Not OP but from my experience, the LEGO I had in a bin since I was a kid still fit perfectly with LEGO I'm buying for my kids 30 years later. That's unbelievably impressive to me.

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afandian 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

More anecdata.

Lego from my youth, which was a hand-me down at the time, doesn't fit well with new lego. So it might be 40 years old, (which seems like a long time until you actually reach that age!)

I think it's more likely do to plastic aging than the original tolerances though.

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jonhohle 7 hours ago | parent [-]

To add even more - I was handed down Lego that belonged to my mom in the 60s, played with them through the 80s and 90s, and now my kids have them today. I wouldn’t be able to tell you which were hers and which were mine.

	▲	afandian 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		A plausible defence if anyone asks for it back!

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ambicapter 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Especially when most LEGO storage is done is gigantic bins of all kinds of pieces, periodically hand-tossed in order to find the one piece you need :)