Sets Made in Korea?

[Brickus]

I was going through some of my old boxes and came across something interesting, some sets were made in Korea. Normally sets were made in Denmark and Switzerland back in the day but these were entirely made in Korea.

Here are the sets I found:

8011 Jango Fett (Technic)

8009 R2-D2 (Technic)

7119 Twin Pod Cloud Car

7103 Jedi Duel

4712 Troll on the Loose (Harry Potter)

4714 Gringotts Bank (Harry Potter)

Why is this? Is there any more? Does somebody know why? or were they inferior LEGO knock-offs? I'm sure they weren't.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Brickus

[Whittleberry]

I've wondered about this as well, KOREA is listed on my HP Marauder's Map set. Maybe this will help?

I have no idea if anything was produced there, but given the small number of workers it seems like it was just a packing factory set up by LEGO, anticipating a boom in LEGO sales in the asia-pacific region. Selling it off was part of the big sell-everything-not-necessary-off phase they had when they were bailing out water and trying to keep the company afloat in the mid noughties.

[Brickus]

I've wondered about this as well, KOREA is listed on my HP Marauder's Map set. Maybe this will help?

I have no idea if anything was produced there, but given the small number of workers it seems like it was just a packing factory set up by LEGO, anticipating a boom in LEGO sales in the asia-pacific region. Selling it off was part of the big sell-everything-not-necessary-off phase they had when they were bailing out water and trying to keep the company afloat in the mid noughties.

Yeah most of those Harry Potter 3 sets were made partially in Korea, but why such odd sets, in a series of other sets that were made all in the same place, and they were all produced in 2002.

[Big Cam]

Who knows, there could have been contract issues or labor cost issues and they shifted production somewhere elese until it could be resolved. Or maybe they have backup manufacturers for busy times?

[Clone OPatra]

Ah yes, I remember something like this. HP 3 was the first time I saw Czech Republic in the Made In list as well.

Pieces might not have been made in Korea, though. It might just have been some packaging thing, or the instructions or something. The actual bricks are not made in all the places listed on the boxes.