Since 2012, and thanks to the support of readers of battlegrip.com, I’ve published seven different hardcover books about toys. These have ranged from close looks at third-party Transformers toys to action figure marketing in the eighties, and every time I’ve sat down to craft these books I’ve enjoyed the support of readers and toy fans like you.

Today, I’m ready to complete my eighth toy guide project. This time around I’ve gone into some unusual weeds, taking a seemingly harmless question — “Are you writing a book about action figure carrying cases?” — and amassing a collection of over 60 action figure carrying cases from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. That’s right, kids, today we fly our toy geek flag and embrace a book dedicated to action figure carrying cases.

Action Figure Carrying Cases

This 160-page hardcover follows the same physical format as four of my other books. With the book designed at 9-inches wide by 6-inches tall, the landscape design works perfectly for many of the vinyl carrying cases that were so popular decades ago. Many cases are given a single page, but there are some cases — especially the cases that double as playsets — that cover more space in the book.

Inside we get a look at cases that act as vehicles, wearable cases, vinyl suitcase-like cases, and all sorts of other action figure carrying case designs of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. If you’re curious about what’s inside, you can see more sample pages in this Flickr set.

What’s Not Inside?

I’ve skipped toy car cases and fashion doll cases, concentrating on action figure cases since those are what interest me most. Also, you won’t find any wrestling cases in the book (well, except for M.U.S.C.L.E. toys, but they’re special) because I’m simply not a fan of wrestling action figures. Also, cases from before 1970 or after 1999 were kept out of the book.

There are also some cases — Cryotron, I’m looking at you — that didn’t make it into the book because I couldn’t find them. A few photographs were contributed by others, but for the most part, every single case in the book is one I’ve bought and photographed for the project.

Biggest Book Yet!

At 160-pages, Action Figure Carrying Cases is the meatiest toy book I’ve produced so far. That increases printing costs and shipping costs, and this means I’ve had to increase the funding goal higher than I’d like. I think that many of you who have seen my earlier books will agree that the printer I use does a great job, and hardcover is definitely the way to go. Fingers crossed here hoping enough of you enjoy my work to make this book a reality.