They made the weird crates the gold is stored in (8)
I believe the answer is:
creators
'they' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'the weird crates the gold is stored in' is the wordplay.
'the weird' indicates an anagram.
'the gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'is stored in' is an insertion indicator.
'crates' is an anagram of 'creats'.
'creats' going around 'or' is 'CREATORS'.
'made' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for creators that I've seen before include "Initiators" , "Makers of reactors (8)" .)