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Display Tip - Hanging Carded Figures on the Wall

I get so many  questions on this that I thought people would find the information useful.  No, it's not really a review, but it's the single best way I've found in over a decade of collecting to put carded action figures on any wall.

Take a trip down to your local hardware store.  Head over to the section that has all the various types of wood paneling.  Here you will find plastic strips, 8 feet in length, that are intended for commercial paneling work.  They are used to hid the seams between to pieces of paneling - the panel slips into grooves on either side.  Below is a picture of a single piece attached to a wall.

Now we'll use these in ways God didn't intend.  By running these strips down the wall horizontally, about 11.75" apart (or whatever may be appropriate for the card size), you will see that they are perfect for slipping carded figures between.  Below are two strips ran as described - small nails can be used to hold the strips up, about every other stud in the wall.  That means far fewer holes in your wall!

The key to getting it to look good - make sure the strips are straight!  Using a level will help, but if your house tends to be a little crooked, you'll have to do some eyeballing.  Also, be very careful with figures where the bubble is very close to the bottom of the card.  It may be difficult or impossible to get them to sit correctly in these strips.  Rather than using a ruler to measure the space between the strips, I recommend using one of the carded figures you plan on hanging - preferably not the most valuable one, in case you drop it :(  Below is another example of larger carded figures using this same technique.

With large figures, particularly those that are heavy, you may find it useful to use a single thumbtack just above the bubble.  You'll notice one of those between the Dark Knight Batman and Shatter Blade Batman above.  That can help hold the figure tightly to the wall, avoiding having heavier figures cause the cards to bend outward.

This technique can be used for almost all carded figures, as long as there is enough space between the bubble and the bottom of the card.  Below is an example of smaller carded figures - it will even work for Star Wars figures!

Using some imagination, this technique can greatly increase your display space, and allow you to show off some of that really cool card art that you've had stored away!


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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