So i kind of bought a few different types of cases since I had no idea what exactly would fit with my house decor... thought would be interesting to do a comparison with my totally one-sided opinion ...
From left to right you have:
1. Mirror backing display box - from Chezrich, a local company specialising in custom Acrylic pieces and interior design
2. Master Light House (White) - from Legend Studios (Hong Kong company if I'm not wrong)
3. Model Cover (Middle, Square) - from Hobby Base (Japanese)
4. 1/6 display box - from Chezrich as well
I'll speak of these in pairs since cost-wise they compare well with each other (between 1. and 2., 3. and 4.). For scale purposes, I used 3 Leader-class Optimus Primes (simliar to 1/6 toys, abt 12 inches) from the recent movies and 1 vintage Zentraedi Battlepod (Robotech/Macross) since I don't have that many opened Optimus's (yet).
Chezrich Mirror backed display vs Master Light House
1. and 2. are both mirror backed - all the better to show off your goodies...
The Chezrich case has more depth which allows you to place / position your toys in different poses... by contrast the Master Light House is pretty shallow, only having just enough space to stand up my Leader-class Optimus Prime.
That said, the Chezrich case is one big piece of combined acrylic (except for the base) which is exceptional in terms of protection.... the Master Light House came flat-packed and needs assembly. You can't see it here but sometimes there are gaps between the acrylic plate sides which can allow for air/dust to enter. The design allows for the entire front plate to be removed to fit your figure though.
Aside from the obvious physical differences, the Master Light House has 1 pretty good trick up its sleeve....
As you can see, it has built in LEDs which can be daisy-chained to a USB input or with batteries. Pretty good gimmick for most displays.
Yet, if you have sufficient lighting in your display area, you can see how the clear roof of the Chezrich case also allows for pretty good display qualities.
Final thoughts....
In the end, both of these cases cost about the same price as an Ikea Detolf. Therefore, you have to think about how you will really need these cases versus a simple glass display cabinet which could house many more toys. That said, the design for both means you will not need to worry about internal dust for quite a while.... in the case of the Chezrich-type.... perhaps almost never! I like both and they each have a place in my house.
Hobby Base (Middle, Square) vs Chezrich 1/6 Display
For both 3. and 4., they're pretty much the same dimensions wise. Once again, the Chezrich piece (on the right) is made of a solid joined acrylic top with a black base. Simple, no dust, no fuss. The Hobby Base is on the left and has simple plastic display panels with a plastic top that goes on after.
One key difference can be seen in the quality of the display panels themselves... Chezrich's panels are 0.3 cm think (as per their website) are fairly sturdy. By contrast take a look at what happened to the Hobby Base panels when my toy fell off his feet....
As you can see, the panels are pretty thin (no where near 0.3cm) ..... and didn't hold up well at all, some deep scratches from my Zentraedi cannons.... sigh.
Final thoughts....
Both of these cases are about 1/3 of the first 2, pretty decent value there. However,the quality of the Chezrich case is pretty obvious to me.... even my wife agrees!
