Problems with sorting Lego?

[Minifig Lecturer]

I found this site has some good ideas to help us builders of the brick.

Visit Website

[brickchic]

Hmmm. Interesting - my BrickLink guy sorts some of his stuff like this.

I think for MOC'ing I would be too undisciplined with keeping it neatly stacked like that. Once I broke a stack to get to a colour for example, I probably wouldn't put it back together again.

Having said that I've no better system worked out either. I always sort by colour, and sometimes I also sort on plates vs bricks vs "special" parts. My interpretation changes day to day so my Lego sort is always only ever a "rough" guide.

[Fluyt]

I do/did that allmost exactly the same! Only I divide them by colour as well+ I do this for only a tiny part from my collection.

But it doesn't stay organised for long, because just like brickchick, I don't have the discipline to keep it that way Just like I can't keep it organised very well in storage cases, it all gets unorganised very fast.

[WhiteFang]

Very Very interesting and useful link! I always faced such problems and trust me, sorting can takes very very very long time. There are some good methods of keeping the bricks tidy. Small parts is indeed a big problem. I bought sewing boxes to sort out my weapons, helments, hairpiece and mini-figures. But it's still far away from sorting it right.

[legotrainfan]

Very useful link! Thanks Calvin!

Since I don't have that many bricks yet I have never really bothered about stacking them in an efficient way. But it's always good to save space. I'll try those techniques immediately. But there's a trick to separate two 2x2 plates more easily when you've stuck one on the other. Just put the two 2x2 plates on a bigger plate - maybe a baseplate - and use the brick separator then. Usually this works much better than any fingernail or brick destructing techniques.

EDIT: By the way, any ideas on how to store train buffers in a space-saving way? *just kidding*

Edited April 18, 2008 by legotrainfan

[Ralph_S]

I suppose everybody has their own system, but stacking parts like that doesn't appeal to me at all. Too much work -not just when sorting, but also when building.

How you sort all depends on the size of your collection, I suppose. I know people who have collections that are so large they have a little drawer for each individual element in a particular colour! My collection isn't nearly that large.

I sort plates, slopes, tiles, and basic brick by colour. As an example, I have a separate boxes for red 1-wide plate, 2-wide red plate, and a drawer full of red bricks and one of red slope. The same for tan, black, and dark grey. I have so much light bley that it takes six drawers. The drawers are not transparent, but my memory serves me well enough to keep me from having to go through all of them in search for that elusive box of dark green or whatever.

Special elements get their own boxes/containers regardless of colour, for instance 2x2 round bricks, click hinges, plate hinges, headlight bricks etc. For small stuff or special elements that I have in fairly small quantities, I have a number of cases (that 'normal' people would use for screws etc). If I have a particularly large number of a given part in a particular colour, that gets its own container, for instance, bley jumper plates. Depending on what I happen to build, I might sort a particular colour a bit further.

I keep some stuff in bags, that in turn go into fairly large storage bins. I'll typically use them for parts that I don't use very often such as large wheels, various large exo-force elements or train parts (which I may never use).

It's not an ideal system, because I keep having to move things to ever larger boxes or separate categories further to keep things manageable, but it works. Provided that I have them, I can usually find the parts I need without too much trouble.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Nikola Bathory]

That's interesting, but I don't want to mix the parts of my different sets.

[tedbeard]

I think we have all at some point tried some sort of stacking system. The problem I discovered over the last year is that this will actually damage LEGO elements if they are left joined together. I wish I could remember if it was Bjarke(from LEGO Quality control team)'s talks @ BrickFest and BrickCon last year or some online discussion but I seem to remember that future "clutch" power is compromised if the bricks are joined for long periods of time. Stable if left in place permanently but they will not grip other elements as well if left joined for long periods and then separated.

Whenever I find little stacks now I pull them apart - except the minifig heads. They are just sooo much easier to search if I can look at a stick of ten or fifteen heads at once.

[CP5670]

I use the same kinds of stacks with the 1x1 plates and bricks along with all types of slopes, since those are easy to put together and pull apart, but not with most other stuff. The crisscross thing he's doing with the larger plates looks cool but I don't think it's very useful as far as saving space goes.

I mainly just do this to save space though. I picked up a new pack of drawers a few days ago (I use a couple of these for storing my spare parts stash for MOCs), so I might not need to do it anymore.

I think we have all at some point tried some sort of stacking system. The problem I discovered over the last year is that this will actually damage LEGO elements if they are left joined together. I wish I could remember if it was Bjarke(from LEGO Quality control team)'s talks @ BrickFest and BrickCon last year or some online discussion but I seem to remember that future "clutch" power is compromised if the bricks are joined for long periods of time. Stable if left in place permanently but they will not grip other elements as well if left joined for long periods and then separated.

I haven't noticed anything like this in practice. If anything, some my older pieces actually stick better than the newer ones, even after being joined together for many years. The Flextronics produced pieces from the last year don't stick as well as the TLC manufactured ones did.

However, I think I know the the cause of the long-term damage you're describing; it's not actually caused by leaving the pieces together, but by removing them in a certain way. This is especially common with plates. You have to distribute the pulling force from all sides fairly evenly, and pull them outward instead of doing it at an angle. It's important to note that TLC's own brick separator (this thing) actually removes bricks in the worst way possible. If you remove two plates with it, it will create slight but noticeable deformations in the top plate, since the studs of the bottom plate dig into the plastic of the top one when they are removed at an angle. These will grow larger after a few such removals and the piece will no longer accept studs perfectly right anymore.

I stopped using those brick separators when I realized this a few years ago. The deformed bricks are especially bad for Technic models, where they prevent axles and stuff from rotating smoothly since the bricks aren't aligned exactly right anymore. There are other, better ways to remove the plates that don't cause this damage though.

Edited April 18, 2008 by CP5670

[Ralph_S]

That's interesting, but I don't want to mix the parts of my different sets.

I view sets as little more than parts packs. I don't even put most of them together.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Oky]

Well, there aren't many techniques I didn't already figure out myself, but stacking bricks to make walls of one kind of bricks isn't such a bad idea actually. It will be a pain in the megablocks to seperate them, especially when building something made mostly out of bricks, but at least it will be easier to find the brick you are looking for. Then again... Isn't that kind of the beauty of building with bricks? Stroking your hand through a box full of bricks in the search for a particular one while listening to the soothing sound of rattling plastic?

Wow, I have problems, haven't I?!

Or does anyone else have the same brick fetish?

Btw did you notice the other lego related articles on that website? They include a review of a book that has instructions for automatic LEGO guns, and a collection of some hideous LEGO Abominations! Those abominations give me an idea: we should have a contest about making some ourselves! In that case I would like to have a rule against actual mistreating your lego like they did at some times! What do you think? Wouldn't it be fun having a contest about making minifigs with multiple or animal body parts?

Anyhoo, thanks for posting this!

Edited April 19, 2008 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[Shadows]

Definitely done this general topic before, but my method changes a little over time, so here we go again. Nothing too original.

250 minifigs, standing on baseplates, sorted and arranged by theme and type, all built to their original LEGO design.

14 sewing cases with 22 compartments each for minifig parts, sorted by theme and type. Pirates, Castle weapons, Castle armour/flags, city tools, Classic Space, etc. A bag of spare torsos I don't really need (more cops, etc).

Heads are stacked so they don't move around as much and placed on a single 8x16 plate on alternating studs so you can see them all from some angle.

2 of those yellow LEGO cardboard cases (that I got free), filled with larger accessories and grouped items. Cannons, chests, barrels, Egyptian Adventurer's parts, castle walls, tree and foliage parts.

752,000 tiny little bags from Bricklink sellers, each containing something unique and unusual, kept out of the general parts population and placed in various LEGO buckets and bins.

The rest, sorted by type and colour and seperated, mostly in bags and buckets.

The majority of my collection is in sets, in their boxes. Some, previously assembled, but no room for them right now.

I used to use those pod containers, but they're a hassle in the long run. Now I keep them around as open dishes for moving handfuls of bricks or sub-sorting for parts that need to go back to the sorted side of things.

Stroking your hand through a box full of bricks in the search for a particular one while listening to the soothing sound of rattling plastic?

Wow, I have problems, haven't I?!

Or does anyone else have the same brick fetish?

I get that filling cups at a Pick-a-Brick wall. Last time, they had a drawer of minifig accessories, hats/hair/helmets and weapons. I really enjoyed digging through that. Maybe a little too much.

[JimBee]

thanks! i think ill go buy a taklebox now...

i always hated dumping the whole 20 gallon container out just to find a couple of bricks, although it is maybe 2/20 full

[Dadster]

Some interesting ideas...

I won't be stacking mine like that though.

I'm in the process of redoing my collection into plastic drawers. Nothing too fancy. Just sorting pieces (plates, bricks, tiles, etc) into alike piles regardless of color or size.

[MacK]

That is a good idea to stack all of my Lego after reading though that article I decided to start staking as much as I can. it will take a while but hey at least it will be sorted. Some parts of my collection I'm just going to leave unstaked because it will take to long to stack them, or it will be hard to stack them(tiles tires, etc.). This way I can also save money by not having to buy several sorting containers .

[Brickmaster]

This seems like quite a good idea. I may do this, once I have color sorted the pieces. Color sorted and piece type sortage, very nice.

[zero1312]

Well, I sort as follows:

bricks

plates

minifigs and acessories, joints, clip on parts and transludent parts

technic parts including rare bionicle

bionicle

big parts

Works for me.

[MoonCheese]

I sort by type only, not colour, and I group a lot of similar types if I only have a few parts from each. My categories are mostly in plastic bags as I don't have many multi-compartment thingies or small drawers. Yet...

[caichem]

Useful thanks.