The Sinestro Corps, pictured above, is my latest set of minimate customs. You can click the image to view a much larger version with more detail. This is a commission set, and my next step is to make custom packaging for these. I didn’t really start thinking about the packaging until I had finished the customs, and then I realized this package would be one heck of a challenge!

There have been other minimate 5-packs made, such as the Marvel Zombies set. But Anti-Monitor is a 3″ minimate, and doesn’t even come close to fitting in any existing box set packaging that we have seen so far. I tried modifying a Marvel Zombies package to fit him, but after mutilating it until it was only several hanging shreds of plastic, I realized this was not going to work. I tried gluing together a combination of 2″ packaging trays, and a 3″ Star Trek figure tray, and making it fit into an existing box, but this was also a mess. Nothing fit right, and it certainly didn’t look good.

I decided to package these minimates a little bit differently. Instead of having each minimate nestled into a plastic cocoon, I would mount them on the outside of a flat package, and secure this inside of an existing minimate box. I started with an Iron Man Through the Ages package. I discarded the outer tray, and I cut the entire center out of the inner tray, leaving only a plastic frame. You can see this hollow frame on the left in the image below.

The packaging on the right is the outer shell of a 24 Season 1 Minimates Box Set. This outer shell is what I will be mounting the Sinestro Corps onto, and it will be nestled inside of the hollow frame on the left.

This image show the two packages together after I superglued the top and bottom of the 24 package inside the hollow frame. My next step was to trim the bottom of the 24 package so that it lined up with the Iron Man package frame. It had to be trimmed because the two packages sit at different angles. The front of the Iron Man package slopes away from the bottom slightly, which will actually be very helpful for the method I am using to mount the customs.

I didn’t want to use twisty ties to hold the minimates in place, since it would rub off my paint over time. Plus they would be very visible on top of the capes that most of these customs have. The most ideal place to hide a mounting bracket would be underneath the minimate’s head. I took a plastic name tag holder, and cut out the shape you see above. It has two layers that fold out from just in front of the neck hole. When I fan out this piece and fold it, it looks like this:

Here is the bracket on one of the customs:

Now I’m sure you can see what I am getting at! The minimate will hang from this clear plastic bracket from the front of the flat 24 packaging. I put one bracket on each custom (Anti-Monitor’s goes around his waist) and I glued them into place. Anti-Monitor makes a nice centerpiece, so I arranged the other minimates around him:

This type of packaging would not work for a retail product, with the boxes being shaken and rattled over time. But for an adult collector’s display, I think it is going to work very well.

In Part 2 of this entry I will be finishing the graphics for the outer packaging, and figuring out if I want to do windows for each character, or have one large window in front. Look for that entry in two weeks!

Next week I will show some of the results of the current Minimate Factory Poll, and let you know how it will shape the future of this site. If you haven’t taken the poll yet, you will want to do it by Sunday night to be in the running for the prizes! You can find details on the prizes and the poll itself here: Take the Minimate Factory Poll and Win!

See you next week!