Hello everyone, I have a decent sized (to me) collection of star wars legos.

All of these are old ( roughly 8 years or so) but all still assembled and on display. Over the years they have been collecting dust and now they appear dirty from years of sitting there. A lot of these sets are really fragile and seem to creak and crumble when I move them or pick them up.

I was wondering if there was anything that could be done to fix this. I've done some reading and wondered if taking them apart, washing all the pieces (with just warm water) and reassembling them after they had dried would be the best course of action if I wanted to fix this problem.

So have any of you tried this and how effective is it in fixing the fragile state of the sets and/or the color??

Thanks in advance

Dust and sunlight are the natural enemies of lego bricks, I recommend using soapy warm (not too hot) water under pressure, you can also use a tooth brush but it may leave scratches.

I've taken my old pieces and wash them with warm water and a gentle dish soap. Then rinse (a plastic colander works great for this) and lay them out on a towel to air-dry.

When you say the sets are fragile and they crumble, are you saying the pieces actually crack and break or the sets don't hold together anymore?

Agreed with dust and sunlight being an enemy to lego. I would recommend, even though I haven't tried this yet, but perhaps use a soft brush to avoid scratches when dusting. And in terms of cleaning, like others have mentioned so far, use soapy warm water would be the best bet compared to using chemicals to restore the color of the Lego.

Was going to mention about covering them, but that won't help the viewing of the Lego on the shelf.

Hi zach06, and welcome to Eurobricks!

I've cleaned several sets and, as you mention, I dis-assemble them, and wash the parts in warm water with quite a lot of washing up liquid. Rather than brushing them, I usually allow them to soak for a while and give the parts a gentle swirl around. If you then rinse them well with clean water they should be fine, but give them a decent shake to remove the water trapped in the holes! I spread them out on a towel and let them dry, moving them around a couple of times each day.

For future reference we have a general Q&A thread pinned at the top of the forum, I'll merge this topic with it in a bit

I've taken my old pieces and wash them with warm water and a gentle dish soap. Then rinse (a plastic colander works great for this) and lay them out on a towel to air-dry.

When you say the sets are fragile and they crumble, are you saying the pieces actually crack and break or the sets don't hold together anymore?

I meant that the sets don't hold together anymore. sorry about the confusing wording, I couldn't think of a way to phrase it!

Edited August 1, 201410 yr by zach06

Check for (micro) cracks I would suggest. If that is the cause, you could use bricklink to replace the bricks that have the issue.

I meant that the sets don't hold together anymore. sorry about the confusing wording, I couldn't think of a way to phrase it!

Gotcha. I'd do what JopieK suggest and check the pieces for tiny cracks, you may find a few that are causing the problems. I still have all of my sets from the early 80s when I was a wee lad and only a handful of pieces have cracked. The rest work like new and the sets hold together quite well.

If they're eight years old and starting to fall apart, you might as well wash and then reassemble. After that amount of time, you most likely won't be able to clean them just by using a soft paintbrush or by blowing on them.

If you've got some yellowing pieces, you might have to use the trick of soaking in peroxide or OxiClean, but I think eight years ago is recent enough that you won't have the pieces with the bromine fire retardant that causes the serious yellowing.

How do you clean the parts with stickers and printed pieces.

Also tires?

Edited August 2, 201410 yr by daniel gourhan22

For quick, low-effort maintenance I like to dust my displayed bricks with a ~20mm soft bristle paint brush. It's not the best for major cleaning projects but it's a good stop-gap measure if you don't feel like breaking down all your displayed sets every time you clean them.