Subject:
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Modified Lego and new uses for old pieces.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 14 Jun 2004 00:53:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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993 times
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Although I don't condone modifying Lego, I have to say I don't discourage it
either.
One example that I use, is removing faces off of Minifig heads. A few alcohol
wipes do nicely. I get some nice 1x1 fat round bricks this way. I have already
(literally) defaced a few skeleton heads that way to get this in white (I don't
think these were ever sold that way in white). These make for nice "urns" and
other architectural embellishments on classic Lego buildings. And now I am
casting a covetous glance at some Spiderman heads (red), and those nice flesh
toned (and sand green) Harry Potter series of heads.
These 1x1 fat rounds make nice architectural embellishments. These were first
seen in 1973 (when the first minifig "stiffs" came out) in yellow. But those
heads already came without faces (in yellow). In the late 70's that wonderful
Fireplace Set #277 (Europe only) came out (for the Homemaker series). That set
had 5 red minifig heads and 4 black ones. These were not used as heads, but as
(4 black) legs to a fireplace, (4 red) legs to a firewood holder, and (1 red)
used as a vase. These along with the heads of the minifig "stiffs" produced
from 1973-78, were of the old "full head" variety (no hole in top of stud). As
were some that came out in clear in some Homemaker sets.
Later in the 80's they went to the "hollow head" variety where the top of the
stud had an opening. All minifig heads today are of this hollow head variety.
Now the number of colors that the hollow variety has is increasing every year.
There are gray, blue, black, red, trans
blue, as well as sand green.
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Another item I wanted to talk about were those 1x3x2 classic doors made from
1957-79. Many Lego builders have some of these, but don't use them because they
are of a diminutive scale (classic door is 3 bricks tall vs. today's doors are 5
and 6 bricks tall). Well there is one way to use them, but it involves
destroying the integrity of the piece. The door handles are the most fragile
piece of all classic windows/doors. I have about 3 dozen that are without the
handle (out of about 500 classic doors). These pieces can quite nicely be made
into an attractive window by grouping them together in twos and threes (or
more). And by stacking a 2x2 window (of the same color) on top of each one, it
gives the impression of a large custom window. These classic doors only ever
came in red (1957-late 70's), white (1957-mid 70's) or yellow (1966-late 70's).
The door handles can break off quite easily, and a razor "blade" can smooth out
the edges. But if you do this, don't do it to mint examples. Lego purists
might find this appalling, but the availability of window varieties is so very
limited.
I am just glad that I had so many classic doors that were already damaged, I
didn't have to make this ethical decision for myself. But I do use these broken
"doors" as windows in many of my Lego buildings.
Gary Istok
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Modified Lego and new uses for old pieces.
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| (...) Modifying broken parts, which would otherwise stay useless, makes them useable again is something I've done, too. I've had a few 1x1 plates with lightclip where the lightclip broke off. The plates could be reused as normal 1x1 plates, the (...) (20 years ago, 14-Jun-04, to lugnet.general)
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