Unchaining your LEGO Keychains

As I have mentioned in a previous column, LEGO keychains can be a useful way to acquire certain characters that are otherwise only available as part of large, expensive sets. In addition, a very few characters (like the VIP Club exclusive minifigure) have only been made available as keychains. Keychains typically retail at $4.99 each, which means that they are not much more expensive than a character from the collectible Minifigures line ($2.99 each) or assembled at the Build-A-Mini kiosk found in LEGO Stores ($9.99 for three). Discontinued keychains can sometimes be acquired at a significant discount, usually 50% off. More rarely, individual characters will be marked down to as little as $0.99 if the LEGO Store wants to dispose of their stock of less popular characters quickly. (This is how I acquired several cheap Bossk heads that I recently used for kobolds in The Sunless Citadel.)

The main obstacle to using a keychain as a RPG miniature is, obviously, the chain itself. The chain can be removed by using needle-nose pliers to pry open the loop connecting the chain to the top of the minifigure's head. 

This leaves only the smaller loop set into the head itself. This loop is the head of a screw that is approximately 1 inch long and goes through the hair/headgear (if any), head, neck post, and torso of the minifigure, and ends in the waist piece of the leg assembly. This screw firmly connects all the main body pieces to the chain so that they won't fall off. (The only keychain that I have actually used as a keychain is a Mordor Orc. In the 4-5 years since I bought him, he's lost almost all of his printing, and one leg has come off due to a broken hip post, but everything directly attached to the screw is still as solid as ever.)

I have found instructions online for removing this screw, but every technique involve tools and methods that I am unable and/or unwilling to try, such as excessive brute force or a soldering iron. (Here is one such tutorial, for those who are more willing to risk their minifigures than I am.)

I have, however, been able to use needle-nose pliers to remove the loop from the top of the screw on several figures. This allows the removal of the head and hair/headgear to use with other minifigures. This methods works best on figures who have clear, flat space around the screw, so that the cutting edges of the pliers can get in close to the bottom of the loop to cut it off. Alternately, if you can get a good enough grip on the loop, you can snap it off by bending it sideways. Sometimes, this can result in a break that is both cleaner and further down the screw than cutting could give you (and if you're lucky, less damaging to the plastic).

If you can't quite get to all the way down to the base of the loop to cut it off there, cut off half of the loop, then use the tips of the pliers to bend the remaining bits of loop back and forth until they break off. You may still end up with enough protruding metal at the top that the head doesn't pull off easily. In that case, very carefully apply force to the head to pull it off. Be sure to cover the head with a bit of cloth to protect both the printed face and your fingers. In some cases, I've had to twist the head back and forth until the spur dug the hole just a little larger to allow the head to come off.

Once the head is off, you'll have a quarter-inch or so of screw sticking out of the neck post. Trim that off with the pliers as close as you can (or snap it off by bending it to the side). Unless you have a metal file, you'll probably be left with a small bit of sharp, exposed metal. For this reason, I don't recommend using this method on any keychain that children will be playing with! I always store such minifigure bodies with a head over the neck post, so that the exposed metal will not scratch anything else in the container. Note that the screw makes the neck post thicker than normal, so a head from a keychain may fit a little loosely onto another minifigure's neck due to the time it spent on its original, deformed neck post. And normal minifigure heads may require a little effort to put on or remove from a keychain's neck because they have not been stretched in this way.

A modern standard minifigure head has a partially hollow stud on top, rather than the original flat, solid one. This will help hide the hole left by the screw--and new headgear will cover it entirely. The holes on hair and headgear from keychains will be much more obvious, especially if you had to widen the hole in order to remove the piece. If you wish, fill these holes with putty and paint the patch to match. For my own collection, however, I just leave them as is and ignore the holes.

Unchaining complete!

TBT: My New Kentucky Home

My family put up and decorated our Christmas tree this past week, including the little blue horse shown here:

Three years ago, I wanted to find a new ornament to commemorate my family's first Christmas in Kentucky. I was unable to find one in stores or online that I was satisfied with, so decided to create my own. The city's mascot is a blue horse of the same name, so I painted a LEGO horse that color. Normally, I view altering LEGO bricks in any way as something bordering on blasphemy. This attitude is mostly due to the fact that once a piece is altered, damaged, or lost, I can't use it for its original purpose, and I've rarely had enough spare parts (or the cash to replace them) to justify the sacrifice. However, I have acquired a large number of LEGO horses over a lifetime of collecting LEGO, and never use more than a few of them at the same time, so made an exception to my own rule.

I also sacrificed a few of the oldest bricks I own (which are notably battered and yellowed after nearly 40 years) to build a stand to hold the horse while I painted it. After picking my parts, I used black spray primer, then used acrylic paint to give the horse a nice light blue coat.

The slot in the horse's back is usually filled with a 1x2 plate on top of a 1x2 brick, but I only added the 1x2 brick in order to leave room for a special brick later that would allow me to attach an ornament hook.

I then painted the classic LEGO horse's bridle and eyes back on, and made the mane and tail a darker shade of blue. I wrote "New KY. Home" on one side (a play on the song title "My Old Kentucky Home") and "Lexington 2013" on the other, first in red then again with narrower white lines. 

Once all of that dried, I sprayed it with matte fixative. I then just needed to attach a brick with a hole for attaching the ornament hook, and little Lexington was ready for the tree! 

Jedi Academy: DIY Lightsabers

Jedi Academy is this school year's theme for the Religious Exploration classes at my church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington, KY. I was one of two instructors for the lightsaber practice unit. For these classes, we needed padded lightsabers for the padawans to spar with. Fortunately, building these weapons was easy and inexpensive (only about $4-$5 per lightsaber*), so I have decided to share the process here. 

These instructions are based on a design by Frank Sewell and adapted by UU educator Jessica Gray for the Jedi Academy curriculum. 

Colored lightsabers for our Jedi Master instructors. 

You will need the following supplies:

• PVC ratcheting cutter.
• Lengths of 1/2" PVC. (These need to be Schedule 40 PVC so that they can take impacts without breaking.)
• Lengths of 3/4" PVC. (Do not need to be Schedule 40.)
• 3/4" PVC couplings. 
• 3/4" and 1/2" end caps.
• 1/2" to 3/4" bushing. (This part allows you to join pipe of different gauges. The inside needs to fit over the end of a 1/2" pipe, while the outside needs to fit into a 3/4" coupling.)
• Sandpaper or sandpaper block. (Relatively fine grit is best.)
• PVC cement.
• Pipe insulation. (Insulation sized for 3/4" metal pipe will fit 1/2" PVC pipe.)
• Metallic duct tape. 
• Other colors of duct tape for decorating the handles.

PVC cut into blades (top) and handles (bottom), plus bushings (in tray), couplings, and end caps.

Cut the 3/4" PVC into 6"-8" lengths for the handles. 6" is long enough for children, but adults may want a longer handle. (We were able to get twenty 6" handles out of a 10-foot length of pipe, though the last two were more like 5.5" because the pipe wasn't exactly 120" long.)

Cut the 1/2" PVC to the desired blade length. The blade + handle should be no longer than the user's hip-to-floor distance or the weapon will be too long to control easily. Our padawans ranged from kindergarten to middle school age, so we needed a variety of lengths: 30" blades for the oldest kids and the instructors, down to about 18" for the youngest kids.

Handle (left) and blade (right) subassemblies.

Lightly sand the last 1" band at one end of the 3/4" PVC handle. Cement that end into the 3/4" coupling, making sure that the PVC is pushed all the way into the socket. Put a 3/4" end cap on the other end of the handle; this joint isn't structural, so doesn't need to be glued.

Lightly sand the 1" band at the end of the 1/2" PVC blade, and cement that end into the 1/2" side of the bushing. Put a 1/2" end cap on the other end. This makes the tip safer by covering the sharp end of the PVC.

Assembled lightsabers.

Give the cement some time to dry, then cement the bushing on the blade into the 3/4" coupling on the handle.

Applying pipe insulation (tight) and metallic tape (left).

Cut the pipe insulation long enough to cover the blade, and wrap it around the blade. There will be about 1/4" inch or so of the bushing still showing on the handle, which you may want to cover as well. (Filling that small gap will make taping the blade easier, when we get to that step.)

The pipe insulation has a slit along its length that you will need to hold together while you cover it with tape in the next step. Wrapping a few pieces of duct tape around the blade will help, particularly around the end cap and bushing, which are slightly larger in diameter. (It doesn't what matter what color this tape is, as you'll be covering it up.)

You will probably end up with a few leftover pieces of insulation that are too short to cover a blade. If you want to conserve your supplies, you can combine some scraps to make up the full length. Be sure to tape the join well, so that there is no gap between sections of padding. (I only really recommend doing this if you come up a couple inches short and need to fill in a small gap near the hilt. It's safer to have a solid piece throughout the area where the impacts will be.) 

Cut a small disk of insulation to place directly over the end cap. In a thrusting attack, all of the force of the blow is concentrated into the tiny tip of the blade, so extra padding here will make the practice weapon much safer.

Cover the insulation with metallic duct tape. Apply the tape lengthwise down the blade, wrapping over the end and down the other side. Attach the ends of the tape to the coupling on the handle to hold the insulation firmly in place. (You will cover these ends in the next step.) Apply a second piece that crosses the tip of the blade at right angles to the first piece of tape. These four strips of 2" tape should be wide enough to cover the full circumference of the insulation. (If you end up with gaps, cover them with more tape.)

We used plain silver duct tape for the practice blades, except for the two that the Jedi Masters (instructors) would use. If you're making the lightsaber for a padawan to keep, or for part of a costume, then you can choose any other appropriate colors for the blade (blue or green, possibly purple; for Jedi Academy, we avoided red, the color of Sith blades). 

Wrapped handles, with and without accents.

Wrap a different color of duct tape around the handle, from the bottom of the blade down to the pommel. You can do this lengthwise, or in rings, or try wrapping it in a spiral like some real-world hilt grips. (We tried some of each, and settled on a few lengthwise pieces plus a band around each end of the hilt as being the easiest and most time-effective.) You can cover the whole end cap. or leave the top of the cap bare, as you prefer.

Decorate the hilt as you desire. We put a band of contrasting color around each end of the handle to emphasize that this is the only safe place to hold the lightsaber.

Then you're done! May the Force be with you.

(Many thanks to UUCL's R.E. director, Stacey Stone, for recruiting me to teach in Jedi Academy and helping to build the lightsabers.)

Completed lightsabers.

* Here's a quick breakdown of the costs, buying enough supplies from Loew's for 20 lightsabers:

• Ratcheting cutter: $12.98.
• 1/2" PVC pipe: $2.35 per 10-foot length. Depending on what length you cut them, you can get 3 or 4 blades from each pipe. We bought 8, and used 6.
• 3/4" PVC pipe: $2.61 for one 10-foot length (enough for 20 handles).
• 3/4" x 1/2" bushing: $0.48 each (we bought 20).
• 3/4" coupling: $2.10 per bag of 10 (two bags).
• 3/4" cap: $3.61 per bag of 10 (two bags).
• 1/2" cap: $2.62 per bag of 10 (two bags).
• Foam pipe insulation (3/4" bore): $1.18 per 6-foot length. You can get 2 or 3 blade covers out of each piece. We bought 10 and used 8.
• Sandpaper: $3.97.
• PVC cement (8 oz.): $5.58.
• Duct tape in two colors: $8.98 each. (Additional colors are optional, and can be more expensive.)

That totals $99.04, which comes to about $5 per lightsaber. If you adjust for the fact that the cutter tool is a one-time investment, and some of the supplies (cement, sandpaper) should last for multiple projects, it's more like $4 per sword.

Bonus craft post: Christmas card balls

Many years ago, I saw instructions for making a decoration like this out of Christmas cards. I hadn't made one in years, but remembered the idea yesterday when I was taking down our cards from this year. My wife Erika really liked the result, and has asked me to do this each year so we can add these to our usual Christmas decor.

To make a Christmas card ball, you'll first need to make a pattern by drawing an equilateral triangle enclosed by a circle intersecting all 3 points. You'll probably want a ruler, compass, and protractor for this, to make sure your lines and angles are precise.

Cut out your circle, and trace it onto Christmas cards. You'll need 20 circles, each one enclosing some interesting bit of holiday art. Depending on the size of your circles and your cards, you may be able to get multiple pieces out of some cards.

(If you don't have enough cards, or don't want to destroy the ones you received from friends and family, then just buy a cheap package or two of blank cards from the store. The more variety, the better, and they'll be marked way down after Christmas.)

Cut out your circles, and trace the triangle onto the back side. Use a pen or the point of your scissors to score these three lines, then fold up the flaps toward the art side.

Fasten the flaps together using staples or glue, as shown in the photo. You will form an icosahedron (a 20-sided regular polygon) out of the triangles. It's probably easiest to build it in three parts--the two "tents" of 5 triangles at the top and bottom, and the ring of 10 triangles between them--then join those sections together.

To hang it up, thread some ribbon or yarn through the vertices of the ball, or punch a hole in one of the flaps.