BirdOPrey5

Thanks for adding the poll!

These are the mini-figures (complete or nearly complete) from the first 3 batches. I have several additional torsos missing hands and heads, and a couple legs.

It's amazing to think what these went through... we had summer days over 105 degrees F, winter nights below 0 F.... Hot and cold spells lasting days at a time... even hotter in the sun no doubt.

Well it's a multi step process... Yesterday we moved the last of the bricks from some garbage bags and a bin into a new (clean) garbage can with some small holes drilled in the bottom, filled it with hose water and some dish soap, and slowly draining water through it. This was necessary because we were finding the very first "wash" was turning the water completely black almost immediately- and soaking in black water didn't seem wise. 3 batches have dried so far representing about a third of the total collection, maybe a little less. What has become clear unfortunately is this was not my full collection. I am missing virtually all the monorail tracks and monorail motor and monorail cars, most of my train and tracks, two hulls from a fire and police boat, and a bunch of hull pieces from pirate ships, and a number of base plates. There is a theory now I had actually brought 2 garbage cans full of Lego but honestly I only remember bringing one. Still trying to remember what I might have done with those larger pieces. :( I did buy another monorail off eBay years ago so I could built it if I had the space to do so but I'm really curious what happened and would love the pirate ship hulls. I did find some masts. As for treasures- a lot of mini-figures I had forgotten about, been pulling them out as I find them after they are dried. Have a full Robin Hood would arrows and feather for his hat, oh and a Lego Ghost I had forgotten existed... otherwise a lot of space men and town folk. Here are pics of the pieces as they were drying- Oh, have been finding a few pieces of "Construx" mixed in, keeping them aside, and tossing (most) of the non-Lego pieces... Did find a nice looking Micro-Machine car yesterday, currently in wash.

I'm Member # 1!

In LDD they are shown studs down... As far as I know every other brick in LDD is right side up in tool pallet.

Sorry- I had completely missed the Lego General forum existed.

That would explain it.

Wow. Never noticed before. I'm such a rebel!

I'm looking closely at the Eurobricks image across the top with all the Lego flowers... Are all of those flower tops on upside down or have I been putting mine on upside down for as long as I can remember?

I am open to non-Lego brand bricks... Some I have used are virtually equal to Lego quality. I think the more people accept non-Lego brands the more pressure there will be on Lego to stop increasing prices or even pass savings onto customers as they make more materials in China and Mexico.

This is a place to share your worst creations... This is mine- it's in LDD because I haven't built it since I was a kid- the actual ones I'd built were very similar- based on a half-size base plate with lots of wheels. Basically a big brick I used for ramming through other creations- mostly buildings. The difference was as a kid I wouldn't have bothered to match any colors. I re-built it in LDD just o get a feel for the software. I call it an Assault Van.

No matter how big your basement of Legos is, someone else's is bigger. One of my good friends (who i didn't meet until college) still had this setup in his parent's basement. I can only imagine...

The cover had been open at least 3 years and could be as many as 8. They have been unused in the garbage since at least 2001.

About 10% though... a lot of mini figure pieces but few complete examples- A coup;e of complete mini figures so far...

I certainly do the swooshing motion but don't think I make a specific swooshing sound.

Yeah... I don't see any monorail track in the pieces though, remains to be seen if the motor piece is in there. Probably had a few other electric boxes- hopefully without batteries in them. Wild.

The cleaning has begun... Tried with a small sampling of pieces today. Unfortunately dish soap isn't going to be able to handle it. Used some Cascade on a few pieces, it did a great job with the dirt and the pieces seem to be fine.

When I make a purchase I check Lego, Amazon, Ebay, and Toys R Us online for the best price. So far the Lego shop has never had the best price so I don't have any VIP points.

Great- I have plenty of that.

Thanks for the link.

Thanks! Mind if I asked what did work?

Thanks for the tip... Going to do some "pre-cleaning" or at least dis-infecting before they come inside though, let alone go into a washing machine. I assume you sew the pillow case closed? The smell is pretty awful... Hopefully that goes away with the cleaning as well. I am also amazed how clean the ones further down look- and my cousin said most of the dirt on the top ones was sliding off.

As a kid I used to bury some of my toys for future archaeologists to find... never Lego, but some of my less favorite transformers and busted up matchbox cars for sure... I must have been spoiled as a child... oh well... it even out by my teenage yeas.

I hope I can find some of the yellow/white and blue/white space men in there.. I must have had a dozen or more.