Save Your Fingers - Save Your Sanity - Invest In The Lego Brick Separator
Written: Jun 21 '03
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Pros: Inexpensive, easy to use, saves you from ruining bricks and elements.
Cons: Gets lost easily, hard to find at stores, most people use it incorrectly.
The Bottom Line: If you are serious about your Lego’s and want to keep them in mint condition – invest a few dollars in the brick separator.
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO - Brick Separator |
If you are a Lego fanatic, enthusiast or just a plain old brick junkie – the brick separator is an essential tool to have around. It decreases the chance of scraping or damaging the face of the brick and saves a lot of wear on your nails. It’s easy for kids to use and keeps them from trying to pry the bricks apart with their teeth – something that they can get into a habit doing very easily. I didn’t get my first brick separator until my boys starting playing around with Lego’s at a young age and I wanted them to start using it instead of coming and asking me to pry them apart or – as previously mentioned – using their teeth. For less than two dollars you can pick one of these up and save yourself the frustration of trying to get the flat tiles off of plates or getting the small 1x1 bricks off of other small tiles.
Using it is simple once you get the hang of it. The one end has an indented portion that you can click on to the tops of other bricks and elements, then all you have to do is rock the piece back and forth to remove it. You can also use the tail end of it to work the flat tiled pieces [ones with no studs] loose from a baseplate. There are some Lego elements that this won’t work with – flat tiled pieces that have no studs on the top that are placed on top of other bricks are one of them. This is when you need your fingernails or a butter knife and a little bit of patience and luck. Darker bricks and elements need a little more care and consideration since these will show scrapes and marks easier than the lighter colored ones. Oddly shaped pieces, ones located in tight spots and those without studs are by far the hardest to get apart with the separator so don’t think you are doing something wrong if you can’t get the bricks apart.
Things To Know
These get lost fairly easily due to their small size so I whipped out the drill and put small holes in the back end. This way I could attach a small ball chain to it and clip it on to something so it could easily be found. This doesn’t take away from the functionality of the separator or make it hard to use so don’t worry about those factors. I took a medium sized green base plate that had a small crack in it and drilled a hole through the corner and attached the ball chain and brick separator to it. This way the boys could always find it when they needed it and it was much more convenient than having to dig through buckets of bricks.
The brick separators that we have are all gray so I have no idea where the green ones are hiding [in reference to the photo listed at the site]. I think that the illustration is in green so you can see the detail and get a feel of what it looks like. So far I’ve never seen these in any color other than the “putty gray” but I am sure some Lego lovers out there have come across them in some other color [maybe that trademark yellow that Lego is known for]. If it were some bold or funky color, it might be a little easier to find if it gets mixed in with bricks – but I’d personally love to see a glow in the dark one – how easy would that be to find?
This has been released by Lego several different times with various set numbers but the current one is #630. Others included 5008 which were packaged inside larger sets as a promotional piece and then given away as stand alone sets. Set 821 that was featured as a give away as well as sold in some stores in the plastic poly pack. Set 9892 that was part of the Dacta line and had two separators instead of one. Some people became confused when they saw that there was a two piece count for this set and assumed that it was a new and improved version only to order it and find out that it was the same separator, only there were two of them in the pack instead of one.
The Bottom Line
It might take a little time to get used to using the brick separator instead of fingers or other pieces but in the long run you are extending the life of your elements by using it. I’ve only seen these offered in stores a few times but you can pick them up at the Lego World Shop or other toy sites. Some of the larger sets offer a brick separator but these are few and far between. Average prices are $1.50 to $2.50 and, in my opinion, are well worth it. Until Lego comes up with a better way to get the bricks and bits apart – the brick separator is the best way to go! These are great for gift giving and something that every Lego lover can always use – no matter how many of them they have.
The Stats
Set Name: Lego Separator
Family Set: Lego Basics
Lego Set: 630
Number of Pieces: 1
Age Recommendation: 3 - 12
Ease Of Assembly: None
Time Of Assembly: None
Cost: $ 1.50 - $2.50
As always … thanks for the visit!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Other assorted Lego paraphernalia …
Lego Magazine
Belville Pen
Lego Cargo Backpack
Lego Creator Board Game
Adventurers Pen
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1.59
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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