Do you disassemble your sets?

I have a couple minifigure displays up, but have often wondered how long-term display impacts the parts. Are long-term minifigure displays a bad idea?

Most of my collection is from when I was a kid, and so the majority of it is all of mine and my brother’s sets mixed together for MOCs. I don’t even remember all of the sets we had. Over the summer, I sorted bricks for the first time and also realized a lot of them somehow disappeared over time, so I’m not sure I could even fully piece out sets if I wanted to unless I replaced a lot of pieces.

Since emerging from my dark ages fairly recently, many of my newer sets are still built and on display. I am running out of room, so I have to figure out what I want to do. My Newbury Haunted High School is exacerbating this issue because it totally fell apart when I moved it and left it on the floor and kept tripping over it, cat kept rubbing on it, etc. So I have these massive chunks and I feel like I should just break it down at this point and rebuild it again another time.

I also did an entire winter village scene this year for the first time and I need to take it down very soon or my mom will get mad. I definitely know I want to keep the sets separate, but I haven’t decided if I want to keep them built or break them down and rebuild next year. How am I supposed to know how much time I’ll have next holiday :P

As a younger child, I would build the sets and then off the pieces went - into the collection.

Now, I build them, maybe display it for a little while if it's a larger or really cool set, then take them apart and put the pieces in ziplock bags, put the instructions in a plastic bag (the kind used for comics), and then all of that goes back in the set's box. I'll try to get a duplicate of the set for parts if I find that I could use/want/need them.

Most of them stay on display.. the smaller ones get dismantle and used in mocs or to extend displayed sets.

@winbrant said:
"I bag them into Large/XL/XXL Ziploc bags before putting them in a box with other sets. "

I do the same thing, but it is starting to take a lot of space (i.e. Hogwarts Castle took 6 full bags).

As someone that just came out of their dark ages in 2020 (thanks Covid), the very few new sets that I've purchased have been for display purposes and have remained that way.

My older sets and the new ones for my 5 y/o, anything goes there. He likes to put them together and then within a short amount of time partially disassemble and build random vehicles and/or dinosaurs. About half of the stuff that isn't on display is neatly organized and about half is in general storage containers to rummage through.

I take parts from my sets regularly for use in temporary MOCs, but eventually disassemble the MOCs and put my sets back together.

I'm afraid I'm on the chaotic side here. I rotate most of my displays periodically and have two large 84 litre Really Useful boxes - one for the current year, one for the previous year. When I rotate sets I'll put the set being replaced into this year's box - whole, unbagged and fish the new set out of whichever box it's in, repair whatever damage it took without consulting instructions and put it on display. At the end of the year I take whatever's left in the previous year's box and disassemble that and put the parts into my collection for MOCs - still need to do this for 2019 tho hehe.
This works for me as it ensures the sets I haven't seen fit to display for a long time don't clutter my boxes, while the inherent damage sets take when stacked on top of each other assembled gives me an opportunity and motivation to personalise and customise them before they're put on display again.

I would love to keep my Lego models on semi-permanent display, but alas, I cannot find a suitable display cabinet. So I end up having to dismantle everything within a week or so of assembling it.

All the parts go into museum-quality archival storage bags (I used to use ordinary sandwich bags, but the PVC component started making the bricks go sticky). I keep the original box if they are deluxe packaging, like on Ideas or Architecture sets, otherwise I tend to ditch the box. To save space, I'll put multiple sets in a single box and I keep a written record of where everything is.

When I was a kid, my brother "lost" half the bricks from his sets by grabbing them to finish whatever MOCs he happened to be designing. So when it came to me, my parents laid down the law that Lego sets must stay as sets - to this day, I have never used any Lego set as a parts pack!

Some sets I bag up, like SW UCS and Creator Expert, most eventually go into 'general population' for MOCs.
Taking Technic apart normally doesn't really bother me, but I've just spent two evenings taking 42082 apart. By far the most difficult set ever to take apart. So much is interlocked it's like solving a Rubik's cube.

I'm a collector, I would love to have the time and creativity to make ambitious MOCs from my sets but I simply don't. Most things are dismantled after, say, a month or so, maybe a couple, and securely bagged and stored with their instructions. Most of the time, their original boxes are confined to the loft and I would never throw them away: however, the highlights of my collection (modulars, big D2Cs, Architecture & Ideas, the stuff with good-looking boxes) are stored in their original boxes on display. A handful of models (most prominently the VW Camper Van) are on permanent display, as and when it takes my fancy.

For me, non-displayed sets are zip-bagged with their instructions. Depending on the size of the build relative to the bag, it is either disassembled or kept built. I keep the bags by theme in cube bins that fit into Ikea Kallax cubbies. I use the Target house brand bins because they are more sturdy than the Ikea ones.

@NathanR2015
Where do you get your archival quality bags?

My collection is mainly technic (almost 300 sets) and all of them are on display. When I get 2nd hand sets in I always take them apart to verify if all pieces are there and also to have the fun of building them myself.
I'm going to move some sets around to move the small ones to a different room and keep the big ones available to view for whoever is visiting.

I've connected 2 regular IKEA Billy bookcase together so I can also store 8485 and 8855 in it behind glass doors.

For my Creator collection, I buy clear plastic wallets with colour-coded zips from Ryman's, a retail stationery chain here in the UK. They come in several sizes, so I always make sure I have one large enough, going by the size of each sets' instruction manual. I put the manual in the front so I can identify each set, then pour all the pieces in behind it, then shake the bag so the pieces settle into the flattest shape possible. All my bagged sets are stored in plastic boxes, designated by year. I use the wallets' colour code to designate the primary colour of each set, so for example 31100 Sports Car is in a red bag. It just works for me.

Depends. If it’s a set I plan on building again, I will painstakingly disassemble in reverse bag number order and put everything back in it’s original box. Sets that don’t meet this criteria are disassembled and elements are put into corresponding parts drawers

Most sets I dimatle after a view years, Keep the pieces in plastic containers. I don't mix sets.
After a view years I reassable the set again, or try to make somthing different.
So I always have different sets on display.

I have 15 or so on display, most of the collection lives in easily reassembled chunks in plastic bins, most of my older sets are in varying states of disassembly, and the UCS Slave I currently is parted out by bag in its original box

My children's sets sooner or later go into cardboard standard sized boxes (about DIN A4, A5 and A6 sizes) with a picture and number on it. they stack up nice in a closet used just for that and can be pulled out and rebuilt easily.
This is working great for the kids and me to keep some sort of control about the fundus (it's never 100% complete, but these are toys, so ...).

My childrens loose parts are in sorters by type so they can do their freestyle MOCs. This is also my spareparts source if needed for anything bought 2nd hand etc.

My AFOL system sets are too large for these boxes, so i disassemble them and put them into plastic bags with numbers on it, that's it. stored in a closet dark and dry. sometimes i rebuild one, realizing that putting everything in the same bag was a bad idea, so the second time i disassemble i do rough sorts by type / size with sub-bags.
It kind of works for me just good enough, and i've not had a better idea and the time yet.

My technic sets are disassembled and parted out into sorters, so i can use rebrickable to build models i don't actually own (i think with that stock i can build almost any relevent model up until 2018, when technic went bad for me).
this idea is good in theory, but it's still quite a tedious task to pull out the parts needed for a specific build by partlists, so currently i'm re-thinking this system whether its worth the sets i can build without owning them, compared with the time needed to get the parts and put them back in for each and every build ...

(Taking apart technic sets are okay for me up until AROCs ... BWE and Big Red were a real pain to disassemble, it seems like the threshhold for pain is somewhere between 2800 and 4000 parts.)

Most sets are on display for a few weeks then bagged up and put in their original boxes. I tend to use Ikea Istad bags as they're good quality & have a double seal. I generally can't be bothered to do numbered bags so just sort by colour or size.

It feels wrong to throw the boxes away and I wouldn't buy a set without it's original box either.

The only sets I have permanently built are modulars. I had Tower Bridge assembled for a few years but have just dismantled that for space to start 'street 2'

I don't have a huge collection so every set is either on display, in plastic models, or still dismantled and mixed with other sets from when I used to dismantle them. I've actually been going back and rebuilding sets I haven't had assembled in years. If I need to dissemble sets in the future for storage purposes, I'll probably put each set in its own bag so I won't lose the pieces. I store my minifigures in bags by theme.

I have all my modulars built apart from ninjago, which are in their boxes in a cupboard, along with the majority of my sets. The Silent Mary and the Ninjago Bounty are on my bookcases, along with WALLIE, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Bond car, Las Vegas and San Francisco. I have a lot of books! The Collosseum is in front of one my lego box filled cupboards, while the Tree House, Priates of Barracuda Bay, Ghostbuster HQ, Apollo Landing, The Old Fishing Store are in the middle of my modulars, which include moc modulars of Tower Bridge, Taj Mahal, Houses of Westminster and Haunted House.

All my sets I have displayed whilst the empty boxes (with spares and instructions) are in the attic. I had to bring my Ford Mustang one from the attic to get the spares which are for Firas Abu-Jaber (awesome name btw) Ford Raptor :)

I'm lucky enough to have space for my sets atm :)

It's funny the juxtaposition of Lego; on one hand it's one of the best feelings in the world building Lego and on the other it's the worst thing ever disassembling a Lego set (especially technic) as it's unrewarding and a chore to do regardless of its for storing away or to sell it on

My display space is very limited, so after a set has been on display for a while it gets dismantled.

What happens to the parts differs per set. Most sets go into the big parts bin, to be sorted at a later stage for MOC building (and for the kids to play with when they are old enough). The boxes go in the recyling, I don't have the space to keep them all.
Some sets which are special to me (birthday gift from my wife, for example), go into ziplock bags (numbered as the set came) and back in the original box.

I dismantle all my sets, st some point. I used to sort sll the pieces by color and then bag then, accordingly. There's something satisfying about seeing all the separate colors.

This became a problem with lsrger sets, though. I've become so spoiled by the numbered bags in new sets, that when it came time to reassemble a set, I dreaded having to dig for a part (especially hard trying to find a black pirece in a bag full of other black pieces ). So lately I've started disassembling large sets by following the instructions in reverse. I stop when I reach a bag number in the instructions and then number my ziploc bag. Large sets go back in their box,.

Smaller sets that maybe only had 2 or 3 numbered bags or didnt have any numbered bags, I still sort by color just for the satisfaction, but then I dump all the pieces into one ziploc bag. Smaller sets then all go into a storage container with other smaller sets

I have a mix.
I have two large shelves with my UCS and Technic models. I won't dissemble Technic as it's a pain in the neck and I like having them out anyway. The Creator Expert vehicles are on the bookshelves and I have a couple small shelves with architecture and odds and ends like the NYCC Boba Fett and Carbonite Han. I'm lucky enough to have a City layout which is most of the modulars, skyscrapers, monorail, and a mix of Town and City. The few modulars that aren't in Brickadelphia are whole in plastic bins. Anything else, that isn't on display, is broken down, bagged, and placed into large plastic bins by theme(s).

And of course my soon-to-be-completed UCS Falcon will live in its Docking Bay 327 coffee table.

This is all in the basement.

@Librarian1976 said:
" @NathanR2015
Where do you get your archival quality bags?"

I've been using these:
https://www.preservationequipment.com/Catalogue/Archival-Storage/Photographic-Storage/Polyethylene-Zipper-Bags

They're a bit pricy, and don't hold up so well to repeat handling (If I rebuild a model multiple times, then after the third time the bag has been filled with the parts the bag usually needs replacing due to small holes/tears from sharp corners of the bricks).

I'm not sure what a USA equivalent would be. But basically, you want to look for bags that are made from virgin polyethylene, i.e. not using recycled plastics, so that there are no impurities that could react with the contents. The key thing is to avoid anything containing PVC, which breaks down over time and releases hydrogen chloride gas. This is an acidic gas (the liquified version is hydrochloric acid!), and if the bag is completely airtight then the acidity will build up and start eating away at the bag's contents.

@MrJackson said:
"I have a mix.
I have two large shelves with my UCS and Technic models. I won't dissemble Technic as it's a pain in the neck and I like having them out anyway. The Creator Expert vehicles are on the bookshelves and I have a couple small shelves with architecture and odds and ends like the NYCC Boba Fett and Carbonite Han. I'm lucky enough to have a City layout which is most of the modulars, skyscrapers, monorail, and a mix of Town and City. The few modulars that aren't in Brickadelphia are whole in plastic bins. Anything else, that isn't on display, is broken down, bagged, and placed into large plastic bins by theme(s).

And of course my soon-to-be-completed UCS Falcon will live in its Docking Bay 327 coffee table.

This is all in the basement. "

My dad disassembled his UCS Falcon about a year ago, using reverse instruction method, but would put two or three numbered bags in a single large ziploc and honestly I can't quite fathom how he's going to ever rebuild that hunk of grey... it's currently back in its original box under an unused desk

I keep them in bags per similar colour and theme (for example batman sets together).

I generally find Technic to be easier to put into my collection, as there tends to be a lot fewer different elements in the sets than there are in system sets. They are more difficult to take apart though!

Well... Nobe of the options described accurately what I do.

I have on display my long term collection, I don't disassemble ever these, however, I do often purchase smaller sets for parts, that I mix together with others that I own.

I actually have very few sets I’ve taken apart. If I need a piece for a MOC then I just usually steal it off a set without completely destroying it—substituting it when I can.

Most of the reason I take things apart is the fun of putting them together again. Like most people I have my Modulare up all year long, and have some sets on display that rotate out. I have a Halloween and Christmas themed display that comes out for their respective timelines.

I have completely disassembled my collection twice to move from North Carolina to Germany in 2016 and then to Texas in 2019.. It is stressful thinking about what to put together first when you have just moved...

The sets I keep boxes for will be partially dismantled so they fit in their box (I don't know if this way is good or not). Other sets completely dismantled and stored in boxes with other Lego.

I don't schedule "breaking" any set, but it always happens to happen

Technic sets and sets purchased for pieces get broken down and separated out by piece.

Sets purchased because they're awesome but I don't have the space to currently display get broken down by numbered bag and stored.

It's evolutionary:
Starting as a (technic) collector I kept the bigger ones assembled, e.g. 8480, 8868, 8880 .
If a set gets modified to enhance play value, it won't be disassembled.
Some of the early acquired models were disassembled but stored singly in bag(s).
Extra (second/surplus) sets perhaps got assembled to check for completeness but were added to the parts storage.
Later, sets were solely bought for parts (color, function). Some were assembled for fun then added to the storage.
I've got a 80x120x40 cm³ cupboard and two bedding boxes to store assembled models: original sets, modified sets, models. These are used for bigger sets with (ca.) 800+ parts. Smaller ones from first collecting years are kept in 40x60 "Euro"-boxes if parts weren't needed for MOCs.
The really big newer sets (42055, 42082, 42113, 42114 , https://brickshelf.com/gallery/rothw/technic/AW169/87_img_7483k.gif ) are currently resting on top of these crates wrapped in thin bags to keep away the dust. The ones I like will only be dissembled if I need space to add new ones to my collection.
I have built 42114 in december. I suppose it will be taken apart soon. In the past days, I have assembled my first 42043 . The crane, with is of not much use, will be removed, the truck gets stored in the cupboard as it will then fit inside.

I have no dedicated Lego room: usually I have 1-3 sets on display in the living room. Most of my sets are >1.000 pieces.

Roughly every 2-8 weeks I disassemble one and store it in the attic in the original box (within a brown cardboard box), and I build a new one. Rinse and repeat :)

@cupishalfempty said:
"Need an "All of the above" option.
For me:
-Some sets stay built forever
-Some get broken down into parts
-Some are stored whole
-Some are stored by set broken down
-Some are sold
"

Definitely this.
It really depends on how much I like the set and who it “belongs” to (I would otherwise store or part out some of my daughter’s princess or friends sets, but she insists on keeping them built).

All of the above would have been my answer. My UCS sets are on display, so are a bunch of others, but I don’t have the room to display them all so I have taken some apart and keep them stored individually. I have rebuilt some at times too. I also take some apart for the pieces because I do MOCs and MODs. And I do sell some from time to time.

I am fortunate that I have a reasonably dedicated room - my City layout consists of road and base plates on boards which were formerly on a double bed but then changed to Stanley plastic trestles with a timber frame over - lots of storage under for boxes and bits and a now 6.5 x 9 baseplate layout over the top. There are also shelves with stuff on in there and other rooms have larger Creator car models and one-off items for display, such as ship in a bottle, Yellow Submarine and suchlike. Basically, once its built, it stays built but in the case of the Modulars, usually modified too so no set is really cast in stone. Dust and UV damage to white parts (I have a large white block of flats currently near a south facing window which really needs a rethink!) are the only issues...

My modulars stay built all the time, everything else depends upon size and space in my work room on how long they stay complete after building out of the box.

I just disassembled my UCS SSD after a year (of dusting it!) but that’s the longest anything has ever stayed built.

Okay I said I dismantle them all because that is true for 99% of my sets... but some things like my modular buildings and barricuda bay are staying in one piece because they will never get rebuilt if I do take them apart.

Some are on permanent display (e.g. my modulars and some larger Star Wars sets); others have been dismantled and packed in plastic bags (e.g. Benny's Spaceship); others still have just been put away in a trunk as they are, but perhaps with some bits removed (e.g. I've detached the wings from my 9492 to make it easier to 'trunk').

My son (now 12) has the majority of sets on display, though he has broken up the occasional set and kept mixed the parts in large a Really Useful Box.

Ideally, I'd like a mansion - or at least a largish spare room - to have as a LEGO room.

All sets are partpacks for creating own world.

To be honest, it's about time I broke down my BWE, too. It's getting pretty dusty. Trouble is, that means I'll also have to break down the 42043 and the 42009 as well.

Wish my thumbs luck!

My winter village ones are dismantled every year and every year it takes longer to rebuild the display.

We currently have a mixture of HP and Technic out and we're looking at replacing HP with our Monster Fighters in 2021 to ring the changes

I thought I was weird but good to see I’m currently in the majority

I hate dust, have no permanent display space, and hate dissembling (though brick separator is a big help). My sets are stored as whole/partial in plastic bins. Therefore, I don't buy many big sets if I can't find a away to store them the way I want.

Lego is for building... perhaps with unlimited money I could always buy new Lego to build while leaving old sets on display, but really they take up so much space when built, so I dismantle and put in resealable zip-lock bags (as per the instruction so that the next time I build it is a fun experience instead of trawling through thousands of pieces for a particular part), then store in the boxes. They the sets are ready to be rebuilt by myself, or sold on to make room for another new set!

I don’t really have budget to keep buying new sets all the time, so generally I need to sell in order to buy! Thankfully even used Lego generally appreciates in value when it’s a larger set, so it can be one 2000 piece model out, then two in!

Custom solution. due to space issues: Few (recent buys and largest ones) are kept on display, everything else PARTIALLY dismatled to fit into 1L/3L ziploc bags (for quick assembly) and THEN stored either in their boxes or plastic containers in cases of sets without o.b. Now and the I put up a display scene, so I have all of them ready in little time.
What I learned: it is possible to store the 4483 AT-AT partially dismantled in only two 3L bags! :)

I keep them whole and in storage, usually; I have ever since, as a kid, I realised what an absolute pain in the REAR it was to rebuild a set after I'd scattered its pieces into the depths of my loose parts collection! There was a certain point, I think when I was eleven, where I realised that I preferred to have my sets assembled and easily on-hand for playing with, rather than as spare parts... the fact that I've never been much of a MOCist probably had a part in that too.

Though I wasn't above 'borrowing' pieces from completed sets if I needed them for another purpose... I just always made sure to return them afterwards.

And I've just... kept to that ever since. For a while I tried keeping them dismantled and bagged up, to save on space, but that didn't really work for me; I prefered to just have a box or drawer of fully-built sets available for when the mood takes me to fiddle around with them, with all my minifigures in a separate box or tin on the side.

And I mean, with the onset of my 'dark age', I dismantled and sold a lot of sets, and I probably would again if I felt like I needed to get rid of some; but again, always as complete sets. Turning them into a mishmash of loose parts that I'd probably not even use for anything just mildly offends my sense of personal order xD

That said, at present, the state described above *ISN'T* the current state of my collection. I'm hoping to relocate out of my parents' house in the not-too-distant future, so I've dismantled and bagged up a vast majority of my sets in preparation for that move... except for a few small ones that could fit in other boxes, and UCS BB-8 because I am *NOT* gonna try and pull all those tiny little plates apart if I don't have to!

What I do with sets I'm never gonna use anymore is disassemble in bags and use those parts for MOCs and stuff

When I have a permanent home of my own with a dedicated hobby room, then I will disassemble most everything, organize the parts, and set up a dedicated MOC station. Until then, I just disassemble sets and store them in the closet because I don't have room to leave loose parts and works in progress lying around.

@Darth_Mule said:
" @one_wag said:
"Sets are MOC fodder, they stay built for a month or so then into the system they go"

Exactly my point of view.
Creating MOCs is the best part of LEGO."

I completely agree. With a few exceptions (the Saturn V rocket) I don’t display built sets. They take up too much space and I would rather display a moc. All my sets get parted out for moc use eventually.

I chose " something else" because I dismantle sets which are less important to me (such as battle packs) and combine their parts with my organized loose parts collection. I do use this collection to make MOCs. Other sets (such as the T16 Skyhopper) I intend to keep assembled indefinitely.

One further remarks:
Typically it's not disassembling that bothers me but sorting away the parts from this process.
However, on some old technic sets (most recently 8466) the black (2L) friction pins are fitting tightly and thus difficult to extract.

I only bag up some my sets if I need the space.

Dismantle them, sort by colors then store in plastic boxes.

Now this is a great idea for a post!

I have genuine anxiety around how many sets I have bagged up and in storage. I could sell them on, but I've had too many occasions when I've suddenly had the urge to rebuild an old set I thought I had lost all interest in.

My display space is relatively limited, and I've lately started the distressing habit of buying "hero" sets that are big and expensive and I want to keep on display for a long time to justify the cost to myself. I'm really quite short on space for rotation now!

It doesn't help that, while I love building, I hate disassembling! It tends to lead to a pile up of sets I've taken off display but haven't got around to taking apart yet.

I only display 1 or 2 sets at a time. Right now it's Central Perk and Pirates of Barracuda Bay. I bag the pieces that belong to a set and keep them with the original boxes. I just have to keep the sets intact! If I borrow a piece, I will always return it to its proper set. For loose parts, I have them sorted into various bins and containers.

For me it is a mix, for the sets I collect myself (star wars, super heroes, modulars etc that re on my website I keep them with their box (broken down insofar needed to fix) everything else (city technic, ninjago etc) is broken down to pieces and put together on colour (need a better sorting for that as the boxes are to full)

I chose “Other” since I do a little bit of All of the Above in the poll. Limited space means I have to be flexible. Currently I’ve been disassembling a bunch of stuff and getting the parts into sort tubs but some of the recently built stuff and stuff I really like is either in tubs or on display somewhere.

Some sets are out of retail boxes, still in numbered bags but kept with their instructions in other tubs. Vehicles (ground), Vehicles (air, sea, space), Environments, Brickheadz, etc. When I feel like it I pull from these ‘To Build’ tubs.

It’s all a bit too systemic honestly. I want more space so I can break free a little.

@chefkaspa said:
"One further remarks:
Typically it's not disassembling that bothers me but sorting away the parts from this process.
However, on some old technic sets (most recently 8466 ) the black (2L) friction pins are fitting tightly and thus difficult to extract."

I would just use a pair of pliers to pull them out then put them all in the rubbish bin. They are a well known Lego mistake from the early Technic days

Another mix of options from me.

We have had one room dedicated as home office/study since moving into this house, and re-did it a couple of years back with matching Billy's and an Ikea desk rather than the patchwork of bookcases, drawers and odd bits that had accumulated. Since starting to work from home every day rather than once a week I have really appreciated this!

So, looking around me now there are about 40 sets and various CMFs on display in the cupboards or just loose on my desk for fiddling with during zoom calls. Of these, about half have been together since purchase while the rest are rebuilt as and when the mood for change takes me.

Anything I want to have as per instructions again gets dismantled into one or more cleaned ice cream tubs (Kelly's in the main!) and stacked by the side of my desk. Everything else goes into the parts collection for MOCS.

I usually have at least one shelf in one of the Billys dedicated to a large MOC that will comprise custom scenery and buildings/vehicles plus possibly a few official builds as well from whatever theme has tempted me that build cycle.

I have no plans to ever sell the collection, so all boxes get recycled with the exception of a few Ideas ones that are full of spare polybags or dismantled sets. Spare parts from sets go straight into the loose part collection. If I ever reach the stage of not wanting any LEGO around it will go to whatever the appropriate generation of relatives lives nearby, and should I get hit by a bus tomorrow I suspect MrsB will pass it on in the same manner.

@lynels said:
"If I had available space to store boxes, I would dismantle them. Especially since it looks like some parts get stressed if assembled for too long. My 75090 has tiny cracks on some parts, and two parts from my 10211 have broken."

I dismantle them, bag them and store in plastic boxes.
And from time to time I rebuild a theme.
I also experienced breaking some parts when rebuilding or re-disassembling the sets.
Some parts are mat and sound strange like they will break.
These are especially parts from 2011-2013 in reddish brown and dark brown.
I also noticed that some axles in black are now mat and this way it is more difficult to put gears or bricks on them.

I'm honestly quite surprised at the number of people who dismantle their sets! I keep all of mine on display, and I figured that was pretty normal - seems like I'm in the minority though. I design MOCs digitally and Bricklink the parts I need so all of my sets stay complete.

I have all my sets parted out per element shape. Recent years I mostly buy instructions and missing pieces. I hardly have the intention to build a model for a second time. I have some wooden boxes with segments for the larger parts like beams, frames and panels, and a large amount of translucent "screw" boxes for all the tiny bits. The translucent boxes help find the pieces fast without them getting dusty.
My dream is to have an automated storage and part picking robot that can work with rebrickable part lists.

I keep most of my stored sets whole, but some are broken into smaller chunks to fit more efficiently in a box. A small few are broken down completely and bagged by set. I also have quite a few unopened sets that are waiting to be built when I have more space.

Normally I partially disassemble sets as much as I can, then try to fit them tetris-style into plastic tubs. This doesn't take too much time and also makes it much faster to take sets out and make them whole again.

Just yesterday I started dismantling some sets completely and bagging them up. It definitely saves more space but I was surprised at how long it took - probably won't dismantle as many sets as I had originally planned to.

For me sets are sets and stay partially built and bagged in storage containers organized by theme when not on display. This is a far cry from my childhood when all sets went into the "Lego bin" like most kids. I painstakingly reassembled all 200 of my brother and my sets and ordered any missing parts in 2014. Whenever I want to do a moc I just order all the pieces I need so I don't have to destroy one of my sets... unless it is just a terrible set or already missing too many parts.

@Huw 's question presupposes that one builds sets in the first place. I don't always. Some sets I buy for parts for immediate use in MOCs/mods, or for parts I may need in future. Some sets I haven't yet got round to opening (I still haven't opened 79018 Lonely Mountain which I bought when it was released in 2014; I intend to display Smaug and use the building parts for a MOC).

@Farmer_John said:
"I have a couple minifigure displays up, but have often wondered how long-term display impacts the parts. Are long-term minifigure displays a bad idea?"
I have been collecting minifigures since 1993 and some of them have been on display on shelves either free-standing or attached to plates since then. They are in perfect condition. As long as you keep them out of sunlight and don't let them get hot, you should be good for a few centuries.

I keep everything built and on display (unless it's something annoying to keep together, such as advent calendar builds or Dimensions packs).

I would never store or disassemble an "ordinary" set. At that point, I would rather just sell it and save the space. I buy LEGO because I like the product and I don't really feel that I can appreciate a set if it's stored up, out of sight.

That's just my personal opinion, nothing against those that do disassemble/store their sets.

When it comes to MOCs, I prefer to design digitally and then buy the parts I need to build it. I don't like the limitations of a finite amount of pieces (even if it's a very large finite amount), and I've never been able to just dive into a box of unsorted parts and build something (way too chaotic for my mind).

I have a larger box for each "theme" ("Legoland" / "Castle" / "Friends" / "City" etc), and each set will get disassembled into Ziplock style bags (the one from Ikea are great, some of them are 6L in size!), along with the instructions. From time to time I'll go over each box and sell unwanted sets. Any extra pieces that came with it will go to the sorting/extra area, where I sort and place my "lot" left overs which I use for moc/play/replacement parts if needed.

I do switch display often, as I love Lego a lot, but don't like it when the house has Lego all over the place. I mostly display in a dedicated cabinet in my living room, shelving unit in my home office and we turn the garage to a large "Lego City" once in a while with the kids, so storage is important.

The only sets I don't disassemble are the trains, which I store built in boxes, sets which are perme-display such as modular buildings and Johnny 5.

I just keep getting more display cases. Upsets my wife something cruel

Most of the sets I buy nowadays are for the sole purpose of displaying. However, there are some sets that I buy for the minifigs or the parts, and those get scrapped sometimes immediately and then sorted into my part collection. I haven’t yet run out of space, but when I do, I suspect I’ll dismantle and store the parts for each set together in case I want to rotate my display or put up another shelf!

It depends on how much I like the set. If it is something that I like but not enough to display it, then I’ll dismantle and bag it. If I don’t care for it too much, I’ll dismantle it and mix the parts in with my collection.

All the sets I've got in the last 3 years are mostly on display, everything else is half-sorted and half all mixed up in one bin.

Most of the sets we build are kept out to be played with. Our basement renovation has been where the majority of them end up, though my daughter does an amazing job of strewing the LEGO everywhere throughout the house!

I rarely take apart sets, but due to a slight mishap with the UCS Millennium Falcon - I ended up dismantling it and putting it back into the box. (we hadn't found a good place to fit it anyway, so another good reason to tear it apart for now). It took about 8 hours to fully dismantle that set!! Even with brick separators and pliers, that was such a chore to do.

After the sets are built and enjoyed for a few months, I break them down and send them back to Lego. Lego sorts, washes, and donates the bricks to charity.

@Slave2lego said:
" @chefkaspa said:
"... the black (2L) friction pins are fitting tightly and thus difficult to extract."

I would just use a pair of pliers to pull them out then put them all in the rubbish bin. They are a well known Lego mistake from the early Technic days
"
I am using a medium length (6..9L) axle plus part no 32013 https://brickset.com/parts/design-32013 for this but it takes considerably longer.
I only use metal tools if anything else fails.

At the beginning of quarantine here in VA I decided to go through all my old boxes of Lego (that I had not opened in at least 10 years). To keep in mind when I put these sets away during my dark ages I thought it wrong to take them apart so I mainly just had random boxes full of built sets. Of course for long term storage this was a terrible idea since pieces could fall off and get mixed in the bottom of said boxes, also I had lost my old brickset account so I needed to restart inventory. What I came up with is a spreadsheet listing each set I was going through, and corresponding hefty/ziploc bags that had the series and number written on the side in black ink. I then numbered the various boxes I had "1, 2, 3, CASTLE, SW, Train" etc. If the set was a bigger one I would separate pieces by type/size/color, otherwise if it was a medium-smaller set I would just bag all the parts together. If the set had large tile parts or clear windows/cockpits I would put these pieces in their own protective bags within the set bags so as not to get scratched any way/any how.

I've gotten to the point where about 97% of the sets I owned as a kid are properly sorted and stored. Any new/old sets I have been buying to help fill out gaps in my collection also get brought into my organizing system. If I need to clear room for more new set boxes I tend to find certain sets to take out of their boxes (carefully). Also, if there are certain minifigures that I want to access for whatever reason I mark down in my spreadsheet if I've taken out a minifigure from any given set on my list. I have a separate box that houses those minifigures (each in their own respective mini bags so there is less chance for them to get damaged).

I don't have a house of my own yet to display my collection, so until then I just wanted them to be stored safely (and away from any bright windows) in an organized manner! This way when I DO get the space to display more than a few of these sets I'll know exactly where to find them in my various boxes!

A mixture of things, for sets I like and want to keep to rebuild like winter village, modular, trains and others I dismantle and bag parts. All others get split and sorted for mocs, some sets I buy for parts never get built and get split for parts straight away.

I really enjoy the parts for MOCs. I do always build the set first though as a rule, and I really enjoy it because sometimes I learn new techniques, new color combinations, or new geometry. But then after a week or so, everything gets taken apart and sorted into little drawers. I do occasionally rebuild really old sets from my childhood for nostalgia I guess, but for the most part, all the instruction booklets are stored in bins in the attic. The one exception to this is the Mario NES/TV set. It is the only LEGO set I have ever displayed ever. I have it on our wood console under the TV and my wife wants me to keep it there. So that’s cool. If she likes it as a decoration, I think it’s great that she’s happy with visible LEGO in the house.

For me the pieces are a palette for creativity. Like getting different colors of paint, the more shapes, sizes, angles, etc., the more fun I get to have creating art.

Of all my sets, only 4 have been acquired exclusively for display, plus 1 MOC. The rest are for parts or play. Every set gets built but then disassembled at some point and the parts get mixed with the rest.
Part selection for possible MOCs is an important consideration for me when buying a set, with a view to what else I can use the parts for. Plus, no set is sacrosanct: there is only one set (21051 Tokyo) that hasn't had some sort of change made to it. I find improvements to make to every set I buy.
I've kept all the instructions, and have recently used some 40+ year old instructions as the basis for new models.

Big part of my collection from early ages is assembled and stored in boxes. On the other side, all my technic models are on display, as well as architecture and ideas sets, along with small dioramas for Marvel and seasonal sets. On the other side, I disassemble the christmas sets and winter village every year, so I can build it during advent. Funny thing is, that today, when this article came out, I was thinking about rebuilding The Barracuda Bay, but at the end I did not dissasemble it, because I do not have enough space on my work table right now.

@psychman7 said:
"I will build them, leave them together for a while, and then I'll bag them up (usually I'll follow the instructions in reverse) by the numbered bag they came in, and put them in boxes. That way when I decide to reassemble them, it's still as organized as the first time I built it."

Same here, ready for me or a mate to build again.
I have to check it again when it comes back but I don't think my OCD wouldn't let me get away with anything else. ;-)

@MisterBrickster said:
"I could sell them on, but I've had too many occasions when I've suddenly had the urge to rebuild an old set I thought I had lost all interest in. "

Oof, I feel that too! Most of the sets I sold off due to 'dark age', I don't miss... but there are a select handful that I almost regret letting go of... especially since, nowadays, they're a far more expensive proposition to get back! I've learned to maybe be a little more discerning in deciding which sets to sell on or keep!

I do a mix- for a few themes and types of sets (SW, a-wings, UCS) I will keep assembled or at least dissembled and bagged. Everything else gets dismantled and sorted for MOCs and parts collections. If a set is special for me it stays on the shelf for a while!

I bought 75969 Hogwarts Astronomy Tower last week and haven't built it because I have nowhere to display it! I need to dismantle some sets, but I don't enjoy it. I put each set's parts in plastic bags, sometimes the smallest sets of a theme together.

@psychman7 said:
"I will build them, leave them together for a while, and then I'll bag them up (usually I'll follow the instructions in reverse) by the numbered bag they came in, and put them in boxes. That way when I decide to reassemble them, it's still as organized as the first time I built it."

I love the idea of reverse building to bag them up as new.
But I’m not sure I could put the extra time in with so many sets.
Older sets didn’t have such organised bags to start with. Which did in someways add a bit more to the build......searching for pieces. I used to quite enjoy that.
As it is I’ve only recently started dismantling. Prior to the crapness of 2020 all my sets were built and boxed apart from a few that my wife allowed me to display.
But I have now bagged, numbered and boxed most in themed boxes.
I keep my favourites and what I consider to be great (but not favourite) sets built and boxed in the hope that one day perhaps an extra room will magically appear in the house, just for me!

My collection started with a seasonal basis (Halloween, Winter Village, Chinese New Years) which get disassembled and stored in color coded Room Copenhagen boxes through the year and then rebuilt seasonally, and I keep the giant LEGO-piece shaped storage boxes on display full time.

Most of mine are either on display, or in boxes waiting for room to go on display. I keep a little box of mixed up polybags in my desk for playing with, though.

Vintage sets (dated before my dark age) are all assembled; pirates and castle are on display, while space and town are currently in boxes. This started as a way to check which were complete, but now I can’t get around to breaking them down...!

As for newer sets, it depends. Most starships remain intact and on display, but other sets (side-builds from battle packs, vignette scenes, etc) get recycled into parts for MOCs.

Currently we’re discussing moving... I’m sure many display sets will need to be disassembled...

some vintage sets are kept complete because of nostalgoc reasons (complete blacktron, space police 1, aquasharks, spyrius for example)...
Most other sets are dismantled and put into my parts collection for mocking,...I almost never keep sets from post 2000 complete,...except for my modulars...

It varies... some I buy to build and display (ie. Ideas Sets), so I buy for rebuilding but that inevitably includes some dismantling and mixing parts with my collection...
I rarely keep boxes.

The last few years I have been using 50 and 64 litre Really Useful Boxes to store a lot of sets whole. For example all the modulars, my Winter Village, themed Star Wars boxes - e.g. Tatooine or Hoth sets. Takes up a lot of space but I love the fact I can quickly put together a display.

Never disassemble any of my sets, especially for modulars and technic. Keeping them assemble is what they are most worthy for. You don't buy these two themes to build them and then disassemble them into parts sitting in storage. Not to mention disassembling large technic sets are probably one of the worst things that have to deal with Lego. Rather have them collect dust than to get hurt and wasting time. Not to mention the risk of losing parts during the process in the long run and have to rebuild them in the future. If you really don't want dust then just get a large container bin or something. It's way more worth it than taking them apart. Also, the 64 litre Really Useful Box that Huw mentioned is way more expensive than even the largest 200 litre bin here in the US. The 200 litre bin cost half of it and can store pretty much any official Lego set in one piece. Worst case you may only have to remove a few parts to fit them in but that may only apply to UCS MF or something lol

Shocked that around 20% say that all their sets are on display. Either they're brand new to LEGO, live in a mansion or they're the types that _only_ buy Star Wars UCS sets or something like that.

..Take.........
................Them........
...............................apart ......?

I usually have no room to display my Sets what so ever. That will be c
So most of my Build Sets are on a IKEA IVAR Shelf covered by the IVAR Cover to protect them from dust. Right now I have the 42056: Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 42083: Bugatti Chiron on one IVAR 83 x 50 cm shelf waiting for the 42115: Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 that I haven't build yet.

I don't have many big Sets besides Technic so what I do is put them in the Box as is maybe partially disassemble them like the Star Wars Ships (X-Wings, U-Wings etc.) by removing the wings.
So if I want to play with them I can just take it out and have it ready.
I even started bagging the Minifigures and Accessoires in a ziploc bag so I can pull them out and
don't have all the small parts flying around in the box.
One of the more surprising one is definitely the 75257: Millennium Falcon.

For Technic I tend to dismantle them and put the parts in the Box since they are so bulky and there is no easy way to partially disassemble them. Usually sort by part or type or something that seems to make sense in my Mind and put them in ziploc Bags.

Eventually I'll be sorting them something like the Stanley Drawers
so I can access them very easy and build MOCs.

@Librarian1976 said:
" @NathanR2015
Where do you get your archival quality bags?"

IKEA zip lock bags. Strong, cheap and they come in a range of sizes.

Some sets I dismantle completely - if I think I'll want to put them together again and will enjoy rebuilding (these are bagged and labeled).

Some sets I dismantle partially - if I know I'll display again and prefer not to have to rebuild from scratch (e.g., winter village type displays, partially broken down for easier storage but bagged to keep parts together).

Some sets I dismantle permanently - purchased for the parts but put together once for fun before sorting out.

Great article and responses. So much variety. Up until last March, most big sets I’d acquired since 2014 (end of extended dark age) i.e Modulars, Ninjago City, Ideas like Saturn V, Fishing Store etc were built and ‘displayed’ although in reality that meant mostly stored in my Lego shed, and just a token few items in my study - calendar, Saturn V, Apollo Moon lander, Emmett's house from TLM2. CMFs all kept by series in the old display boxes in shed, others minifigs from themes like City, Ultra Agents, DC/Marvel plus CMF duplicates etc stored in RUB’s, with sets I’d built then broken down also all stored in variety of RUBs by colour and in trays for part type(s) depending on amounts. Come lockdown and furlough, I decided to break down and bag/rebox my older Modulars, bigger Ideas sets, Ninjago City, Docks, Temples, lots of Creator sets, now stored in garage. Saved some space by putting smaller sets in with larger sets with space in the box. Made me realise I also had far too many sets yet unbuilt and I now wonder if I ever will get around to them and beginning to consider the previously unthinkable idea of selling them Also feel I need a better display solution for CMFs (my main addiction) as they’re a bit wasted stuck in shed.

I only display the most iconic or appealing ones for my taste. But it also depends on the theme. For star wars, creator expert and ideas, I keep almost all displayed. For others, I tend to keep the sets I like or the most iconic ones like supercars or 1989 batmobile. I don't usually consider the volume as a deciding factor. I am unsure about 42055 but probably will disassemble it in the near future not for space but for its pieces. I also consider the sets that mostly include white pieces a bit differently, cause I don't want them to be yellowed too quickly. So I either keep them in closed containers or dissassemble not long after. For the most iconic and collectable sets, I piece them out (if I really need to) and bag seperately with all their box and instructions also kept elsewhere. For others, I add them to my piece collection as organised as possible with separate containers for similar pieces.
So it's a rather complex situation for an easy answer in my case. That's why I need to select the "something else" option in the pool. :)

I dismantle the majority of them and they are sorted by color and size. I have most of the boxes saved from all my sets which is why I had to buy a storage shed to store the empties. Before I get too old or senile I plan on sorting the pieces back into their sets and storing them in large ziplock bags with a reference to whether they have a box or not. I have been collecting lego for almost 40 years so I have quite.a.bit.
My favourite pieces are the Creator Building Series which I am very pleased to say that I have every single one of them including the miniature set. I like to keep these set up. I also keep a few of the exclusives set up...these include both the carousels, the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster and the fairground mixer set.

I keep mine on display, until I want to use parts from them, then I take them apart once they’ve lost too many parts to be on display. There are some sets that last really long, because they have emotional value because they were a gift, or something. Those are the ones that stay together the longest, and are still on display.

Thanks for asking the question, Huw, as the answers are interesting to read. I do a little bit of everything, except sell sets. I can't do that. My son graduated in May and come home, and my Lego room, which was new as I only started buying Lego for myself in 2018, is now his office area. I have some sets on display on shelves in there, some packed away for play (my nephew's kids have favourite sets), some dismantled so I can have the parts to play around with and some in storage in bins under beds to hopefully cycle in and out of display. My collection is mostly small to medium sets, although this year I am going to try to buy fewer of those and get a few larger ones. If - when I have more larger sets, I will probably dismantle a lot of my medium sized sets.

Built in boxes all over the house ,I'll seriously have to win the lotto,or stop buying as I can't part with My ones ,I've gotten boxes and rebuilt those once loved sets but I've no affinity to them so they're up for moving or presents for nephews who'll destroy them anyway. Plan to have a layout but that comic strip hasn't reared its ugly head in forever

Thanks to the nifty canisters, my BIONICLE sets are stored quite nicely.

Most of my old classic sets are, what I like to call, "in the mix". My newer collection is either still in box, on display, or bagged in gallon sized ziploc bags

Because I have only so much space to display sets, when I get something new it's time to decide what gets disassembled and put in plastic bag. I don't mix my pieces as I like to take out a bag with set or two, build it and disassemble right away to calm myself after really stressful day.

Once I have seen enough of a set :) I dismantle it. Depending on how much I like it, it then ends up in a ziplock and goes into a plastic box. Or its parts disappear in my parts collection for MOC use.

I both dismantle sets or leave them assembled. I don't have a particular mindset but most of my earlier sets are disassembled, they are in various MOC's in my Lego World.

For me, every set is a parts pack, even large flagship sets - UCS sets, Saturn V etc... They eventually go into the mix. Lego has to be for building. I don't understand why people leave things on display rather than buying a much cheaper regular model.

I have limited display space at the moment so sets have a short display life - maybe a couple of months for smaller ones (e.g. Architecture, Ideas) but much less for larger sets. After display it's a mixed bag of fates...

> Some sets get completely dismantled and sorted, to be added to the parts collection.
> Some sets get partially dismantled and go into storage (in original box, if practical).
> Some sets remain mostly assembled (some bits inevitably fall off) and go into plastic storage boxes.

And some sets get completely dismantled and end up in one of the growing collection of "To Be Sorted" storage boxes. I really should get round to doing something about them!

For the bigger sets I take them apart and put them back in their box.
Smaller sets I keep in ziplock bags with their instructions, inside a filing cabinet.

I'd like to display my Creator Expert Cars someday, but for now I'm happy keeping them unbuilt so I can rebuild them once every few years

My enjoyment of Lego comes from sitting down after a long day, and putting a set together while I catch up on a podcast. It's nice having an archive I can dip into whenever I'm in the mood!

I recently decided to downsize my collection and to sell/give away a lot of my older sets. Most of the sets I'm keeping are disassembled and stored in IKEA ziplock bags, while the parts for the sets that I'm not keeping are mixed together in one big box.

I disassemble my set in smaller pieces (not piece by piece) and then put it in random boxes until I can display them properly

Eventually, but then when I start liking the theme it was from again, I feel bad about it and ask myself why I did it. Then I try to reassemble it and give up after finding like, 10 pieces because there’s so many and I don’t feel like looking for them

For my big sets (UCS Falcon, SSD, etc), I display for a while, then disassemble and keep in separate plastic boxes.

For most other sets, they go on display for ages, until I want to put something else on display, then they get disassembled and the pieces sorted by colour to go into general build material. These go into plastic storage boxes.

Some groups of sets get disassembled yet kept with their theme in plastic boxes in a cupboard. Such themes are: Pirates, technic, modular houses (bit of a cross-over for this one - some go into general build).

All the minifigs are kept by theme/range. Collectible minifigs, pirate minifigs, explorer minifigs etc.

Over 500 sets and I plan to have them all built and on display in my basement...once I get to building them all. (We moved in a year ago and I still haven't made much of a dent.)

I have over 300 sets, currently 15 on display the rest bagged and boxed (really useful boxes), means they will not get too dusty, UCS star wars out at the moment, Once I pick up diagon alley will put all my HP sets out, After the next Marvel film might get all my marvel sets out again. Depends what mood Im in really

When I got back into LEGO a couple of years ago I started by buying second hand sets, building them and then taking them apart and selling them. I love the building process, I also enjoy sorting parts so that's a part of enjoying LEGO for me.

Now I have a better paying job I have kept what I've bought. Some things get dismantled and packed in IKEA freezer bags, sometimes in the original boxes. I've got a mix of most of the poll options actually, it depends on the set as to what happens to it.

But those Technic pins do hurt. It took a while to build the B model for 42055! It's now in bags waiting to be built into a GBC circuit.

Gotta keep them whole and store in plastic boxes- why would I take the whole thing apart only to rebuild the whole thing again if I want to take it out?

I disassemble some sets that have great potential for alternate builds which I like to build buildings and vehicles and stuff cos I love alternate builds! I wish lego would keep including them in regular sets ! It will make it much funner for people like the city 2in1 service station from 2016 was great but they only do that now for brick boxes so yeah

I’m a something else kinda guy: I dismantle them into sections until they’re small enough to fit in their retail box and then store that box along with the others in storage containers.

For example an X-Wing or TIE Fighter will fit in its retail box with the wings removed, while the Creator Expert Kombi van needs the top half of the body removed to be low enough.

As for choosing which sets to display over a period of time (which could be worth a topic all on its own) it depends on favouritism, or mood, or colour: I even have a red shelf, a yellow shelf and a green shelf for set collections.

@daniellesa said:
"I have all my modulars built apart from ninjago, which are in their boxes in a cupboard, along with the majority of my sets. The Silent Mary and the Ninjago Bounty are on my bookcases, along with WALLIE, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Bond car, Las Vegas and San Francisco. I have a lot of books! The Collosseum is in front of one my lego box filled cupboards, while the Tree House, Priates of Barracuda Bay, Ghostbuster HQ, Apollo Landing, The Old Fishing Store are in the middle of my modulars, which include moc modulars of Tower Bridge, Taj Mahal, Houses of Westminster and Haunted House. "

I forgot to add an moc Disney castle to the list of moc modulars. Also had two bookcases arrive today to accommodate the Xmas books and placed the order he lego house and friends set on top of them.

Before we moved I used to have a larger layout with all of my city sets out and a train route for use of my many lego trains. Now my bedroom does not have as much space for that so I had to store the rest.

Out of 158 comments, the word “play” only appears 11 times :-).

We build Lego as a family, and then store the assembled models in storage boxes in the loft, by theme. So if the children want to play Harry Potter, or Classic Space etc, the relevant box or boxes get brought down for however long they’re needed.
What we don’t generally do, is let them mix themes. We’ve found that to be a good compromise between playing and enjoying the sets, and not getting stressed when the pieces all get intermingled (we learned our lesson a few years ago, it took us months to sort everything out!).

For creative play, we have drawers of classic Lego which are always available. Our children aren’t old enough to demand access to the rare bits in daddy’s Lord of the Rings sets etc, so for now, this is working well for us.

Minifigures are stored separately, in cheap(ish) clear craft boxes, also by theme. They are allowed to be mixed, as the children are not too bad about putting them away properly (and my youngest has grown out of his distressing “pull headpieces off every figure he sees” phase!

All bagged up and in plastic boxes -- even 70620 Ninjago City, as someone noticed during the storage solutions article series.

For now, I'm still in the "all sets on display" category. But I just ordered 71043 Hogwarts Castle, and when it arrives I think Joker Manor is going to end up being my first casualty to lack of space.

I keep the Winter Village sets and a select few favorites (Bag End is one) assembled even when in storage. The rest there's simply no room for: they're bagged, numbered, and the bags are in bins. I even have an excel sheet telling me what's in each bin. The UCS Falcon I can't bring myself to dismantle fully, so it's broken down into modules and stored in a separate box.

A bit of a mixture really.
45% remain on display, and 45% remain built but in a box or large drawer. 10% sold on to make space/cash for something else.

Unfortunately having so much on display means a lack of room remaining, so a lot of my larger remaining sets haven't been built as finding space to put them afterwards becomes problematic.

I have 4 sets in permanent display in my home office ( 21309 , 10266 , 21321 and 21034 ). Since I am mostly into Technic, I keep one fully built model until a new worthy one comes along. I had 8043 built for the longest time, then it was replaced by 42043 which also had a very long shelf life. I currently have 42100 but I am not really impressed with it (can't use it without the app) and will most likely be replaced by 42113 once I finally get all the parts for it (the rotors are now available from the Ferrari Corse 42125 and I managed to order all the other rare parts from Lego soon after the set was regrettably cancelled - only missing the battery box now). I dismantle the sets and put them back in their original boxes (I never apply any stickers). The few "Christmas/winter" sets I have also go back to their original boxes when the holiday season is over. If the rumoured bulldozer of this year is either a) not true or b) not really good, I might revive 8043 once again - keeping 42113 as a permanent fixture (I reserved a good place for it on my permanent display). All my older sets are in Ziploc bags in storage bins - building instructions and baseplates are in separate bins.

I keep all the sets from my favourite themes built, and usually store them in a big container dedicated to each theme. This way, whenever I want to play with a certain theme it’s easy for me to get all my sets out quickly. My other sets get dismantled eventually and their parts are put in a storage box containing parts of other sets from the same theme.

The only real exceptions are any big sets, which I’ll build and then display, mainly because I don’t want to have to go through the process of dismantling them; and Bionicle sets, which can be neatly tucked away in their canisters for the next time I want to play with them.

I don’t usually dismantle my sets; only when space is becoming scarce. Then I just dump them in the collection for MOCS.

Still, I ‘d say about 90% of my sets from the last five years are still on display.

I just do the normal thing. When I run out of space to display things, I start putting them in drawers and cupboards that aren't really being used.

@Zander said:
" @Huw 's question presupposes that one builds sets in the first place. I don't always. Some sets I buy for parts for immediate use in MOCs/mods, or for parts I may need in future. Some sets I haven't yet got round to opening (I still haven't opened 79018 Lonely Mountain which I bought when it was released in 2014; I intend to display Smaug and use the building parts for a MOC).

@Farmer_John said:
"I have a couple minifigure displays up, but have often wondered how long-term display impacts the parts. Are long-term minifigure displays a bad idea?"
I have been collecting minifigures since 1993 and some of them have been on display on shelves either free-standing or attached to plates since then. They are in perfect condition. As long as you keep them out of sunlight and don't let them get hot, you should be good for a few centuries. "

@Zander - Thanks for the advice! All my display cases are UV protected. I have to admit I've taken it to the extreme and insulated the back of the display cases with a thin layer of foam board to minimize heat transfer through the outside wall into the case. Just didn't know if they naturally deteriorated/deformed. Thanks again!

Much of what I end up doing with a set depends on how much I like it and how large it is. All my modulars are on display, along with A UCS set and a few ships. Most of my under $50 sets get disassembled and sorted into my bulk parts for MOCs. A few of my other sets that are large/valuable/don't fit with my collection are disassembled and stored in plastic tubs.

I generally dismantle, bag and box them but certain Technic sets, I just cannot face dismantling such as the Chiron and the GT3 so they are in the cupboard under the stairs.

The BWE is in the study - I am determined to modify it so that it works more satisfactorily and am gathering parts from Bricklink to hopefully achieve this.

I buy 2-3 of each set I really like and keep one built. If I am not that into it I will keep it sealed for the collectible aspect. I am a theme completionist for many themes (Speed Champions, Modulars, CMF, even some newer ones like Overwatch & Ideas) and often find myself purchasing sets I don't even like. FFS I even buy multiples of sets I don't like sometimes LOL. The Mini Cooper set is the worst one IMO and I ended up getting two as you never know what the future holds.

@Block_n_Roll said:
" @sheik said:
"Out of 158 comments, the word “play” only appears 11 times :-)"

I'd noticed the lack of "play" comments as well. I think that reflects the Brickset community rather than a general trend - there'll be more adults than children here. Having said that, I'm firmly in the camp that has "my" LEGO and "play" LEGO as separate things. For example, there's a large box of "play" LEGO that sits in a 30L container under our coffee table. It's always there and is available for anyone who feels like digging in, whether that's us wanting a casual build or if we have visitors who want to get stuck in. And all "my" LEGO is out of bounds for everyday play (excluding the time during COVID-19 lockdown when we built a Modular-based city and made stop motion movies!)"

Well some of my sets both from display ad the bin are taken out when some kids are around and I'm the aunt with toys. I just take out all the capes from minifigures as i saw what happens to their minifigs capes. I ofc play with them and make sure no real damage happen.

It also gives me look what sets I find fun and what they find fun (the arena from thor? They love it as it's arena to fight with others. )

I always disassemble my sets and put the pieces in numerated zip bags (sometimes only 5 minutes after finishing one) following the notice in reverse. For older set that didn't have numerated bags I do my own numerotation with the number of first page and last page of the content on the zipbags, then I put back the bags in the original box if I have or in a larger zipbag and keep them in a big cardbox.

I keep some pieces together when assembling or disassembling them is hard or can damage the pieces if you don't do it the correct way (like hinges 3937 - 3938).

I don't do that because of place but because what I love in LEGO is building and I'm not really good at doing MOC, so I builds my sets from time to time, and disassemble them after.

Some sets I keep built in containers, but my collection builds up so quickly that I just pile them up in one spot like a table until I finally have to do something with them. Some of the sets that I just buy for the minifigures I’ll build but eventually deconstruct for my bulk collection. Speaking of this, I’d maybe like a feature on here to list if the set is intact or not.

I do a combination of the options in the poll. Some larger sets I break up and store in the original box. Most of my Star Wars sets store built in plastic boxes when off display to be played with a few times a year. Others broken down and stored by set or Theme in plastic boxes...while still others if generic or not really part of a dedicated theme get sorted into the general parts. Finally this year I got most of the first line of Mario. Kids got bored real fast and I wanted a big set for Christmas so sold all of it.

Most of my sets--and almost all of my larger ones--are, sadly, still mint in box, due to a lack of time and space to build them. The ones I have built I tend to partially disassemble into chunks which can fit into Lego boxes as efficiently as possible; ones I've modified I tend to leave assembled to enjoy. I'm hoping to be able to start building (and modifying) more of my sets now that I have more spare time.

For sets like Ninjago City or my larger Star Wars sets, I go through the instruction manual backwards and ensure that every piece is there - witth numbered Ziploc bags and all. My smaller sets aren't so lucky, they get thrown into a Ziploc bag with no care for piece count

I keep my LEGO assembled, some on display, some in various cabinets (much to the annoyance of my wife) but I am running out of storage space, so I either will have to start disassembling or to stop buying LEGO...

Some of my sets are on more or less permanent display, like the Modulars and some of my Creator Expert and Technic vehicles, but most of my collection is either still unbuilt, already disassembled again with the parts stored or used in MOCs, or has never been assembled but used as a parts pack right from the beginning.

Bit of a mixture. Most large sets & modulars are on display, as are large technic sets. Others are stored in plastic crates by theme although this is starting to take up too much space. We had a loft conversion last year but sadly even though its the Lego den its fast filling up thanks to the increase in large set releases. I hate dusting it & even worse is dismantling technic sets. I was gifted 8868 that sat in the old loft in a plastic bag & got dirty so just dismantled & cleaned (which is also tedious). Pre loft conversion used to keep all boxes assembled inside each other but after having to downsize this storage most have been flat packed with is a far better use of space. Although some of the newer collector 18+ sets are not that easily flat packed.

I just dismantle them into margarine pots as i only have small sets

There ARE larger Really Useful boxes than the 64-litre. the 80-litre stacks with the 64's and the extra height of the box makes it more versatile. Amazon UK currently offering a package of two 80's and a 64 for £44. The cardboard box they arrive in is big enough to convert into a Wendy House for my two little granddaughters!

All of my modular buildings go on display but most of the others are dismantled, parts sorted and bagged and then stored in plastic boxes. A few Creator Expert models are displayed but when space becomes short they get dissembled as well, e.g. the Taj Mahal was finally dissembled a few months ago but Tower Bridge and the Sydney Opera House are still on display. All of the original boxes are stored, some are flattened to save space and all instructions are filed in envelopes in a filing cabinet.

@Strymon said:
"Aw, man, it's weird reading about what other people do. Because it makes me realise how weird I am. Live alone, small apartment, just shy of 300 mostly large sets, no real display space. Every box gets kept, sets are disassembled in reverse order and placed into medium sandwich bags and then numbered as they were in the original numbered bags. If more than one bag per stage is required then exact instruction range is also included (ie: 2, 87-128; 2, 129-183; etc). Everything that came out of the box goes back into the box, including instructions, brick separator, spare pieces and even the original numbered bags and used sticker sheet. I don't know why. I have no intention of ever selling any of it. Somebody's gonna hit the jackpot when I fall off the perch (especially after another half-century of collecting). C'mon guys, I can't be the only anal-retentive nerd who does this? "

I even keep the small internal plastic bags that contained the smallest parts and the cardboard boxes containing capes, metal train axles, and string (if I were ever to dismantle a set down to its constituent parts, those would go back into their little boxes). I've always reused one of those small plastic bags to hold the set's spares and have them organized in a cardboard box listed by set for when I need a replacement or borrow a part for a MOC or modification - I track these to be sure to return them to their rightful set group when the time comes.

Not much space in 60 sq meters in a small city apartment, so I can't display very many sets. Everything I build, gets a short display on the one space available our the main room, until the next item displaces it. I have 3 small sets on permanent display: 21044 Paris and 21043 San Francisco (Architectures) reflect my two backgrounds plus 21042 Statue of Liberty which I consider the most beautiful set to date. Once display time is finished, I disassemble many sets to use for MOCs or other builds. I keep all the Ideas, modulars, supercars, Chinese new year, and special big sets (70620 Ninjago City, 70840 Apocalypseburg, 75192 Falcon) built and packed in boxes, many of which I take to expos (or used to at least...).

I majority of my collection is from when I was a kid, so a majority is broken down. I also owned other building bricks like Kreo (Transformers), a small Mega Bloks (Halo), a Knex container (which I stored Legos in) and a fake Lego mug. But I had a drawer that used for clothing, and since I didn't use it for a time, I decided to put in my Legos and color-coded them. Though any new sets I get are displayed, I rebuild some sets but also used some parts from other sets due to can't finding them or they got lost, broke, etc. I keep a plastic Ziploc for spare parts I get in newer sets.

I got to a point where I had to start disassembling sets. Space started becoming an issue, and Lego is going to keep making sets I’m going to want. Also, I was starting to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I had on display. It was all organized, but beginning to feel too cluttered, especially the smaller sets that were fun to put together, but not impressive enough to be on display.

Initially I broke them down and integrated the pieces with my sorted pieces. That was great until space became an issue there too. And later when I wanted to rebuild a set, it was a huge pain trying to get all the pieces together again, even though everything was sorted. Now I bag each set in plastic bags, sometimes dividing up the pieces into categories.

I’m planning in downsizing now, being more selective when buying new sets, and donating sets I won’t build again.

None of the poll options quite describe what I do, or what I intend to do, but I guess the 2nd option is close enough:

"Dismantle them, mix the parts with all my others, and use them for MOCs"

Up until now, I've been keeping all of my Modular, Star Wars and Harry Potter sets assembled in the loft. But I've run out of space and started dismantling lots of them.

Some will stay assembled, eg. my collection of X-wings. If the set is for the chop, but still valuable to me in some way or other, I'll bag it up and store it in a box of other bagged sets. Minifigs are bagged separately and labelled. Everything else is parted out.

It's a mix for me. So far, if they aren't still on display, like modulars or my favorites, they have gone in storage bins, whole, maybe mixed with similar sets... so eventually they are at least partially broken up eventually. If it isn't a favorite, it gets broken up and sorted by color/type into plastic drawers under my main display. However, due to recent space concerns, I'm re-evaluating breaking down some of those whole sets as they are really beginning to overrun my space available... I'm thinking the ones I really like will get double bagged in ziploc bags.

I dismantle them and sort all the parts into a system of compartmentalised plastic storage draws (designed for hardware parts). I use them to build MOCs or sets I don't own, filling in the gaps with parts from Bricklink or Lego.com , using Rebrickable to figure out what bits I'm missing.

Most of my collection has never been built. Of the sets that I do build, I scrap probably two thirds of them for parts. I keep a few on display around the house, and the rest get bagged and boxed.

I store most stuff almost whole in carboard boxes. I'll often break parts off to make storage easier and to fit more into the boxes. Some things I dismantle into small chunks and then store those in ziplock bags within the carboard boxes.

Mine all stay assembled, all the Harry Potter ones are on display, however I don't have either 75978 or 71043 as I don't currently have the space for them.
My Christmas brickheadz go still assembled in a bag and stored until December. I would love to get more Christmas sets but it's again storage space.

I don't understand the storing of completed sets, from either a space perspective nor from an "I love building" perspective. The building is the most enjoyable part to me. Although I quite hate taking sets apart (tedious), after a short time on display, I disassemble and sort backwards via the instruction booklet so the next time I want to build, everything is organised.

I have more LEGO than space but can't seem to part with much of it. Like everyone else, I'm waiting for the day I can have a dedicated room for LEGO!

I keep telling my wife I wish I knew someone who would love to disassemble and organise everything for me! Then I could simply build and build and never worry about the practicalities of storage.

I have my vintage Castle sets on permanent display (or for however long I want to keep them displayed) and I've got a smaller seasonal display (roughly two baseplates in width), currently featuring winter sets (all the Christmas stuff is packed up). However, I recently added a Pirates display, which may at one point take up some of the Castle display space.

Then there are some action figures that demand space, so a lot of Lego sets (Space, Fabuland, Superheroes, Friends, etc.) are stored out of sight. Some (parts) of them do sometimes appear in my seasonal display, though. I always try to sneak Batman somewhere in there, like him eating a pizza by himself at a restaurant or standing on a building somewhere.

I typically leave most sets on display for 3-24 months. The one exception would be some of the larger D2C sets. Those I rarely disassemble.

So far I've never dissassembled a set to put it into storage, but it *is* something I've been looking into. It's only been the last three or four years I've had much of a budget to collect LEGO, and I'm just now starting to run out of room. Getting a dedicated box per set to store some of the models I'm not super big-on would be nice.

I go for a mixed approach. After I've had completed sets on display for a while, most get dismantled and added to the the pile on my pool table for my kids to MOC with. Special sets that I can't bare to add to the general pile (eg: Millenium Falcon, Technic Unimog, amongst others) get dismantled, bagged and boxed for later rebuilding and display.

I partially dismantle them so they can fit in a bag for storage

The question "Which best describes what you do with the majority of your sets after displaying them?" makes an assumption which may not be correct. That is, after you build a set, you display it. I don't. I build it for the experience and to learn new approaches and techniques. The set is then immediately deconstructed and put into loose parts bins for use on my MOCs.

I keep the sets I really like or play with on the shelf and the others end up in a parts storage

My process of assembling and dissembling is decided mainly whether the kids and I wish to keep a certain set intact or not, we have enough sets and parts to play with. I have no problem for them to dissemble it because we could use the parts and we could rebuild it again and the fun of rebuilding is still there.

As contrary to the somewhat addictive behavior in this ‘hobby’, I choose not to encourage the habit of collecting and having fun only when opening new sets.

May debuild & rebuild cool sets

@psychman7 said:
"I will build them, leave them together for a while, and then I'll bag them up (usually I'll follow the instructions in reverse) by the numbered bag they came in, and put them in boxes. That way when I decide to reassemble them, it's still as organized as the first time I built it."

I do the same.
I then give them to my over 80 year old Mum to build.... then disassemble again.
All my disassembled sets the go into plastic storage containers, with their instructions.
When I feel like it, I’ll build them again and display for while.

Most of my newer sets are on display around the house, though many are still in the unopened box. My older sets though, like late 90s early 00s, were mostly still assembled but absurdly dusty or disassembled and mixed, so every few years I scrub and clean them, and sort into plastic bins by color.

My parts are:
- 60% in original sets on display
- 20% in MOCs
- 19.9% in part bins
- 0.1% somewhere to be stepped on. I live a dangerous life.

My display space is somewhat limited so not all my sets can be assembled at any one time. Some sets I really like and have them up all the time, some not so much and those get deconstructed and the parts sorted with lots of other parts. I do small MOCs and some small adaptations to existing sets with those parts or luckily have a piece to replace that one I dropped while assembling something.

Some sets I deconstruct with the intent of assembling them again some day but those also have their parts go in the sorted system as half the job is finding the parts again. I am surprised at how many people put the parts away in bags and boxes by set!

disasemble my lego sets and put them into labeled bags based onset number and put them in bins by year

I keep all of the modular buildings and railroad engines built and displayed, Christmas Village sets are stored built and the rest are all Ziploc bagged and stored in 66L totes by themes.

I wash & then break down the sets in reverse order. I bag & number according to the instructions. Then the numbered bags go in a large, gallon ziplock. I store the sets in cardboard boxes. The manuals & instructions are stored separately in their own boxes. All boxes are numbered & inventoried in a spreadsheet. So whenever the day comes to sell, gift, donate or build again the sets are like new. The builder will have the box, instructions & can build the sets as if a new set.

Nice to know I'm one of the 2% of users who sell. I'm not sure if I have an anti-hoarder personality or I just don't have much attachment to LEGO but as a collector I recognise that downsizing can be a good thing. Star Wars is a good example, so many re-issues of sets and changing attitudes overtime. People might grow up loving the Prequel Trilogy or Sequel Trilogy and then when they get older they look back on it as a whole and appreciate the Original Trilogy more.

I keep as many as possible displayed and dismantle them when they have to be washed due to broken stickers or too much dust, so the functionality is not given anymore.
If the sets are washed and sorted in ziplocked bags, I put them in boxes (either original or plastic system to stack them)and store them. I tend not to mix too many sets, only when washing them it might be that I wash two or three sets at the same time in one batch and sort them out when reassembling the models.
I also started to borrow the sets to friends who have children and not enough money to pay for the expensive top models. The children can assemble, learn and play with the sets as I did, when I was a boy. The quality of the bricks is so high that there will be no damages on the parts and if (only if!) a brick is broken or missing, I will have fun in finding and replacing it.

I disassemble sets from time to time, build a MOC from Rebrickable or create one, and then build it back to the original model after a few days, weeks or months.

I keep some of the larger display sets intact. I keep a few labeled bags of sets for “therapeutic builds” for when I’m stressed. Most of my pre 2008 sets are in containers but I keep my 2015-2017 Ninjago sets in a separate container. I keep recent Star Wars and Ninjago sets in a closest disassembled(for now at least, thinking of making a beneath the volcanic island MOC with the masters of the mountain sets and the upcoming “the island” subtheme). I keep creator/creator expert and architecture sets in resealable bags in their original boxes when I disassemble them until I can organize my display in a better way.

I have no room to display all the hundreds of sets I have, so I dismantle them after a while, then separate each brick type and put them into plastic bags, then plastic 60L: containers. (I have at least 40 containers)

I do a bit of a mixed bag. Some I keep on display until I decide to take them apart, Ghostbusters Firehouse, Voltron, and Lunar Lander for example. Some I put into ziploc bags and back into their box for later rebuilding. And others I mix in with the rest of my loose bricks for MOCing. Generally, if my wife and I agree on buying a set it's either display or back into the box whereas any I buy tend to be for specific parts, because I like it but still want to part it out, or because I liked the minifigs and the parts were decent as well.

@mic27 said:
"Most of my collection is from when I was a kid, and so the majority of it is all of mine and my brother’s sets mixed together for MOCs. I don’t even remember all of the sets we had. Over the summer, I sorted bricks for the first time and also realized a lot of them somehow disappeared over time, so I’m not sure I could even fully piece out sets if I wanted to unless I replaced a lot of pieces.

Since emerging from my dark ages fairly recently, many of my newer sets are still built and on display. I am running out of room, so I have to figure out what I want to do. My Newbury Haunted High School is exacerbating this issue because it totally fell apart when I moved it and left it on the floor and kept tripping over it, cat kept rubbing on it, etc. So I have these massive chunks and I feel like I should just break it down at this point and rebuild it again another time.

I also did an entire winter village scene this year for the first time and I need to take it down very soon or my mom will get mad. I definitely know I want to keep the sets separate, but I haven’t decided if I want to keep them built or break them down and rebuild next year. How am I supposed to know how much time I’ll have next holiday :P"

I keep my winter village assembled as best I can, but put in a long flatish storage box that is designed to go under the bed, yet is perfect to go into storage and take up nominal space with the rest of the Christmas stuff. These are the only sets right now that I store built, but like you said: "How am I supposed to know how much time I'll have next holiday?"

A majority of my dismantled sets end up in plastic bags in a giant box of sets (the UCS Millennium Falcon 75192 Shipper box to be precise). Then another big chunk of my sets get put back in their original boxes. Then another smaller chunk stay built on display throughout my house and office at work.

@NathanR2015 said:
"I would love to keep my Lego models on semi-permanent display, but alas, I cannot find a suitable display cabinet. So I end up having to dismantle everything within a week or so of assembling it.

All the parts go into museum-quality archival storage bags (I used to use ordinary sandwich bags, but the PVC component started making the bricks go sticky). I keep the original box if they are deluxe packaging, like on Ideas or Architecture sets, otherwise I tend to ditch the box. To save space, I'll put multiple sets in a single box and I keep a written record of where everything is.

When I was a kid, my brother "lost" half the bricks from his sets by grabbing them to finish whatever MOCs he happened to be designing. So when it came to me, my parents laid down the law that Lego sets must stay as sets - to this day, I have never used any Lego set as a parts pack!"

How long did you store pieces in the sandwich bags so they got sticky? I haven't heard about this problem and starting to worry, because that's how I store all my lego.

95% or more of sets get cannibalized for pieces. I have a few on display, but mostly mocs only. Since our lug only allows MOCs at our shows, I haven’t focused on building sets too often.

But the few that are built remain built for a long time until I need the space. But if I ever needed to rebuild it, it will take a while to find the pieces I’m sure.

I dismantle sets when I can be bothered and need the space but I keep my parts devided into themes, and store them in giant lego storage bricks, at least in the case of DC and Marvel, with the parts organised into papercraft trays by shape type and plastic jewellry boxes. I'm unsure whether to merge LEGO Batman Movie in with DC, but it seems likely I will have to, as I don't think there will be a sequel any more to make it worth keeping it separate.

I have some older storage boxes with my original Harry Potter sets in them too, in which I have different parts bagged up by type in sealable bags, so all the newer HP sets will get merged into that eventually.

The intention is to some day rebuild some of them and display them again or to build something custom within the theme but more sets are always being released and I just keep getting busier so it never seems to happen!

All my sets are destroyed by my child’s imagination.
Natural disaster, hurricane, earth quake, meteorite impact.
Crash involving a airplane, truck or large fast moving object.
If the set has survived all above. It then will grow wings and fly. At which point gravity will destroy the set.

I used to trade a small amount of parts between sets — 5-10% — to make adjustments of models to suit my liking. However, I had a very recent change in my thinking.

••• My brother's family dropped off about 4 giants bins of about 100-200 different Lego sets (judging from the stack of manuals). There's so much plastic that each bin weighs about 40 lbs each. The parts are completely mixed. The price of all these sets amount to the cost of an old used car. It's substantial. It just made me realize that without a system of organization, you can also end up with your own Pile of Very Expensive Junk. As their children are too young, they asked if I would take a crack at Restoring their toys in my spare time. (Yes, I love Lego. But this is like prison labor. If it wasn't for the Covid-19 crisis, I wouldn't have even entertained the thought of helping.)

••• So starting with my own sets, I'm Restoring them to stock. Detailing any mods, and Disassembling unused sets into a Near-Store Bought experience for Playing again next time. The value and fun of Lego is like any other puzzle: It works because it's a solvable problem within a finite amount of parts and time. You would never mix 100 different jigsaw puzzles together into a garbage bag and start from there. And I want to stop losing Expensive Needles in a Haystack.

@tink:
Heh. On 1/1/20, I bought a puzzle to give my mom as a Christmas gift, which we started to assemble a year later on 1/1/21 (if any Brits are having trouble with the dates, that's January 1st, not 1st January). There was nearly a second complete puzzle in the box! I never got to see the "completed" extra puzzle, but my dad told me they had maybe the entire left half and lower third built before they ran out of pieces. The first thing it reminded me of, when we started finding duplicate parts, was a care package that two of my college friends and I sent to another friend when he'd gone home for the summer. Being college students, we didn't have a huge budget to work with, so we chose to go for "stupidly inane garbage". We bought three puzzles (two of them identical, and a third that was different but had a similar design) and mixed the parts together. Either we didn't send any of the boxes, or we put all the parts in one box together and kept the other two boxes.

However, as torturous as that might have been (don't worry, it was well-received, and is still appreciated to this day, I've been assured), that doesn't even come close to the hardest puzzle I've ever seen. I never bought it (though I kinda wish I had), but it was a giant circle that was a single shade of purple. The closest I can recall ever coming to assembling that puzzle is one that was solid red with black stick figures, where the box top didn't show the complete design, skipping all four of the edges entirely.