I don't usually comment on collecting, because I don't collect for the sake of .... collecting. This is a special case, though.

Having been involved with the Star Wars Miniatures game for more than four years now, you might guess that I have amassed a bit of a collection. And you would be right. For the most part, I've kept them in card boxes of various sizes (you know, like for ccgs). While it is quite efficient space wise, finding specific minis can become a laborious task sifting through essentially a pile of plastic. that's a bit annoying, especially when you're short on time preparing for a game. Or worse, decide you need a specific mini the middle of the game that you didn't realize you even wanted ahead of time.

So, my wife decided that I needed to be more organized. Actually, she decides that quite often, but this time she decided to force me to do something about it. I'm sure she's also tired of having them take up various parts of the basement, but I digress. At GenCon this year, she discovered the Mage Cage line of storage/display/transportation boxes. Having previously thought about how to better store my minis, I had actually seen this product online, but not in person. She was convinced this was just the sort of thing I needed, and decided that I needed convincing as well. So, I listen to the sales pitch, and saw the product with actual Star Wars minis in it. We ended up buying several. I probably would've bought fewer, in order to test them out better and then decide if I wanted to buy more, but was overruled.

Okay, so it's October now and I'm finally getting around to actually using these things beyond a expeditionary trial run taking them to one of the game days. To explain a bit, these are plastic boxes with a transparent faceplate/door. Inside, they have plastic tabs that are a fraction of an inch off the bottom or top of the case. You slide the mini's base under these tabs, with the legs of the figure between the tabs. The coolest thing about them is that you can stack them and assemble them in various ways for easier transport. They were initially designed for use with click-based minis (hence the mage in mage cage).


* They make better display cases than travel cases. When moving them around, the minis often fall out of the upper tabs.

* You can see the minis inside the case very well, as long as you have a case color that contrasts with the color of the mini.

* However, they take up a lot of space for the number of minis they hold.

* The slots are not always compatible with the Star Wars minis. Medium characters work the best, but often end up facing the wrong way because depending on the pose and leg position. Large characters don't fit very well at all. Minis without separated legs, such as droids, small characters, characters with robes, etc. usually don't fit in the slots.

* The little card board boxes used as spacers inside the box when it's new (you're supposed to discard them) DO hold the small minis very well, though you can't actually see them.

* Alliance and Empire set minis with square bases don't fit very well, as their square base is taller than the standard round base and doesn't fit under the tab. Ok, You can sort of make it work by sticking one corner of the base under the tab, but it's not a great solution.

* They are not terribly pricy, but compared to other solutions I've seen, they're still more expensive.

* They are reasonably easy to stack and assemble, though you do sort of have to get the hang of it.

So, while I will be using the ones I have mainly as display cases, I don't think I'll be picking up any others anytime soon. I've mainly use the ones I have to store those oddball minis I use for the RPG. Basically, the ones I need to use as various bad guys - other than clone troopers, etc. this way, I can find a ones I need relatively quickly.

So, is it a good product? Yes, but not quite ideal for my needs. I doubt I'll be using them for transporting minis very often for two reasons. One, they tend to fall out of the tabs and rattle around the case, and that's just annoying. Two, they're just too bulky to haul to a game session when you also have a bag of books. It's much easier for me to toss the minis I need for that specific adventure in a small card box and throw it in the bag.This is actually easier with the smaller, square Saga Edition books, which tends to leave enough room at the end of the bag for the minis box.