At what point is a brick too damaged or dirty to keep?

[legoman19892]

Would you throw Mr Gold in the garbage if the torso cracked or are you the person who digs up and cleans a red 2×4 from dog poop if your dog at it?

[fred67]

I would do neither, actually.

I throw away cracked pieces, but if the torso were merely cracked on something like Mr. Gold, you'd have to be crazy to throw it away - someone would buy it for a lot of money, even if not full price.

But something like a basic 2x4 in a common color is not worth the effort.

So the answer is "somewhere in between."

For the record, I buy a lot of used pieces for filler - all of my CMF displays have as much hidden behind the colors of the display as they do the display - so unless the bricks are so damaged they won't snap together at all, they can be useful. So, if anyone's got a lot of junk bricks they'd like to get rid of, let me know.

Edited September 1, 2015 by fred67

[ReplicaProfile]

I only throw out damaged bricks when they become difficult to place and stop other pieces from completely settling. I have not thrown out a minifigure torso since coming out of my dark age; I keep all of the cracked ones in a plastic bag.

[Saberwing40k]

I keep all of my damaged part for the purpose of customization . I have a couple of bent linear actuators, and several Bionicle parts that have cracked ball joints, and if I need to make a custom part, I'd dig into that.

[dr_spock]

I had to clean a Basic tub of 1000 bricks when the cat used it as a litter box. Less LEGO in landfills, the better for the environment.

[DuckBricks]

I have a 2x4 that has been mangled almost to the point of being unrecognizable due to both a dog and a lawnmower, but I cleaned it up and kept it as space debris for my movies and MOCs. Kinda cool looking, actually...

[ShaydDeGrai]

I used to maintain a "junk" bucket of pieces that were scratched, broken, cracked, discolored, whatever as I didn't want to build with them but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out either. Over the years I amassed about a kilogram's worth and really didn't know what to do with them. Later, however, when I started really pushing the edge of my MOC'ing aspirations with things like Barad Dur I realized that even crappy bricks can serve as filler and no one ever need know they're there. If I hadn't had my cache of junk brick, I would have had to shell out even more money for good brick (or Duplo) that would have just gotten buried in a base or mountainside.

[BrickOn]

I only have one really broken lego piece so far but, I have not thrown it away... I was thinking of practising my painting skills on it, so I might end up with the first cracked blue 2x8 Zombie brick :-)

Otherwise its still okay if its inside a structure

[TheLegoDr]

I have quite a bit of old/worn/discolored brick. I'm of the mindset now that I could use it as filler when the time comes, but I have yet to need it. But previously I would have just left it in a bag taking up space instead of attempting to use it or get rid of it.

[Sir Stig]

I actually prefer damaged pieces when I make buildings. I think it makes them look more realistic. As long as they are functional that is. I had to put two 1x1 rounds that refused to grip into my damaged box just today. I'll always find a use for them somewhere down the line.

[Tezclatipoca]

As far as I remember, I never thrown away a brick. Even in my childhood I kept all my damage pieces. I have some 1960's bricks from my uncle that are not gripping and I uses them for inside buildings or for some areas that don't need to be sturdy.

I have some cracked torsoes but I kept them and used them for custom minifigs when I was a teen by practising my painting techniques on them.

I am more aware of the discoloration though, because it is avoidable (I make my possible not to expose the bricks at direct sun, for example) and there are ways to have the original color back (especially for the white bricks). So I never thrown away a discolorated brick and trying to fix it.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Faladrin

[JanetVanD]

I agree that discoloured and/or scratched bricks can look a lot more realistic in a build, especially off-colour white in a town or castle theme. Personally, I only throw away a piece if the damage is so bad it upsets me to look at it!

[Sid Sidious]

I buy most of my bricks used, so there are quite a few cracked/twisted/chewed bricks in my collection. I keep them in a cup next to my build table. I don't often use them, but having the cup there keeps the option open.

[Iria]

I would want to replace bricks that are severely cracked or damaged, and probably wouldn't keep those ones unless they were rare.

Would I pick out non-damaged bricks out of dog poo? Sure, but only if I was confident they could be completely sanitized with no odour remaining. I'll go through the dust compartment of the vacuum if I think it has sucked up so much as a stud. I just don't have a big enough Lego collection that I could knowingly throw away bricks.