Yes, It's Not LEGO!

 Every time I happen to acquire a new stash of used LEGO via yard sales, estate sales, etc., the collection invariably includes a certain quantity of 'Not-LEGO' items.

This is usually in the form of the many and varied knock-off versions of LEGO- like elements, as well as random objects and toys not related to brick-building. Think 'President Business' relic collection in "The LEGO Movie".

The recently acquired super-stash was no exception.

As I was cleaning, sorting and doing inventory on all those parts, I ran across a good number of such items.

Most were very easy to differentiate from LEGO.  Any brick with plain surfaces or random indentations atop the studs are a dead giveaway. The vast majority of the real stuff has the LEGO logo on each stud.  Other easy-to-discern indicators are elements that have a slightly different shape or hole configuration compared to the real thing. Surface reflection and color differences are another easy identifier. 

Of course, elements from Mega-Bloks and Knex often have their own logos molded on to them.

Some of the stud-less knock-off parts that have no manufacturer's mark often have a 1 or 2 digit number on them, another give-away, as many similar LEGO parts have 'LEGO' and a 4 to 5 digit part number stamped somewhere on them.

So, what am I going to do with this box of off-parts?

Being a stout LEGO purist, none of these 'fakes' will ever be mixed into any of my MOCs or sets.

Promise.

Against my better judgement, I will, however, hold on to them.  Much of it can be utilized to build up display bases only for real-LEGO MOCs and Mini-figs. 

Here are a couple of Mega-Blok bases from the recent stash that would work splendidly for that:

Another use I came up with is to employ them as support fixtures for display cabinet LED lighting.

I could even talk myself into building small projects out of the knock-off elements, keeping them, of course, in a land far away from the real LEGO.  

Since I have the darn things, I might as well use them.

Cheers!

Odds And Ends

 After completing the final sorting and storage integration, I found I was left with a couple of unfamiliar LEGO pieces.

Thanks to the Brinklinks website, I was ultimately able to identify them.

The trans-orange and gray assembly turns out to be a Ninjago spinner base from LEGO "Weapons Pack' set #9591.  The base is supposed to match up to a 'Kai NRG' minifig that I haven't yet found in the stash. I did run across a few trans-orange snakes with odd attachment holes that I now know came with the base. I'm sure the parts for the trio of weapons assemblies from the set also reside in my minifig accessories storage box. 

I intend to locate the remainder of the elements and re-build this part of the set, just for grins, of course.

The trans-blue disc in the above photo happens to be a LEGO dimensions Toy Tag.

I have no idea as to which mini-fig it goes with. No use to me whatsoever.

The third item in the pic is an old style light brick with built in button battery power.

I definitely will find a good use for this item in a future MOC.

Cheers!

Going Technic

 I have finally reached the end of the sorting and processing of that recently acquired 15,000+ parts windfall.

What a ride that has been! 

I've pretty much had to re-think my storage and access system to accomodate many more parts.

Anyway, after all is said and done, I've found that the stash included a respectable quantity of Technic elements. Being an electro-mechanical nerd, I find this new pile of parts quite intringing, with visions of all sorts of animated MOCs filling my head.

As a result, I sprung some extra cash for this:

Let the building begin.....

Parts Stash: The Sorting It All Out

 As each batch of cleaned parts finishes drying, I load them back into a storage box and take them upstairs to begin the sorting process while watching a movie.

Actually, I have found sorting LEGO to be very relaxing and therapeutic!

The first phase is to just seperate everything by color.  Some plastic compartmented trays are helpful for this

When finished, I place those piles into large zip bags for future break-down by type and element.

It is at this point that I also seperate out all Technic elements and throw them in a seperate box regardless of color.

Another plastic bin is the repository for any 'not-LEGO' parts that I run across. It never fails that any pre-owned collection of parts that I have ever acquired contains a number of those undesirable knock-offs.

More to come....

Let The Cleaning Begin

 I am now well into getting a handle on the newly acquired LEGO parts hoard.

Just yesterday, I finished counting the parts.

Did I just say "counting the parts?!!"

Yep, I was curious as to how many pieces were in this lot, so I took a rough count.

This was done by quickly moving ten elements at a time from one plastic box to another and making a checkmark on a piece of paper for each 10 pieces moved. 

This goes faster than one would think, and I was able to whip through 1000 parts in a little around an hour's time.

The grand total:  roughly 15,000...

That's a lot of LEGO!

Now I am in the process of cleaning all of it, a ritual I use whenever I acquire previously owned LEGO from yard sales and such.

The first step is to load a large plastic kitchen sieve full of parts.

This is placed in a larger mixing tub filled with water, a little dish soap, and a cup of vinegar.

The batch is taken out to the garden hose in the back yard. They are soaked and swished around in the cleaning solution for several minutes.

To remove any caked-on dust or other substances, a tooth brush is kept at the ready. 

After the cleaning, the garden hose is used to thoroughly rinse all of the parts.

Finally, the batch of parts is taken to the basement and spread out on a beach towel to dry.

I try to seperate the parts as much as possible to allow water on all surfaces to evaporate.

I have found that 2xN bricks and slopes tend to retain water inside the recessed circular holes inside the bottoms , so I end up shaking that out right away.  It typically takes a day or two to allow the batch to completely dry, with the help of periodically re-arranging them on the towel if any are still sticking together from water capillary action.

After that, the clean and dry parts are ready to gather up, sort, and integrate into the collection!

To date, I am on the 5th batch of the cleaning phase from the newly acquired stash.

 Approximately eight to ten more to go.

Then, the sorting begins....

Cheers!

A New Parts Stash To Process

 Jeez, It's been a long time since I've posted here on the Double Decker Couch.

That's largely because I've been extraordinarily busy with many other things aside from LEGO building

That all changed last week, however, when I got a visit from some neighbors across the street. Their college age son, who is an avid builder of LEGO Star Wars and Technic sports/race cars decided he no longer wanted to keep a store of parts belonging to other dismantled sets.

So they asked if I would like to have them.

Of course, I said "Sure!"

After all, I can always use a few more additions for the ol' parts stash...

What I brought home was far more than a 'few additions'!!

This lot consists of seven 3x14x14 plastic boxes, and four larger plastic storage bins, all loaded to the gills with LEGO parts!

Holey Moley!  

If I were to guess, there are well over 10,000 parts in these boxes, ranging from 1x1 round tiles all the way up to large base plates, and everything in between.

A random paw-through of the boxes revealed not only standard classic elements, but a good number of more unusual parts, an abundance of minifigs, and a respectable showing of Technic pieces.

So, I suspect a goodly amount of time will be spent over the next few weeks in cleaning, counting, sorting, and re-doing my parts storage system to accommodate this massive collection.

Cheers!

Time For A MOC-Fest !

This past week, the Missus and I took a trip to visit out-of-state family. 

Our five year old grandkiddo is just getting started in the world of LEGO building.  He has this small Classic building set as well as a rather large pile of LEGO Dots.

One of the afternoons during our stay, I had some idle time, so I commandeered the set and began building random MOCs out of the very limited selection of elements. 

This is actually a great exercise for any LEGO builder, as it takes a bit more creativity to render models utilizing a very sparse set of available parts and colors.

I managed to knock out nine different MOCs... building them....photographing them...and dismantling them to start immediately on the next one.

Here goes....