I've been thinking of ways to combine my hobby and my work background (Design Enginner/3D CAD) and so far i've come up with two idea's, the first is as follows...

Below are some early mock ups of several custom designed stands.







Size : Approx 38mm / 1.5" diameter, 3.0mm / 1/8" thick
Material : Clear Acrylic

Any feedback or comments are appreciated. Idea's for Logo's, maybe PBP/POCH or SW/ESB maybe even TIG. Different shapes, sizes, materials etc....

Those are sweet.... Love to have some. If you do start to make them and sell them on a larger scale than just a message board (meaning, you are getting in quite a bit of orders which I could see you doing), I would speak to someone at Hasbro about copyright or licensing fees. I was a photographer (sports) covering Oklahoma State athletics and also ran a large fan board, which sold t-shirts, and had to deal with legal departments all the time. A good example would be, if they wanted to... Hasbro could ask for all images of their products or Kenner products off this site, be removed from anything of sale (buttons, shirts, etc).

BTW: Could you make me an AR-15 lower and a few magazine clips?
(they are now doing 3D printing of them)

How making blank round 'universal' stands.

Then having a seperate sticker sheet with company logo's on clear vinyl to stick to the underside?

Obviously the logo's would need to be reverse, this way custom labels could be producted on the cheap with logos, figure names etc....

I would be in for a lot of these stands. I know I have seen some ledy stands before but I dont know if they look like the ones you have drawn out or not. Either way I need a ton of figure stands and have been thinking lately of a good way to differentiate between the different companys.

How about 'elevated' stands, like 1cm high with logo / brand on the front side instead of below the feet.
(like a bottle cap, but than clear, with a pin and logo instead of grip pattern).

I thought about making some Ledy stands. I have access to acrylic sheets & a laser cutter/engraver but the cost was prohibitive. How were you going to produce the 'peg' ?

I think this is a really good idea Stefan, there is definitely a large market for these kind of stands. personally i prefer the larger Protech sized stands compared to the original vintage size but obviously they take up more display space. If you can find a way to produce these stands affordably and are able to avoid any legal entanglements with regards to branding copyrights, then this idea could be a real hit.
I really like the look of the Palitoy stand. The LL looks pretty cool too but doesn't somebody already produce those? or are the ones I've seen just customized stands and not mass produced.

Yes the ledy one's are already produced I'm guessing by several different people as I've seen 2 variants of the stand.

Size wise I think a mid-sized one would be nice as I find the original stands too small and the protect too big.

As for the pegs, again several options, like the Ledy they are profile cut and then inserted into a plain hole, or acrylic rods could be cut and glued in place.

Anyone like the sticker idea, or does everyone prefer engraved?

The copyright thing is an issue. Copying it has potential issues, changing the logo style or spelling then puts of collectors.

Volume wise best keep them on the forums, but there would be no way to stop people reselling them.

those are really cool looking

I was hoping that someone would make these.
They are awesome and add the final touch to loose figure collections.
I think that the market would be huge on these stands, and making more manufacturer
brand logos such as Top Toys, Toltoys, Glasslite, etc, etc,
would be very succesful.
I think the engraved stands would look better, and be more popular than stickers.
If you make these, i would be interested a great big bunch of them to replace my protech stands.

Does anyone what companies have gone out of business or are still trading?

Lili ledy?
Glasslite?
Top toys?
Kenner = owned by hasbro
Palitoy?
Clipper?
PBP?
Poch?
Meccano = still trading
Toltoys?
Takara?

Takara is currently Takara Tomy, most known for Transformers