CP5670

Lego Quality Reference

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This has got to be one of the worst cases of color variation I have bumped into. They were in a City set that I bought second hand. The previous owner said they were both in the same box!

BadColorVariation.jpg

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That's a good picture. The opacity/saturation problem is often hard to capture in a photo, but it is obvious in that one. What set did those hubs come in?

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Pertaining to Reddish Brown,

I have recently bought a lot of reddish brown bricks (1000 + bricks), and am able to pretty much do a full color spectrum from very light to very dark almost like the old brown.

The most obvious differences I can notice is from part to part e.g. 2x2 bricks vs. 2x4 where the 2x2 is way lighter than the 2x4, as if they had been molded using a different code/machine.

I'll try and take pictures tonight and edit the post

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Over the past few years I've noticed and issue with the lengths of some of the larger plates. I first noticed this with the solar panel 'wings' on the droid TIE fighter from the TIE Collection. The large, 4x8 (10?) plates, when placed end to end, were about 3/64ths longer than the blue 1x8 tiles used to hold them together. While this isn't really a huge deal, it causes the panels to bow outward and just doesn't look very good.

I've had this problem come up a few other times as well, but it wasn't anything a bit of 220 grit sand paper couldn't fix.

While tinkering last night, I noticed another issue with a handful of these pieces. When compared, 3 of the five pairs I checked had the left one longer than the right one by close to 1/16th.

While the problems are relatively minor, when added, they could prove to be a larger issue.

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:( I had my first major issue with poor quality pieces when I purchased the Star Wars Hoth Battlepack.

EVERY SINGLE SLOPE BRICK (including the cheese slopes) CRACKED the day of purchase!!!!

I have noticed that the new minifigures seem to be much higher quality than before. The old arms, bodies, and heads used to crack very easily.

My poor catwoman.. Mask, Head and body are all cracked. :(

I have noticed that the indy whips rub at the handle at dull, making them hard to insert into a minifigure's hand.

~MC

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Over the past few years I've noticed and issue with the lengths of some of the larger plates. I first noticed this with the solar panel 'wings' on the droid TIE fighter from the TIE Collection. The large, 4x8 (10?) plates, when placed end to end, were about 3/64ths longer than the blue 1x8 tiles used to hold them together. While this isn't really a huge deal, it causes the panels to bow outward and just doesn't look very good.

This issue has been around on and off for a long time, although it doesn't seem to be as widespread as some of the others. I have seen it on large plates in the 80s, and more recently on a variety of smaller 1-wide plates as well.

:( I had my first major issue with poor quality pieces when I purchased the Star Wars Hoth Battlepack.

EVERY SINGLE SLOPE BRICK (including the cheese slopes) CRACKED the day of purchase!!!!

I have noticed that the new minifigures seem to be much higher quality than before. The old arms, bodies, and heads used to crack very easily.

My poor catwoman.. Mask, Head and body are all cracked. :(

I haven't had the cracking minifigs or slopes myself, but they were mentioned by other people here a while ago. However, I have definitely noticed an improvement with minifigs in terms of color quality, at least the minifigs in standard sets (not sure about the ones in special numbered sets). The yellow and white parts on current minifigs look noticeably better than the partly translucent ones we were seeing in 2007 and 2008. It's a pity that other types of bricks have not followed suit though.

Edited by CP5670

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I just remembered about my V-19 Torrent mini set today; I bought it a year ago, but I thought that it would be interesting to post here:

3455577247_ba43f44fe9.jpg

All three 1 x 1 white bricks formed cracks about a week after being built! A bad batch perhaps?

(I did request for replacements right after I noticed it and received them in less than a week)

My Temple of the Crystal Skull set has some inconsistent colors on 1 x 8 bricks, too. I'll post a pic as soon as I have enough time to do so...

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I recently purchased some of the Minfig Collection figures and I’ve noticed that the plastic they’re made of seems a little off to me. It doesn’t seem like its as of a high quality as what I’m used to getting from LEGO.

I did some research online and found out that there is a general consensus that LEGO has had quality issues over the last couple of years and that possibly this is being resolved now. I read that LEGO was being produced by a company called Flextronics up until 2008 but then decided to do their own in-house production in order to improve quality.

So how come there are still the issues with quality? Are they producing their own but using cheaper plastic? There were a lot of complaints with the Pirate line which came out in 2009 and the quality of the Minifig Collection is lacking too IMO.

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The quality of minifigs ive bought from sets have been the best they have ever been to be honest (star wars). But i did notice some of the minifig collection leg pieces looked slightly transparent especially the wrestlers legs and other lighter colours. The rest is all well printed.

The shovel that comes with the zombie fig however is very poorly made, rough handle and a blunt end instead of the usual smooth with rounded end. Dissapointing!

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I recently purchased some of the Minfig Collection figures and I’ve noticed that the plastic they’re made of seems a little off to me. It doesn’t seem like its as of a high quality as what I’m used to getting from LEGO.

I did some research online and found out that there is a general consensus that LEGO has had quality issues over the last couple of years and that possibly this is being resolved now. I read that LEGO was being produced by a company called Flextronics up until 2008 but then decided to do their own in-house production in order to improve quality.

So how come there are still the issues with quality? Are they producing their own but using cheaper plastic? There were a lot of complaints with the Pirate line which came out in 2009 and the quality of the Minifig Collection is lacking too IMO.

It's a "general consensus" that the whole world's quality has gone down in recent years. And that's not a recent phenomenon-- it's a trend. People always view the past through rose-colored glasses. It's a sad truth, but people are never going to stop complaining, and thus it'll always seem like the here and now is the worst it's ever been, no matter what you're talking about (at least, in qualitative terms-- quantitative matters like the economy aren't as consistently bleak since you can do more decisive comparisons).

Only some LEGO parts prior to 2008 were made by Flextronics-- LEGO just decided in 2008 to move all production into their own factories (which they were already using for more intricate parts like minifig parts or BIONICLE and Technic parts). LEGO's quality is never going to be perfect, because mass production always has room for error.

The discussion probably belongs here, where it can easily be seen that quality issues are a long-standing problem. LEGO is constantly taking measures to address their quality issues, so be assured they didn't just make some decision like the use of cheaper plastic (which I think is largely a myth) without taking precautions to maintain quality.

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The quality of minifigs ive bought from sets have been the best they have ever been to be honest (star wars). But i did notice some of the minifig collection leg pieces looked slightly transparent especially the wrestlers legs and other lighter colours. The rest is all well printed.

The shovel that comes with the zombie fig however is very poorly made, rough handle and a blunt end instead of the usual smooth with rounded end. Dissapointing!

I have also noticed this about the zombie shovel. The rest of him looks good though. My major gripe is with the forestman (which is supposed to be my favorite figure from Series 1), the green legs and hat feel and look really cheap and the two feathers that come with him are also poor quality.

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I have also noticed this about the zombie shovel. The rest of him looks good though. My major gripe is with the forestman (which is supposed to be my favorite figure from Series 1), the green legs and hat feel and look really cheap and the two feathers that come with him are also poor quality.

The edges of the legs look thin and transparent instead of solid like years ago. For £1.99 a minifig, you would have thought they would be better quality than usual as small sets with a vehicle and fig sell for £2.49!

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Great observation! Keen eyesight! I got my first 8 packs of minifigs yesterday and didn't notice a thing! Getting old, I guess. I'm just happy that TLC's giving us something new and add to each and everyone's collection.

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I merged BearHeart's thread with the old one, since they are about the same topic :wink:

LuxorV

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I recently purchased some of the Minfig Collection figures and I’ve noticed that the plastic they’re made of seems a little off to me. It doesn’t seem like its as of a high quality as what I’m used to getting from LEGO.

I did some research online and found out that there is a general consensus that LEGO has had quality issues over the last couple of years and that possibly this is being resolved now. I read that LEGO was being produced by a company called Flextronics up until 2008 but then decided to do their own in-house production in order to improve quality.

So how come there are still the issues with quality? Are they producing their own but using cheaper plastic? There were a lot of complaints with the Pirate line which came out in 2009 and the quality of the Minifig Collection is lacking too IMO.

Do they look under-saturated and/or slightly translucent? The collectible 8683 minifigs, like many other sets with special numbering or availability, are produced at a separate TLG plant in China. The minifigs in those special issue sets have been the subject of many complaints in the past, but as far as the 8683 minifigs go, people are saying that the quality of those has improved a lot. I don't know how they compare to the minifigs in standard Lego sets though. I don't have any of them myself yet.

TLG reverted to in-house production in 2008 in the sense that they simply purchased Flextronics' factories. However, the problem here was not caused by outsourcing but the use of transparent ABS pellets, a change TLG made around the end of 2006 and continues to be in effect today. These have led to inconsistent opacity and saturation levels in various bricks of certain colors, including minifigs.

The discussion probably belongs here, where it can easily be seen that quality issues are a long-standing problem. LEGO is constantly taking measures to address their quality issues, so be assured they didn't just make some decision like the use of cheaper plastic (which I think is largely a myth) without taking precautions to maintain quality.

There is plenty of evidence of it right in this thread. :tongue: Look at the pictures people were posting a few pages ago. There have been a variety of quality issues in the past too, but the 2007-08 period was easily the worst in Lego's history in terms of how widespread certain problems were. There have been several improvements made since then, while other issues continue to persist. TLG remains some ways off from the quality standards they had in the 90s, for example.

Edited by CP5670

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Do they look under-saturated and/or slightly translucent? The collectible 8683 minifigs, like many other sets with special numbering or availability, are produced at a separate TLG plant in China. The minifigs in those special issue sets have been the subject of many complaints in the past, but as far as the 8683 minifigs go, people are saying that the quality of those has improved a lot. I don't know how they compare to the minifigs in standard Lego sets though. I don't have any of them myself yet.

TLG reverted to in-house production in 2008 in the sense that they simply purchased Flextronics' factories. However, the problem here was not caused by outsourcing but the use of transparent ABS pellets, a change TLG made around the end of 2006 and continues to be in effect today. These have led to inconsistent opacity and saturation levels in various bricks of certain colors, including minifigs.

There is plenty of evidence of it right in this thread. :tongue: Look at the pictures people were posting a few pages ago. There have been a variety of quality issues in the past too, but the 2007-08 period was easily the worst in Lego's history in terms of how widespread certain problems were. There have been several improvements made since then, while other issues continue to persist. TLG remains some ways off from the quality standards they had in the 90s, for example.

The collectible minifigs (8683) are actually considered standard LEGO sets last I checked, unlike specially-numbered sets like the vintage minifig collections, keychains, or magnet sets. And bear in mind that LEGO's factory in China also produces some parts for standard LEGO sets, hence modern-day packaging listing it as one of the producers of LEGO components. The difference is that being the newest factory, it would seem as though they've been outfitted with the capacity to produce parts the other factories can't-- parts with elaborate printing like the Toy Story figs or Rock Monsters, for example. Otherwise you're right on the money, and remembered the historical details a lot better than I could.

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Do they look under-saturated and/or slightly translucent? The collectible 8683 minifigs, like many other sets with special numbering or availability, are produced at a separate TLG plant in China. The minifigs in those special issue sets have been the subject of many complaints in the past, but as far as the 8683 minifigs go, people are saying that the quality of those has improved a lot. I don't know how they compare to the minifigs in standard Lego sets though. I don't have any of them myself yet.

TLG reverted to in-house production in 2008 in the sense that they simply purchased Flextronics' factories. However, the problem here was not caused by outsourcing but the use of transparent ABS pellets, a change TLG made around the end of 2006 and continues to be in effect today. These have led to inconsistent opacity and saturation levels in various bricks of certain colors, including minifigs.

There is plenty of evidence of it right in this thread. :tongue: Look at the pictures people were posting a few pages ago. There have been a variety of quality issues in the past too, but the 2007-08 period was easily the worst in Lego's history in terms of how widespread certain problems were. There have been several improvements made since then, while other issues continue to persist. TLG remains some ways off from the quality standards they had in the 90s, for example.

Yes, exactly. The minifigs hand seem dull and translucent. I guess there is a lot of inconsistencies with yellow pieces from what I read in this thread. Some of the other pieces are low-quality too, like the zombie shovel and the forestman feathers. They feel almost as if they're not a real LEGO piece but a knockoff.

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The most disappointing quality issue I've encountered recently came with the six large tires for the truck in the Indiana Jones set Race for the Stolen Treasure. I just opened and assembled a second copy of this a couple weeks or so ago, and the tires for the truck were so bad with the oily / sticky problem I left them off completely, though the smaller tires for the troop car in the same set were just fine. Going back to my first copy of the same set, which I had stored in a drawer and hadn't touched in a while, I noticed that that copy's truck tires were slightly icky as well, though nowhere nearly as bad as those in the copy I just opened.

Looking earlier through the thread I see reports that this was an issue with tires for several years up to 2008, but apparently was fixed then. I have noticed it occasionally with tires from various sets over the last decade or so, but seldom encountered tires quite as bad as these in Race for the Stolen Treasure (which of course is a 2008 set). This copy of the set is one of six I got late last year from the same source (I have a total of seven), and the remaining five are all still sealed; I'm worried they may all have icky tires. I really hope not. Though I'm sure LEGO's customer service will replace one set, I fear they might think I'm just trying to score a bunch of free tires if I repeatedly make the same request every time I open another copy of the set, but I don't know what else I'd do.

Yes, exactly. The minifigs hand seem dull and translucent. I guess there is a lot of inconsistencies with yellow pieces from what I read in this thread. Some of the other pieces are low-quality too, like the zombie shovel and the forestman feathers. They feel almost as if they're not a real LEGO piece but a knockoff.

The hands seem translucent? That's a new one to me.

I don't have any issue with the zombie shovel or the forestman feathers. The former does have a different feel to it, but it is a retooling or new sculpt, and I can't help but wonder whether the mold / shape (the texture, the bluntness, etc.) is influencing people's perceptions of the plastic quality, even though they're really different issues. My zombies' shovels (I have two) both seem quite rigid and strong, at least. I don't know for sure, but I suspect if people here tried applying just a little light stress to the piece they'd be surprised to find it's stronger than the texture / finish might be leading them to believe. As for the forestman feathers, the two that came with my forestman seem at least as good as the original versions, if not actually slightly better; I'd say the same of the diver's swim fins.

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... produced at a separate TLG plant in China.
And bear in mind that LEGO's factory in China...

LEGO doesn't actually own the Chinese factory. But it does own all the others (Europe and Mexico).

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LEGO doesn't actually own the Chinese factory. But it does own all the others (Europe and Mexico).

Huh. I thought they owned their Chinese factory. It's hard to find info on the Chinese factory, since it's the newest, so I guess I made some assumptions (if you've got any LEGO press releases discussing the Chinese factory, I'd love links). I'm sure they will own the Chinese factory soon enough, though, given how they've basically taken complete control of the operations in Mexico and Europe.

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"Bionicle" joints, specifically the U joints. I have used those things since throwbot/slizer era. Here is something strange, The slizer ones' cross socket break very easily. Specially the black ones, I think I have broken all of the silzer black U ball joints already. The good thing is that even after that cross socket breaks, they are still fairy usable by using the side sockets...

However, the ball socket of the slizer era is remarkably more resistant than the bionicle ones. Specially the most recent equivalents to that piece have gotten cracks from just playing. For example, One of the joints used in Skirmix's hip, has cracked just from posing it a few times a week... Many other of my ball joints from bionicle era have cracked already, since it is the ball socket that gets ruined, they become unusable.

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Another issue I want to bring up is the printing on the Golden Knight armor in Drawbridge Defence. The printing on the crown in the centre seems to be way off in a lot of the sets. I checked eBay and only 2 out of the 9 Golden Knights had nice even printing while the other seven had printing that was either off too high or too low.

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Huh. I thought they owned their Chinese factory. It's hard to find info on the Chinese factory, since it's the newest, so I guess I made some assumptions (if you've got any LEGO press releases discussing the Chinese factory, I'd love links). I'm sure they will own the Chinese factory soon enough, though, given how they've basically taken complete control of the operations in Mexico and Europe.

I don't believe that they will own the Chinese factory anytime soon, I have a feeling that there aren't many western companies that directly own factories in China....but if they're in China for the long haul it would definitely be better in order to improve working conditions and an attitude towards Only The Best Is Good Enough.

Another issue I want to bring up is the printing on the Golden Knight armor in Drawbridge Defence. The printing on the crown in the centre seems to be way off in a lot of the sets. I checked eBay and only 2 out of the 9 Golden Knights had nice even printing while the other seven had printing that was either off too high or too low.

I just checked mine, it seems fine.

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