How common are missing pieces?

[Faefrost]

23 hours ago, Joseph Barker said:

Thanks for your replies guys, didn't think I'd get this much of a response so quickly and I'm glad to see that I've sparked a discussion on the matter. Though with my recent experience I don't think I'm going to building again for a while. Thought I'd go along with the rest of the Palace Theatre and it was even more of a wreck. Projector doesn't have any reels, roof access doesn't have a door, two of the windows on the first floor don't have any glass (The curved windows are meant to be this way but the rectangular frames do) in them and the sign is missing some lights. The tiled roof is missing a few tiles. Still haven't even got a response back from Lego on the Capitol. Hope I get response soon.

Did you buy it used? My first thought would be you lost or got a set with a mispacked or missing bag of small parts. But that doesn't make sense. The parts you describe as missing are across several numbered steps, meaning they would have to have been mispacked on 3-5 different assembly lines. That doesn't happen. The scales and measuring systems they use in production really are that precise and accurate. If you are ever missing parts in a Lego set it will 99.99999% of the time be from one single bag. if parts are missing from multiple bags in a set, start questioning where the set came from and how it reached you. Or start searching your floor and trash carefully. 

[Vorkosigan]

I had a set where one of the small bags within a numbered bag was duplicated, and another small bag missing. Other than that I think maybe one or two missing pieces over the course of 75+ sets as an adult. 

[Giantorange]

I have had one set from LEGO with missing pieces out of probable 350 over 35 + years which is pretty good going.

 

Unfortunately not been so lucky from eBay.  I would say that 95% of the sets I have bought as used, comlplete don't match the inventory to some degree.

[danth]

11 hours ago, Giantorange said:

Unfortunately not been so lucky from eBay.  I would say that 95% of the sets I have bought as used, comlplete don't match the inventory to some degree.

Ain't that the truth. I won't buy used sets unless it's something ridiculously expensive new and then I'll pour over the pictures to verify for myself it's all there. Also, "mint" to some sellers seems to mean "not currently on fire." 

[Faefrost]

On 12/30/2016 at 5:45 AM, Giantorange said:

I have had one set from LEGO with missing pieces out of probable 350 over 35 + years which is pretty good going.

 

Unfortunately not been so lucky from eBay.  I would say that 95% of the sets I have bought as used, comlplete don't match the inventory to some degree.

I find much better luck with Bricklink for the completeness of used sets. Generally they just are missing the "extra" pieces. whereas on E-Bay you get whole missing sections, and a weird mix of non Lego parts.

[fred67]

On 12/28/2016 at 6:49 PM, Sven F said:

 I have friends who bought the VW Camper set because they are classic VW fans, not LEGO fans, they never assembled a LEGO set before, and all three of them reported multiple pieces missing.   When I looked at the models, they all put them together wrong in different ways, and of course, no pieces were missing, but it took a lot of persuasion to make them realize it's their own doing.
 

Yes... I've seen that before, too.  People not carefully following instructions.  I was building a modular with my kids usually could find the piece they said was missing in the pile of parts still on the table, or they'd just built it wrong - like doing a whole section of wall with 1x? parts just all willy-nilly, thinking it'd all work out in the end.... it didn't.  It wouldn't have mattered if I'd just gone into my own collection and swapped a couple of 1x2 for one 1x4 or something, but then I'd feel "dirty." 

[zoth33]

I've been building lego since the 80's and fortunately I've never had a missing piece.  Once I had a warped piece and that's in hundreds of sets.  It sounds weird what you are describing especially with that many missing pieces.  Are you sure the box wasn't tampered with.  The whole thing with both doors missing is very odd.  Where did you buy the sets?  I did have one of my sons get a set where the person cut open the box stole the figures and some parts and resealed the bags with tape.  I went back to the store with pictures and the bags with tape on them and the store gave us a new set.  Sometimes my kids or pets get in the way when I'm building but I eventually find the piece.  Good Luck.

[62Bricks]

3 hours ago, fred67 said:

Yes... I've seen that before, too.  People not carefully following instructions.  I was building a modular with my kids usually could find the piece they said was missing in the pile of parts still on the table, or they'd just built it wrong - like doing a whole section of wall with 1x? parts just all willy-nilly, thinking it'd all work out in the end.... it didn't.  It wouldn't have mattered if I'd just gone into my own collection and swapped a couple of 1x2 for one 1x4 or something, but then I'd feel "dirty." 

My son got the 2016 VW Bug for Christmas and built it right away. He got to a step and said he was missing 1 LBG 1x6 plate. We looked through everything and didn't find it. I figured he had probably made a mistake and got one from my own parts, but at the end there were no pieces left over that could have been substituted for a 1x6, so I think it really was missing.

[JRBricks]

Not sure if anyone else has noticed this recently or not, but it seems maybe Lego’s quality control is slipping a bit. Perhaps it’s in a rush to get out a backlog of orders now with the reopening of factories. So we got our UCS Millennium Falcon last week after it was finally in stock again. After bag 4, we are already missing 3 pieces! One 1x2 LBG plate, one Technic Pin, and a black 1x2 grille piece. We very carefully remove all pieces from each bag as we always do, so this is very out of the norm for sure. Even double checked the empty bags. Nothing. No big deal as I had all three but I have never had a single missing piece in a set. Ever. I hope Lego isn’t rushing out sets and hopefully they go back to better quality control. I would rather wait a bit longer if it meant no more missing pieces. 

[jonty14]

Quite often what happens to me is I think a piece is missing so I get the part from my collection. When I have finished the build the missing part is starring me in the face. Or it is under the sofa.

Edited August 10, 2020 by jonty14

[Options]

I got my first lego set about 9 years ago and since then have built over 100 sets. As the years and sets wore on, the number of missing pieces got fewer and fewer.  Now, over the course of the past few years and dozens of sets, I can only remember one missing piece.   So, they either got better or I got better.  I tend to think it was the latter. 

[TeriXeri]

In the last years I only had 1 case of a missing piece, where there was 1 piece missing, but there also was a piece included that otherwise doesn't belong to the set.

 

In other cases, often it may look like there's a piece missing, but it either fell on the floor, or didn't leave the bag properly.

Edited August 17, 2020 by TeriXeri

[LegoDW]

Have had some small parts get stuck in the bags....thought I had gotten all the pieces out.  Have located some sure missing bricks in the trash before.  Check the bags much more closer now. 

Have had a few missing pieces over the years. Used to get all upset when a piece was missing and contact TLG for a replacement.....now if I have one in my spare parts just use my own.  Mellowing out in my old age.

 

[zoth33]

I've actually been very lucky and never had a missing piece and I've been into lego since the 80's.  My kids usually have pieces fall on the floor or get stuck in the bag.  Hope my luck lasts.  

[Vindicare]

Of the sets I’ve bought since the craziness happened, I haven’t had a missing piece. And two of those sets were day one purchases from S@H, so they weren’t sets that have been on a store shelf for some time. 

[ArneNielsen]

Since the 70ties I have bought thousands of LEGO sets, with very, very few instances of a missing piece.

But this Christmas I had looked forward to use my vacation days to build the Diner, and I gleefully opened the box, and started building - only to discover, that several pieces were missing.

On closer inspection it became clear, that two bags were missing, and two other bags were duplicated.

Of course Custumer Services sent me the many missing pieces (not the two bags, but one big pick-a-brick bag with all the pieces); unfortunately, it got stuck in the post somewhere, so it took over a month before I received it - Christmas vacation was long gone then.

This has been the only really bad experience I have had with LEGO, but I was double frustrated in that it happened in a big, expensive set - had it happened in a 12$ set it would only have been a slight irritation and a shrug.

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by ArneNielsen

[Jotham]

I had my first missing piece from the recent Lamborghini sian set. I appreciate Lego for offering to provide us with the missing pieces, as long as they are not expensive pieces.

[paul_delahaye]

Agreed with the general opinion, I've probably purchased 1000 sets over the years, 

1 set I dropped a piece on the floor and the dog chewed it, I pulled a replacement from my own sets

1 set I bent the 3mm rigid hose on a small technic set, and Lego very kindly replaced the part

I had a creater set, where it had 5 x Dark Red 2x8 roof tiles, and 1 of the 5 was a completely different shade of red, I think they changed colour on the moulding machine, and did not run through the old colour properly.

I had a set as a child where a piece had a bad moulding, this was many years ago, and Lego not only replaced the part when I wrote to them, but sent me 5 Lego Fireman minifigures as an apology

The worst I've had was a Technic Crane 42082, inside the set was 4 number 4 bags, there should have been 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d (but they don't bother labelling them sensibly like this).  However they put in the set a 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4c.  I was basically missing a whole bag of parts which prevented me completing the boom of the crane, but I had an additional bag of parts which caused quite some confusion as I like to tip all bags of parts out at the begining of the build, it was a bit of a nightmare as Lego did not know which bricks were in the missing bag 4d, so I had to work out all the parts I was missing from a 4000 piece set that was 3/4 built.  Not particularly easy, but once I send them pictures, they replaced the parts without question.

Most missing parts are in the corner of the bag which I've missed when tipping them out or I've misused a part on a big set when building tired without paying attention, I've used a dark blue gray part instead of black, it used to be quite hard to tell the difference on sets from 10 years ago, before they started outlining the parts in the instructions.

[Johnny1360]

Relatively new to the hobby, compared to most around here but I have bought close to 600 sets and built every one of them.     Only one the Saturn V  rocket had one piece missing and actually it wasn't missing just the wrong color. There should have been 8 white bows and 8 black bows. For some reason I got 9 and 7 and they immediately sent the right one, only took 2 weeks. That was when the set first came out though.

 

 

[Kalahari134]

Shamelessly bumping as I had quite an unusual piece substitution.

I've just finished building Downtown Diner and found that from the fifth set of bags I was short of one of the eight of 11203 in light bley. I did all of the usual checks and decided that it wasn't stuck in any of the bags and hadn't been dropped (thanks to the tray my parents got me for Christmas). Yet among the extra small parts let over at the end of the build was one of 3743 in black. This is a part of which the set had twelve, all of whom were from the fourth set of bags and were all on the model. I also noticed that absent from the fifth bag's extra parts was a 1x1 plate in tan. The missing parts totalled 0.82g in weight, the extra part weighs 0.79g. I think that I can see how the bag passed the weighbridge in quality control. Replacement request for the inverted tile duly sent.

[koalayummies]

2 hours ago, Kalahari134 said:

11203 in light bley

Woah check that out there's a guy selling that 14¢ piece for $4.53 each!

[AmperZand]

Had a part missing from a Bricks and Pieces order a few months ago. Have to say that LEGO customer service was very good about sending out the missing part quickly and even threw in a Ninjago keychain by way of apology. Not interested in the keychain but I appreciate the gesture.

[MAB]

I find advent calendars are the worst, not for missing pieces as such but the wrong sets, so one missing and one extra duplicate set. I part out typically 20-50 a year and I seem to have at least one problem every 15-20 calendars. Last year (2019 versions) I had 20 HP calendars and there were three different errors in total. 

Edited January 1, 2021 by MAB

[Airking]

I was missing two pieces in the UCS slave 1, I needed Lego to send them to me and they couldn't have been better. Two pieces missing from the razor crest but I added them from my collection.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Airking

[TeriXeri]

Only had it happen once in 5 years, and that was 1 piece missing (2x2 L corner brick) and an extra 1x6 plate was included that wasn't part of the set, so might have been a piece swap incident somewhere.

Edited January 6, 2021 by TeriXeri