Most irritating pieces to take apart

[Fry]

What pieces are most difficult/annoying for you to take apart? Here are some of my choices:

Rahkshi head pieces:

The Rahkshi are annoying to take apart in general. 

Toa Mata head:

As a kid I found one of these could get the job done, though still with an irritating amount of effort:

[TuragaNuva]

I never found the Rahkshi heads too bad (you can always push an axle through the hole in the top). The Mata eyestalks are tough, but I've found that a butter knife works great for removing them.

The worst, in my opinion, is removing the second liftarm from inside the Rahaga heads. I ended up building a tool specifically for that, and even then it's tricky.

Edited September 6, 2021 by TuragaNuva

[Heyzorks]

taking any lime joint off a ball joint.

So..Many...Broken....Pieces...

[Taria Pakari]

The Rahkshi heads were way more irritating to remove on the Rahaga IMO. At least with the Rahkshi you can poke a beam through the hole in the top to push the socket off.

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

Mata brain stalks, by far, I'd say. Those things were so cool, and the *snap* they made clicking together was SO SATISFYING, especially the first time you got one of them in a set (or at least, it was for me!), but they were NOT intended to come apart again afterwards...

[Bambi]

Definitely the Mata head. I remember when I found the tutorial here explaining how to take them apart I went and started popping everyone's eyes out.

[Toa Hovoki Zehvor]

19 hours ago, TuragaNuva said:

I never found the Rahkshi heads too bad (you can always push an axle through the hole in the top). The Mata eyestalks are tough, but I've found that a butter knife works great for removing them.

The worst, in my opinion, is removing the second liftarm from inside the Rahaga heads. I ended up building a tool specifically for that, and even then it's tricky.

How does your Rahaga remover tool work? I think my success rate for removing the second liftarm has been no higher than 5%, I always give up and my Rahkshi/Rahaga head part compartment is littered with heads still attached to that liftarm. 

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

The  2001 Toa/Turaga/Nuva/Metru Matoran head by far is a easy winner. I still remember being able to use my whole fingers to pull apart but it hurts a lot.

I also wonder if dead batteries in piraka eyestalks are removable, if so they would win over the mata heads.

Edited September 7, 2021 by (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)

[The Master of Energy]

How about removing individual ball joints like 53585 from socket pieces? All of the Toa Inika had their heads connected with those pieces.

[Max_Nui]

16 hours ago, Laval- Master of Energy said:

How about removing individual ball joints like 53585 from socket pieces? All of the Toa Inika had their heads connected with those pieces.

I always found the best way to remove them was just to rotate them in the socket so the flat piece aligned with the joint's wall. then they just fall out.

[Alucus of the black Abyss]

200% agree on the Mata heads they are just a nightmare to get apart. Honestly never found an effective way to do it.

[Heyzorks]

5 hours ago, Alucus of the black Abyss said:

200% agree on the Mata heads they are just a nightmare to get apart. Honestly never found an effective way to do it.

 

On 9/7/2021 at 5:09 PM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

The  2001 Toa/Turaga/Nuva/Metru Matoran head by far is a easy winner. I still remember being able to use my whole fingers to pull apart but it hurts a lot.

 

On 9/6/2021 at 6:41 PM, Bambi said:

Definitely the Mata head.

there's a reason that despite it being technically 2 pieces bricklink has it listed as one piece.

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

On 9/9/2021 at 3:09 AM, Laval- Master of Energy said:

How about removing individual ball joints like 53585 from socket pieces? All of the Toa Inika had their heads connected with those pieces.

Not that hard to grip those balls or their old variants which had no hole on the bottom. Easy way is use a thread a decent length axle like a 5 length to get a grip on the ball and grip the socket with the other hand.

Edited September 27, 2021 by (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)

[The Master of Energy]

On 9/27/2021 at 4:15 PM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

Not that hard to grip those balls or their old variants which had no hole on the bottom. Easy way is use a thread a decent length axle like a 5 length to get a grip on the ball and grip the socket with the other hand.

It's still annoying and I'm sort of worried about breaking the axle.

[TuragaNuva]

On 9/6/2021 at 4:18 PM, Toa Hovoki Zehvor said:

How does your Rahaga remover tool work? I think my success rate for removing the second liftarm has been no higher than 5%, I always give up and my Rahkshi/Rahaga head part compartment is littered with heads still attached to that liftarm. 

Sorry for taking so long to answer this! Had to dig out the right pieces and reconstruct it from memory (if I still have the old one I used to use, I don't recall where it is).

Hopefully these photos explain it clearly enough, but let me know if you have questions!

 

[Xboxtravis]

On 9/7/2021 at 10:09 AM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

I also wonder if dead batteries in piraka eyestalks are removable, if so they would win over the mata heads.

There is a method to get the battery out, that relies on an Exacto knife and some stressing of the plastic to pop it open. I have done it on all my Piraka... and while the stress marks aren't visible once they are put back on display and its great to get the battery light up eye effect again let me say... It was a lot harder than a Mata head is.

The Mata heads I learned are easy to use the flat end of a modern style Lego Brick Separator to slide in-between the eye and the head and with a bit of leverage pop the eye off. Seeing how easy it is to get those brick separators now since they come in almost every higher cost set, I think its my favorite method to swapping eyes. 

[Onvermel]

For both of those heads I've found these methods.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dXK_Ajo6sA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPIPyJgxDNI

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by Onvermel

[Master Inika]

Everyone else beat me to it, but the Rahaga eye piece. I'd always cram the second one between the two pieces to force them apart, but that would bend the axle noticeably even if I only did it a few times.

I don't consider the Mata eye stalk to be truly irritating because they seem designed to go together, and even as a kid I could sort of tell. Unlike the Rahaga pieces, the Mata head elements don't have much utility independently, especially the eye part.

I also wouldn't necessarily count physically flawed pieces like lime joints.

[Taria Pakari]

1 hour ago, Master Inika said:

I also wouldn't necessarily count physically flawed pieces like lime joints.

Well duh, they come apart very easily. :^)

[Elephant Knight]

On 9/30/2021 at 9:40 AM, TuragaNuva said:

Sorry for taking so long to answer this! Had to dig out the right pieces and reconstruct it from memory (if I still have the old one I used to use, I don't recall where it is).

Hopefully these photos explain it clearly enough, but let me know if you have questions!

 

This is genius. I usully just pry something flat under the liftarm, like a brick seperator, grip the sides of the head, and lift up. Works well enough for me.

EKnight

[Nektann]

Honestly it would be a bohrok headpiece stuck with an axle extender by a 2 long axle. I guess I'll post a photo soon,  but it requires bending the pieces with immense force to remove it.

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

On 11/14/2021 at 2:11 AM, Nektann said:

Honestly it would be a bohrok headpiece stuck with an axle extender by a 2 long axle. I guess I'll post a photo soon,  but it requires bending the pieces with immense force to remove it.

I sort of figured it out myself (as in a mental image) as something that should never be tried when i first saw those pieces back when the bohrok first came out.

Edited December 5, 2021 by (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)

[The Master of Energy]

4 hours ago, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

I sort of figured it out myself (as in a mental image) as something that should never be tried when i first saw those pieces back when the bohrok first came out.

I think that technique was actually used in an official set once, as part of a weapon for an Exo-Force mech.

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

22 hours ago, Laval- Master of Energy said:

I think that technique was actually used in an official set once, as part of a weapon for an Exo-Force mech.

Yes but that was called Stealth Hunter. That set also used a gun barrel, a 3 length axle and a 1/2 half thickness liftarms that were 1x2 long.

Thanks to Bricklink Studio i can create a demonstration. On the left is from Lego Exo-Force Stealth Hunter instruction manual.
On the right two examples how pieces can get stuck in a bohrok piece. One is with a 3 length rod, a other method that can get stuck.
I made the pieces transparent so you see what can happen, it's impossible to remove if it happens.

Edited December 6, 2021 by (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)

[Master Inika]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:39 AM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

Yes but that was called Stealth Hunter. That set also used a gun barrel, a 3 length axle and a 1/2 half thickness liftarms that were 1x2 long.

Thanks to Bricklink Studio i can create a demonstration. On the left is from Lego Exo-Force Stealth Hunter instruction manual.
On the right two examples how pieces can get stuck in a bohrok piece. One is with a 3 length rod, a other method that can get stuck.
I made the pieces transparent so you see what can happen, it's impossible to remove if it happens.

This hurts to look at.

[Heyzorks]

On 12/6/2021 at 1:39 PM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

On 12/5/2021 at 6:55 PM, Laval- Master of Energy said:

I think that technique was actually used in an official set once, as part of a weapon for an Exo-Force mech.

Yes but that was called Stealth Hunter. That set also used a gun barrel, a 3 length axle and a 1/2 half thickness liftarms that were 1x2 long.

Thanks to Bricklink Studio i can create a demonstration. On the left is from Lego Exo-Force Stealth Hunter instruction manual.
On the right two examples how pieces can get stuck in a bohrok piece. One is with a 3 length rod, a other method that can get stuck.
I made the pieces transparent so you see what can happen, it's impossible to remove if it happens.

 Urgh, that makes my toes curl

[TERIDAX941]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:39 AM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

Yes but that was called Stealth Hunter. That set also used a gun barrel, a 3 length axle and a 1/2 half thickness liftarms that were 1x2 long.

Thanks to Bricklink Studio i can create a demonstration. On the left is from Lego Exo-Force Stealth Hunter instruction manual.
On the right two examples how pieces can get stuck in a bohrok piece. One is with a 3 length rod, a other method that can get stuck.
I made the pieces transparent so you see what can happen, it's impossible to remove if it happens.

I... almost did that once.

I honestly had no idea people were having so much trouble with the Rahaga heads, I never had much trouble gripping the ends of that piece with my fingers and just sliding it right out.

Of course, the only Rahaga I had access to was my brothers' Pouks, and we took it apart... 2 times? So maybe we were just lucky?

 

[Heyzorks]

16 hours ago, TERIDAX941 said:

Of course, the only Rahaga I had access to was my brothers' Pouks, and we took it apart... 2 times?

Why would you do that to Pouks? what did he ever do to you?

[Nektann]

I did this recently and tried to remove it with force and broke the piece, but it's not impossible to remove as you can push it out with the notches on the 2m axle and a toothpick or some other thing.

On 12/6/2021 at 7:39 AM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

Yes but that was called Stealth Hunter. That set also used a gun barrel, a 3 length axle and a 1/2 half thickness liftarms that were 1x2 long.

Thanks to Bricklink Studio i can create a demonstration. On the left is from Lego Exo-Force Stealth Hunter instruction manual.
On the right two examples how pieces can get stuck in a bohrok piece. One is with a 3 length rod, a other method that can get stuck.
I made the pieces transparent so you see what can happen, it's impossible to remove if it happens.

 

[confused piraka]

On 12/13/2021 at 5:40 AM, Heyzorks said:

what did he ever do to you?

he just deserved it 

[T.B.O.C]

On 9/30/2021 at 2:49 PM, Xboxtravis said:

There is a method to get the battery out, that relies on an Exacto knife and some stressing of the plastic to pop it open. I have done it on all my Piraka... and while the stress marks aren't visible once they are put back on display and its great to get the battery light up eye effect again let me say... It was a lot harder than a Mata head is.

The Mata heads I learned are easy to use the flat end of a modern style Lego Brick Separator to slide in-between the eye and the head and with a bit of leverage pop the eye off. Seeing how easy it is to get those brick separators now since they come in almost every higher cost set, I think its my favorite method to swapping eyes. 

I only learned the brick separator trick this year, and WOW is it a comparative breeze to the inventions of yesteryear. Plus one for that.

Been a hot minute since I've done it, but I'm fairly certain the Piraka eye piece just comes apart without stressing it. Even the Exo-Force light up brick can be (though it is a piece of work...). I'd have to look back at how I did it last.

But yes, I echo everyone's statements here. Mata heads (formerly), the second liftarm of Rahaga heads. Honestly, I've also found the regular pin/axle connectors can be lodged pretty terribly in regular hand pieces. It's mainly sets I'd kept together for years and not disassembled, but I had a wild time getting them all out of my Icarax set earlier this month.

[confused piraka]

how do you do the piraka eye?

 

[The Toa of Music]

This might just be for me but I hate taking feet off of legs, it's so hard.

[TERIDAX941]

5 hours ago, The Toa of Music said:

This might just be for me but I hate taking feet off of legs, it's so hard.

Which type of feet out of curiosity?

[The Toa of Music]

7 minutes ago, TERIDAX941 said:

Which type of feet out of curiosity?

Mainly the G1 original toa, or the bohrok.