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I own a few bricks that contain a weight inside of them. 52g according to Lego.

What exactly is inside of these bricks that makes them heavy?

Magnus
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Pubby
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3 Answers3

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I did the unthinkable! ...I had to know.

I opened one of my two weighted bricks. One of the two ends has a glued on cap that I've cut around using an utility knife.

enter image description here

The piece of metal it contains fit almost perfectly in the cavity. I don't know metals but it has a rainbowish kind of sheen to it. Here's a close up:

enter image description here

I'm now gluing it back with super glue.

pcantin
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    +1, for defacing a LEGO brick to provide an answer. I imagine you could weigh it to find it's mass. – Ambo100 Nov 22 '11 at 16:35
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    Since when is defacing a LEGO brick worth +1? Heretic! – Joubarc Dec 06 '11 at 10:43
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    Makes sense that these would be galvanized steel since they were often used to balance the floating boats (e.g. 314, 4005, 4010, 4025, etc.) and could be reasonably expected to get wet and rust leaking out of the brick would look weird. – Robert C. Barth Feb 08 '12 at 17:59
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    I literally gasped when I saw this. – Matthew Crumley Mar 01 '12 at 15:40
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    I don't know whether to upvote this answer for being correct, or downvote for cutting lego bricks apart. This sort of experiment would never get past the ethics panel in my household. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 Sep 11 '15 at 18:31
  • I have one that had been opening itself by the side for like... forever. And I didn't use any violent mean for it to reveal its shiny insides. Note that the side can be clipped back. I thus always thought that this was meant to be possible to open/close this container. – Lulhum Jan 08 '18 at 11:12
  • I did this back in the mid 90s because I too had to know. Now that we all know, I wonder if you could replace it with something even heavier. Are there any safe denser metals that aren't too expensive? A lead alloy maybe? Just under 2 ounces isn't all that much weight. – l008com May 12 '19 at 14:04
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    @l008com Go for tungsten. Almost twice as heavy as lead without the health hazards – pcantin Oct 30 '19 at 15:00
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I had two of these bricks in red, one is broken (one of the side-caps dropped off): there's just a piece of galvanized iron/steel in it.

My blocks were bought about 19 years ago, so maybe they changed the weight to an other/cheaper material in the meantime, but I don't think so.

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oezi
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    This seems like it's correct. I'm going to do what Zhaph said and test it with a magnet. – Pubby Oct 26 '11 at 18:43
  • i'm not 100% sure it's iron/steel, but it pretty much looks like because it's galvanized, wich won't make much sense on other metals. i'm looking forward to the results of your magnet-test. – oezi Oct 26 '11 at 20:34
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I'm fairly sure it's one or two pieces of iron, but I would need to check with someone who actually opened one. You can easily check that it's a ferrous metal if it attracts magnets.

Joubarc
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    Non-ferrous metals aren't magnetic... so a lack of attraction doesn't rule out the possibility of a metal being used ;) – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Oct 26 '11 at 15:17
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    Indeed, I oversimplified it, I guess I'll edit that in. But magnetic attraction will confirm it's a ferrous metal, and since I was pretty sure it's iron (as confirmed by oezi), I didn't want to bother thinking about other metals. – Joubarc Oct 27 '11 at 07:32
  • Lego magnets stick to them just fine. It takes two magnets to lift one brick. – Mark Dec 14 '17 at 07:13