There are people who wear gloves while playing with their toys.

So what similar steps do you take to keep your precious plastic from harm ?

Lets start with me,

I don't exhaust my moist breath into my glass display cabinet. (holding my breath)

I don't open the cabinet and play when my hair or hands are wet.

What about you ?

There are people who wear gloves while playing with their toys.

So what similar steps do you take to keep your precious plastic from harm ?

Lets start with me,

I don't exhaust my moist breath into my glass display cabinet. (holding my breath)

I don't open the cabinet and play when my hair or hands are wet.

What about you ?

I don't think moisture affects plastic in the least, so you shouldn't worry about holding your breath.

In fact I do the opposite of you, I wash my bricks in water when they get dusty.

Yup, I keep them out of direct sunlight, and I wash them when they're dirty, thats all.

I'm not going too extremes to protect my bricks. I try to keep them out of direct sunlight, prevent too much rubbing on printen pieces/torso's and of course not try to use extreme force to prevent them from breaking (like somewhat gently switching arms on minifigs).

Dust is usually just blown off, no special bath or anything. But I'm especially not carefull with bricks that are allready not in optimal condition.

The extent of the care I take is just in storing them gently to prevent scratching and wear and keeping them out of light as much as possible, for fading.

As for me, I (most of the time) wash my hands first before putting a brand new set together, to minimize the (natural) oil in my hands. For 2nd hand sets (acquired in whatever way), I always wash it gently and let it dry for a week before storing or putting the set(s) back together. No holding of breathe here, I need air to live.

Through the years, I have several sets that I intentionally 'display' right next to the window, to see which colored brick would discolor first, just for the heck of it.

Asside from not putting them in direct sunlight, and keeping them sorted rather than in one big bucket, I do nothing to protect my bricks. After sorting, MOCing, and life in general, I just don't have the energy or inclination to invest in brick-protection.

I don't put them in direct sunlight and blow dust of any MOCs with it, besides my usual sorting policy thats it.

Heck, the stickers peel off and I just dont care. I was a bit miffed to go into the loft to find brickdust and wet/moist salt residue on my Agents Mission 6 truck after a bad bout of rain but it wiped right off . My one other pet no no is food and glue near my bricks, my sister is dreadful with UHU and leaving food around for weeks (satsuma, banana, apple ) so she isn't permitted to dally in my building area.

Well, considering I submerge my dusty MOCs in the bathtub, I can't agree with you there, but I do try to keep little hands that I can't trust away from my collection. There are some little hands I can trust though...

EDIT: I wrote submerge my twice. Whoops....

Edited April 24, 200915 yr by Darth Legolas

The blinds in the room are down, which lets diffuse sunlight in but not direct sun rays. I often point a fan at my hands while building, especially if the room temperature is high. Even a small amount of airflow keeps my hands dry and prevents fingerprints from getting on anything. I also remove bricks in a certain way that prevents damage to them, as I described here.

I want to do something about the dust on displayed models, which is a big issue in my apartment, but I haven't found any good solution apart from just brushing off the models every now and then. The models are all on open garage shelves, but I might look into getting enclosed display cases in the future. Does anyone know of small vacuum cleaners that would be appropriate for cleaning Lego?

Does anyone know of small vacuum cleaners that would be appropriate for cleaning Lego?

I'd recommend the brand Dyson, but it's too expensive. It will do a great job, though. A Hoover brand is also good, lots of suction.

I mostly keep all of my sets in a closet, but I ran out of room in there. So I put the rest on shelves. I started to dust some, but have not got very far yet. I don't wash my bricks, unless they are really dirty.

Does anyone know of small vacuum cleaners that would be appropriate for cleaning Lego?

I'd recommend the brand Dyson, but it's too expensive. It will do a great job, though. A Hoover brand is also good, lots of suction.

I have this, but it's meant for standard floor cleaning. The hose's suction is somewhat weak and it's clumsy to move around the room if you're only using the hose. Something handheld that still has decent suction power and is specifically meant for cleaning displays would be more useful.

The main thing I really do to protect my bricks is keep them out of direct sunlight. I don't put many stickers on so that they don't peel off in flaky bits later as well. Finally, I don't MOC with the newer square ball-joints, because they're almost guaranteed to break after 3 or 4 dislocations and relocations.

Sometimes I wash my hands before I touch my bricks. My LEGO stuff is in a room down in the cellar, so no sunlight can harm the colours of the bricks. And little children are not allowed to play with my stuff! I've got some older bricks and plates for children, but I've never needed them. There aren't so many children hanging around here, and if they are, they don't want to play with LEGO anyway.

i dont even protect my bricks, i just keep them in a bucket... that's it

Well I simply keep my best brick separate and just dont allow anyone to bite them or even try as then I will get horrible teeth marks and Id have a lot of germs added onto the bricks. So not very much then for me!

I don't grind mine in the dirt or go after them with power tools. I do not go out of my way to protect them at all though. They are just a toy after all.

I leave my WIP MOCs on the ground in my room. I have a cat that likes to bite things. Cat+Count Dooku minifig on the floor. You figure out what happened.

Does anyone know of small vacuum cleaners that would be appropriate for cleaning Lego?

I'd recommend the brand Dyson, but it's too expensive. It will do a great job, though. A Hoover brand is also good, lots of suction.

Try compressed air.

I find that blowing pushes dust away much better than suction picks it up.

Edited April 25, 200915 yr by xenologer

what I do is I keep them out of sunlight to prevent fadeing and stickers cracking, and keep my friends, and other people out of the room to prevent missing/ stolen/ broken bricks.