We’ve all been there. The doorbell rings, the neighbours are invited in – and you suddenly realise your child’s designs for a freeze ray gun are currently displayed, front and centre of the kitchen.

Awk-ward.

Of course, in our evil lair, the freeze ray gun design is at least a little more inconspicuous than other designs on the fridge – say the bungee torture chamber, the chocolate drowning tools, or even the worst of all: death to Evil Genius Mum by pollen saturation.

But alas, only so many of these amazing designs can be displayed at any given time. And with each child, the battle for prime position is ever so much more entertaining.

So, we have devised a way to store our evil plans for future reference, and in such a way as to protect our interests from prying eyes.

Digital Storage.

For every A4 or smaller design created in two dimensional format, the design is scanned and filed on the external hard drive under the appropriate designer’s name (and subsequent sub-folders). For those that aren’t easily scanned, digital photos are taken and then stored in similar manner.

Lego Mini Daleks by Sinister

Simple right?

That is, until Sinister started showing an interest in sculptures. It started off with Lego, and then progressed towards clay sculptures.

So now I have to start looking into 3D scanners for the Evil Genius Lair.

Seriously? Yes, seriously. In the time it takes me to photograph one of his sculptures from every frackin’ angle possible, Sinister has gone and placed a dozen of these Mini Daleks all around my work-space like landmines.

I do like the HP Topshot. Maybe. At least this one will still do all the other stuff I need a printer to do. It does 3D scans for me and then sends the image to wherever I need it – even here on this blog.

FARO Focus 3D Scanner on LEGO trolley

Of course, if you want to go the other way with 3D scanning, and start scanning rooms and environments, check out the FARO Focus 3D Scanner instead. Bonus: MADE WITH LEGO!!

I’m not sure exactly what I would use it for – maybe I’d just scan my secret room each day and compare shots to see if anyone had been messing with my stuff.

Oh what the hell. I just want it because it has LEGO with it.

But back to the original question, what do you do to store your kids’ crazy ideas?

** I received no sponsorship for this article. I just like finding cool shit like this.