January 5, 2017: Version 2.8 adds 55 new labels, with a focus on Minifigures, accessories, plants, and animals. These labels are carefully designed to print using the economical Brother P-touch label printer, which prints high-quality glossy labels on durable plastic tape with a strong adhesive. They have been designed to work with a wide range of storage solutions, including my favorite: The affordable 64-drawer cabinets by Akro-Mils. I designed each label to ensure you can find bricks quickly, and order more parts when you run out. That’s why each label includes a picture, common name, and the part number. The crisp images of each LEGO brick are created using custom scrips to enhance the contrast, ensuring that the images look great when printed. In cases where there have been several part variations, both part numbers are shown. The collection has been organized into groups of related LEGO elements, like Basic Bricks, Slopes, Hinges, Wedges, Curves, Technic and more.
This makes it easier to find the labels you need. Most of the groups contain around 64 labels, which is the number of drawers in the highly recommended Akro-Mils 64-drawer cabinet. You will probably want to rearrange your groupings over time based on the bricks that you use most frequently, and bricks that you typically use at the same time. Download Link: BROTHER_LABELS.zip (Version 2.8) Subscribe to my newsletter for early access to new models and instructions, LEGO Architecture news, updates to my Printable LEGO Brick Labels, and my book The LEGO Architect. (I promise that I won't email you very often.) These labels are designed to be printed on 1/2″ label tape using a Brother Label printer (such as the PT-P700) on Brother 1/2″ Laminated Tape. These labels are waterproof, smudgeproof, durable, and they come in a variety of colors such as White, Pink, Yellow, Lime Green,Clear, and even Gold. Any Brother printer which prints on “P-touch” 1/2 inch (12mm) labels will work.
The higher-end PT-P700 seems to be the best value at this time. If you decide to buy a printer or label tape, please consider using the Amazon links on this page. I get a small royalty, which encourages me to update the label collection to include new elements. I have been very happy with the inexpensive plastic drawers manufactured by Akro-Mils. They make a 64-drawer cabinet which is perfect for sorting your collection by part. The drawers are not large, so I advise using a different storage system such as plastic bags in large plastic bins for those cases when you have more bricks of a specific type than you can store in one drawer. With so many labels, a storage system consisting of ten 64 small drawer cabinets, and two 24 large drawer cabinets for your most common bricks/tiles/plates is a good place to start. Akro-mils also makes a 44 drawer cabinet containing 32 small drawers and 12 large drawers, but I have found that it’s easier to arrange the cabinets when each one contains only large or only small drawers.
Some users prefer the similar system of drawers by the Stack-on brand. Their cabinets may fit better in your LEGO room since they are narrower and taller (than the Akro-mils cabinets.) The drawers are easier to break because they are made of a hard clear plastic. They come in a version with 60 small drawers, 18 large drawers, or a mix of 30 small and 9 large drawers. Whether you choose Stack-On or Akro-Mils, I have found that Amazon is usually cheaper and has better selection than local stores. (Free two-day shipping with their Amazon Prime program is really convenient when knee-deep in sorting LEGO bricks…) For bulk storage, there are a lot of options, and you may find better prices at your local big box store like Fred Meyer, Walmart, or Target. I have been pretty happy with these large Sterilite drawers which you can use with or without the wheels. This is where I store complete sets that aren’t built at this time, additional bulk bricks, instruction manuals, incomplete projects, and more.
A brief history of LEGO Brick Labels LEGO Brick Labels began in April 2014, when I decided to organize all of the bricks included in 21050 Architecture Studio into two 44-drawer Akro-mils cabinets. The label collection grew throughout 2014, as I purchased additional LEGO bricks while working on my book, The LEGO Architect. After completing the book I finally had a chance to update the collection, so the number of labels doubled in November 2015! The Technic collection was completed by April 2016, and each subsequent update focused on less-common elements or newly added LEGO elements. (Did you know that there are about 30 new general-purpose LEGO elements every year?) If you want to see which labels I added in each update, you can review the detailed version history. Have these labels helped you get organized?Building the new LinkedIn Logo in LEGO bricks for the Mountain View lobby required me to buy a huge number of specific bricks in the same color. This is useful because you can order any brick in production.
Limitations are that you cannot order bricks that are out of production, and fulfillment times are often 10-15 business days for large orders.2) Fax an order to LEGO. The LinkedIn logo required over 5,000 blue 2x8 bricks as the primary component of the construction. For large, detailed orders you can call the LEGO store at 1-800-835-4386, and they will give you a fax number for the order. Unfortunately, fulfillment times here depend on brick type - I ended up waiting 6-7 weeks for some components of the order. Also, LEGO seems to have no concept of shipping notifications or tracking for orders placed this way.3) Local LEGO stores "Pick a Brick". I used both the Valley Fair and Hillsborough stores to acquire bricks at times. You can buy bricks three ways: a small cup for $7.99, a large cup for $14.99, and an entire box for $70. As you can imagine, you are somewhat limited by your ability (or patience) in terms of cramming different brick types into containers. Most clerks will tell you that you can't buy bricks by the box - they are mistaken.
Ask to talk to a manager, and they will sell you a box, but only if they have more than one in the back. They are not allowed to sell "the last box."The biggest limitation of this approach is that not only do stores not stock all brick types or colors, they also have no ability to "special order" Pick-a-Brick bricks. They get fulfillment once a week, and have no control over which bricks they receive. The trick is to call ahead, and be flexible with your design to adapt to the bricks they do have.4) Bricklink. For example, getting 20-30 small 1x2 tiles to finish off the base edges of the lettering. Bricklink is relatively slow on fulfillment, and it's common to get bricks that are discolored by age or cleaning. This means they may not match other orders of a similar brick. It's also very hard to get large orders of many brick types & colors.Overall, for the LinkedIn in LEGO project I purchased approximately 12,000+ bricks. 8,000 I was able to get over 7-8 weeks from a Fax order to LEGO.