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The Pains of Disassembling


Fry

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Maybe this is just me, but has anyone else ever had a really hard time disassembling Bionicle sets, and too an extent, Lego sets?

 

I've always had this trouble really, though I found myself thinking about it again recently when I was disassembling my Bionicle characters and putting them into their reapictive boxes and bins. 

 

I swear that I have never experienced so much pain in my thumb in my entire life.

 

The trouble typically is in pre-ccbs sets/pieces (which, on an unrelated note, I have grown rather fond of) and is centered around axles. If I didn't have teeth, I would not be able to take these sets apart (without plyers, of course), and, at any rate, both damage the pieces!

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yes, this all the way.

 

one of the reasons i like the new CCBS style is that i have really really fidgity fingers as is, so add that to the regular old pain of trying to push-n-pull pins in and out all the time, and it's, well..

 

it's one of the reasons i don't build as often as i'd like to.

 

(the grey 3m plus-rods as the worst, i think. and, also the most used. oops.)

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*Chuckles* At first I has assumed you meant like mental pain of disassembling sets, as in being very reluctant on taking them apart, to the point of regret... But alas you meant actual physical pain. But yeah the older bionicle sets were a pain to take apart majority of the time. Don't own many system sets so can't really say much there, though I imagine they have their share of stubborn pieces.

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*Chuckles* At first I has assumed you meant like mental pain of disassembling sets, as in being very reluctant on taking them apart, to the point of regret... 

I did too.

 

Anyway, when Pushing out axles, I just took the longest Axle I could find, and Push it through, then pull out the long axle.

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Maybe this is just me, but has anyone else ever had a really hard time disassembling Bionicle sets, and too an extent, Lego sets?

 

I've always had this trouble really, though I found myself thinking about it again recently when I was disassembling my Bionicle characters and putting them into their reapictive boxes and bins. 

 

I swear that I have never experienced so much pain in my thumb in my entire life.

 

The trouble typically is in pre-ccbs sets/pieces (which, on an unrelated note, I have grown rather fond of) and is centered around axles. If I didn't have teeth, I would not be able to take these sets apart (without plyers, of course), and, at any rate, both damage the pieces!

I have never had much trouble taking them apart.  Brick separators always came in handy.  

 

You can remove a piece with pliers and not damage it by wrapping layers of tape around the pliers.  You can also put some clay on the piece so you can get a grip on it and remove it.

 

 

*Chuckles* At first I has assumed you meant like mental pain of disassembling sets, as in being very reluctant on taking them apart, to the point of regret... 

I did too.

 

Anyway, when Pushing out axles, I just took the longest Axle I could find, and Push it through, then pull out the long axle.

 

↑ That always works!

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I don't usually have a problem with this and Bionicle, I've experienced this with system a couple times but not often. I'd say the most recent time with bionicle was when I had gotten some Nui jaga in the mail, and I the legs were in backwards. They were so dusty that it took five minutes to take the leg out of its socket!

     


 


 

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Always gotta have a long t-axle around to push the smaller ones out.  Makes life so much easier.  Orange brick separators are crucial in taking apart system pieces as well.  I have a mountain of them collecting on my living room coffee table.  

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I don't know a whole lot about sets being physically painful to disassemble. I do know that a lot of really Technic-intensive sets like vehicles and Rahi can be tedious and frustrating to take apart because Technic sets involve so much locking. There are times when taking a Technic construction apart is only really possible by doing the reverse of what you did to put it together in the first place. And sometimes this is frustrating even when putting a set together, because if you make a mistake and don't notice it for many pages, you will have to undo many pages of steps to fix it! Generally, though, even G1 BIONICLE sets tend to be simpler to put together and take apart than regular Technic sets.

I don't tend to take my sets apart too often, just because it's easier to keep them organized when they're together. And I especially avoid taking apart my G1 sets most of the time, since their parts aren't as useful to my building style anymore. I have taken apart most of my Hero Factory sets and sorted their pieces, though.

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Needle-nose pliers are awesome for pulling axles and other pieces apart without resorting to using teeth (eww!). Especially friction pins, as one side of the pliers tip can fit inside the pin end. It's also useful to have something like a metal table, or one topped with a thick layer of glass, to press against for various things such as pushing small axles out the other end of where they'd been inserted, without using thumbs.

 

~B~

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I have a feminine figure, my hands are no exception. I have small fingertips and nails to help take certain pieces apart.

 

As for pieces I can't get? I have a tool I built using one of Gali's hook pieces. An axel, extender, and the hook. Press it into the hole I want to remove the peg. If it's an axel hole, I get the axel out, then pull on the hook to get the tool out.

 

The tool is also very useful in removing other pieces. Such as system bricks. If you want I can post the tool's build in the MOCs section ^_^

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I've never had any physical pains when taking G1 sets, as the 2M axles and 2M pin/axles also have ridges, where I can simply use my fingernails to pull the piece out. 3M and longer axles can be pulled out by simply getting a good grip, and if its locked with a bunch of axle holes, you can just push it out with a longer axle from the other side. I find G1 MOCs/sets are painful to disassemble due my fear of damaging the fragile sockets, so I only disconnect the limbs when necessary and use broken socket pieces (mainly from 2008-2010 sets) as place holders until I a satisfied with the final design.

 

I find the small soft plastic spikes a bit difficult to take off because it's hard to get a good grip on them compared to the older hard plastic variation on G1 Bionicle sets, and they dent easily if you're not careful.

 

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I have a feminine figure, my hands are no exception. I have small fingertips and nails to help take certain pieces apart.

 

As for pieces I can't get? I have a tool I built using one of Gali's hook pieces. An axel, extender, and the hook. Press it into the hole I want to remove the peg. If it's an axel hole, I get the axel out, then pull on the hook to get the tool out.

 

The tool is also very useful in removing other pieces. Such as system bricks. If you want I can post the tool's build in the MOCs section ^_^

I feel that the female hands are actually a hindrance in getting things out. Less surface area for leverage. (Admittedly, huge strength may not be an asset either, as then you have pieces flying about because you pulled too hard. :shrugs:)

 

I'd like to see the tool. :)

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Oh. I thought you were referring to emotional pains.

 

I get that a lot. The feels.

 

 

I never really have a hard time (physically) disassembling my sets. Although separating the Toa Mata brain stalks from their heads is a rather pain in the butt.

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Oh. I thought you were referring to emotional pains.

 

I get that a lot. The feels.

 

 

I never really have a hard time (physically) disassembling my sets. Although separating the Toa Mata brain stalks from their heads is a rather pain in the butt.

Apparently quite a few of us though they were referring to the emotional pains.

 

And yeah, the toa mata brains, I don't think that was ever meant to be easy. I know I have to use pliers and a butter knife to pry it out.

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I get emotional and physical pains. Most of them aren't bad, except when I have to disassemble a titan set. Like I took apart Fenrakk, and man that was tough on the hands. But I like it, some are really well built


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As someone who has always been a big guy throughout my life and is now almost 6' 3" (about 190.5 cm for those using the metric system) with fairly large hands, I find that taking apart Bionicle sets is still pretty hard even with the added strength that I have developed in my arms because of how my hands are pretty slippery (because they sweat easily) and the smaller size of the parts that means that sometimes I don't have enough traction for my giant hands to grip them properly. Granted, I haven't taken a G1 set apart in about 4 years or so and have not had the time to get any of the G2 sets so who knows, maybe it'll be easier.

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The troublesome ones are the blue axle/peg pieces that fit in too tight sometimes

The Black ones are harder to remove. I only have three of them and I can't remember where I got them. They have more friction than the blue ones

 

They shouldn't have any more friction than the blue ones, because it's the same mold used for both. The blue ones are just more recent, having replaced the black ones entirely in 2003.

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The troublesome ones are the blue axle/peg pieces that fit in too tight sometimes

The Black ones are harder to remove. I only have three of them and I can't remember where I got them. They have more friction than the blue ones

 

They shouldn't have any more friction than the blue ones, because it's the same mold used for both. The blue ones are just more recent, having replaced the black ones entirely in 2003.

 

Likewise for the white friction pins, which I think disappeared at the same time as the black ones.

 

As for a piece for which older versions would actually be more troublesome, the old style of 2-length axle, seen here, lacked the notches on the later version currently in use, meaning removing them was much more difficult. I know that I always remove those axles using my fingernails in the notches; without them my use of pliers would certainly go way up!

 

~B~

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Once got a 2-length axle foolishly stuck in a configuration it couldn't be pulled or pushed out off. Took a few years of sporadically cutting into the tiny gap I got conveniently at the notched spot to free the pieces it was connected to. Clearly I didn't care too much. :P

 

Was that painful? I guess. When I first tried and wouldn't accept it was stuck. Otherwise never really had much of a hard time. Most stuck axles were extricated with teeth (ew, I know) without incident. When they slip, though...

 

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Oh yeah, I remember plenty of sore-thumb moments during G1. Ball and socket joints were no joke. Nowadays, the only thing I can have trouble with is removing blue pins from hand pieces. I sometimes have to use a glove to get enough traction.

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Oh yeah, I remember plenty of sore-thumb moments during G1. Ball and socket joints were no joke. Nowadays, the only thing I can have trouble with is removing blue pins from hand pieces. I sometimes have to use a glove to get enough traction.

I know that the CCBS ball/socket connections are easier to disconnect, but how did you manage to to get "plenty of sore-thumb moments"  from the G1 ball/socket disconnections? Most of the time, you could just increase the angle of the pieces until they snap apart. Alternatively, you could simply pull the two pieces apart, which requires a little bit more strength and from my experience, this technique is more prone to severe cracks on the lower section of the socket.

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Oh yeah, I remember plenty of sore-thumb moments during G1. Ball and socket joints were no joke. Nowadays, the only thing I can have trouble with is removing blue pins from hand pieces. I sometimes have to use a glove to get enough traction.

I know that the CCBS ball/socket connections are easier to disconnect, but how did you manage to to get "plenty of sore-thumb moments"  from the G1 ball/socket disconnections? Most of the time, you could just increase the angle of the pieces until they snap apart. Alternatively, you could simply pull the two pieces apart, which requires a little bit more strength and from my experience, this technique is more prone to severe cracks on the lower section of the socket.

 

It was more putting them together than taking them apart, now that I think about it. Plus, I was pretty young so I didn't put much thought into how I did things. "No pain, no gain" was my mentality.

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It was more putting them together than taking them apart, now that I think about it. Plus, I was pretty young so I didn't put much thought into how I did things. "No pain, no gain" was my mentality.

 

Because the pre-2008 sockets didn't fit on top of the ball joint as snugly as the later designs, I've had plenty of moments where the pieces would slide past each other and into my fingers too.

 

Every time you took apart or put on those 2008 socket joints it was the riskiest moment in your life.

I've given up on using those sockets for MOCing. They even get difficult to use as test limbs for unfinalised MOCs because the sockets break so badly that they either have very little friction or a part of the socket itself breaks off, so that it can't be attached onto the ball joint.  

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