To the average Lego fan, the thought of gluing bricks together is like nails on a chalkboard. Isn’t one of the joys of Lego the ability to break down and rebuild your creations?
Well, yes it is. However, there are some special applications where it makes perfect sense to glue your legos.
In the event you ever want to try this out, it’s important to make sure you use the right glue for legos. Using the wrong glue can cause your legos to melt together or become deformed, others will make it impossible to ever get your bricks apart again. Here we take a look at 5 reasons you might want to glue your legos together and then provide a few top tips to consider, should you ever want to try this yourself.
Table of Contents
Exhibitions
If you reach a level of Lego wizardry where you are considering entering your creations in exhibitions, it’s possible they may be handled by exhibition staff or other well meaning folks. In the unfortunate event that some part of your creation breaks before or during the exhibition, chances are that nobody but you has the ability to fix it! Gluing your bricks together for an important exhibition or competition reduces the chances of an unfortunate breakage – particular for more delicate pieces.
Travel
If you need to travel somewhere to show a creation or to a building group, there is the chance your creation could break during transit. Gluing the pieces together responsibly ensures that you can safely transport your creation from one place to another.
Think about the intricate wizard castle you spent all week on falling apart as you take a corner too fast, and gluing starts to seem like a good option!
Fishing Jigs
A crafty subset of fishermen have discovered that it’s possible to make amazing jigs and lures from Legos, and have seen impressive results – landing huge fish with these homemade jigs. If you don’t want your jig to fall apart after a couple of casts, finding an appropriate way to glue it together will be important.
High-end builds
There are a number of LEGO Masters and artists who make creations with legos that end up being sold for significant amounts of money. The purchasers of these high end pieces and sculptures are extremely unlikely to ever disassemble their investment to play with the bricks, so it makes a lot of sense to glue these ones together.
You might make a display piece such as the LEGO world map, and to give it pride of place on your wall for many years you might consider gluing it together.
Preservation
Gluing your LEGOs can give them a protective coating which will help them last much longer in their original condition.
How to choose the best glue for legos
Permanence
It’s important to consider how long you want to glue your legos together, is it a temporary thing or do you want them to stay together forever? This will have a big impact on the type of glue you choose.
Application Method
The paint-bucket style of glue application made famous by cartoons isn’t really a super practical way to glue lego together. Thinking about how your glue is applied to the bricks before purchase will save you a hell of a lot of time!
Removal
How easy is it to remove the glue when you’re finished? Some glues are super difficult to remove, and will set you up for a nightmare session of glue removal. Choosing something that can be easily removed will be key. Acetone is a great way to remove certain glues, but make sure you discover this before use.
Aesthetics
Visible lines between each of your glued bricks will make your piece look a bit weird. Keep in mind that after you apply the glue and then push your bricks together, there may be some spreading of the adhesive. This can be OK if your glue is easy to wipe off along the way.