Star Destroyers, Tie Fighters, X-Wings, LAATs—there are so many different types of ships in the Star Wars Universe. If you’re a Star Wars fan and also enjoy building LEGO sets, you may have a number of LEGO Star Wars ships assembled and sitting on the shelves in your office or bedroom. These sets come in all shapes and sizes and some of them can get rather large. Take the Ultimate Millennium Falcon set for example. When assembled, this set is 33 x 22 x 8 inches! You would need a lot of surface space to display something like that.
I’m going to cover some cool ways you can display your LEGO Star Wars ships—from mounts, to shelves, to bookcases, to storage cabinets, to hanging them from your ceiling! I’ll try to cover as much as possible, and, by the time you’re done reading this article, you will have a good idea of how you’re going to display those LEGO Star Wars ships.
Bookcases, Storage Cabinets, and Display Cases
Bookshelves, storage cabinets, and display cases may be simple and ideal solutions for smaller and medium sized LEGO Star Wars ships. You’ll certainly want to pay attention to the dimensions of the individual shelves to make sure your sets will fit.
When comparing storage cabinets to bookcases and display cases, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons.
Bookshelves:
Bookshelves are probably the most common display solution across the board for almost any kind of collectable, and, overall, they serve their purpose well. Sets can be displayed in almost any manner that you like on a bookshelf as long as the dimensions of the shelves allow for it. Some major cons to using a bookshelf would be that the sets can easily get dusty, and if there are pets and small children present, you’re sets won’t be protected since they will be easily accessible on the bookshelf. Another con to bookshelves is size. Many bookshelves just aren’t large enough to support some of the very large LEGO Star Wars ships. Still, for small to medium sized sets, a bookshelf is great, simple solution.
Storage Cabinets:
Storage cabinets solve the dust problem since they can be closed. Closing the cabinets would also prevent your pets and possibly small children from getting to your sets. The major downside to using a storage cabinet to display your LEGO Star Wars sets is that when the cabinet is closed, the sets will not be visible. Size is also something you’ll need to think about. The fact of the matter is most storage cabinets are not made for the purpose of storing a fleet of LEGO ships so there will be hard limit on the number of sets you can put on a shelf. You may only be able to put a few sets on a shelf and very large sets may not fit at all, especially when the cabinet doors are closed.
With that said, the major benefit to using a storage cabinet to display your LEGO Star Wars ships should not be overlooked. Dust build up will be mitigated greatly!
Display Cases:
Getting a glass display case solves some of the problems that you would have using a bookshelf or storage cabinet. Since, the display case would likely be made of glass, so the sets would be protected from dust build-up while also being visible. The cons are that glass display cases are more expensive, they can be harder to assemble, they are heavy, and not easily manageable if you need to rearrange things. Glass is also prone to getting fingerprints and smudges on it if not handled properly. Also, size is going to be an issue. As with bookshelves and storage cabinets, many display cases will not have enough surface space per shelf to contain very large sets.
That being said, glass display cases make for awesome displays. You can display your collectables without worrying about them getting dusty. Glass display cases also look great when decked out with LED light strips (click here to read my article on LED lighting options for your displays).
How to Display Large LEGO Star Wars Ships
You’re probably noticing a pattern here. I keep mentioning shelf space as an issue with the options I’ve presented so far. LEGO sets just take up more space than some other collectables like Funko Pops, Marvel Legends figures, or Transformers. Large LEGO sets may take up more shelf space than 20+ action figures.
So, what do you do with large sets? Well, one option is to display them on top of the bookshelf, cabinet, or display case you are using. This is a great option if you only have a few very large sets. This way, all the small to medium sized sets will be on the shelves of the bookshelf, cabinet, or case; and the large set will be on top.
What if you have a lot of very large sets? If you have many large sets, you may not have enough bookshelves to display them on top of. You may want to just get a very large cabinet, display case, or set of shelves to display them. Free standing shelves, for example, come in many sizes. If you can find a large set of adjustable free-standing shelves, that would be a great solution for displaying not only your very large sets, but all the LEGO Star Wars ships in your collection. Like I said earlier, LEGO sets are just bigger than other collectables, so the extra space that free standing storage shelves can offer is going to be very beneficial.
You may need to get creative. There are some very interesting and creative ways in which some people will display large LEGO sets. This includes hanging your large sets from the ceiling and mounting them on the walls. We’ll cover these methods of displaying your large sets very shortly and in detail. These alternative methods of displaying your larger sets will help conserve space in your room. Let’s jump into it!
Displaying Your LEGO Star Wars Ships on the Walls
Make sure you know what you’re doing! Before diving into the different ways of hanging LEGO sets from your walls and ceiling, it is crucial for me to emphasize some measures you should take before mounting anything on your walls.
For many of us, we have dry wall, which can be easily damaged and isn’t great at supporting heavy objects. For this reason, you should try to find the studs in your walls before putting in a nail or screw to support something heavy. Wall studs are the wooden or metal beams that run behind the drywall. They are much sturdier than the dry wall and can easily support the heavier shelves or collectables you would like to mount. Since you can’t see where the studs are behind your walls, you will need to use a stud finder.
Now, sometimes only hanging things off of the studs isn’t an option. In cases like this, it is recommended that you use dry wall anchors. Dry wall anchors allow for you to hang things that your dry wall would not usually be able to support without having to drill into the studs. I highly recommend watching some videos on how to use wall anchors, or consulting with your local hardware store if you have no prior experience doing this sort of thing.
Using Mountable Shelves and Stands
Mountable shelves and stands are good options if you want to display your LEGO Star Wars ships on the walls. For the most part, mountable shelves and stands are likely going be better for displaying small and medium sized sets than very large sets. Larger sets could end up being too heavy for certain mountable stands, and, of course, very large sets probably take up too much surface space for many of the shelving options out there.
No matter what the size of the ships you want to display, always make sure there is enough surface space on the shelves/stands that you decide upon.
Mounting Your LEGO Sets on the Walls Without a Shelf or Stand
What if you don’t want to purchase shelves for your LEGO sets? What if you want to mount them directly on the wall instead? Well, there a couple different ways people go about doing this.
Using Wire or Fishing Line
Some choose to mount their LEGO ships on the walls by using wiring for crafts or fishing line. You feed the wiring through technic pin holes in sturdy parts of the set, tie the wiring off once you have fed it through two or more pinholes, and then you should be ready to hang the set off of a screw/nail in your wall. Please be aware that if you intend to mount your sets on dry wall, you will need dry wall anchors to make this work.
Here is a video that demonstrates this method.
Mounting Your LEGO Star Wars Ships on Nails Screws
Another method people use for mounting large LEGO sets on their walls involves mounting the LEGO set on the screws or nails without the aid of a string of wire. How is this done? Well, it takes some common sense to get it right. You need to identify sturdy parts of the set which can be rested upon the nails or screws.
NOTE: The screws or nails that you use to mount your sets are going to depend on the size/weight of the set. The larger the set, the more sturdily the screw/nail must be. Also, use a stud finder or dry wall anchors if you’re working with dry wall.
Using LEGO Pieces to Mount Your Sets on the Wall
Some LEGO pieces have Technic’s holes that are big enough for a screw to fit through. If a piece like this is flat and will sit flush against the wall, you may be able to use it to mount certain sets on the wall. Simply mount the piece on the wall, attach additional pieces as needed to accommodate for the size/shape of the ship you’re trying to mount on it, and then attach the ship to that LEGO piece that is already mounted to the wall.
Modifying Your LEGO Set So it Will Mount
For certain sets, you may be able to just attach a piece or two and run a screw/nail through that piece in order to mount it. The additional piece in question will need a technic hole for this to work. The screws and/or nails that you’re using are likely going be able to go right through a technic hole.
A Great Resource
If you’re going to attempt to mount LEGO sets on your walls, the video below is a must watch. In the video, LEGO enthusiast, DuckBricks, mounts everything from cars, to mechs, to Star Wars ships, and a wide variety of other miscellaneous vehicles. The guy has a massive LEGO collection, which hundreds of sets mounted on the walls, so he definitely knows what he is talking about.
Hanging Your LEGO Star Wars Ships from the Ceiling
In the video above, DuckBricks explains how he hangs LEGO sets from his ceiling. The technique he uses works on LEGO sets of all shapes and sizes—from small LEGO sets to very large sets like the UCS Star Destroyer.
To summarize, fishline is wrapped around the ship, creating a loop, and supporting the ship from the bottom or a sturdy part of the ship. You would then adjust the loop to your liking. The adjustments you make will determine how the ship will be angled. A hook that can be screwed into the ceiling can then be used to hang the ship. A stud finder will be needed to find a beam to screw the hook into. If you don’t screw the hook into a beam, the weight of the LEGO ship could cause the hook to be pulled from the ceiling, resulting in damage to your ceiling and to LEGO set.
Using Display Stands
Finally, let’s wrap things up by talking about display stands. When displaying your LEGO Star Wars ships on shelves, it can often feel like the display is a little uninteresting. The ships are just sitting there, flat against the surface. What could really make the display more exciting would be if there were a way to mimic flight. After all, that’s what space ships do. Of course, you could hang them from your ceiling as we discussed earlier, but what if you don’t want to mess around with beam finders, screws, and wall anchors? What if you simply want your sets to be slightly elevated and sitting at more interesting angles? In this case, LEGO display stands are going to be a great option for you.
When it comes to display stands for your LEGO Star Wars ships, iDisplayit is a great place to shop. They have display stands for a variety of different LEGO products, including LEGO Star Wars ships. There are stands made with specific ships in mind, so, shop around, and see if there is a stand right for you.
If you would like to see a demonstration of how their stands work, the video below from Emmasaurus should be helpful.
Final Thoughts
Displaying LEGO sets seems like it would be simple, but if you’re passionate about displaying your collectables, you know that its never that simple. You want your collection to be presented in a manner that is visually appealing and exciting. Sometimes simply setting your sets on a bookshelf doesn’t cut it. In some cases, you need to get creative. Hopefully, this article gave you some great ideas for displaying your LEGO Star Wars ship collection.
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