How did I ever survive my childhood without a LEGO brick separator?

Do you remember those flat LEGO pieces that once placed together were impossible to separate? My teeth and my fingernails remember them really well…

It’s a given that most of us had a bin full of pieces from different sets without any order whatsoever. When we were kids we had no problem with that, unless we wanted to build something from an specific set. Having all the pieces in order was something many of us didn’t learn until we were older, so we pretty much had pieces scattered everywhere, and that was fine, at least until this happened:

Trying to separate that is a nightmare, and the smaller the pieces, the harder it gets, almost to the point of being just impossible. But there is a solution for that, and I wish it had existed when I was a kid; behold the Lego brick separator.

Many reviews point out that it’s better to get two of these instead of just one, and some others say that the green version is actually better than the gray one, but since I’ve never used either one I really don’t know what the difference is.

This year Lego also came up with an improved version of the separator.

The tip is supposedly thinner and has a Lego Technic axle-pusher, to remove those stubbornly stuck Lego axles. Weirdly enough, I couldn’t find it on Lego’s US website, only on their UK site, but it seems it comes as part of some sets, like this set from Toys R Us. At least there is a ton of them on eBay.

Why did they take so long to come up with it?! D:<

Anyway, if you have children, or your hobby is building models with Lego bricks, you might want to consider getting a couple of these instead of using your teeth, fingernails, or that rusty screwdriver that damages the bricks’ edges (or hurt yourself).