LEGO Instructions Quality 2017

[ffgf]

I just opened a couple of Nexo Knights 2017 sets and I noticed the Instructions quality is different as early years, it feels cheaper , thinner and recycled, does anybody notice it also?

 

[BrickG]

I'm not sure I have but I'm not sure I care. I get rid of mine and if I ever want to rebuild I use digital and pray that the scans are good enough. XD

[ffgf]

I don't care also , I prefer them don't send them and also reduce box sizes , they should have an option to buy the sets in small packages without the box and instructions and lower the price

[JopieK]

1 hour ago, ffgf said:

I don't care also , I prefer them don't send them and also reduce box sizes , they should have an option to buy the sets in small packages without the box and instructions and lower the price

Well that is a very unrealistic view. Have you ever been in the LEGO factories? It is really a large operation. Apart from that LEGO is made for kids, whether we like it or not that is the fact and kids want to be able to have paper instructions, even a lot of AFOL's like paper instructions, I'm more into parts and would buy a set for it's parts more then for the set itself but nevertheless we aren't the norm for LEGO.

[dr_spock]

4 hours ago, ffgf said:

I just opened a couple of Nexo Knights 2017 sets and I noticed the Instructions quality is different as early years, it feels cheaper , thinner and recycled, does anybody notice it also?

 

I can't feel any dfifference between this year's booklet and last year's.  So I took out my digital caliper and measure the thickness of a sheet in the 2017 41312 Heartlake Sports Center and the 2016 41134 Heartlake Performance School.  Both measured 0.05 mm.  Then I measured 5 consecutive sheets of the booklet together.  2016 was 0.27 mm and 2017 was 0.26 mm.  There could be a 0.002 mm difference per sheet.  Maybe someone with more accurate measuring tools can validate my results.  On a side note, the 2016 set came from the U.S.A., the 2017 set came from Denmark.

 

2 hours ago, JopieK said:

Well that is a very unrealistic view. Have you ever been in the LEGO factories? It is really a large operation. Apart from that LEGO is made for kids, whether we like it or not that is the fact and kids want to be able to have paper instructions, even a lot of AFOL's like paper instructions, I'm more into parts and would buy a set for it's parts more then for the set itself but nevertheless we aren't the norm for LEGO.

Creations for Charity donate new LEGO sets to charities like women's shelters.  The charities give them to kids in need like for Christmas presents. There are many poor children who don't have electronic devices or Internet but still appreciate getting and building LEGO sets.

[koalayummies]

I also don't care but I did notice on one of the recent Creator sets that has 3 different instruction books for the 3 builds. Two were of the same paper quality as normal but the third had noticeably different front/back page paper. Doesn't make a difference nor does it bother me. Older Lego instructions (early 90s) were of similar quality though, however Architecture, Ideas and modular building sets still have very nice instructions. Again not that it really matters at all. 

Certain environmental groups have been targeting and pressuring Lego and other toy manufacturers to be more environmentally friendly (as if they're the big bad polluters) and these are likely some of the results. Peer-pressured to cut ties with Shell and change paper suppliers for packaging and print materials. Next they'll demand Lego make bricks that are water-soluble. 

[BubbaFit45531]

I don't care if they use thinner paper. I'm glad they have the color PDF available online.

I noticed Blue Power Jet Creator 3-in-1 seemed to be on good quality paper and bound like a paperback book.

[JopieK]

8 hours ago, koalayummies said:

I also don't care but I did notice on one of the recent Creator sets that has 3 different instruction books for the 3 builds. Two were of the same paper quality as normal but the third had noticeably different front/back page paper. Doesn't make a difference nor does it bother me. Older Lego instructions (early 90s) were of similar quality though, however Architecture, Ideas and modular building sets still have very nice instructions. Again not that it really matters at all. 

Certain environmental groups have been targeting and pressuring Lego and other toy manufacturers to be more environmentally friendly (as if they're the big bad polluters) and these are likely some of the results. Peer-pressured to cut ties with Shell and change paper suppliers for packaging and print materials. Next they'll demand Lego make bricks that are water-soluble. 

LEGO probably just uses different printing companies, they always try to minimize costs on such a things. Same with stickers, quality really depends.

[62Bricks]

13 hours ago, koalayummies said:

..(as if they're the big bad polluters)

While the actual LEGO factories may not be much more polluting than other similar production facilities, the ABS plastic they purchase from other suppliers is made using petroleum and natural gas and some other unpleasant things like benzene and ammonia. LEGO is conscious of the product's reliance on the oil and gas industry and is actively looking for new materials made from other sources. I think it's interesting that environmental groups would criticize LEGO for having ties to Shell, but give them a pass for being major consumers of petroleum products themselves. I think it speaks to the amount of goodwill LEGO has developed with the public.

20 hours ago, BrickG said:

I'm not sure I have but I'm not sure I care. I get rid of mine and if I ever want to rebuild I use digital and pray that the scans are good enough. XD

I still like the paper instructions on the rare occasion I build a set. I did just complete a new Technic set and discovered that LEGO still hasn't found a good way to distinguish black from dark gray pieces  - Near the end of the build I thought I was missing a couple dark gray parts, but seemed to have a couple extra of the same part in black - then I realized I had used the two gray ones earlier where I had mistaken the color in the instructions! In my experience, the online scans from LEGO are even worse in this respect. I know they try to keep the instructions free of words, but a symbol or a comparison image to help distinguish black and dark gray would be good.

[BrickG]

The scans are terrible I was putting together the Simpsons House again and sometimes the new pieces were completely invisible and I just kind of had to guess. So many colors blended or were just wrong!

Anyways, in the ideal world I'd have ALL my instructions and ALL my boxes still. They just take up so much room and moving them from country to country (USA / UK) is just too much so I had to make that sacrifice!

[jimmysbricks]

I sure haven't noticed a difference. They seem the same quality as last year's booklets!

[Lyichir]

I haven't noticed any difference in the instructions to the few 2017 sets I've assembled so far.

[Aanchir]

It's worth noting that the instruction quality sometimes varies from set to set, not just from year to year. For instance, the instructions for bigger sets like 70627 often use a slightly sturdier material for the covers, while smaller sets like 70623 often use the same type of paper for the covers as they use for the pages. I can even remember one set (I think it might have been 2507?) in which two of the booklets used a sturdier cover material and one of them used the same material as the pages.

Overall, I haven't noticed any specific quality difference between the instructions of 2016 and 2017 sets.

[Littleworlds]

As far as I can say - after having bought the Penguin's Arctic Roller and the Pizza Van, I don't really noticed a difference to instructions from former years. Also I find there are really worse polluters on this planet, especially since TLG actually makes products from oil (which last decades if handles properly) instead of simply burning it, like most cars and many power plants still do  

[Peppermint_M]

OP may be onto something a little. I recently picked up the Desert Skiff set from 2012 (It was £15 and full of brown, couldn't say no really) MISB. I'm buildingit right now and the instructions feel a lot glossier and the pages thicker than the booklet I grabbed for comparison (This years Catwoman cycle chase for TLBM). Though, we are talking a five year difference and the sets are different sizes.