Is LEGO in trouble with quality?

[natelite]

40 year old toys that work as well as the day they were made. No toy company I know of can boast the same.

i think it is less the company and more the material. plastics are non-biodegradable and can last for 10,000 years or more. they will definitely outlast civilization. maybe after ww4 and all of life is wiped out by the fighting, one day aliens will come to our planet and wonder how the many lego pieces evolved... *wacko* :-|

[3D LEGO]

I would say that over the last couple years Lego has been using several different supplyers, however most, if not all had issues with part quality so much so that it caused Lego a bunch of greif with all the complaints and having to fill all those special orders for missing, defective, or improper parts.

My opinion is that all of those suppliers were given the exact part deminsions, however due to cost cutting mesures, the molds were inferior and inaccurate, plus the moulding process was not as high of a standard as Lego so that they produced poor quality parts. I believe that Lego cut all of the other suppliers when they found they could trust Flextronics for Lego quality standard parts that were accurate according to Lego's part deminsions. That and they found that Flextronics was will to produce them for resonable prices compared to the lower grade suppliers which charged more for inferior products. Thats my personal opinion.

The almighty Google searchengine brings us this:

Flextronics International Ltd

http://www.flextronics.com/

I am happy to say i'm quite pleased with Lego's choice of supplier, since Flextronics is actually an electronics manufacturer(IE computers, circutboards, cellphones, ect...) so their quality stanards are 100 times better then any toy manufacturer. X-D *y*

[natelite]

indeed. i'm very impressed with singapore. any country that can move from third world to first world in one generation ought to be good. i remember back when i was a young kid, japan was synonymous with inferior goods. i like to see anyone make that statement now. japanese goods are the most reliable, high quality goods...just compare the cars. *wacko*

japan moved from third world after ww2 (or 1945) to first world in 1980s or within 50years. singapore equally moved from independence (1968?) to first world in 2000s. *y*

[WhiteHexagon]

Nice that the new sets have complete parts listing in the back pages :) So without dismantling the model I remember one of the bricks that felt cheaper (and wasn't LEGO branded) was #42951774. I would call it a gold roof tile ridge end. Or part#4294965 which not only doesn't have branding, but the single stud is hollow and mostly air, apart from a small bridge of plastic. Imagine this is a picture of the stud -> [e]

Then part #4498052 (which I also think is ugly) has huge injection point dimples on the visible outer surface.

But my post about the quality of this set was not really meant to be about one or two bricks, or one or two minor issues, but the general quality feel about the whole set. When there are so many small things that are wrong, then the whole set just feels rubish.

For example this year I bought 4886 which feels like one of the best quality sets I've bought for a long time.

I guess it's subjective to some degree.

Peter

[natelite]

the hollow stud is a new design to prevent kids choking in case of accidentally swallowing the piece. it's deliberately made so instead of a manufacturing flaw that it looks like [e].

[WhiteHexagon]

the hollow stud is a new design to prevent kids choking in case of accidentally swallowing the piece. it's deliberately made so instead of a manufacturing flaw that it looks like [e].

Interesting! makes sense really, I just hope they don't do this to all bricks though, it looks really ugly. And anyway, LEGO is only for adults I thought :-)

[natelite]

after reading this thread, i went and took a closer look at some of my minifigs. to my surprised i noticed the legs from my takeshi mf was "translucent" compared to the torso and to the helmet. i got the helmet from bricklink (from an older set). the helmet was darker than the torso, which in turn was darker than the legs. the legs already has a thin crack line eventhough it was "new". is it witch hunt or is the difference real? *wacko* *wacko* i guess i will never know since my views are biased since reading this...

[alex54]

Just for the record some lego part don't have the lego marking and that's normal. If I remember correctly, that's the case of this new motorbike big white piece in the Police sets.

Sorry, but you have not seen the LEGO logo! It is in the hollow stund!

I have to recognize that they are well hidden! :-D

[hewkii9]

Hollow stud? You mean there is a hole in the centre of it?

[Section8]

I got some basic bricks made a few years ago. When I stacked them up on top of each other (all the same size), I noticed that the sides didn't all match up perfectly. Some bricks stuck out when viewed down the long axis and short axis. It is a very small difference and not immediately noticeable, but something I've never seen in their older bricks. I don't think it is a big problem, but I think it could be attributed to tolerances being lowered. Lego's tolerances were so high back in the day that if they cut them in half today to increase yields and lower costs, they would still be pretty high. Has anyone else noticed this? I am not complaining about it because the bricks I got were old grey 1x8s I got at PAB about a year after the color change. :-)

I have also noticed a very slight drop in quality control in terms of colors of parts. While no set I've gotten had missing parts that I can remember, the last two sets I got (10001 Metroliner and 10159 City Airport) had one part each a different color than in the instructions. They were a minifig's hair and a suitcase, not a critical structural element, so no big deal. I also got an extra 2x4 brick in the Airport in addition to the usual extra 1x1 plates. At least I think it's extra; I triple checked the instructions and couldn't find it.

[WhiteHexagon]

Well today I was given a small gift of LEGO, always nice! 7902 a small medical car & doctor because I haven't been well recently. Anyway I'm pleased to say the quality is fine :) but two of the 1x4 bricks had been replaced with technical 1x4 bricks. There was a not from LEGO technical in the box with a picture showing the replacement. I wonder if this is how they intend to dispose of the technic surplass :) And I wonder how brickset will deal with these type of changes...

Peter

[alex54]

Hollow stud? You mean there is a hole in the centre of it?

Yes!

I also got an extra 2x4 brick in the Airport in addition to the usual extra 1x1 plates. At least I think it's extra; I triple checked the instructions and couldn't find it.

Me too! and it is an extra, because I triple checked the instructions too and nothing!

but two of the 1x4 bricks had been replaced with technical 1x4 bricks

I've got the same problem...

[snefroe]

so one of my dark gray 2x10 plates got damaged yesterday.... no clue how it happened, i just noticed it when i picked it out of the '2x10 plates box'...

anyway, just pointing out this poll on legofan.org.

at first i thought it was just another survey on the design, playability,... of the sets, but it was in fact about the quality of the plastic and instruction books...

the most interesting element of the poll are the statistics, based on the answers of people...

take the ARC-fighter:

40% felt the instructions were confusing in terms of colours; 5 % received a set with damaged instructions; 5% missed parts; 13% got a set with replacement parts... in all, 166 people responded...

[Hobbes]

anyway, just pointing out this poll on legofan.org.

I saw this poll some time ago. While the idea is good, I think it should've been an "open" survey, meaning we should be able to select the sets we complain about ourselves.

[JINZONINGEN73]

natelite

post Aug 11 2006, 12:09 PM

QUOTE(SuvieD @ Aug 11 2006, 04:52 PM) *

40 year old toys that work as well as the day they were made. No toy company I know of can boast the same.

i think it is less the company and more the material. plastics are non-biodegradable and can last for 10,000 years or more. they will definitely outlast civilization. maybe after ww4 and all of life is wiped out by the fighting, one day aliens will come to our planet and wonder how the many lego pieces evolved... wacko.gif hmpf.gif

Well it is the company. Nearly all toys are made of plastic. But Lego might be the only company who goes all out in quality. Nearly EVERY action figure I've ever owned that was white has turned yellow. Some really fast, too.

Pretty disheartening stuff... almost like toys are intentionally made to have to be replaced.

So you're right that it's the materials, but it's only because of the company.

[Jipay]

almost like toys are intentionally made to have to be replaced.

Nooo, that would NEVER happen X-D

[natelite]

almost like toys are intentionally made to have to be replaced.

just like american cars :-P

[alex54]

just like american cars :-P

That makes me laugh :-D

[WhiteHexagon]

4. A broken part!! #4294706 Never had that before, but the handle from the shield wasn't even in the box, so I guess it was factory damaged.

5. A missing part!! 2x1 dark gray.

Well the nice LEGO people sent me replacements today :) although the shield is not the same, out of stock aparently, but I'll live. I didn't realise TLC were so friendly with replacements.

So almost happy again with the quality, apart from the HP bus has lots of nice purple bricks except for 1 1x4 flat, which is a different shade of purple all together, strange. But the set was half price here so I'm not complaining :)

Peter