ForgedInLego Posted January 24, 2022 I don't know much about Lego's moulding machines, but I do know the moulds have to be periodically taken out and cleaned. Is it possible that a windshield mould was taken out for cleaning and a Vader mould was slipped in for a run or two? The clear plastic would already be flowing, so this "night shift" could theoretically pull it off unnoticed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeddytheSpoon Posted January 24, 2022 5 hours ago, ForgedInLego said: I don't know much about Lego's moulding machines, but I do know the moulds have to be periodically taken out and cleaned. Is it possible that a windshield mould was taken out for cleaning and a Vader mould was slipped in for a run or two? The clear plastic would already be flowing, so this "night shift" could theoretically pull it off unnoticed I doubt it, injection moulding machines are not easy to switch on and off. I don't know the specifics of the moulds, but they look like pretty beefy bits of metal from what I've seen. Swapping those in and out, in factories that are largely automated, is not likely to be an easy task. It would also mean the moulds would need to be swapped out with hot plastic still in the system, and again, with highly automated factories, such a safety critical aspect would surely be alarmed and require a lot of work to bypass. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ForgedInLego Posted January 24, 2022 26 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said: I doubt it, injection moulding machines are not easy to switch on and off. I don't know the specifics of the moulds, but they look like pretty beefy bits of metal from what I've seen. Swapping those in and out, in factories that are largely automated, is not likely to be an easy task. It would also mean the moulds would need to be swapped out with hot plastic still in the system, and again, with highly automated factories, such a safety critical aspect would surely be alarmed and require a lot of work to bypass. At 3:40 you can see how moulds are taken out of the machine. It is a normal part of operation, and is still mostly manual, with a bit of assistance for the weight Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeddytheSpoon Posted January 25, 2022 7 hours ago, ForgedInLego said: At 3:40 you can see how moulds are taken out of the machine. It is a normal part of operation, and is still mostly manual, with a bit of assistance for the weight Nice video, I'd not seen that particular one before. I guess it depends on how often the moulds get swapped out for cleaning, but if it's often enough maybe they have a way of disconnecting the feed from the injecting machine while it's being worked on to minimise downtime. Either way, unless multiple machines share the same feed (which is plausible) you'd still have to stop the feed to do so, which is the slow bit of starting these machines up again. Another thing I thought of from this video is the different type of plastic granulate used. This might be spitballing slightly, but I assume that different materials would require subtly different moulds, especially at TLG's level of accuracy. For the solid colours it wouldn't be a problem, but swapping a windshield mould out for one that is designed for a different type of ABS could lead to trouble? I'm not certain on this, but it wouldn't surprise me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MAB Posted January 25, 2022 On 1/21/2022 at 11:59 AM, pbatey7 said: So these things will likely slow down or disappear so I'm happy I have mine now and they are my favourite sets in my Framed Displays. Happy for everyones thoughts and my opinion is that either China or Mexico (sorry for stereotyping) factories are involved with it all. I doubt they will disappear. They were also being sold through other marketplaces and LEGO cannot control them all. While there are people willing to pay large sums then some employees will risk their job to produce them in an illegitimate way. The only way LEGO can stop it is catch the thieves making them and fire them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
That Orange Thing Posted January 25, 2022 If these rouge employees are fabricating parts to sell on the black market why not just make hundreds of Boba Fett Cloud city figures and retire instantly? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MSY-MSP Posted January 25, 2022 2 hours ago, That Orange Thing said: If these rouge employees are fabricating parts to sell on the black market why not just make hundreds of Boba Fett Cloud city figures and retire instantly? If you start putting too many of these on the market at once, the price will collapse. Ideally you would "make" a few of a number of the rare/valuable characters and make your bank that way. As to whether they are actual LEGO or not, given what I have read here I am of the opinion that they are real. I can think of several ways you could do this and not even appear on the radar of the LEGO folks as this is happening. Allow me to provide my theory on what actually occurred. I think these were created by someone who does maintenance on the molds. This gives them both the access to the molds and a way to create all of the colors that we see. As part of a process to maintain any mold you have to test it. Obviously this testing would occur somewhere other than the floor. And since this person would be doing testing they would very likely have access to the entire pallet of colors (as flow rates and the like you would want to observe). During the testing process they would create test pieces from the mold. These test pieces would likely be sent to quality control for review and the like. However, this person would be able to select which pieces went for review. But with full access to the pallet they could run off 100 or so of different colors as part of the process and no one would be any wiser. The only piece that I would presume wouldn't come through maintenance as frequently is the helmet piece. The rest are probably in the shop quite regularly. This allows the person both the means and the opportunity to pull this off. Changing the color that is formed is not a very time consuming or difficult operation. All you have to do is clear the very little residual material that was heated from the line. And there are tools for this that either use a specialized fluid or simple air pressure to clear the line. The plastic pellets are melted at the last moment prior to injection to minimize failure points. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mandalorianknight Posted January 29, 2022 On 1/25/2022 at 10:53 AM, That Orange Thing said: If these rouge employees are fabricating parts to sell on the black market why not just make hundreds of Boba Fett Cloud city figures and retire instantly? If this story of how the transparent vaders and stuff came to be is real, I'd imagine it'd be a LOT more difficult to print bricks with a design from 2003 and get a retired part (old helmet/jetpack) molding than to just have a different color of plastic mold an existing part. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pbatey7 Posted February 5, 2022 Well I’ve seen some full coral clone troooers coming out so my plain monochrome sets can go up to 47 and unfortunately I sold my 37 variant set of clone troopers which included the 9 trans variants. I now wish I’d never sold them and I’ve got to try and buy more! luckily I still have 30 Darth Vader set, 22 C-3PO’s and 37 Batman ones to keep me going until I get my clone trooper set back if it ever happens. I do have my glow white and satin blue C-3po, Batman & Darth on the way so can’t wait to get those into my frames. I think I need my frame maker to increase the frames a little :/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
