So I kept the canisters for all the Bionicle G1 sets that I purchased from the store way back when they were in retail. I can’t display all of them so for a long time I kept them built (mostly) and stored in their canisters and the canisters in a box. Occasionally I would get them out if I wanted to fiddle with them or show them off. Recently I went through all of my canisters and completely disassembled each one individually (except '08 and '09 sets) and put their parts back in so next time I get them out it’s like opening a new set. While I was doing this though I was noticing that the joint connections seem to be loosing friction the older they get. I know constant construction/deconstruction eventually wears them down (except '08 and '09 sets where you look at it and it breaks) but I wondered if maybe giving the parts a break from holding each other together might give them time to reset or something. I might have to put them in storage for a while sometime in the future, so it got me thinking, what’s better for them long term, storing them assembled or disassembled? Any suggestions?
It seems that unassembled is generally neutral-to-better than assembled. There just doesn’t seem to be conclusive evidence on how much better it is, and therefore whether it’s actually worth disassembling them sometimes.
I don’t think it’s worth it. I had Kiina from 2009, and the last time I disassembled her was 2010. All her joints were cracked (replaced now), but she could stand and pose even then. But also I have recently bought a new (sealed) Onua Mistika. His knees bend under his own weight.
I have another observation about joints. If you look at older joints, you might notice some dust on them. That dust is actually Lego plastic (you can twist a joint for 50 times in a row to actually see how it appears). Those dusted jonits are usually strong, even skreaking sometimes. But after I clean them, they become really loose. I recently cleaned a lot of my joints and sometimes it was benefical (Von Nebula, some Glatorian heads that were skreaking) and sometimes harmful (Nitroblast can barely stand now). I think this is the main factor. Cleaniness of joints.
Having nearly the full collection, plus combiners, Mocs, and parts all stored tightly in the closet of my bedroom, I’d say this arena is somewhat my speciality, hahah.
My strategy is to keep the balljointed sections intact, but to nevertheless disassemble the set, for the later years. With Gresh, for example, I keep the wrist/ankle, elbow/knee, and hip/shoulder joints together, but to make as much space as possible, I sever him at the Inika torso. Now I have two more mobile halves, and will continue this process as much as I can; I pop off the feet, armour, neck (again, at the pins and not the balljoint), the shoulder spikes, etc. Everything I can pillage. Wrap up the single parts or small assemblies in a ziplock bag, bend the limbs, then put everything into the canister—now, however, there should be space enough for another set. As for myself, I have more sets than canisters, and seeing as canisters are space-inefficient anyway, I elect to put 2-3 sets in a canister using this method. When you next decide to pull out gresh, there’s a limited building experience, he doesn’t take much space, and the ball joints are already in place and therefore at small risk of snapping.
This is the strategy for 06-10. The procedure can be followed for the first half of sets, but I find their joints, excepting the long-legged visorak, to be strong enough that they can tolerate a rebuilding process. Works for Titans as well; for Brutaka, for example, while I keep his arms connected together in the manner outlined above, the construction of his legs allows for him to be disassembled almost completely, with no worry for the joints. Titans will also fit into surprisingly small ziplocks—I would recommend it!
I store my sets dissambled and ziplock bagged and in cannister were I have them. Extra pieces and instructions I store in folders.