a nice compromise between protection and price.

MurphysParadox

We use a military ammo canister with plastic dividers. Another option is a tackle box with enough overhead room per compartment to keep a dozen or so in a pile. We have divided our collection (maybe 100-150 total) into groups such as humanoids, orcs/gnolls, goblin/kobolds, 0 or 4 legged monsters, undead, and large creatures... but really, it can go in any way so long as you can easily get what you want.

One option is to figure out all of the minis you will use in a night and group them by encounter (with another separate group for the PCs). This way you can easily grab everything in an encounter without hunting down pieces. The downside is that you almost certainly won't have enough of any kind for every encounter (running around the 'Keep on the Shadowfell', you would need a lot of kobold and goblin minis to handle each encounter separately).

Regina Fong

I always used to use tackle boxes. I lined all the little compartments with that very thin foam padding sometimes used to wrap glassware for shipping, and I placed lead fishing weights at the bottom-front of the box so when the folding part was expanded the box wouldn't tip over backward (miniatures are much heavier than the lures and crap meant to go in the little compartments in a tackle box.

This solution worked perfectly for many years, and I had no casualties despite much transiting with the boxes.