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! 
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:
“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!). 
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.
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)
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)
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)
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.
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! 
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.
NOW THE HORROR STORIES FOR YOUR EDUCATION AND AMUSEMENT! (In each method listed below I note the process, time elapsed, and the result.)
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
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
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
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. 
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
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
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
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. 
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:)
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.
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! 
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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.
Marc, thanks for sharing!
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..
Ed, thanks for sharing! I’m glad your minifigs are now free!
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
Derek, I guess that works too as long as you are careful about the temperature, which it seems you were. Thanks for sharing!
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.
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.
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.
Erytop, nice work! Thanks for sharing! More options, the better!
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
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!
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!
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
Tom, thanks for sharing! The solvent used to attach the legs to the extra plate is the same. It is just more stuck.
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).”
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!
You are very welcome, Tanja! Enjoy your freed minifigs!
Oh! I’m so glad I found this! I did just what you said and my son and I had no problems getting the figures off the bases with the hot water trick! Thank you so much! You really made our day!!
You are very welcome, Steffany! Enjoy your freed minifigures!
Thanks! We have a Fangpyre magnet that we NEED to get off so he can conquer the world! I found your post after my own Goo-gone stage and just as I tried a bit of acetone, which I quickly rushed to rinse off! We will try the hot-water process tomorrow.
Janny, oh! I’m glad you rinsed off the acetone quickly!
It worked! I read through all the comments and found the other guy who had a Ninjago magnet, and realized I was trying to pry off the 1×2. So, tried it again, and pried FangDom *with* his 1×2 off the magnet back and base, and he and Fang Sui are already hatching evil plots. We’re perfectly happy to leave the 1×2 in place, he stands better on our carpet that way. Thanks again!
Janny, I’m glad it worked for you! Happy playing!
Barbosa’s 1×2 came off pretty well for me, gave them a slightly over 5 minute soak, used the back side of a kitchen knife for thickness, and made sure that the 1×2 was coming loose in the process from the legs (careful wiggling to make sure the desired result was acheived), have a 1×2 that still works though it has some black and white discolorations….
awesome, we did the heat-up-not-boil-in-a-pan method, and it worked great…..
thanks for the info!!
two happy kids here right now
RB, I’m glad you had a succesful minifig rescue mission!
Has anyone had success doing this with the 2012 Super Hero mini-figs?
I used a super glue debonder. Worked great on 2 out of 3. The 3rd I left it on a little too long, jokers legs got a little discolored. The trick is to put 1 drop on each leg and 1 drop on the feet (seems like the feet are also glued on the newer figs) let it sit for a few seconds and then wiggle the figure off with a knife holding the magnet with pliers. Quickly rinse the figure in water to remove any excess debonder. Then place figure somewhere safe for an hour or so, just to make sure the plastic on the legs is not soft. Joker was my first attempt and I used way to much debonder and it softened the legs too much.
Forgot to mentio, this was before I found your site. I am going to give your method a whirl next. Thanks!
Mickey, thanks for sharing! I’m thinking of trying your method! What brand of debonder did you use?
Thank you so much!!!!!! I just tried your method and it totally worked!!!! Can’t say thank you enough for spending your time to figure this out!!!!
Scott, you are very welcome!
I should have read your site prior to trying some of my own methods. We scored some Pirates Of The Caribbean at the LEGO store at MOA. I was able to cleanly pry off Barbossa (the one with a 1×2 plate on his lower legs) just by pulling him off and this was without chemicals or hot water. I was surprised with how easy it was. Captain Jack Sparrow and the Zombie dude weren’t as easy (and didn’t have the 1×2 plate). I tried to put them in the freezer, but wasn’t patient enough to find out if it worked. I used the knife method and broke the lower back of the legs on one of them – dumb. For Jack, I used Goof Off and he came off very easily. Even when I immediately put him in a water bath, I was disappointed to see a slight color damage. Next time, I’ll give your method a go. Thanks.
MN-Dad, thanks for sharing your experiments! That’s how we learn!
You, sir, are a legend!
manage to separate thi-sen figure (from magnet base) ok, just using Hot tap water (75 degrees centigrade)
Couldn’t take torso away from legs but the lad is happy
Not happy with this from Lego – just being difficult in my opinion.
They make tons of money as it is…
Gold diggers!
We’re all upset that lego does this. Think of it though as they have to do it. Hasbro and other companies think minifigures are biting into their action figure market and had some legal complaint based on their licensing agreement. Hence the glue. Damn.
Also, I’ve used this method to separate everything, heads, legs from torsos. Over 40 times. Each figure takes at least 5 ‘baths’. I get the water really hot. About 5 are in the hot tub at once. I work on each in rotation a little at a time. Impatience leads to broken pieces or marred torsos.
Josh, looks like you are more a pro at this than myself!
The importance of patience (as you have mentioned) cannot be over emphasized. Make this a fun weekend project and it will be a success!
That is actually a great idea! Try to just run the minifig under hot tap water! Some may separate, some don’t depending on how much solvent is used. Then you can apply the hot-bath method on the ones that won’t separate by just tap-water. I guess it is worth a try to save the hassle!
Great post, thanks for posting this information. I am off to the kitchen to try it now on some recently acquired magnets!
Good luck, Jeremy! Have fun!
Mm i left the figure in a bowl with the hot water running, perhaps for an hour, it took a bit of prizing off too. (gentle prizing!)
Pleased for my first attempt though
Thanks, Batman is free!!!! Worked like a charm. You really can find anything on the internet!!!!!!!
Jeff, yeah, that is right! The Internet is a great resource! I’m glad your minifigs are free!
Used our hot tap on our Primo water dispenser and it worked like a gem. Thank you so much. You can often find these magnets in the clearance bin and we have bypassed them since we thought they were permanently glued. Thanks for sharing the information! We are now happy owners of free standing Lego Dudes.
Pinky, I’m glad your minifigs are now free!
I love you dude. I’M GETTING EMBO AND AURA SING
I got the NY minifigure and I got the New York sign on the first try but the Minifigure is still on.
Trying everything. Dont have a cooking thermometer. Tryed Boiled Kettle Water…… Extermelly hot Tap Water
Help!!!!!!!
Jarod, I would NOT recommend doing this process without a cooking-thermometer as you can melt the plastic. You can get a cooking-thermometer at any department store for a couple of bucks. You have to keep the minifigure fully immersed in the water for some time. Make sure you follow all of the directions. Good luck!
Got the Minifigure off…. No damage done.
Yay!!!
This process works. Leaves the the lego guy with a little something to remember his time in bondage by, but at least they’re free! In our case, the clerk at the Lego store was kind enough to tell me that these things were glued on and recommended “Googling” for a solution, this was the first hit. Great stuff, thanks!
You are welcome, Michael, I’m glad it worked for you too! ‘YAY’ for more freed minifigs!
We have tried this with multiple soakings in up to 80 celcius and did not work for us. Removed some of paint on figures Maybe they have changed the glue. ..
Sue, I’m doubting that LEGO is using anything new. Also the water shoud not remove the paint at all. Something must not be right. I have never heard of this method not working. And I personally know at least one person who used the method on over a hundred figs. I wish I could be there to help you out, but obviously I can’t. I would suggest to read through the instructions again and see what you may be missing. Good luck!
I tried this method on my Super Heroes Magnets, and it didn’t work after several tries, all 160F. However, I did take the arms off of the figs. Do you think that would affect the process?
Thanks Again
Hm… you are the second person today who mentioned that the method didn’t work for them. Maybe LEGO did change something. This method has consistently worked for everyone who tried it, so make sure that you are following the process closely and give it enough time. Temperature, elevation, the amount of glue used can all have an effect. Also, make sure the minifigure is FULLY IMMERSED.
I’m also going to try the method myself on a newly released set of magnets (like the Super Heroes) to see if I notice any difference. I don’t see why LEGO would do a change on the solvent used, but it is not impossible.
No, removing the arms should have had no effect…
Thanks for this tutorial! I might actually go back to buying magnet sets again because of this.
According to my manager at the LEGO Store, the change to glued magnets came about because each company that licenses Star Wars gets exclusive rights to certain specific kinds of toys–building toys, action figures, etc. IIRC, the magnet sets are technically considered action figures if left unglued, so LEGO had to make the change in order to avoid infringing on another toymaker’s rights. Sadly, per your excerpt above, LEGO has decided to make that change to ALL magnet sets for the sake of consistency within their brand.
Tim, yes that is correct. The issue was with toy-maker HASBRO. I would suggest that you get a cheap magnet set first and try out this method to see how you like it. It works great removing the figs, however please remember that the residue from the solvent will leave some roughness at the back of the minifigs’ legs. If you can live with that, this is going to be a great way for you to get rarer minifigs on the cheap.
just managed to seperate my super heroes magnets . batman just came straight off and only slight damage to robins legs cheers
Paul, I’m glad your rescue mission was a success!
Wow! Thank goodness for your tried and true blog. We’ve bought several clearance magnet sets through the years–we had no idea that they are now glued! Today we purchased a Star Wars magnet set at the Lego store. Mace Windu and Count Dooku came off with a little help from a kitchen knife after five minutes of soaking. Yoda was more problematic. Due to his shorter size, Yoda has an extra base brick layer–he’s glued at the feet–and he doesn’t bend at the waist! It took several pan soaks at 160-168 degrees. One base brick broke with kitchen knife assistance. One foot was really glued down. It helped to insert a small screwdriver into the base brick opening and pop the brick off. We were lucky to keep Yoda intact. Thank you!
Karen, thanks for sharing! It is always sad to hear when people buy the magnet sets, thinking the minifigs are removable. LEGO should be doing a better job making it clear they are glued! Anyhow, I’m glad you guys were able to liberate your minifigs!
Thank you so much. This worked perfectly and now I have one happy Ninjago fan on my hands!!!! I’ve had a couple of mishaps with acetone-based nail polish remover as well…Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer falls apart so easily that I thought I would be smart and glue it…..until I glued it together incorrectly….the nail polish remover helped me turn it into the Count Dooku’s Solar “Not-So-Much Sailing Going On” Sailer. Thank you once again!!!!
TMoon, thanks for sharing! I’m glad you were able to free your minifigs! Yeah, I have heard complaints about the Solar Sailer before. I don’t glue my LEGO sets, but if you ever need to glue something, plain school-glue works just fine. Some of the largest LEGO model artists use it as well. It is safe for both you and your LEGO and will keep fregile LEGO creations together.
First off I’d like to say i think LEGO’s excuse for gluing is bogus. we all know its to prevent people from buying the magnets and then selling them for crazy amounts on eaby!
This process worked like a charm for Yoda, but Mace Windu and Count Dooku are still stuck on the magnets. I will give it one more try!
Jim, it takes some patience, but you should be able to remove the rest of your minifigs just fine. Maybe raise the temperature a bit and keep them soaking a bit longer. Remember; each minifigure will have different amount of the solvent, so some take longer than others. Good luck!
Thank you, thank you! We just took our boys to the Lego store yesterday and we were especially thrilled to find out we could remove the minifigures off the magnets because the boys had earned the money to buy them themselves. I followed your directions exactly and after 5 minutes in the water, I just had to give it a little more leverage with a cake knife and the Star Wars guys popped off! Thanks again!
Heather, you are very welcome! I’m glad your boys can now play with their SW minifigures!
Thank You!
The metod worked just fine. Some of them (Royal Guard and Mace Windu) needed longer time in the water while som of them (Yoda and Count Dooku) came of very easy. In fact is hard to see that they once were attached to a magnet…
My son, and myself, is very pleased!
You are welcome, Mathias! Yes, sometimes you luck out and very little residue remains!
I meant to post an update over a week ago. i did raise the temperature a bit and soaked them longer and finally count Dooku and Mace Windu came free of their bonds. my son was so excited he took them to school the next day to make all his friends jealous…
Jim, thanks for the update! I’m glad your minifigs are now free! You must have been the superhero for the day!
Thank you Brick Blogger for this wonderful post and your other posts on dismantling LEGO keychains and magnets.
I have a couple of 1980s LEGO keyrings that I’ve been dismantling thanks to your inspiration. I have made some progress, but certain bonded parts are not budging with the hot water process. Any recommendations?
My photos and experiences here:
http://questforcastle.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/dismantling-1980s-lego-keyrings/
I’m not familiar with keychains from the 80s, so yeah, it is possible that a different kind of glue was used. I do remember reading somewhere that the bonding material was changed a few times. I would also add though that torsos may or may not come off with the hot-water method. I would say I was able to separate them maybe 50% off the time (recent minifigures). It just depends on how much of the bonding material has been inserted in between the legs and the torso. Personally, I don’t force the issue. If the torso comes off great, if not I just let it be. The main goal of the hot-water method is to remove minifigures from magnets. Hope this helps some!
Thank you for the response. Yes, I think it may be some combination of a different bonding method back in the 1980s and/or torsos not coming off too easily with this method in any case. I gave it another try at a slightly higher temperature and for a longer while (10+ minutes at a pretty constant 73-75 Celsius) and it made no difference. Didn’t damage the minifigures either, so there was no harm in trying. In any case, thank you for the information is this and your related posts!
You are very welcome! And if you come up with a solution for your older figs let me know.
This worked well for me, but I did have to leave the figures to soak for more than 20 mins before they finally released from the magnets. Top tip, thanks all!
Thank you for the time note. Maybe I too have to try for a significantly longer period (like 20-30 minutes), although my case with the 1980s keyrings is probably a fundamentally different one. I do note that many of you have mentioned needing a longer time for the process, so thank you for that. I do think a longer exposure may increase the danger of damage, though, so gotta be careful.
Martin, I’m glad your minifigs are free!
Does this work on Keychain Minifigs as well – as far as removing the legs? Thanks.
Btown, yes, technically it does, however it depends on how much solven was used. Please remember that the inside of the minifigure torso is very delitate with lots of tiny compartments the solvent can leak into. So if a good amount of solvent was used and it went all over the place, I would not try to remove the torso as the process can damage the internal parts. However if there was only little solvent used, then yes, this method does work to separate the legs from the torso. Hope this helps some!
I’ve done a ton of the keychain figures. If you don’t care about legs coming off, leave them on. There can be a lot of damage done just trying to pry that torso off, its really quite a task. I’ve broken off studs from the legs off inside the figure. They tend then to need some craftsmanship to get them to fit back together right. If you insist on doing this, a nail file is your friend in making things right again.
my lego ninjago minifigs wont come off. it looks like there is 1 piece betweene the figure and the magnet? what could i do?
Sjors, you may want to check out the comment from Darkdragon on November 5th for an excellent solution for removing the extra 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 razor 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).”
Since this was shared several readers mentioned that this process worked for them excellently. Good luck!
Would this work for chess pieces? Some of the chess piece minifigs I see on bricklink are listed as glued, and I’m wondering if I can score some great army builders.
Also, for the keychains, wouldn’t it be better to try removing, or at least softening the solvent before you attempt to remove the metal pin? That might make the pins easier to remove. Just an idea.
Gedren, sure, it can probably be done that way. Although I have to say that nothing ocmpares to the soldering-iron method; it is clean, efficient, fast and cheap. There is no need to put the plastic under unnecessary stress.
Gedren, please note that this method is recommended for removing minifigs from magnets. The torso and leg-assembly may or may not separate, depending on how much of the solvent was used. However it is very likely that glued heads, and headgear would get removed very easily.
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