Storage solutions: Mimas
Posted by Huw,
Ian, aka Mimas, discusses storing his medium-sized mostly Technic collection:
Growing up building Lego in the 70's and into the early 80's, Space was my first love, followed by some of the early Technic sets - I still have 8840 Rally Shock & Roll Racer and 8845 Dune Buggy, but I wasn't a careful child and they are in pretty bad shape unfortunately. 3 years living in Kenya between 8 and 11 did nothing for poor 8845 which is permanently stained by red soil and sun bleached.
When we returned to the UK, I had a long dark age until 42009 Mobile Crane MK II woke me up and showed me how far Technic had come.
My dark age turned into a renaissance, with a rapid expansion in my collection in what seemed to be a great time for Technic. I picked up 42030 Volvo L350F Wheel Loader, 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs and then a whole host of current discontinued Technic. When my daughter was born, a Disney Castle was added, which led to Modular buildings and along the way some UCS Star Wars.
By this time, I'd run out of space, had a backlog of sets and wasn't really happy with the display or storage of any of it. At some point I also inexplicably disassembled a load of sets into one huge container which didn't help.
Lockdown gave me a bit of time to sort things out and while not perfect, I'm much happier with my setup now and have started to rebuild and display my sets again.
My wife suggested I move my modular street downstairs, which helped and I moved some complete sets into some longer term storage in the garage.
My system and loose pieces were already fairly well organised, which left the Technic mountain to conquer - about 25000 pieces all mixed up and I'd been avoiding it for a long time
I have one small room for Lego, which is a spare room at a pinch so needs to be relatively clear. I've put shelves up which double up for display and storage - they're nothing special, just twin-slot brackets and supports and some shelving I cut to fit.
This side of the room is for current builds and display – eventually all display. My plan is to build my favourite builds only and keep the rest of my piece available for MOC’s. I aim to have Porsche GT3 and Chiron on the same shelf as the Batmobile and build Mercedes Benz Arocs and Unimog as well as Mobile Crane Mk II on the same shelf as the Claas Xerion
The other side of the room isn’t as well organised – some unbuilt sets and some that I’m planning on selling to make room. The boxes on the bottom shelf are mostly system parts sorted by type in food bags or containers.
I have organised my Technic pieces into some broad categories and used a combination of Stanley Sortmaster, generic compartment storage (from Screwfix and B&Q) and bulk plastic boxes. The Really Useful storage tower I originally thought would be used for pieces is mostly full of instructions.
It's a setup that is working for me now - the generic trays are great as the compartments are removable, so with sorting by part, I can remove a container, tip it into a tray and very easily find what I want. As I mentioned, I'm in the process of rebuilding sets and this morning I was able to find all the parts for 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 400 in a couple of hours - doing that before would have taken forever.
I still have a backlog and it's always going to a work in progress, but it's under control at last!
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21 comments on this article
Was a Mindstorms person a whole dark age before I was ever a (pure) Technic person so seeing the parts sorted in compartment storage brings back very fond memories.
I'm hoping to have a small Technic parts collection should I ever want to get started with a GBC, now all I need to know is how best to gather an initial collection of parts to experiment with before I start BrickLinking specifics... my first pure Technic set is 42079 but I intend to build it, not part it out.
Ich liebe die Idee, bei anderen Lego Fans ins die Legozimmer zu schauen! Hoffentlich behaltet Ihr diese Rubrik noch sehr lange. Danke dafür!
I love the idea of looking into the Lego rooms of other Lego fans. Hopefully you will keep this section for a very long time. Thanks for that!
Possibly one of the few people who have gone large on Star Wars, Creator module and Technic, rather than just one theme. A new way of displaying main street in otherwise unused space above the sofa. Gives a new meaning to the word pin box, very organized with a separate box for gears, axles, connectors, beams etc. so that you can find pieces quickly. Are you mainly into restoration or have you build any moc's with all this Technic?
I use the generic storage containers from B&Q and having removable trays is a godsend. Also use the Stanley sortmaster but find these very 'dark' for storing small pieces.
Ah, how I would love to live in the fantasy land where this is a medium sized collection...
I wish I had the courage to mount my modulars on shelves in the way you have, @Mimas , but I'd be afraid they'd eventually crash to the floor. My wife had her collection of Sylvanian Families on display in this way in our bedroom - but one night, there was an almighty crash followed by weeping and wailing (my wife's, let me be clear) as we picked up squished bunnies and pandas and cracked dining room tables from the floor.
I have seen modulars being displayed like that before, great idea. It's almost like they are designed to be displayed like that.
@TerryWright: Oh no!!! As a former Sylvanian Families collector myself, that breaks my heart to hear.
@Lego_lord said:
" I have seen modulars being displayed like that before, great idea. It's almost like they are designed to be displayed like that."
they are :D ;)
@LegoSonicBoy said:
" @TerryWright: Oh no!!! As a former Sylvanian Families collector myself, that breaks my heart to hear."
Well, there was no substantial damage, just a few things here and there. But it has made us both wary of displaying our collections on non-bookcase shelves!
@TerryWright said:
Well, there was no substantial damage, just a few things here and there. But it has made us both wary of displaying our collections on non-bookcase shelves!
I remember the same thing happened to my mum’s china collection. It then went to pointing the finger at whoever had put the shelves up. I think there’s a valuable lesson there that should be passed down from father to son.
@Kynareth said:
"I remember the same thing happened to my mum’s china collection. It then went to pointing the finger at whoever had put the shelves up. I think there’s a valuable lesson there that should be passed down from father to son."
Perhaps we need some Brickset articles not only about storing and displaying LEGO, but also on how to put up the shelves in the first place!
This is about the size of my lego collection :P
But currently building them all back up :D
@Mimas Just unrelated whats that color blue on the modular back wall?
Nice collection but I must say some of the overhangs are scary to watch.
@ally78616 said:
" @Mimas Just unrelated whats that color blue on the modular back wall?"
I consulted the oracle (my wife) and the answer was this:
https://www.diy.com/search?term=marseille+paint
@Johnny__Thunder97
"The size of your sets collection is currently ranked 27704th"
I'd feel embarrassed to call it anything other in the context.
Admittedly I have a larger proportion of big sets so my parts collection is 8667th, but still mid table surely.
Hi Mimas, thanks for sharing your small space display and storage solutions! Would you mind letting me know how you are displaying the USC Millennium Falcon up on it's side like that? I think I see the feet of a stand, and I'm quite curious how I might achieve that angle.
@Kyrryn said:
"Hi Mimas, thanks for sharing your small space display and storage solutions! Would you mind letting me know how you are displaying the USC Millennium Falcon up on it's side like that? I think I see the feet of a stand, and I'm quite curious how I might achieve that angle."
It's this stand
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-10219/Lucioswitch81/effermans-vertical-stand-for-millennium-falcon-75192/info
I've had it up there for a couple of years now. Probably due and inspection to see how the beams and pins are holding up under the constant load!
Absolutely love these storage/collection articles! Keep them coming :)
Thanks for participating in the series! It is so interesting how everyone finds ways to make their Lego fit into their home and work , like you being able to find all the parts you need in only a few hours. That must have been satisfying!