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Just made my first bulk purchase on eBay…it said 14 lbs but was closer to 18 when I weighed. Nothing complete, but some Ninjago and Star Wars mixed in, even with a few unopened bags. Everything is in amazing condition, but I was wondering what everyone typically does about cleaning (or not) used LEGO. I was expecting things to be yucky and ordered BlockWash bags on Amazon to try.
I don’t use those Block wash bags. I always wash them by hand in a bucket of bleach (very little. Only enough to get off dirt and smoke smell if there is any.) and water. So far I haven’t had any issues with it. Anything that is in sealed factory bags I don’t even bother washing
Definitely wasn’t planning to clean anything sealed, but do you always clean even if pieces don’t appear dirty at all?
Definitely wasn’t planning to clean anything sealed, but do you always clean even if pieces don’t appear dirty at all?
Absolutely. If working in EMS has taught me anything its that 1.) things are never as clean as they may seem, and 2.) Some people cant be trusted.
I use;
fabreeze and a cardboard box for cig smoke
i normally wash them one by one by hand with an extra firm toothbrushes and some dawn for dirt
sticker removal and preservation i use a clean box cutter blade and wax paper
permanent marker i use baby wipes and a dry erase marker (the color you use depends on the color of the brick for white I use blue)
discoloration I hear a hot peroxide bath works.Yup, I wash everything bought used except sealed bags, sticker sheets, minifig’s capes, and other obvious stuff that can’t be washed. I use a big plastic tub of warm soapy water, then strain out through a mesh drawer organizer, and spread it all out on a sheet to dry in the driveway. (or you could just throw it all in your spin dryer HAHAHAHA)
Ha, that is a good answer. Even something like International Children’s Festival, or the Fayette County Fair, where we were using the LUG’s own Lego supply, we went through tons of hand sanitizer. For awhile I bought more every time I went to Walmart, just in case.
I’ve never used the Block bags, I don’t have any and I don’t know where to get them. I used to use Scrubbing Bubbles, it’s easy and effective but it’s also expensive, especially if you’re cleaning a large volume of pieces. So I’ve switched to simply using dish soap, which is super cheap. One container of soap and water to swish them around in, one container of water to rinse.
I don’t know if it holds true for other soaps, but I should point out that I learned the hard way that prolonged exposure to Scrubbing Bubbles ruins Lego, it makes them brittle and they split apart. After that I never let them sit for more than 5 minutes before rinsing, and it was fine, but one time I washed a minifig that was dirty and let her sit overnight in the bubbles, and when I reassembled her the next day, her neck sheared right through her head.
A couple years later I tried something different – I had smallish spaceships on display in my house, so they’d become very dusty, and I didn’t want to take them apart yet. So I washed them with Scrubbing Bubbles and then rinsed them as thoroughly as I could. It didn’t work, I don’t know if there were a few places that either I nonetheless missed, or it was places where the soap just got in and wouldn’t wash out, cause stuff started to split apart, including some assembled minifigs. I ended up taking everything apart anyway and doing another full rinse piece by piece.
Fortunately my overall losses were pretty small. I know these are boring stories but had things gone differently, the losses could’ve been catastrophic (I didn’t lose anything that was too expensive to replace, too rare to replace, or had sentimental value), so I wanna make sure nobody else makes the same mistakes I did.
PS – Will’s comments also made me think of this: do people wash the stuff they redeem from LUGsupport? A lot of that stuff looks pretty new – and of course the stuff that was extras from LUGBulk2016 is definitely new – but some of it is visibly used, and at some point somebody told me that Hinkle said a lot of the pieces come from sets returned to stores. I’m hoping that this is not typical, but in 2013 me n Efran were working on sorting a LUGsupport box at Josh’s house and we pulled a big clump of hair out of the box, as well as cookie crumbs. It was, to say the least, pretty gross.
I’m preeeeettty sure we had an old cleaning thread somewheres on these here forums, Seth…
And Shaun, I guarantee @zemata would be appalled that you’re letting sunlight shine DIRECTLY on your parts – especially those white ones!
Naaaaah, it’s okay. I promise they’re only out in the sun for a few minutes before bundling them all up into my loving arms like a squidgy-faced little baby and rushing inside for a thorough sorting while singing my favourite lullabies and feeding them only the purest hand-milked grass-fed goat’s milk.
I wash everything in the washing machine on gentle cycle, double rinse, light spin (yes, my fancy washer has different levels of spin). I use a gentle detergent without dyes like Woolite. Never had an issue and the bricks are always sparkly clean at the end. I usually just air dry on a table. I also picked up my bags at Walmart. They have dedicates bags that are reasonably cheap, good quality, and I double bag…for safety! 😉
What I am looking for is a good way to remove fading. Washing doesn’t so it. I saw a peroxide bath suggestion that seems to take hours in the sunlight. Apparently not made for Western PA! Any other suggestions?
What I am looking for is a good way to remove fading. Washing doesn’t so it. I saw a peroxide bath suggestion that seems to take hours in the sunlight. Apparently not made for Western PA! Any other suggestions?
You may be talking about Retrobrite. If so, as I understand it, it’s the UV rays that are needed as part of the process, so it’s not actually sunlight that’s needed.
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