Tips-N-Tricks: Acrylic Risers

A few months ago, I decided to upgrade my action figure displays with some acrylic risers.  I googled, I eBayed and I poked around hobby shops in my area.  Nothing was nearly affordable enough to be practical for a collection of my size.  "Oh well", I figured.

Flash forward a few weeks, and I found myself at a Hobby Lobby.  I headed to the frames aisle to see if they had any glass cases suitable for placing over one of my more beloved figures.  While the didn't have that, they did have a ton of these:

Clear Plastic Baseball Case

For $2.99 a piece, they are significantly cheaper than any acrylic riser of the same size and they look great.  The edges are sharp, the plastic is crystal clear and they are quite sturdy.    When I got home with the twenty-something I bought, I found an even more amazing discovery:  to open, they split into two "U"-shaped stands, made from three sides each.  Each baseball case worked as two risers, each with less visible plastic than as a cube!  Now we're talking $1.50 per riser.  Combine that with Hobby Lobby's frequent 40-50% off sales, these are an amazingly affordable find.

They are 3" x 3" x 3" and work great to boost any back-row figures on a shelf or simulate hovering.  For smaller figures, they also sell Clear Plastic Golf Ball Cases (which are 2" x 2" x 2") for $1.99 each.

Clear Plastic Golf Ball Case

The Baseball cases are strong enough to hold up my Super Robot Chogokin GaoGaiGar, with his Goldion Hammer and a Tamashii Stage Act 5.  That's a lot of plastic and diecast, and it boosts it without any bowing or bending.  Seriously, I love these things.