Saturday, 6 April 2024

STAR DRAWERS: A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCES

 Before Easter I had the bright idea of putting all my die-casts in a set of see-through drawers.

I knew Junior would love to do it. He'd already done it once in my cabinet.

Missus Moonbase obliged and on a trip to B&Q she bought me a tall stack of plastic drawers for £30. Fab! They'd fit hundreds of cars in!

Junior did a great job filling each drawer with a single layer of die-casts. Hot Wheels at the top and the rest Superfast, Juniors and Whizzwheels.

He was thrilled with his work, which took several hours off and on over Easter and I watched it all, egging him on and discussing the merits if each and every car. It was great fun.

Job done!

Or so I thought. Like Iron Man's icing-up, I'd never considered the weight problem.

The cabinet buckled! The wheels bent over at right angles!

I was horrified! All Junior's efforts down the drain!

Fortunately he never saw the drawers sag, he'd already left after Easter.

In the end I've decided to re-use the drawers with much lighter plastic collectables. I flattened the drawer stand, re-positioned the wheels and restocked the cabinet with all the cars again, this time gaining much more space by filling the drawers with action figures hitherto in the cabinet.

Hopefully the drawers will hold. I'll have to explain it all to Junior on Monday when I see him again.

Anyhoo, here's my Star Wars drawer now, featuring the two newbies, Hammerhead and Power Droid.

Laid down.

Sat up.


I just need to do the same for my GI Joe and Corps! figures and any more light plastic taking up cabinet space. I've a lot of die-casts!

Have you had sagging drawers or buckling supports readers?

4 comments:

  1. Paul Adams from New Zealand4/06/2024 12:23 pm

    Weight, and light plastic drawers, etc, do not mix well. Many years ago I had the shelves in a book case give way. The shelves were supported at each end by just two plastic plugs that fitted in to holes in the bookcase sides. These had sheared off under the load, and each falling shelf collapsed the one below it.
    Just books, nothing that was going to break. But after that I went to the hardware store, and bought replacement metal shelf supports (take one of the plastic ones with you, to make sure you get the right size). Now I automatically replace plastic shelf supports with metal ones.
    Die-casts are heavy. Play it safe, and check all your shelf supports.

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    1. Wise words Paul. I have only put plastic toys in the new plastic drawers. My cabinets are much sturdier wooden structures and can take all my cars.

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  2. I have several wheeled multi-drawer cabinets and so-far have only put lighter plastic toys and kits in them. I was thinking of buying one for some of my diecast but I may have to re-think that idea :-) That being said, mine have a large drawer on the bottom with two smaller drawers above and they're not as tall as what yours appears to be Woodsy.

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    Replies
    1. Good idea about only keeping plastic in Ed. When Junior filled mine with Superfast is was the castors that went first and then the bottom frame buckled. I've got action figs and SpaceX in there now, as well as some light odd n sods.

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