How can a sticker be removed?

Question

In my younger days I may have placed a few stickers on my bricks. Including some that covered multiple bricks.

Now my daughter has the tendency to do the same thing :)

How can I best remove the stickers, particularly old ones?

Answer 1

the best way i found out till now is to get them of as good as possible with your nails or a plastic-knife (i wouldn't recommend to use metal knifes or razorblades - if you do, be careful to avoid scratching the bricks surface) and then remove the remaining glue with:

• pure alcohol or
• glass cleaner
• cheap hairspay (spray 2-3 seconds from very close distance and then rub of with a piece of cloth) sometimes also does a good job

Answer 2

There is/was a product called Un-Du that would soften the adhesive of stickers so that they could be removed and reused. I was able to find a few links online, so I guess it's still around. The "patented" part of the "Un-Du" product was the tool extension attached to the bottle. The important part is the liquid and that is plain heptane. I haven't checked it against ABS, but I think it's worth a look see

Answer 3

I performed my own experiments to determine which methods work by randomly applying three stickers (which are similar to the stickers that come in LEGO sets) onto a simple brick wall.

• Using my finger nails to peel the stickers worked well. This is how I've always removed stickers and in my experience, I haven't had any problems doing so.
• Heating the brick wall for 15-30 seconds, evenly with a hairdryer made it easier to take the sticker off manually. It was still quite fiddley to pick the corner but the sticker comes off more smoothly.
• Firmly taping over the stickers with sellotape and peeling off failed to work, even after several attempts. Two of the three stickers had been peeled into half.
• Sceptical about using a sharp blade to remove a sticker, I'd re-built my LEGO wall out of old, damaged bricks. Using a craft knife to remove the stickers was very easy, however there was a risk of scraping the brick and causing damage.

I haven't tried hair spray, pure-alcohol or any other chemical cleaning products.

Answer 4

Acetone (fingernail polish remover) works quite well also, I used to use it to get rid of marker and stickers on my LEGO bricks as a kid. Definitely do not soak your bricks in it though or you will notice your brick will turn out quite rubbery when you remove it! I found that out the hard way.

Answer 5

If you don't care about preserving the old sticker, remove it with your fingers or a plastic knife and then use rubbing alcohol to remove the remaining sticky bits. As other posters have noted, metal knives/razors leave the risk of scratching the plastic bricks - it all depends on the level of confidence in your knife/razor skills.

I use alcohol instead of harsher chemicals (like glass cleaner or hairspray) to reduce the amount of possibly toxic chemicals on the bricks, since kids will be playing with them after the sticker is removed.

Answer 6

Best to remove as much as you can by mechanical means (plastic spatula/fingernail, nothing harder unless you like scratching your bricks) then use some 'Sticky Stuff Remover' to get the sticky residue off.

This stuff works on just about anything without leaving a mark, Lego is made from ABS and will not be affected by it.

Answer 7

I have used a razor blade to remove the sticker, then a wee bit of food oil to remove the residual glue.

Sometimes just using some tape and a repetitive dubbing motion have done the trick as well.