Disassembly of 10179

Brew

I've come to the conclusion that its time to take down my prized UCS MF and store it. My twins are turning 2 soon and I've decided to put it away until the day comes when they are old enough to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of the set. I'm afraid that if they grow up with it there, they'll just get used to it being there and not be properly awed.

My question is: should I attempt to bag it up the way it was shipped or bag it in a way that lends it self to rebuild easier? For those of you who have taken one apart, what bagging strategy did you use?

Also, is there a bag inventory listing anywhere?

SirKevbags

I hate sorting so when taking apart a large set I follow the instructions in reverse and create my own set of numbered bags. Takes much longer but allows a check for anything that could have been lost and when you do re build you're only dealing with a few hundred parts at a time so don't need as much room.

LegoFanTexas

How about...

One HUGE pile! :)

Just get one of those yellow LEGO store bags, put all the parts in there, save for a rainy day! :)

vedder1029

When I disassembled mine, I used the instruction book and worked my way backwards. I filled up 1 gallon sized ziplock bags until nearly full and labeled them with the instruction numbers xxx through xxx. This way, whenever I reassemble it, I'll know which ziplock to start with!

Brew

^funny. Probably have to be a rainy week.

drdavewatford

I just sorted mine into bricks, plates, tiles and small parts (2x2 or less) and sealed them in ziplock bags. The next time I build it there'll be no need for a pre-sort, but it'll still be sufficiently challenging to be interesting.

samiam391

When I got my 10179, purchased off of eBay for (I have to say it) $175, it arrived in a jumble of bricks. Immediately I was suspicious that pieces would be missing, but I was happily surprised to find 11 tiny accessory pieces (which LEGO happily replaced for free) were the only ones missing.

I semi sorted the pieces, but I must say that the build was legthened by the disorder of the pieces. For me, the build is the best part, and spending almost an entire week pouring over the build was a lot of fun. It made the final product especially rewarding.

Perhaps I'm just strange when it comes to building, but bag them all in one large, or separate bags, at random, with no thought to order/separation. When you and your twins build it, the build will last longer, and there will be more teamwork sorting.

Yes, that's more labor and more time, but it's a build that is tough to top. Plus, that's an extra long father-son experience, that produces an incredible model at the finish... a reward for being patient, working, and finishing together.

TheLoneTensor

I will be happy to provide an offsite storage of your model :)

apeshot

My 6 year old and I are just finishing up our build of 10179. We started with "the pile" and sorted into about 50 baggies of various plates, tiles and brick pieces. The build has taken a really long time, but the weather has also called us outside a lot lately. When we finally disassemble it, I'm planning to keep similiar sections together from the top and bottom. As for the technic guts, bricks and pins, I'm planning to just throw them all into 1 bag.

drdavewatford

apeshot said:

The build has taken a really long time, but the weather has also called us outside a lot lately.

You're presumably not UK-based, then....

:-/

CCC

Don't be so boring. Do one of these videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuxM-avNfLo and become famous.

coachie

drdavewatford said:

apeshot said:

The build has taken a really long time, but the weather has also called us outside a lot lately.

You're presumably not UK-based, then....

:-/

He might be adjusting the sand bags outside the front door.

ecmo47

Here's how I did mine. Worked in reverse order and labeled each bag by the step number.

Brew

Thanks for the suggestions. I finished taking it all apart last night. I decided to disassemble in reverse order to be sure I had all the pieces. Since the manual is ~300 pages and there are 3 cardboard bins in the box, I just put 100 pages worth of parts in each bin. This way, when I eventually reassemble, I'll have some randomness to sort through to prolong the building fun, but only 1/3 at a time so it's not aggravating.

On a side note, when disassembling I noticed that when I built it years ago I put all the extra pieces on the model for a little extra greebling. I checked BL inventory and had all those parts as well so I bagged them and added to the box. I noticed that it came with an extra fleshie smiley face not used for any of the figs. It's unusual, is it not? Is it so you can change Luke so he's not so grumpy looking?

GentlyBenevolent

CCC said:

Don't be so boring. Do one of these videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuxM-avNfLo and become famous.

What a pair of TWAT's.......
Nuff said.

bkpr

When I disassembled mine before moving to the States, I kept the floors in tact. There's no way I want to build those again if I don't need to :)

cavegod

Mines taken apart in reverse order with two steps per bag. Can put it together in 3hrs or less now.

Paperballpark

@cavegod how long does it take you to sort all the bags out beforehand? :)

bkpr

^^^ Crap. I was talking about 10188. Dunno how I ballsed that up. Apologies.
As you were…

cavegod

not long each bag is labled with the steps it contains and packed in box so open the box and step 1+2 are on top and so on.

Renny

I'll be taking apart my 10179 very soon and plan on just storing the pieces by color and then by either plate, brick or technic. More power to all those who bag each step individually but I personally find that kills half the fun of the build process for me.

FollowsClosely

It takes a lot less space to build when it is bagged up by step/pages. It also better facilitates multiple people building.

Renny

I can definitely see the value in saving space bagging the pieces up by step/page but I don't follow in regards to how it helps multiple people build (in relation to the 10179). How would that be accomplished if they are sharing the same instruction manual? Or are you referring to the "build times X" situations?

Brew

^An iPad with the PDF acts as a pretty good second instruction book. Not a lot of repeat building for this set, but many sections can be parallel built (w multiple 'instruction' books).