LEGO: why the poor packaging?

[Iori_Yagami]

Well, lego bricks themselves are quite good, compared to chinese clones, that's for sure, but why do they use that flimsy package? Is it really supposed to be disposable a-la cereal box? The cardboard is horribly thin, it can't be opened without ripping, it is easily mangled in transit, and largest fault of all: all the pieces are in not resealable packets. Once you open it, you must either use a different one, or pinch it with some clips. Is it really that hard to put some ziplock bags instead? Or make the box closable? I mean, look at modern boardgames, which are cheaper than lego sets (well, kinda - they're in 30-50-80$ range usually), oftern contain only cardboard/wooden components, and still come with nice organisers (i.e. plastic trays or something like that).

It is really embarrasing for our noble world brick leader not to do what uncle Lao in his $0.01/hour factory in his basement already does. Sturdy boxes and ziplocks.

Also, do those instruction really need to be that full of pages, where 90% of page is solid color? How come a random box of bits from China has 16 panels of instructions on a single sheet of glossy paper, and in lego you need several pages for that?

It is off-topic, but lego reminds me of Fantasy Flight Games, who happen to be big publisher of ameri-style board games (like Mansions of Madness), who constantly refuse to make board game inserts for storing the pieces, and the buyer is forec either to keep all the myriad different components (cards, tokens, markers, figures, game board, dice, etc) in a huge messy pile, or buy/make his own container. This just gives off some unprofessionality vibes.

Hoping for change for the better.

[JopieK]

You just joined to complain about LEGO apparently? They indeed need to make sure they keep their quality but it isn't that bad is it?! The bricks and stickers are the most important (at least to me).

Maybe they should hire you and then the company will surely overcome all their issues with quality that is for sure (or not).

[The Indivisible Woman]

LEGO's been like this for as long as I can remember... I've never found it worthy of complaint; the packaging is cheap and disposable, this allowing most of the money to go towards the actual product.

Board games are meant to be stored back in their original boxes after every use, so it makes sense for them to have trays and suchlike. And, as you say, their pieces are often made of cardboard - which means they can afford to spend more on the packaging.

[zux]

Yeah, I like boxes too, but didn't encounter issues like yours. Still to find a box I couldn't open by cutting through glue with a thin knife. There are many reasons why current boxes are the way they are, and most of the time you won't get thick boxes with inserts as you described.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Lego is mostly intended for kids, not adult collectors. I suppose a case could be made that higher-end products like the Modular Buildings could come in a more storage-friendly box, but let's be honest--90% of Lego's product is intended to be taken out, played with, reassembled, and eventually dismantled into a pile that ends up in a yard sale. It just is.

I do wonder how more expensive packaging drives up toy costs. Some toy lines, like the Star Wars and Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro, have become more "collector friendly"--you can take the figures in and out of the box easily enough, so your ability to resell with package is improved. I'd hate for Lego to get more expensive than it already is because of packaging.

OTOH, stronger tape might be nice. Sets like the Advent Calendars are easily pilferable because the tape isn't all that strong, and I have found ACs with figures missing because of this.

[Robert8]

I like the boxes they way they are. I have just a little complain though: Sometimes the boxes are way too big for the set they contain.

I've noticed this in some sets like the Monster Fighters Ghost Train. My god, that box was huge. And when I finished building it, I was a little disspointed to see the actual size of the train compared to the box

Other than, I think the boxes are just fine

[Lego Dino 500]

Agreed. I'm starting to get tired of how large the boxes have been getting. I understand if it's meant to be for anti-theft measures, or to keep the contents from being crushed, but some sets like 60060 or 60052 have oversized packaging. I'd rather have a smaller box that's packed well than some huge monstrosity of a box that takes up enormous amounts of space. I'd expect to open a box, and find it full of bags, all nice and hefty with the instructions nicely packed on a piece of cardboard. Not a few tiny bags floating in a huge box, sliding around. And it's kind of hard to believe that somebody would make an account JUST for the sake of complaining, and with bad grammar. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a troll.

[Robert8]

And it's strange because when I got 60046 Helicopter Surveillance, I thought that box size was just fine.

So, it isn't a generalized trend

Edited October 4, 2015 by Robert8

[Vorkosigan]

LEGO isn't meant to be put back in the box and taken out again later like a game. I wouldn't mind a bunch of ziplocks but its not really necessary and they wouldn't be free. Also I never rip a box, use a knife.

[Iori_Yagami]

Troll? Wow, just wow. As if having a different opinion is immediately impossible, must be silenced as incorrect. All is fine, it was always like that, we've been always fighting Eastasia.

As for sub-par packaging for major producer... Oh my, just what I expected.

The 'sunk cost' justification. As in, what I spend my money on, is perfect, dontcha criticize it, etc

Still waiting for explanation.

I guess, you think, Lego's for the developed world is a toy product not worthy of displaying on the shelf and boasting to your neighbbours (my kids play with legos, (and yours with sticks and stones, hehe!)).

But really... is it that hard? In this day and age? I guess it is made specifically to look like disposable thing to send a message to consumer - play with it, and dump into storage bin, don't treat this as a toy for years to come. (How long to modern kids stay interested in the same toy? Months? Weeks? Days?)

The big box is easily explainable - big cost is easier justified with big box. Imagine legos being sold in plain plastic bags with instructions tied to it with some thread or rubber band. Same product, but why is everyone suddenly looking at the price suspiciously? Huh?

And for those saying that better packaging will increase prices... Oh my, the vast majority of price is made of marketing and playing the sale game, not production. Of course, cunning producer might 'justify' 20% increase in price by real increase in production costs in 1%, and gullible consumer would swallow it, that's how it always was.

[dr_spock]

Box size also has to do with marketing. The bigger boxes can grab the consumers' eye on the store shelves.

Thinner boxes use less trees or recycled material so it is one of those environment conservation thing. Maybe costs too since you're not using as much material per box. I don't think the majority of people keep their boxes or really care. It's brutal at birthday parties and Christmas the way kids mangle open their boxes and then they end up in the recycle or garbage.

Have you tried writing to LEGO customer service or CEO of LEGO? Maybe you can get them to change their ways.

[Vorkosigan]

LEGO used to have more reusable boxes. How many sales are they losing because they changed it? Less than the cost of the packaging difference I'm sure. Its not about whether people put the sets on the shelves or not, its about whether people disassemble them and put them back in the original boxes to be reassembled later. A very small percentage of the user group is interested in this. Most either leave them assembled forever, or disassemble and then sort by type/color or mix all together depending on the person.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Occurs to me that there are some Lego products that have more "reusable" boxes. I've got several of the Master Builder Academy sets and those are definitely more durable boxes. Also, I'm pretty sure the Architecture line falls into that "durable" category as well, as do the Ideas sets.

So yeah, it seems that sets which are more geared towards collectors are going to be in nicer boxes. Kid-oriented sets are in the cheaper packages.

Look, man, if you don't like it, complain to Lego.

[deraven]

What locality are you in, lori_Yagami? At least here in the US, I don't see any issue with the quality of the boxes. The smallest sets have somewhat thinner cardboard, but as noted above can still easily be opened without tearing them... but they're meant to just be recycled anyway. I do save boxes for my favorite sets and themes for various reasons, and most are plenty sturdy and hard to rip accidentally. That's not to say they're heavy, durable cardboard that's meant to be used for long-term storage, but I have Lego boxes from 30+ years ago that aren't much more durable than today's boxes, with the exception of the trays and other inserts that they used to come with in some cases. But, notably, in those cases they were actually meant to be used for storage (even says "Keep this box for storage!" right on it).

I'll also say that I liked the trays and inserts from the 80's & early 90's from a marketing perspective, but from a view of ecologic sustainability I much prefer where they're at today. However, I do miss the mid-size sets that had the simple cardboard tray inside the regular box- those were great for sorting/building, and I actually still have many of those trays in use along with plastic bins today, so plenty of durability and re-usability, but of course could also be easily recycled.

In a nutshell, I think the quality is just fine for the purpose, and durable enough for those who want to collect the boxes or use them for basic storage (though not for repeated loading, storing, and unloading). As for those who have expressed that some of the boxes are too big for what they actually contain, Lego is expressly addressing that with their new sustainability initiatives and more densely packing the same sets into smaller boxes, which could presumably mean slightly more durable boxes in the smaller size which could be a good thing for the saving/re-use topics mentioned above. See here for more info: http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/responsibility

With regard to the plastic bags, I have no idea why you'd want those to be resealable. I mean, I use ziploc bags for some sorting and storing in my overall collection, but I honestly can't say I'd have ever wanted a bag from a set to be resealable. When I'm building, I have the parts in plastic trays or bins (or some of those old cardboard trays I mentioned), and just leave them there if I'm building in multiple sessions. Once the build is done, the set is either built and doesn't need bags, bins, or boxes, or it's disassembled and stored with the rest of my parts, or very rarely together in smaller ziploc bags if I'm keeping the set's pieces together for some reason.

lori-Yagami, what would you be using the resealable bags for? Do you disassemble each set back into it's different sections and then store them back in the original boxes and don't find the packaging sufficient to do that? Is that kinda what you're getting at with your post? If so, I can understand where you're coming from but, since 99.5%+ of the consumers don't do that, it would be extremely wasteful for Lego to change their packaging to facilitate that use. If that's what you're trying to do, I'd suggest getting some heavier-duty cardboard or slim plastic boxes that fit inside the Lego set boxes, and re-pack and store the pieces inside those.

[fred67]

I do not think there is anything to complain about with LEGO boxes or packaging, personally. I find the boxes to be quite good; the smaller boxes might be difficult to open without tearing the box - but they're usually perforated for just that purpose anyway. In other words, they are explicitly designed to be torn open.

The larger boxes have tape... I carefully cut the tape and there's absolutely no damage to the box, and those boxes usually have tabs (like cereal boxes) to close them, so I don't see the problem there, either.

If anything, when I first read this thread, I thought the complaint was shipping. TLG often does a terrible job packaging things for shipping, even to their own stores.

[JopieK]

@Iori_Yagami, you have some points there but this is true for a lot of manufacturers. LEGO is a company that is very difficult to understand. Why don't they make certain parts anymore and why do they sometimes suddenly re-release very rare parts (like yellow building helmets). There can easily be other reasons for certain decisions that both the young and old customers just don't see / know about. E.g. the total weight or amount of paper that they use etc. Will visit the factory next Friday so if I think about it I can ask but not sure if they can/will answer it of course.

[Iori_Yagami]

Hmm, I guess people don't tend to resell those on a secondary market? I mean, just going into classifieds on toys, there's a large portion devoted to lego sets. Naturally, many of those are just unsorted piles, but others are kept close to original state. After all a kid would get excited only for so long, and they eventually could grow out of it. Lego makes a wonderful secondary market thing (it doesn't deteriorate all that much, compared with cards and cardboard from board games, for example or plush toys or metallic stuff. Sturdy, smooth, bright, compatible.

[badbob001]

Definitely the reason is that the boxes are not meant to re-store the bricks. There are some duplo junior / duplo sets that come in plastic containers that are meant for storing bricks.

Maybe they expect you to pool your multiple sets together to make even greater creations, and thus you would already have an alternative storage solution? When I was a kid, my mother frowned upon me when I didn't keep the parts for a set together but I still just pooled everything into a massive heap. At the time, I was more concerned with getting cool new parts and getting more bricks for bigger creations.

I did own this official lego storage case and still have it:

But now as an adult, with less time, less tolerance for rainbow-colored creations, and access to bricklink for parts, I tend to want to keep the set parts together, but usually built and on display. Perhaps when I run out of space, I would breakup some sets but still keep the original parts together. I still have the original boxes, but they have been carefully flattened and stored.

Edited October 5, 2015 by badbob001

[MAB]

If you compare the LEGO games boxes to normal board games, you can see that lego can do good packaging when they want to. They are in regular games style boxes, with a lift off lid. Perfect for storing the game parts in. However, games are meant to be played and stored complete. As others have noted, for sets that is probably not such a big deal as most kids do mix them up. The other good thing about their game boxes was that they standardised the sizes of most of them, so they stacked well.

[samurai-turtle]

For the "zip-lock" bags how much does 100 bags cost (even if you are getting generic brands) a couple of $$$. And for the record I do keep my sets in "zip-lock" bags. (I guess i like to be able to remake my sets easily.)

As for the instruction books, I do think you have a good point. I can't remember any newer sets that that are not in a book form. (I am not including the poly-bag sets.)

[large88]

I can imagine that the use of resealable, ZipLock like, bags could complicate the packaging process. Now the loose parts fall in a heat sealed piece of plastic en the bag is sealed shut when all parts are in the bag. This is a continuous process, the sealing of one bag creates the bottom of the next bag. To introduce a seal that can be opened and resealed many times would be challenging and might not even be cost effective in smaller sets.

This could be cost effective when done for the more high end sets, but then a separate packaging machine could be necessary... And those aren't cheap...

So in all, I think the highly automated packaging process of Lego sets calls for simple packaging methods.

And please, its Lego not Legos. This implies that you have little knowledge of the Lego world beyond the bedrooms of children and people here might not want to take you seriously when reading this topic.

[MAB]

It's not the cost though, it is the cost of using them. They are going to have to use new machines if they want to seal ziplock bags, not the old heat sealed ones. So they have to change machinery in their process line just to give you a change of bag, which many people will throw away anyway as their kids play with the set then mix it up with others. Plus if a bag doesn't quite seal or unseals on transportation, then they've got spillage and a possible refund for the entire set. Most heat sealed bags don't come undone. Unless you want to pay extra for a person to check each ziplock bag has been thoroughly sealed.

Or, as 100 bags are just a couple of dollars, the onus could be on the buyer. If you want to use resealable bags, then you buy them and store the parts that way. The same is true for boxes. If a buyer wants to be able to store in watertight plastic boxes, they can buy stackable storage boxes. Not everyone should end up paying for them though, if they don't want them.

[anothergol]

I've never minded the boxes, but what annoys me is that they don't bag transparent pieces separately.

I mean come on, what are the chances to keep that big canopy intact, especially when you got your box by mail? If you Bricklinked a big & expensive canopy, you would always expect it bagged separately.

..& indeed the latest sets I bought came with scratched windshields.

Edited October 5, 2015 by anothergol

[Iori_Yagami]

Ah, I guess they're in such a shape now it is too hard to change anything for that major production, and why, since they're expanding all the time? I mean, even my backwater city has now lego sets in a supermarket.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

You know, if your supermarket is selling Lego sets, I'm sure they also have some Tupperware containers of various sizes that you could purchase to store them...