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9:42 pm
October 28, 2012
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brittanycenter2007
| | augusta ga | |
| Toons "You Were There" Character | posts 268 | |
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Hey everyone,
I need some helpful ideas/ suggestions on car storage. My sons car collection just continues to grow (we currently have a couple hundred) and I just can't figure out a storage solution that would work (needs to be space friendly and easy for a 3 year old to access). At first I had Tristan's cars in a storage cube but they were getting pretty banged up (way more than the average play wear) so then I got a bookshelf and that's not working because all the cars don't fit on it and we have a small house so I don't have room for a bunch of them. Any ideas would be wonderful!!!
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4:41 am
October 29, 2012
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bobbyjack
| | Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia | |
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If you can still find them in the stores, the red plastic cases that hold about 50 cars work pretty good. We have 2 and my kids easily open and close them. They were found in Target, TRU, and Walmart for about $15 each. Amazon is selling them for $25 each. Site won't let me post link. But just look up Disney Pixar Cars cases, and it will pop up. I think Jestrjeff has one available for trade.
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6:53 am
October 29, 2012
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Mike Manifold
| | Chi-Car-Go | |
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I noticed that the same company makes the hot wheels cases, and they are prevalent right now, especially at TRU. The only difference is the black plastic instead of red plastic, and the hot wheels sticker instead of the Cars sticker. You could make it into a Cars case though, with a color copier, Cars art from one of the books or posters, and full sheet sticker paper. My son has stored his Cars collection with a combination of the plastic cases and open on shelves – on wooden CD shelves from a futon store. They are like book shelves but much less deep, so they don't take up as much floor space.
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9:10 am
October 29, 2012
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toffman
| | Aurora, CO | |
| Wheel Well Regular | posts 124 | |
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I'm running in to the same issues as well.
I have two of the red cases bobbyjack is talking about. They are definitely great for a good portion of the cars, but there are a couple of issues. The outer edge slots are not wide enough for lightning mcqueens, racers, etc. You have to put smaller cars on the edges. And bigger cars like Mater don't fit at all. If you have a big collection of maters, they don't really fit. I don't really like the 4x4 open spaces in these as well. You can fit a mater, or deluxe in them, but they feel like wasted space to me.
I personally think the fan stands is the best case out there as far as display and ease of use for kids. It's great for a lot of sizes of cars. They were prohibitively expensive when they came out (like $50!). But I got my first one last year around black friday at amazon for $15 and I just picked up another one at kmart for $13 (with the 50% clearence deal they do all the time). The only negative is they take up a lot of floor space, unlike the red boxes.
I also have the case that's shaped like a car and has the ramps that fold out. It's nice enough, but doesn't hold enough cars. And sometimes you can't close it, depending on what you have.
My real issue is the the deluxe size cars. They all go into a big box at the moment.
The other issue is that I'm full and there are more cars waiting in the wings. But where to put them? 🙂
I would love a better solution for increasingly bigger colleciton…
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11:17 am
October 29, 2012
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brittanycenter2007
| | augusta ga | |
| Toons "You Were There" Character | posts 268 | |
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Thanks everyone, we have a few of those cases as well along with a giant Mack storage case we picked up at disney world but like toffman we are having the same problem, my son gets frustrated when a car doesn't fit in a space and then we have all the disney store cars and the oversized cars. I didn't think of a DVD shelf that would make a lot more sense than this chunky bookshelf we are using (it's such a waste of space because the shelfs are so far apart). I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest using magnet strips on the wall and the bottom of the cars stick to the magnet but then I realized the cars are not metal on the bottom (I guess that would work for hotwheels). I also thought about building a shelf border all around the top of his room (like people do for trains) but then he could not reach them. I don't know what to do lol!!!
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11:41 am
October 29, 2012
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John
| | Los Angeles | |
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Post edited 11:42 am – October 29, 2012 by John
Post edited 11:45 am – October 29, 2012 by John
Post edited 11:46 am – October 29, 2012 by John
We use Sterilite clear front drawers for our Cars. They are relatively cheap and hold lots of Cars. The downside is the Cars are free to bang together so opening and closing the drawers can be tricky. I worked with my boys a bit on soft opening technique. (We use that spongy rubber drawer liner in the drawers to cut down on the rolling around.)
The boys love to organize and reorganize the characters into different groups and it makes putting everything away more fun for them. Also they really like that the Cars can look out through the front of the drawer! 
Stack of drawers
 
Radiator Springs
Lightning's drawer
Cars 2 racers & crew chiefs
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6:53 pm
October 29, 2012
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TopherDawg
| | San Diego | |
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| posts 406 | |
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What about those somewhat shallow storage boxes that roll under a bed?
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6:57 pm
October 29, 2012
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brittanycenter2007
| | augusta ga | |
| Toons "You Were There" Character | posts 268 | |
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Awesome idea John!!!! About how many cars does yours hold? (Like did you need one or two for your collection)
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7:02 pm
October 29, 2012
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brittanycenter2007
| | augusta ga | |
| Toons "You Were There" Character | posts 268 | |
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Topher I don't think I have ever seen those before. Is it like a plastic container?
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7:28 pm
October 29, 2012
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BlueMustang
| | Washington State | |
| Team 95 Roadie | posts 169 | |
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Brittany, I feel your pain! We are running out of room also!
We use a combination of the red boxes, an oval shaped race track storage container, and the shallow container that topher mentioned. It is huge, but I think we are going to have to buy another one! The cars do get banged around in it a little, but it works better for us than the huge bucket that we used to use.
It is shallow so it is easier for my son to find the guy he is looking for, and easily rolls from room to room, through door ways, and under beds! Good luck!! 
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8:59 pm
October 29, 2012
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brittanycenter2007
| | augusta ga | |
| Toons "You Were There" Character | posts 268 | |
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Oh I have seen those before, duh me I don't know why I didn't think about that. My son currently has a toddler bed (one of the McQueen beds) but he's about to upgrade to a twin bed so they would fit under there. That would be the perfect storage solution!!! 🙂 I might could get two under a twin bed, maybe.
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10:02 am
October 30, 2012
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John
| | Los Angeles | |
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brittanycenter2007 said:
Awesome idea John!!!! About how many cars does yours hold? (Like did you need one or two for your collection)
A regular drawer holds about 32 Cars, but of course it varies on the size of the Car. Drawers come in 3 and 5 to a stack and then you can take off the top cap and combine stacks. There are also deeper drawers in the series which are necessary for Haulers, RVs, Bat Wing Mater, the Popemobile, etc. We also try to arrange them so the heaviest load is nearest the floor; but here in earthquake country we have to secure the drawers to the wall anyway. Really big items like Siddeley and Stephenson sit on top of the towers.
Our collection is out of hand, we are using 31 drawers!
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10:34 am
October 30, 2012
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TopherDawg
| | San Diego | |
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| posts 406 | |
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Thanks Blue!
I think you could probably fit 3 under a twin. I used those for my cars until we bought a house and I set up on of those Metro shelves with 9 levels.
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3:25 pm
October 30, 2012
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Fillmore1234
| | Illinois | |
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Post edited 8:13 pm – October 30, 2012 by Fillmore1234
So far my rotating shelf has held all of my Cars (with the exception of the Silver Racers and Cars 1 Racers, which are on that Fan Stand Display Case above a TV stand) and it currently holds around 350. I have tried countless times to try to look up more about the shelf I have but I have had absolutely no luck. I'll let you know if I find anything on it.
EDIT! I found it! Well, it's almost it but it's the closest I've ever found! This is it. Mine only has 12 shelves on each side but this one has 14. Also, mine has a different stand on the bottom. It has a small drawer and longer legs but this is basically it! It's pretty expensive, I paid quite a bit less for mine but it's there for anyone who wants it!
Tall Wooden NASCAR Rotating Display Case
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7:01 am
November 1, 2012
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heidiho73
| | Green Bay | |
| Rookie | posts 11 | |
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The new $15 case that Target has is awesome–varied sizes of slots means a lot of the oversized ones fit in them! I bought 1 initially, LOVED it, and bought 2 more. We also have a couple fan stands (great too!), the car-shaped cases (nice but I find that the cars don't stay in place very well), the tire-shaped cases, Sterlite buckets from Walmart (that come in varying shapes/sizes and are perfect for the plastic car series, if you collect those)… Mattel really needs to come out with a Mater-specific storage case, though! In the meantime, I too have our Maters in a plastic drawer thingy—great idea about adding the pc of grippy stuff in the bottom of the drawer to help them stay in place!! Nice to know I'm not the only one who cautions my kid to play gently and take good car of his Cars!!
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7:07 am
November 1, 2012
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heidiho73
| | Green Bay | |
| Rookie | posts 11 | |
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oh, we also have 5 or 6 of the red box-like cases but are currently using those for hot wheels instead, as my son and I like to store our Cars by themes, and those slots in the red cases just aren't very accomodating. We do have the bulk of our Lightning McQueens stored in one, and the mini adventures were in another of those till we outgrew it — now I just have a big bucket for all of those (and the playsets), as they don't damage as much from bumping together.
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