Beware the Kragle! Do you glue your toys to the shelf?

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone gluing their figures down - I definitely wouldn't want to use anything that permanent! I do often use stands, and also have blu tac and museum wax for various needs (securing tiny Wasp to sit on Giant-Man's shoulder, etc).

My real goal is to build some permanent shelving along one wall of my office, properly secured to the studs and sturdy as can be. That's a long-term goal, so for now it's my wobbly Detolfs.

Gluing a figure to a shelf sounds like toy blasphemy. I would just put my most stable figures up high, and for any I have doubts about, use a stand. I have a handful of TMNT figures on a shelf above my main display that's about 7.5' from the floor. I just pose everyone as stable as can be and in such a way that if they were to fall it would be backwards away from the edge of the shelf. There's also only five figures on said shelf so they can be arranged in such a way that a fall is unlikely to cause a domino effect. If any were to fall though it would probably be destructive. Especially Burne, who is quite the little chunk of a figure. 

Concur on the stands/blu tac, which I believe you can get in other colors as well. That makes it easy if you get an addition and need to change things around. I've also used twist ties and clear hair rubber bands to fit special occasions. For example: twist ties

Blu tac. You can see a litte poking out cuz I'm too lazy to fix it, but some of these top heavy figures will consistently shelf dive without it.

I would never glue anything.  One of the better things to use is Museum gel. It holds like glue, but then just peels right off and doesn't' damage the figure, figure stands, or your shelf.  There are even YouTube videos about it if you want to see it in action.

Amazon.com: Ready America 33111 Museum Gel, Clear : Industrial & Scientific

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Update: I was adjusting the last two figures on this shelf when I accidentally put some pressure from my elbow on the shelf and it half broke from the wall. Suddenly, all the figures were falling off like we were on the tail end of the Titanic in the air - and half of them hit the ladder rungs like the Propeller Guy on the way down.

After I caught and saved what I could and let the RAGE cool, the shelf was at a permanent 8 degree decline - no way to fix it without starting completely over. So after avoiding it the rest of the day, I did - and found out I had assembled it incorrectly - twice. The diagram IN MY DEFENSE is poorly drawn, but the anchors weren't actually anchoring anything. So I re-hung it and now it feels correct. It is a huge blessing this shelf never fell on my face while I was sleeping the last two years in its last position. It was secured - but not really.

Anyway, after all that malarkey, I did pick up some Quake Hold - and wow, that mostly works! Some figures' feet it has a harder time holding, but for the most part, this stuff IS great! And this shelf is so high I can't really see the residue under them.

Can't believe I avoided help like this all these years!

Bluetac is cheating only until someone shelf dives or falls back on other figures and ruins your display. That and the occassional stand can improve your posing options, too.

The figures survived their first big earthquake - a 4.7 but located very close by! Everything on that top shelf stayed in place!

Most of my figures did, except for the known problem few who knocked others down. Quake Hold is great! Although it doesn't work on older figures that are slightly oily - which is fair. It doesn't want to hold them at all.

May I suggest clear double sided tape. Its just like poster tac. 3m used to make them cut in small squares but its also sold in a roll you could cut to fit your needs, probably cheaper too.