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froggy95

Replacement pieces... how many is too many?

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Lego quality has been declining at a rapid pace. In my 33 years of collecting I've never come across so many cracked pieces. That being said, LEGO has been good about replacing them. Unfortunately, that has been a frequent occurrence as of late. How many times is too many times? I don't want to get blacklisted by the LEGO return department. I thought that I had read where that had happened to someone before. 

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So long as you have a valid reason for requesting replacements, you shouldn't be blacklisted. I find calling them and speaking to customer service is the better option when getting replacements, because it gives you a voice and doesn't make you look like a number. I buy a lot of LEGO and I request replacements all the time because of faults, misprints, and damaged stickers.

Edited by Brickus

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I've been having some issues with prints being blurry lately but only asked for replacements twice (when the minifigs were too important to me). I'm also afraid of them thinking I'm just trying to get doubles!

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I think as long as Lego continues to churn out garbage quality Chinese figures and pieces, you're well within bounds to ask for a replacement for the parts that are cracked. Almost half of the figures I own from the last four years or so have cracks because the quality is absolute crap. :hmpf_bad:

This is one of my major sore spots with Lego. If you know the Chinese factories are below par, and you field countless complaints regarding them, why not make a change? Stuff like that screams laziness to me.

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59 minutes ago, BrickJagger said:

I think as long as Lego continues to churn out garbage quality Chinese figures and pieces, you're well within bounds to ask for a replacement for the parts that are cracked. Almost half of the figures I own from the last four years or so have cracks because the quality is absolute crap. :hmpf_bad:

This is one of my major sore spots with Lego. If you know the Chinese factories are below par, and you field countless complaints regarding them, why not make a change? Stuff like that screams laziness to me.

Only certain figures are produced in China, a way to tell is that they generally wont have the print mark on the neck. You can also tell that they're from China if they have leg and arm printing, otherwise minifigures are produced in the Czech and Mexico factories. This may change now that the newest factory is open in China.

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Never got anything bad or broken in a set, except for that X-wing canopy that wouldn't close, but what bothers me are mold marks that are getting more & more common.

Ex, Lego has produced clip tiles since forever, and the new ones are now showing nasty sprue marks.. whyyyyy?

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Another thing is that "minifig accessories" look less & less part of Lego. Ex, in the latest minifig seties you'll find a (rather nice-looking) new ray gun, and a dumbbell. How has Lego not designed the dumbell's balls not to be compatible with the existing balls, and how are the holes on the ray gun not compatible with anything?
Many, if not most of the small parts that are now helping designs started as minifig accessories. Sucks when the new ones aren't designed to be part of the "system", and are produced in limited quantities only for minifig series anyway. I doubt that we're gonna see that ray gun in future sets.

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There have been some related threads regarding replacements and people being cut off for requesting too many.  It would appear that Lego does somehow keep a record of how many times someone requests a replacement.  It appears to be a certain number/pattern of parts requests that will get you flagged.  Judging by those posts from Eurobricks and other sites, I am assuming Lego essentially looks at quantity rather than seeing it on a proportional basis to what you purchase.  Consequently, that AFOL who buys hundreds of sets each year is more likely to encounter something than someone who just buys a few sets.  As people collect, play, MOC, etc. and buy more sets, sooner or later a problem will be encountered.  Sometimes it is a broken/defective part, and sometimes the part is simply missing.  If the person who buys a ton of sets each year requests replacements for defects and missing parts, they will obviously hit that red flag number before the rest of us will and then they get the dreaded message from customer service that they have effectively been cut off.  

As a result, I have decided not to request replacements unless I there is no other choice.  In January, a LBG 1x4 brick was missing from my Assembly Square.  Thankfully, I had some and used one to fill it in.  A parts request would better be used for a much rarer/unique part, which thankfully has not occurred in my set purchases.  I guess you just have to pick your battles when it comes to this.  

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I encounter very few problems when it comes to broken Lego pieces. But the two parts I would definitely say break often are cheese wedges and minifig torsos. And even then compared to the vast number of parts Lego produces I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often! And some parts have a higher possibility of breaking than others meaning that the design might have some flaws, or the molds are defective, etc. But it helps to let Lego know if there is a frequent problem with a part so hopefully they can solve the problem.

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I've been lucky enough to only have to request replacement parts once, in the Brick Bank set. In my detectives office set, I was missing three pieces, but they were easily replaceable from spare parts I had so I wasn't too angry. That being said, I've always had good service with TLG, but the declining quality is starting to worry me. 

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Lego PF wired break often for me, I had to request 2x m-motors, 1 PF switch and 1x PF receiver. I am really unsatisfied with Lego quality, the new 1x1 clips break easily because of small support. 

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On 5/21/2017 at 0:51 PM, anothergol said:

Never got anything bad or broken in a set, except for that X-wing canopy that wouldn't close, but what bothers me are mold marks that are getting more & more common.

Ex, Lego has produced clip tiles since forever, and the new ones are now showing nasty sprue marks.. whyyyyy?

15712-72-694d49da-aab5-4673-af84-c7093f1


Another thing is that "minifig accessories" look less & less part of Lego. Ex, in the latest minifig seties you'll find a (rather nice-looking) new ray gun, and a dumbbell. How has Lego not designed the dumbell's balls not to be compatible with the existing balls, and how are the holes on the ray gun not compatible with anything?
Many, if not most of the small parts that are now helping designs started as minifig accessories. Sucks when the new ones aren't designed to be part of the "system", and are produced in limited quantities only for minifig series anyway. I doubt that we're gonna see that ray gun in future sets.

Though I think Lego could have gotten away with the S1 Spaceman gun used so many times for the S17 Space Hero, I appreciate the new one, though yes, its unfortunate no connectability was designed in mind for it. It's almost like a BrickArms gun. :sceptic:

Nonetheless, I could see and hope for its reusage in a steampunk inspired CMF done in Metallic Copper. That would be cool! :classic:

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13 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Nonetheless, I could see and hope for its reusage in a steampunk inspired CMF done in Metallic Copper. That would be cool! :classic:

Sometimes CMF parts get reused in sets (I love the paint roller and I hope it'll be made in LBG again), but I'm pretty sure they will keep using the "old" raygun in new sets, considering it has been re-designed in 2014 (god knows why, the old one looked better IMHO)

I don't even know yet if the new ray gun's tip is bar-compatible, is it? Or it really has zero connectivity besides its handle?

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16 minutes ago, anothergol said:

Sometimes CMF parts get reused in sets (I love the paint roller and I hope it'll be made in LBG again), but I'm pretty sure they will keep using the "old" raygun in new sets, considering it has been re-designed in 2014 (god knows why, the old one looked better IMHO)

I don't even know yet if the new ray gun's tip is bar-compatible, is it? Or it really has zero connectivity besides its handle?

From reading reviews, no, it is another useless ball joint unfortunately. :hmpf_bad:

I didn't know that regarding the old ray gun though. :look:

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