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Glued magnet minifig removal!

by admin on January 1, 2011

in Magnets & Keychains

spacer LEGO magnet-sets have been a wonderful way to acquire minifigs without having to buy a whole expensive set. Unfortunately the good times are over. From 2011 all magnet sets are being glued! spacer

The minifig’s legs are glued to the magnet base. In addition, the torso/legs assembly is glued to the torso. The minifig’s heads are removable from the torso, and any crown, hair or other headgear is also removable. Weapons and other accessories are separate and removable. Because the figs are glued to the magnet-base they are no longer useful for much more than as refrigerator décor.

The LEGO Ambassador for Bricklink contacted LEGO about this and she received the following reply from a LEGO-rep:

spacer “All Extended Line minifigure magnet sets will as of Jan 1st 2011 be glued.
Based on new requirements, the magnet base and the minifigures will have to be permanently fixed together on LEGO Star Wars magnet sets.

To ensure a consistent consumer experience across all LEGO minifigure magnet sets we have chosen to permanently fix the minifigure to the magnet base on all magnet sets moving forward from Jan 1st 2011 (incl. Pharaoh’s Quest launching Dec 1st).

This decision has been carefully considered and was not taken easily as we know that many consumers will obviously not like this change.”

Of course LEGO-fans are not at all happy about this change and have been trying to rescue their figs from their magnet shackles. So far I have seen people trying to pry off figs with a hobby-knife or chisel. This method will separate the minifig from the magnet base, but unfortunately it also tends to break the back of the legs.

I decided to spend a bit of time myself trying to find a solution that is both safe for the minifig and the person using the method. (Please read our Tutorials Disclaimer for your safety here.) I will start with the process that I found working, and below that I will list my failed attempts for your further amusement (and horror!). spacer

spacer 1. THE HOT WATER PROCESS (this works!):
Originally I thought LEGO is using some kind of strong glue, like Superglue, and tried methods that I knew could work for glue. However none of these worked. (See failed attempts.) Then I did a little research on the methods LEGO used to glue parts.

I have discovered that LEGO is not using glue at all, but a solvent, that actually loosens the surface of the ABS plastic and allows the molecules to combine. Once the solvent evaporates, it leaves behind a cleanly fused surface with no residue at all.

Reading further on the subject, I found that LEGO has been using two types of solvents. One is called MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone) and at some point they switched to GBL (gamma-butyrolactone). I’m no chemist, so I had no idea what these are, but I read that both of them are water soluble at certain temperatures. So, I thought to try loosening the seal between the minifig and the magnet by hot water.

The challenge is that ABS plastic itself has a melting point, which is 176 Fahrenheit (80 Celsius). So, I had to make sure I don’t cross over that temperature.

spacer TOOLS NEEDED:
• Stove
• Medium size pot with water (for heating)
• Strainer
• Cooking Thermometer
• Cold water (for cooling)
• Watch (for measuring time)
• Kitchen mitts or cloth (to keep your hands from burning)

spacer PREPARE MINIFIG:
Remove minifig accessories (tools/weapons, headgear and head)
Bend minifig at the waist so it is in a sitting position (this gives the best angle for the hot bath, and also helps to lift it out of the water)
Lift minifigs hands up, like it is reaching out for something (this also assures the correct angle)

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PROCESS:
1. Fill pot with water
2. Place strainer on top of the pot
3. Make sure the water level is above the strainer by about an inch
4. Place Cooking Thermometer in pot
5. Heat water to 160 Fahrenheit (71 Celsius) (I found this to be a perfect temperature for the process. Not too hot to damage the plastic, but hot enough to loosen the seal.)
6. Turn off heat (if you have an electric stove, it is best to take the pot off the burner)
7. Place minifig in hot water and leave it there for 5 minutes
8. Remove minifig from hot water (just grabbing it by the neck-stud works great; the water is really not that hot)
spacer 9. Hold minifig/magnet assembly in kitchen-mitts with one hand and bend the torso straight back as much as you can (but gently!) to see if the seal is starting to loosen. WARNING! Do not try to wiggle the torso left and right! This will loosen the leg-pins and you will have a fig with very loose legs! ONLY bend the torso straight back!
10. As you bend the torso backwards against the extension plate on the magnet you will see the seal getting loose. At this point the fig may pop right off.
11. If it doesn’t, DO NOT force the fig to come off! Just put it back in the hot water and leave it there for another couple of minutes.
12. Take the fig out again and bend the torso backwards. By this time the fig should either pop right off, or the seal should be very loose.
spacer 13. If the fig doesn’t pop off, but the seal is very loose, gently insert a kitchen-knife in the gap between the back of the fig’s legs and the magnet-base. (The fig is fused ONLY at the back of the legs to the studs on the magnet. NOT at the bottom of the feet.)
14. Once the fig is off, run it under cold water to cool it off. WARNING! Don’t move the legs and arms until the fig is completely cooled! You can damage the joints and they will become very loose!
15. DONE! spacer

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NOTES:
• This method DOES NOT damage the plastic, as we are staying below its melting point. It also won’t damage the print on the minifig.
• Once the minifig is off, on the back of the legs you will see where the fig was fused to the magnet is kind of rough. There is not much we can do about that. But at least we have rescued the minifig from its bondage! (I would not recommend sanding this area to smooth it as I have read that the fusing process makes the ABS plastic more brittle. The back of the legs are already very thin, so smoothing them down may weaken them further.)
• This process may also release the bond between the torso and the leg-assembly. On one of my figs the torso just slipped right off. On another it became loose but didn’t fully come off. I didn’t want to push my luck. spacer

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NOW THE HORROR STORIES FOR YOUR EDUCATION AND AMUSEMENT! (In each method listed below I note the process, time elapsed, and the result.)

spacer 2. THE GOO-GONE PROCESS (fail!):
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room temp.
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

spacer 3. THE VINEGAR PROCESS (fail!):
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room temp.
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

spacer 4. THE ALCOHOL PROCESS (fail!):
(Isopropyl Alcohol 50% by Volume)
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

spacer 5. THE SOAPY WATER PROCESS (fail!):
Method: full immersion
Temperature: warm water
Time: overnight (8 hours)
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

6. spacer THE MINERAL OIL PROCESS (fail!):
(Baby Oil)
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

spacer 7. THE LEMON-JUICE PROCESS (fail!):
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

spacer 8. THE EUCALYPTUS OIL PROCESS (fail!):
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

spacer 9. THE WD-40 PROCESS (fail!):
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room
Time: 1 hour
Results: NONE
Adverse effects on plastic: NONE VISIBLE
Adverse effects on print: NONE VISIBLE

10. spacer THE ACETONE PROCESS (badly fail!):
(Regular Nail Polish Remover by Equate)
Method: full immersion
Temperature: normal room
Results: PLASTIC MELTED, BUT MINIFIG/MAGNET SEAL INTACT
Adverse effects on plastic: MELTED
Adverse effects on print: MELTED/CAME OFF (See below:)

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In summary, I would hope that LEGO will come up with another solution besides fusing minifigs to magnets to meet licensing regulations. In the meantime you can give your minifigs a nice hot bath! And if you come up with something better feel free to share it here! Oh, and while you are at it, you may also want to read about removing LEGO minifigs from keychains. spacer

I have also written a guide with a list of all glued and non-glued magnet sets to help shoppers identify them easier.  Read here: Guide to Glued & Non-Glued Magnet Minifigs! Hope this helps! spacer

{ 251 comments… read them below or add one }

← Previous Comments

spacer Marc January 5, 2012 at 12:16 PM

Great piece of research, and very effective method. Here are the twists I found necessary in my home laboratory (kitchen).

I had to replenish the bath with freshly reheated water in order to keep the temperature consistently high enough to loosen the solvent.

I also found that residue from the magnet brick could be removed by re-dipping the legs of the figure in hot water for a few minutes, and then scraping off the residue with my fingernail.

That aside, the method just simply works.

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spacer admin January 5, 2012 at 4:01 PM

Marc, thanks for sharing! spacer

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spacer Ed January 5, 2012 at 7:49 PM

We too got a slew of these from Santa, and my kids weren’t too happy to find they were glued to the magnet bricks. First Google search I initiated brought me to your site, and after 15 minutes or so in a hot water bath, our Lego figs are also free from their bricks. Thanks so much for your insight! This really works. Newbies, Just have some patience..

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spacer admin January 5, 2012 at 8:56 PM

Ed, thanks for sharing! I’m glad your minifigs are now free! spacer

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spacer Derek January 9, 2012 at 8:55 PM

Thanks a bunch. I didn’t have a strainer or thermometer so I just put the magnet on the end of a butter knife and kept dipping and running my thumbnail between the base and legs till they broke free. Worked like a charm. Boba Fett, Leia and the Emperors guard have been freed from bondage!
Thanks again

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spacer admin January 9, 2012 at 9:14 PM

Derek, I guess that works too as long as you are careful about the temperature, which it seems you were. Thanks for sharing! spacer

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spacer Abe Marya January 11, 2012 at 10:09 PM

Thanks for the tips! Just tried the method on the Atlantis magnets and it worked. I had to leave the minifigs in the bath for much longer though.. but ultimately same results as you.

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spacer admin January 11, 2012 at 10:48 PM

Abe, thanks for sharing your success! I have found that the time of how long you need to keep them in the bath depends on things like the accuracy of your thermometer, the elevation of your location, and also how much solvent was used on the minifigs. So, it just requires a bit of patience, but it works. spacer

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spacer erytop January 21, 2012 at 4:48 AM

I used an 4.8mm drill and drilled carefully at the back of the magnets thru the two points where the legs are gleud.
Then with a screwdriver it is easy to flip the figur of.

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spacer admin January 21, 2012 at 10:12 AM

Erytop, nice work! Thanks for sharing! More options, the better! spacer

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spacer erytop January 22, 2012 at 11:14 AM

After doing a few, it seems that not all the figures are only gleud on the legonips, but also on other points on the legs (messy). Thats why it is better to use a knife to cut carefully thru after drilling.
But just like mention there wil always be marks of gleu on the back of the legs.
But who looks at the bottom back legs spacer

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spacer Edelle January 27, 2012 at 3:39 PM

Thank you very much! I was missing an Ahsoka minifig in my collection, and didn’t want to fork over $120 for the Clone Turbo Tank construction set, when the Ahsoka/Anakin/Senate Commando magnet sets were on sale at the Lego store for $3.50.

I successfully applied your technique to two magnet sets, with the following variations:

- My cooking thermometer has a minimum gauge of 90F, and so I had to wing it with the temperature (making sure that the needle stayed far below 90F). The water was steaming and had bubbles on the bottom of the nonstick pot, but it wasn’t actively simmering. I kept the pot on very low fire to sustain the temperature while the minifigs were submerged.
- My average submerge time was 10 minutes for each minifig.
- For one of the minifigs, there was a little bit of solvent on the bottom of the feet, which made it more difficult to pop it out of the brick magnet. This minifig sustained the most solvent damage and even had a crack at the bottom of one foot, but it still was playable (though wobbly).
- For the first three minifigs, I had a hard time with step #9, most likely because the water was not at ideal temperature. I had to bend the torso over the extension plate with a bit more force. This created a slight arc imprint on the plastic (where the top of the rounded extension plate meets the torso). I suspect the ABS plastic was getting too soft, and I forced the bend too much.
- For my second set of minifigs, I skipped step#9 altogether. With the minifig out of the water and still in bent position, I used an offset spatula between the extension plate and the back of the legs (making sure I pushed against the plate, and not the back of the legs). The minifigs popped right off with hardly any solvent damage/residue.

All in all, I recommend using a stainless steel offset spatula vs. a knife. It is much thinner and so much more pliable than a knife (which I also tried). It also doesn’t have a sharp edge that might cut into your minifig legs.

Thanks again! I’ll definitely be referring your site to all my Lego enthusiast friends!

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spacer admin January 28, 2012 at 10:04 AM

Edelle, thanks for sharing your results! Yes, there is going to be some variation depending on the amount of solvent on the minifigs, water temperature, the accuracy of the thermometer, tools available, etc. I do agree; the thinner (but still rigid and strong) the blade, the better. Someone in this thread mentioned they used a nail-file, so yeah, whatever works! spacer

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spacer Tom February 1, 2012 at 4:39 AM

Really great site.

Your technique worked on most of my minifigs. I only had problems with two of them. Which were Thi-Sen (Star-Wars) and Barbossa (Pirates of the caribean). Those figs have a Lego plate pasted to the legs.
I got them of the magnet with your method, but the plate didn’t come of. It seems they have applied a diffrent kind of glue there.
I had them in the water for about 20 minutes without any result. So I put boiling water into the bowl and after letting them soak for about 2 minutes I was able to remove that plate also. You have to be a little more careful at that temperature. One of my Thi-Sen is a little bow legged now spacer

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spacer admin February 1, 2012 at 10:46 AM

Tom, thanks for sharing! The solvent used to attach the legs to the extra plate is the same. It is just more stuck. spacer

You may want to check out the comment from Darkdragon on November 5th for an excellent solution for removing the plate:

“Here’s what I did to liberate a more difficult minifig from his bonds. For instance Barbossa and other figs with a 1×2 plate on the back of the legs. Had to do a second hot water bath, then VERY CAREFULLY I used a razer blade to cut the plate in half between the legs (so the legs can move independently again). Second step was to VERY CAREFULLY cut the plate off each leg. This leaves a little bit of stud still inside the leg, but it was easy to stick a flag pole into the foot at an angle and pop the stud out the back. The key here is this has to be done while the plastic is still warm and of course it has to be done carefully or you will cut the minifig (or yourself, but you will heal).”

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spacer tanja February 13, 2012 at 11:50 AM

YOU ARE GREAT!
THE GREATEST JUST GOT SOME STAR WAR MAGNET FIGURES AND SUCESFULY SEPARATED THEM USING YOUR METHOD! MY 6 YEARO OLD IS THRILLED! MANY THANKS!

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spacer admin February 13, 2012 at 11:55 AM

You are very welcome, Tanja! Enjoy your freed minifigs! spacer

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