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How Do You Sort Bionicle Pieces?


Chols

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For the longest time, I've had all my Bionicle pieces in a large tub. It's sufficient for holding all the parts, but digging through them to find what you need has become much too difficult.

 

I tried sorting by color once, but that was still difficult to manage. (Ever tried digging through a bin of all black pieces before? ._.) I also did sort by part function once (torsos, limbs, etc.), but my collection was much smaller then, plus I feel that sorting them like that can lead to functional fixation.

 

So how do you sort your Bionicle pieces, if at all?

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By color and then by function. A lot of small plastic boxes keeps all my pieces together and seperated. Took me two full days to do but it was totally worth it. As you can see here in the background all the small grey pieces were in one box. And it's incredibly easy to find a piece

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I've always sorted them by type, but as my collection of parts now consists of a couple thousand pieces, it stills gives me very large 'divisions.'

 

I've considered separating by color within the already-sorted type divisions, but it seems like too much work.

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Basically, I sort most pieces by color, and the smallest black ones by function. Here's what my system has:

 

--A bunch of large drawers that each contain all my pieces of one color (including axle/pin connectors), but only the ones I have a lot of. Some are combined (lime/Mata green, gunmetal/Voya gold, etc.)

--3 large drawers for black pieces (excluding small connectors), which are sorted according to size.

--A separate container for light bley, which doesn't fit in either of the above.

--3 huge drawers for silver weapons, silver non-weapons, and dark bley pieces.

--A container with lots of small drawers for the colors I have less of (teal, metal blue, transparents, etc.)

--Another container with even smaller drawers for long axles (sorted by length) and hand pieces (sorted by color), which I keep separate from the large drawers. It also contains large black Technic beams.

--A toolbox for small, black connectors, sorted by function. Ball joints and bushings are also in there. In addition, the toolbox contains small black Technic beams and liftarms, and tires.

--A small box with dividers for the smallest axles and pins (1-4 studs in length).

--Plus other really big drawers for System.

 

I'll post pics on my blog sometime, cause I think that might have been a bit hard to understand. xP

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drawers.jpg

 

Left side:

- Broken pieces

- Pieces I have too many duplicates of and probably can't use too often

- Special pieces/models that I want to save

- Instructions

- General SYSTEM-style pieces

 

Right side:

- Limbs, torsos, feet, and other ball-jointed or main-body pieces

- Minifigures and minifig accessories

- Collectibles, projectiles, and heads

- Armor, weapons, and other "decorations"

- General TECHNIC-style pieces

 

This is only a fraction of my collection, though. The rest is scattered around in other drawers, tubs, and my floor. With them it's mostly "I'll look for them if I have to, and if I find them I'll put them in the proper drawer." Most of the assembled (or mostly assembled) figures and sets are in a couple of tubs just to the right. But these are the pieces I mainly use when building.

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Ideally, I would sort by type and color, but I am already low on sorting bins, making any further sorting difficult.

 

@Sparkytron Those small containers look excellent. Where did you find them, and for what price?

 

I'm also very fond of the types of shelves you use, Bfahome. I have two of those, which I use to store other types of Lego pieces and electronics. I'm afraid I am running too low on floor space to buy more though.

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I'm also very fond of the types of shelves you use, Bfahome. I have two of those, which I use to store other types of Lego pieces and electronics. I'm afraid I am running too low on floor space to buy more though.

Stack higher?

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@Sparkytron Ah okie. :3 They look like the kind of things I'd see in a grocery store. I think my dollar store has cheap containers too.

 

...Or I can use my dozens of empty Bionicle canisters and label them...

 

Why did I never think of that. >>

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I have my secrets. I'll chat them to you if you want, but only to you. e.e 'tis top secret business.

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@Sparky: They're probably tupperware. They have that kind of lid.

 

As for me:

 

I generally sort based on color. I have a few IKEA bins that contain a number of dark-grey, light-grey, silver, and black pieces that I don't sort out, as well as 2 that contain pieces I'm currently tinkering with. I have 4 different gallon-sized Ziplock bags that are filled completely with my dark-red, dark-blue, dark-green, and white pieces (I have no idea why I have so many of each). I then have large yogurt containers (yes, YOGURT CONTAINERS) filled with the various other colors of pieces I have. I also have a few more YOGURT CONTAINERS that are used to store pieces used for specific WIPs.

 

I'm hoping to do more sorting of the blacks and greys later.

 

Also: I sort based on color in order to have MOCs with better color schemes. It shows me what I can work with.

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I just stuff in things of general color into small bins. Then I have an HF skeleton bin, a system bin, and a pin and axle bin.

 

Then I have 3 huge bins. The top contains parts that my dad so kindly cleaned my desk off once. I generally fill it with large parts. Below, there are 2 system bins filled with any system parts. I've never touched it cause it's been there forever. I also have a small bin filled with all of my masks. I also have 2 giant tubs of parts I'd normally never use.

 

I really need a new system :P

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YOGURT CONTAINERS

I was going to call this the weirdest Lego storage container ever, but then again I have axels in a lemonade packet jar, so maybe we're even. :U

 

I'm going to plan out an organization system separated primarily by type. Here's what I'm thinking so far:

 

Sockets: Already sorted out, but should probably be sorted by type.

Collectibles: 2001 Kanohi stored in TRU collector's case. Other masks and helmets have their own bin. I already sorted my ammunition.

Heads: Store all types in one canister

Torsos: Sort into two categories: 2001-2004 and 2005-2006. Sort further if needed.

Limbs: Going to need multiple cans for these. Not sure if I wish to sub-sort them by type or color. Probably the former.

Hands: Don't have many, will probably sub-sort into sockets.

Feet: Separate by with socket (i.e. Metru) and without socket (i.e. Mata).

Weapons: Sort out firearms from other weapons. Maybe sort the rest by silver and colored?

Wings: Sort all in one canister.

Misc: Any oddball pieces. Might create more categories if there's enough of a certain type.

Hero Factory: Separate skeletons and armor.

General Technic pieces get their own sorting system.

 

Any suggestions?

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I keep my regular Y-joints (all types, including 2005-2007 rubberized ones) separate from my double sockets (all types) and 3x3 Throwbot "shoulder sockets", but that's it. So I see no reason to divide them out too many different ways.

 

I'd say it's always better to sort by type than by color. It's easy to tell apart different colors of part at a glance even if they're all the same part. Not so with different types. If you have too many to put all of a single type in a single container, then you should sort by both type and color (for instance, I have all fire/stone/earth colors of Bohrok leg in one drawer and all water/air/ice colors in another, and it's never taken much more than that to make them accessible).

 

With feet, don't you mean by with socket (i.e. Mata) and without socket (i.e. Metru)? Anyway, that sounds like a good way to sort them. My family just keeps all feet in one bin (except of course Throwbot feet and LEGO Sports feet, which have individual drawers).

 

My family just sorts weapons by silver and colored. Separating out firearms is another good idea, and something I don't think we ever considered.

 

We just keep wings with weapons. If there are enough for their own container, then by all means keep them separate.

 

Overall this sounds like a great sorting system! It should work more than well enough for your needs no matter how many parts you have.

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I'd suggest not going by part type. I've tried it, and every time if basically degenerates into opening pretty much every single drawer over and over again for just one MOC, plus there's always the risk that you'll forget what you sorted into where. I find color to be much easier to go by, as you can simply pick the colors you want for your MOC, then there'll be less clutter and such.

 

Really, though, it's up to you.

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In don't feel like pulling out numerous containers will be such a bad thing if I use canisters. They're small, and if well-sorted, easy to clean up.

 

Compared to all the times I've dug through my color sorted pieces, only to not find what I'm looking for, it sounds like a much better approach.

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1. Buy lots of Bohrok canisters

 

2. Build nest

 

3. Be coolest BIONICLE fan ever

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Never be able to take out any canisters again

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DUDE

 

I SHOULD DO THAT

 

And I could probably still remove one canister at a time without the nest tumbling down.

 

YEAH

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Basically I have a whole bunch of similar/same parts in clear drawers. Bulk parts are stored by type, then stored in one of two drawers - one with more parts originally released for upper body, and one for lower. It's really easy to keep track of, and while it's led to functional fixation a little bit, I generally notice when it is because my MOCs end up looking like badly modified sets when I do.

 

Minifigure parts, as well as Zamors and other more bulk items, are stored in a separate drawer.

 

I actually do use Bohrok canisters, though they're for parts that came only with the Bohrok and Rahkshi. They're sort of a to-sort-later pile.

 

I also have a bucket of half-completed tablescraps and small concepts, as well as a general "other" bucket full of parts that are simply unsortable - the parts such as the large tall squarish baseplates that held up some of the 2006 playsets or things of that ilk. Lastly, I have a pile that essentially is for everything else - things that aren't "other" but more kind of like a "they were part of something at one point but I'm lazy and I don't want to sort it out right now" bucket, if that makes sense.

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A few modifications to my sorting system:

 

Armor: perhaps sort shoulder, thigh and chest armor.

Animals parts: all non-humanoid torso pieces. Maybe sort further by species.

Piraka and Inika torsos REALLY need their own cans. x_x

Hips get their own canister.

Matoran Torso parts get their own canister.

Separate all Toa brains from heads, sort separately.

Further separate weapons by type (blade, shield, etc).

Sub-sort all categories by color when the multicolor canister overflows, unless there is a significant difference in piece styles, then sort by piece style.

 

This is beginning to become convoluted,but it's much better than what I had before...

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For me?

 

Socketed pieces, large liftarms, small liftarms, gears, weapons (including spheres, spinner components etc but not Zamor Launcher parts other than the body of the weapon), armour, masks/Kraata/krana, old "hand" sockets, pins/axles, ball bearings, elastic bands and Bohrok fangs. Everything else goes in a small tub for oddities. It's surprisingly empty.

 

For the record: Toa Mata/Metru/Bohrok etc skeletal bits go in with the large liftarms, 'cause they rarely make good armour. I consider it more of a "structure" tub.

 

Edit: Metru feet onwards, I consider armour. Bohrok headcases, Visorak shells, Visorak legtips etc. Stuff you'd put on over other stuff.

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