mpfirnhaber

Maybe it was mentioned, but toothpaste and a toothbrush works wonderfully to remove marker from bricks. Any issues using the hydrogen peroxide technique on plates with electrical contacts like 4758?

Classic Space because I grew up with it. Creator and Mixels because the price per brick is good, and they're filled with small, colorful parts that are great for micro building.

I thought about doing it in Excel but it would get messy fast. Rebrickable has a "parts list" function to help me keep track, so I'll stick with that. I'll just go through one part at a time, find the max quantity, pull it from my bins, then add that quantity to my "classic space" parts list in Rebrickable. Once I've gone through all my different, I can start pulling up sets in Rebrickable, and it will tell me what I'm missing so I know what to order from BrickLink. I'll know when I'm done when it says I can build every set :)

Fortunately I already have the Futron monorail as part of my childhood collection :)

Looking at it now. I can dive into a particular piece in a particular color, see all sets that use it, and sort the list by quantity used, quickly giving me my upper limit! I'll still have to do it one element at a time, but it's much quicker than manually checking inventories at BrickLink. Now I know that I only need 24 1x2 light gray plates to be able to build any Classic Space set :) I guess I'll need to build a spreadsheet. Once I've done this for Classic, I'll probably do the same for Futron and Blacktron, and maybe SP1. Cool :)

Not sure if any of you LEGO masters can help me out, but I thought it would be worth asking! I have amassed a pretty sizable collection of Classic Space bricks over the last couple of weeks. I don't know what sparked it, but I now have a great big pile of sets and parts from eBay and BrickLink, included most of the exclusive transparent and printed stuff that makes these sets so fantastic. But as I look through what I've got, I think I have "too many" of certain pieces, and "not enough" of others. I wasn't particularly targeted with my approach, especially on BrickLink, and I just bought en mass, from sellers who had lots of cheap old space parts. My goal is to have a collection of parts that will allow me to build any Classic Space set, but no more. I'm not a set collector, and I don't plan on displaying multiple models simultaneously. So my question, finally, is how can I get a combined inventory of all Classic Space sets, minus the duplicates? Take the 6x8 trans yellow plate as an example. It's in 7 sets, but if you remove identical releases from different regions that knocks it down to 5. If I wanted to build all these sets at once I would need 8 of these plates. But the most plates used by any of these sets individually is 2, so I want to own 2 of these parts in nice, clean condition. I can obviously do this manually for each part, but that's a heck of a lot of work. Any thoughts on how I can automate this process? Thanks!

70012 Razar’s CHI Raider just $14.80 at Walmart (MSRP $39.97) http://www.walmart.c...ay-Set/22018255 Not a set I'd normally buy, but at $0.36 per piece, I had to grab a few. It has some nice dark green, dark purple, dark red, dark tan, flat silver...

That's the one! But it was this set http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=6390-1 I still remember building it on Chrismas morning all those years ago :)

I'm cataloging my collection for my BrickLink store and I came across a piece I can't find online. It's a 2x14 "tile" in light gray. I call it a "tile" because it has no studs, but it's almost 2 plates high. The top is textured like the face of a slope. I seem to remember it was a runner for some sort of moving mechanical arm, but I can't exactly remember what set it was from. Any ideas?

I use comic book boards/bags for most instructions, either regular (current) size or magazine size. These are then stored in comic boxes. For polybag instructions, I have a binder with trading card sleeves, which fit 12 instructions per page.

I just finished building 21301 Birds. It was a lot of fun to build, but I'm disappointed by the final product, particularly on the blue jay. The medium blue pieces are not consistently colored. There are two distinct shades of blue, one noticeably darker than the other in normal daylight. Some of these pieces are placed adjacent to one another, like a 1x1 tile next to a 1x2 tile, which makes the color difference even more pronounced. Is this a recent trend? Is it symptomatic of poor quality control and cheaper production? Is it just something we have to learn to live with?

Happened to me once, many many years ago. This was before the internet, so I remember writing a letter to TLG explaining the situation. I even included a little drawing of the part (white 1x2x1 panel). They sent me a whole bag full of them :)

I would welcome this. Monsters and aliens are my favorite figs to collect after LOTR :)

Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Retro 50s Spaceman Type of headgear: New helmet with large visor, metallic silver with bright color accents Type of facial expression: Bold Color on torso/legs: Torso: Some sort of jump suit Accessory: Raygun Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Spanish swordsman (think Inigo from Princess Bride) Type of headgear: Long dark brown hair Type of facial expression: Playful and defiant. One eyebrow up, Thin moustache. Color on torso/legs: Browns. Vest. Accessory: Rapier Gender: Female Occupation/print on torso: Masquerade girl Type of headgear: Long hair with elaborate, colorful feathered hat. Type of facial expression: Big smile, big eyes, very exuberant. Face paint? Color on torso/legs: Slope dress, lots of color and decoration Accessory: Colorful, feathery eye mask on a stick that minifig holds up to face Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Professor (Think Indiana Jones' dad) Type of headgear: Tweed hat Type of facial expression: Glasses, beard Color on torso/legs: Brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, bow tie, white shirt. Accessory: Suitcase and cane/umbrella Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Park ranger Type of headgear: Green or brown ranger hat Type of facial expression: Mustache? Color on torso/legs: Brown shirt, green pants Accessory: Binoculars, backpack. Squirrel? Also need female versions of zombie, hippie & Frankenstein.

Anyone recognize the black piece being used for the snout?

I got it. Turns out older Technic pins have much thicker walls. It fit nicely with a newer pin.

That's what I thought, but I can't get the flick missles inside the connecting pin more than a millimeter or so. Otherwise it starts deforming the pin. I'll keep trying :)

Thanks! I'm guessing the rest of the bar is a couple of flick missles chopped down? I've never seen short ones like that...

What is the knobbed handle on the top left of the pic?

I'm loading up my shopping cart but everything says "out of stock". I assume it will change soon :) EDIT: Order successfully placed. Order status: "In Warehouse".

Almost finished! Still have to sort my Technic (ugh), and I have maybe a dozen sets currently built that will eventually end up here as well.

If I learned anything from the LEGO movie, it's that mixing themes is OK. I am, however, a very compulsive person. I'm sorting through a huge box of loose minifigs right now, and I'm having a hard time deciding if I should take each figure apart and store heads and torsos and legs all seperately, or if I should keep the figures assembled as they came. Some torsos are printed to match a specific set of legs. Some torsos have hands that match the heads. Some figures like zombies are pretty much a complete set, with everything matching nicely. But this doesn't mean they must go together. If I take them apart and store them separately, do I lose anything? I can always put them back together they way they are "supposed" to be (as long as I keep my instructions). I've considered disassembling all my "generic" minifigs, and only keep licensed/collectable figures together. If I don't mix and match, I'm missing out on the whole creative side of LEGO. There are some great printed torsos and amazing hair/hats in the collectible minifigs line that would work great on other figures. But on the same note, am I ever going to use a Storm Trooper's helmet on anything but a Storm Trooper? Aaaargh!

This time last year I spend a couple of weeks sorting my collection. Between then and now, all disassembled sets and BrickLink purchases got dumped into bins to deal with "eventually". Now I'm taking the time to sort my new stuff, and am re-organizing my collection. I thought I'd share my process here. I have 3 sizes of bins, plus those tackle box style bins with dividers inside. In the larger bins, pieces are put into small bags by shape, then those small bags are collected into larger bags by category. For example, each type of hinge goes in its own small bag, then all hinges go into a larger bag, which is put into the bin with other joining/bending/twisting elements. Basic bricks & plates and some minifig parts are the only elements I sort by color. This system was born out of a lack of storage space - all bins are just stacked in a single closet and are pulled out when I have time to build. I would like to spread out eventually, but having this multi-level system is pretty nice, and it makes it easy to find what I'm looking for. I'm mostly happy with this structure. There are a few bins that are getting a little full so I might add 1 or 2 more and further break down a few of the categories 1. Large bins a. Bricks i. 1x and 2x bricks, sorted into bags by color. b. Plates i. 1x and 2x plates, sorted into bags by color ii. Modified plates iii. Wings c. Modified bricks i. Slopes ii. Arches iii. Rounds iv. Other modified bricks d. Structural i. Walls ii. Doors & windows iii. Beams & supports 2. Medium bins a. Vehicle i. Wheels and tires ii. Vehicle bases b. Twisting/bending/joining i. Hinges & joints ii. Clips & bars iii Turntables iv SNOT & brackets c. Bases i. All plates wider than 2 d. Decorative i. Space parts (engines, guns, etc) ii. Car parts (steering, seats, etc) e. Glass i. Windshields & cockpits f. Misc i. Large animals ii. Rocks iii. Containers iv. Boats, bikes, motorcycles, surfboards v. Cannons vi. Hand carts, wheelbarrows, stretchers, etc vii. Ladders, bridges & stairs g. Large parts i. Monorail ii. Train iii. Ship h. Technic 3. Small boxes a. Tiles b. Transparent parts c. Plants d. 1x1 tiles, plates, bricks, cones, cylinders, and cheese e. Minifig torsos (sorted by color) f. Minifig legs (sorted by color) g. Plus several small boxes of individually-bagged collectible/licensed minifigs 4. Tackle boxes a. Heads b. Hair, horns, and claws c. Guns d. Hats & helmets e. Blades f. Food & small animals g. Body wear h. Utensils & objects