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?
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1Anyone tried WD40?– KramiiCommented Feb 1, 2012 at 9:28
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1@Kramii: Relevant– Ambo100 ♦Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 14:46
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1I am posting this as a comment and not an answer because it is a brand name thing, but I personally use Goo Gone (tm). The best technique tha I know of is to get the sticker(s) off with your fingernails or another hard object, and then use Goo Gone to get the residue off.– fouricCommented Mar 19, 2012 at 21:56
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I have to use the Goo Gone outside so the smell doesn't disturb my lady, but it is worth the trouble for getting rid of sticker remnants. I've never used this directly on LEGO, but it has worked great on clear plastic food containers I was cleaning up to store LEGO. They look like new with minimal effort.– chicksCommented Aug 10, 2018 at 21:22
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9 Answers
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
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.
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Seriously? A RAZOR BLADE ON LEGO BRICKS?!?! I don't care how old they are! They are LEGOS! You must respect them!!!!!!!! Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 16:33
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@J.Walker I tried a couple of methods from the other answers to to this question and one of them suggested using a knife.– Ambo100 ♦Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 18:54
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.
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.
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.
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.
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2As Joshua points out, Acetone is a solvent that will dissolve ABS if left in contact with the elements for any length of time. Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 11:01
I use a hair dryer to heat the sticker up a bit. Then a plastic scrapper or plastic knife or fingernail to scrape off the sticker and as much of the glue as possible. The genuine LEGO stickers seem to come off better than the after market stickers. I use a bit of rubbing alcohol on a micro-fiber cloth to remove any residue. The remove any alcohol with a dry micro-fiber cloth.
This leaves nice clean LEGO's.
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
Rapid remover works wonders. Also, hot water soak and then just peel it off.
