Pro_Ice

Rumor: Lego moving brick production away from China

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Good day.

I'm not sure if this has been reported before, but I've acquired information that next year onward LEGO will be moving away all their brick production (excluding electronic parts, i.e. Power Functions and Mindstorms) from China due to quality concerns raised with chinese plastic quality decreasing each year. Obviously, I can not disclose my sources, but I can say this information was passed on private Lego retailers' meeting.

Until it's confirmed by TLC, I'd personally suggest treating it as a rumor and taking it with a grain of salt (primarily due to China being 'the only plant where they can perform complex molding and printing' by their previous claims and various possible production issues).

P.S. Humans in Galaxy Squad have multi-coloured robots (and suits), also there's something like a giant Dragonfly on the bug side. :]

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I anyway do not understand the point of having a highly automated production moving to China or some other low(er)-wage country. Which, at the same time rises concerns about protecting your IP and molding HW. Apart from the packing I do not see many people watching over the molding HW.

I know of countries that require you to set up shop (in the past) to enable you enter the market. They will produce some localized models due to the required specifications. This might even not be economically feasible (from the production side) but it opens a market. Now I cannot imagine that this would be applicable for a product like LEGO. More often this happens for labor intensive products, car assembly etc.

I would consider it good news became it true.

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I would not be surprised if TLG might be able to move some of the advanced molding and printing previously done in the Chinese plant to other countries what with the recent expansions to some of their other production facilities like the one in Kladno. After all, one of the main reasons they began producing parts in China was a matter of production capacity.

With that said, I will be taking this with a grain of salt. I certainly haven't seen Chinese production quality decrease each year-- on the contrary, I haven't encountered any major quality issues with the LEGO Collectible Minifigures since Series 2, and I haven't heard any major criticisms of Chinese LEGO production outside the AFOL community. It's entirely possible that TLG has reasons to diminish the amount of parts produced in their Chinese plant (for instance, the logistical complexity of having a production facility so far away from their other plants was part of the reason that Chinese production of the Ninjago spinner sets was eliminated for all but a select few parts), but it seems odd that quality concerns would be the primary motivation.

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Until it's confirmed by TLC, I'd personally suggest treating it as a rumor and taking it with a grain of salt (primarily due to China being 'the only plant where they can perform complex molding and printing' by their previous claims and various possible production issues).

Oh, I hope these are not just rumors and I hope they will really get out of China as soon as possible.

These news would be the best Lego news I've heard during the past 5 years.

Even a re-release of classic sets won't make me more happy.

With that said, I will be taking this with a grain of salt. I certainly haven't seen Chinese production quality decrease each year.

I don't know when this change of quality has been made as I missed Lego between 2002 and 2008, so the change was probably made between these intervals.

I suggest you to get a any classic minifig between 1985 and 1998, and put it together with a minifig released in 2012.

You will instantly notice a different plastic, with a completely different yellow.

The new plastic is significantly cheaper and sometimes even disgusting.

I only bought few sets released after 2002 and I did this only because they were absolutely fantastic, but otherwise I try to avoid new sets exactly due to this change of plastic. The new one is at the same quality with plastic stoppers for coca-cola bottles.

Unfortunately I know 3 big Lego collectors who stopped to expand their collection exactly due to this issue.

About myself, I still aquire Lego sets but I do it carefuly and I always chose vintage sets.

Yesterday a new set arrived, but it was released in 1996.

Edited by moschino

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Ok, this is not economic forum so just in short: I purchase around 2 million euro material (parts form medical lasers) all over the world each year and we started moving some of that to china a few year, but now we move more and more of it back to germany, france etc..., despite of consideralby higher price. Chinese can make solid produtcs, but they have problems with keeping that quality and in many cases loss of trust of your customers is not worth the price difference.

So, I'm happy if this will prove to be true. Lego is more and more becoming luxury product (at least outside us) and I expect only premium quality.

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Oh, I hope these are not just rumors and I hope they will really get out of China as soon as possible.

These news would be the best Lego news I've heard during the past 5 years.

Even a re-release of classic sets won't make me more happy.

I don't know when this change of quality has been made as I missed Lego between 2002 and 2008, so the change was probably made between these intervals.

I suggest you to get a any classic minifig between 1985 and 1998, and put it together with a minifig released in 2012.

You will instantly notice a different plastic, with a completely different yellow.

The new plastic is significantly cheaper and sometimes even disgusting.

I only bought few sets released after 2002 and I did this only because they were absolutely fantastic, but otherwise I try to avoid new sets exactly due to this change of plastic. The new one is at the same quality with plastic stoppers for coca-cola bottles.

Unfortunately I know 3 big Lego collectors who stopped to expand their collection exactly due to this issue.

About myself, I still aquire Lego sets but I do it carefuly and I always chose vintage sets.

Yesterday a new set arrived, but it was released in 1996.

Not all 2012 minifigures are even produced in China. And minifigures from other plants use the exact same plastic that has always been used.

I know quality differences exist (though usually nowhere near "Coca-Cola bottle" levels). But before you try to argue about an issue, please check your facts and make sure you're not just seeing what you expect to see.

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I don't know when this change of quality has been made as I missed Lego between 2002 and 2008, so the change was probably made between these intervals.

I suggest you to get a any classic minifig between 1985 and 1998, and put it together with a minifig released in 2012.

You will instantly notice a different plastic, with a completely different yellow.

The new plastic is significantly cheaper and sometimes even disgusting.

I only bought few sets released after 2002 and I did this only because they were absolutely fantastic, but otherwise I try to avoid new sets exactly due to this change of plastic. The new one is at the same quality with plastic stoppers for coca-cola bottles.

Unfortunately I know 3 big Lego collectors who stopped to expand their collection exactly due to this issue.

About myself, I still aquire Lego sets but I do it carefuly and I always chose vintage sets.

Yesterday a new set arrived, but it was released in 1996.

I know the feeling. There has been a lot said about this issue around here. I still keep expanding my collection, mostly off Bricklink (as my focus is on MOCs these days), but I mostly stick to a few specific colors that are unaffected.

However, this issue has nothing to do with Chinese production specifically. There have been plenty of these parts coming out of Denmark and other countries, and they appear across all product lines. This level of quality has long since become the new normal, ever since late 2006.

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I like the tone of recent rumours. Lego moves production out of China and reissues classic Castle sets! It's like they're intentionally throwing us a bone. =)

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...maybe it's not much of a quality issue, but of a 'security' issue... has any of you seen the bootleg versions of Ninjago minifigs renamed as Ninjaman which are made in China and sold in some countries in Asia at a much lesser price?... Although only one of the minifigs can stand in equal with the real Lego Ninjago minifigs, these bootlegs are very popular for army building and for those who doesn't have the funds to buy multiple of the originals... I heard some Star Wars and City sets were also copied...

...whatever TLG's real reason is (and if this is true), it would be nice to know in the near future...

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I mean no disrespect to the people of China in general, but frankly, given the reputation China has for disregard of intellectual property, lax quality control in products for export, "questionable" (am I being too kind?) human rights stances, and environmental policies that make the biggest polluters in the U.S. look like tree-hugging, Luddite flower-children, I think I'd be quite happy paying a little more for a product NOT made in China.

The rational side of me knows that TLG takes the quality of their product quite seriously and that with over a billion people in the world's third biggest economic power, it is unfair to stereotype the actions and output of the whole country based on a few anecdotal news stories here and there. Still, the irrational side of me flashes back to the realization that some LEGO parts come from China every time I see a news story about some heavy metal poisoning case because the paint on this toy had Lead or Cadmium in it, or the plastic for that doll tested positive for Arsenic. I don't even have kids but I'm surprised (even assuming LEGO parts are pure and clean) that such stories haven't turned in to public relations nightmares for them the way Mattel, Hasbro and Parker Brothers have been dogged off and on over the years due to Chinese manufacturing "issues".

I don't know if the rumors are true or just wishful thinking on someone's part, but I as I said, I'd be willing to pay a little more to help TLG pay to upgrade their facilities elsewhere in the world for the luxury of not buying a Chinese export.

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Not all 2012 minifigures are even produced in China. And minifigures from other plants use the exact same plastic that has always been used.

Oh, really? Please buy a MISB set from 1990, then go and buy a MISB set from 2012.

You will instantly see the difference.

I know they replaced old brown with new reddish brown, but just go and look at the yellow on the minifigs.

It's not just the thing that there's a different yellow, but the new one looks cheap.

I know quality differences exist (though usually nowhere near "Coca-Cola bottle" levels). But before you try to argue about an issue, please check your facts and make sure you're not just seeing what you expect to see.

Don't worry about me. I'm not seeing what I expect to see.

Before seeing this thread I didn't even know that Lego is producing pieces in China.

I discovered this thread few hours ago, and instantly I started to search about this on the internet.

In 2009, I was navigating through a Lego store among another Lego collector.

When that friend saw various sets with the new fake yellow introduced (the one that tries to imitate the gold), he instantly said.

"Omg, why is Lego doing this? Why is this cheap piece between the others? They look like they're made in China."

And guess what? He was right... Today I discovered they were indeed made in China.

We didn't know that, so we didn't expect a lower quallity.

It was just a fair reaction of what Lego did...

I know the feeling. There has been a lot said about this issue around here. I still keep expanding my collection, mostly off Bricklink (as my focus is on MOCs these days), but I mostly stick to a few specific colors that are unaffected.

However, this issue has nothing to do with Chinese production specifically. There have been plenty of these parts coming out of Denmark and other countries, and they appear across all product lines. This level of quality has long since become the new normal, ever since late 2006.

Well, I totally agree with you.

So far, when Lego pieces were produced only in Denmark and Mexico, everything was just perfect.

Around 2000, they started to produce pieces in Czech Republic and I didn't see any quallity issues.

Later, when the production was expanded to many other countries, quallity issues started to appear.

Of course I have no proof that these cheap parts are made only in China, but I don't believe in coincidences.

I don't believe that Denmark started to produce cheap parts instantly after they started to colaborate with China.

And even if so... then this is a sign that this colaboration should stop.

Me too I continue to expand my collection, otherwise I wouldn't be here on this website, but me too I'm cautious about what I buy, and I try to mentain the main colors of classics.

Classic sets were made carefuly and they always kept a ballance and harmony in how they mixed the colors.

In sets of today I see 3-4 different shapes of blue in the same set which turns the set into a kitsch.

Edited by moschino

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Oh, really? Please buy a MISB set from 1990, then go and buy a MISB set from 2012.

You will instantly see the difference.

I know they replaced old brown with new reddish brown, but just go and look at the yellow on the minifigs.

It's not just the thing that there's a different yellow, but the new one looks cheap.

Nothing Lyi said was inaccurate. The plastic is still the same material, from the same supplier. There may be slight formulation changes, but nothing major.

The difference in color is not strictly related to the type of plastic. Back before the mid-2000s LEGO bought all of their plastic granulate pre-colored. Sometime in the mid-2000s (I forget the exact year) they began buying colorless granulate (about the same color as the parts Bricklink calls Milky White, if I'm not mistaken) and buying dye separately. They mix the dye and the granulate during the production process.

Their plastic is all sourced from the same supplier, besides the plastic used in the Chinese facility which has to mostly come from domestic sources due to Chinese manufacturing laws. But as Lyi said, there are very few minifigures manufactured in China-- besides the collectible minifigures and some promotional minifigures, the only minifigure parts manufactured in China are those for which there are no equivalent parts manufactured elsewhere. This is mostly limited to specialized elements with complex printing like the Toy Story head molds or Ninjago Serpentine minifigure head molds.

TLG does, however, get their dye from multiple sources. Their reason for doing this is so that if one of their dye suppliers is compromised by a fire or natural disaster, LEGO production will not have to be interrupted. A side-effect is that some yellow parts today have a slight greenish tint and some have a slight orangish tint, but TLG has been working to amend this issue and the "average" yellow color is pretty close to what it has traditionally been.

Since you didn't buy sets in the mid-2000s, you may not realize that color quality has improved significantly since then in most colors. I won't lie, I have gotten a set with simply AWFUL color quality: specifically, this one here. I don't recall any of the part colors in that set that couldn't be split into two distinct groups based on quality.

Don't worry about me. I'm not seeing what I expect to see.

Before seeing this thread I didn't even know that Lego is producing pieces in China.

I discovered this thread few hours ago, and instantly I started to search about this on the internet.

In 2009, I was navigating through a Lego store among another Lego collector.

When that friend saw various sets with the new fake yellow introduced (the one that tries to imitate the gold), he instantly said.

"Omg, why is Lego doing this? Why is this cheap piece between the others? They look like they're made in China."

And guess what? He was right... Today I discovered they were indeed made in China.

We didn't know that, so we didn't expect a lower quallity.

It was just a fair reaction of what Lego did...

"Fake Yellow"? Do you mean 297 Warm Gold, the gold plastic color that TLG has been using since 2006, long before they began manufacturing parts in China?

Anyway, the Build-A-Mini stations in LEGO stores do mostly use Chinese-made parts, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Very few of TLG's regular product lines use any Chinese parts except for particularly specialized parts, which can usually be identified in that they are bagged separately from other parts in somewhat stretchy plastic bags.

Well, I totally agree with you.

So far, when Lego pieces were produced only in Denmark and Mexico, everything was just perfect.

Around 2000, they started to produce pieces in Czech Republic and I didn't see any quallity issues.

Later, when the production was expanded to many other countries, quallity issues started to appear.

¡Ay caramba! And here's where it begins to show that you have done the bare minimum of research on this topic. Mexico is TLG's second-newest country of manufacture, after China. The Czech plant is YEARS older, though it has been expanded a lot in the past several years.

Of course I have no proof that these cheap parts are made only in China, but I don't believe in coincidences.

I don't believe that Denmark started to produce cheap parts instantly after they started to colaborate with China.

And even if so... then this is a sign that this colaboration should stop.

As I said, most of the problems you're describing sound like they have to do with the switch from colored to uncolored granulate which happened sometime between 2004 and 2006 (I forget when exactly). Chinese manufacture in regular sets didn't begin until around 2008-2009, and the first theme to have the majority of its parts manufactured in China was the Collectible Minifigures in 2010. You can't claim to have disappeared from the fandom for around six years and then claim to know exactly when quality issues began to emerge during that time.

Me too I continue to expand my collection, otherwise I wouldn't be here on this website, but me too I'm cautious about what I buy, and I try to mentain the main colors of classics.

Classic sets were made carefuly and they always kept a ballance and harmony in how they mixed the colors.

In sets of today I see 3-4 different shapes of blue in the same set which turns the set into a kitsch.

Today's color palette still has a certain amount of balance and harmony. There are only around 60 colors on the current palette. That might sound like a lot, but in fact, it's MUCH better than it was during the period when you stopped buying sets, at which point there were hundreds of different colors on the palette, some of which only appeared in one or two sets. In fact, there may be fewer colors now than when you stopped buying sets (there were at least 72 colors by 2002 if I'm not mistaken, and over a hundred by 2003).

You do tend to find a lot of colors in any given set today, but there's a reason for that. The more colors there are in a set, the easier it is for kids to build it according to the instructions. Attach a bunch of black parts together and the building instructions begin to become difficult to read. I'd like to see some examples of sets you feel lack color harmonies. For the most part, I like the color schemes of today's sets, which feel a lot more harmonious than even many 90s sets (I'd take most Olivia's House from LEGO Friends over the washed-out-looking pastel theme that was Paradisa in the 90s).

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Count me in as another person who didn't know that the parts were manufactured outside of Denmark! Thinking about it now, it would make sense in terms of the scale of production to extend to factories internationally like many large companies have, but I've never really thought about it before.

Since Lego requires such stringent standards - e.g. size and colour of parts - to be compatible with current and historic products, and of course to protect their reputation for quality, I'd expect them to be very careful with how they went about outsourcing production abroad. In theory at least. I don't want to slip into racial stereotyping either, but there's a stigma attached to Chinese production thanks to how it's portrayed in the media. Is that media exposure fair on China? Sometimes it certainly is, but I wouldn't want to accuse them in TLG's case until I've seen evidence of it. Does anyone have pics of the inconsistent colouring of bricks to highlight the problem?

Outsourcing is a complicated balancing act though. I've read an interview with a UK-based guitar amplifier manufacturer who was defending its move to switch production of some of its amps to Korea. Their argument was that effective communication with the overseas factories could overcome the perceived issues of quality control, and to the best of my knowledge it's worked for them so far. The products are still of acceptable quality, and sold at a price point that wouldn't have been feasible had they tried to build them all at their UK HQ.

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¡Ay caramba! And here's where it begins to show that you have done the bare minimum of research on this topic. Mexico is TLG's second-newest country of manufacture, after China.

You're right, my apologies.

I've made a confusion and I wanted to say the production of Connecticut who was later moved to Mexico.

I'd like to see some examples of sets you feel lack color harmonies.

I'll do a recheck and I'll add some examples.

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Well, I totally agree with you.

So far, when Lego pieces were produced only in Denmark and Mexico, everything was just perfect.

Around 2000, they started to produce pieces in Czech Republic and I didn't see any quallity issues.

Later, when the production was expanded to many other countries, quallity issues started to appear.

Of course I have no proof that these cheap parts are made only in China, but I don't believe in coincidences.

I don't believe that Denmark started to produce cheap parts instantly after they started to colaborate with China.

And even if so... then this is a sign that this colaboration should stop.

Me too I continue to expand my collection, otherwise I wouldn't be here on this website, but me too I'm cautious about what I buy, and I try to mentain the main colors of classics.

Classic sets were made carefuly and they always kept a ballance and harmony in how they mixed the colors.

In sets of today I see 3-4 different shapes of blue in the same set which turns the set into a kitsch.

As remarked earlier, this problem was a result of the switch to clear ABS pellets with color injections in late 2006, not any particular production plant or outsourcing.

I think among the classical colors, only black has remained perfect. Apparently black has the simplest coloring process. Blue (and green) do have a lot of variations, but they at least all look opaque and good quality individually. I find that white and red are very inconsistent, sometimes perfect and sometimes terrible, while yellow is consistently mediocre.

A side-effect is that some yellow parts today have a slight greenish tint and some have a slight orangish tint, but TLG has been working to amend this issue and the "average" yellow color is pretty close to what it has traditionally been.

This is false. The traditional yellow was a lot more saturated and opaque than what we get today. See this for an example. I have not seen any yellow piece like the traditional color in a long time, even accounting for the variation within the color itself. The last time TLG was actually "working to amend this issue" was in 2008, and they haven't done anything on it since then. They actually did improve yellow over 2007, which was the lowest point, but it's remained a long ways off from the traditional color.

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Count me in as another person who didn't know that the parts were manufactured outside of Denmark! Thinking about it now, it would make sense in terms of the scale of production to extend to factories internationally like many large companies have, but I've never really thought about it before.

Since Lego requires such stringent standards - e.g. size and colour of parts - to be compatible with current and historic products, and of course to protect their reputation for quality, I'd expect them to be very careful with how they went about outsourcing production abroad. In theory at least. I don't want to slip into racial stereotyping either, but there's a stigma attached to Chinese production thanks to how it's portrayed in the media. Is that media exposure fair on China? Sometimes it certainly is, but I wouldn't want to accuse them in TLG's case until I've seen evidence of it. Does anyone have pics of the inconsistent colouring of bricks to highlight the problem?

Outsourcing is a complicated balancing act though. I've read an interview with a UK-based guitar amplifier manufacturer who was defending its move to switch production of some of its amps to Korea. Their argument was that effective communication with the overseas factories could overcome the perceived issues of quality control, and to the best of my knowledge it's worked for them so far. The products are still of acceptable quality, and sold at a price point that wouldn't have been feasible had they tried to build them all at their UK HQ.

The early days of Chinese production (mainly for figs from magnet packs and the first couple collectible minifigure series) were rife with photographic evidence of inconsistency. Look up any discussions from that period to find strong evidence. There are still bigger and more frequent quality discrepancies between Chinese and non-Chinese parts than between parts from different non-Chinese manufacturers, but they're not as egregious as they once were. I do seriously hope that TLG improves quality control at the Chinese plant, though if they do decide to move out, then that works too as long as they move all their more complex part production to their other factories. Which is almost a sure thing, because once TLG has tested those sorts of production processes and found out how popular those advanced printing/assembly techniques are, there's no way they'd abandon them completely rather than moving them to another production facility.

This is false. The traditional yellow was a lot more saturated and opaque than what we get today. See this for an example. I have not seen any yellow piece like the traditional color in a long time, even accounting for the variation within the color itself. The last time TLG was actually "working to amend this issue" was in 2008, and they haven't done anything on it since then. They actually did improve yellow over 2007, which was the lowest point, but it's remained a long ways off from the traditional color.

I was referring to hue, not opacity. You're right that yellow (among other colors) does have frequent opacity problems, though I've never noticed them as being across-the-board problems (which is probably because my 90s and earlier yellow parts are so dingy that any side-by-side comparison would be null and void).

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You do tend to find a lot of colors in any given set today, but there's a reason for that. The more colors there are in a set, the easier it is for kids to build it according to the instructions.

Here I agree with you. You said the obvious and I can't contradict that, but I can judge Lego for doing this.

I saw a documentary on National Geographic about Lego, and on that doc said that Lego did a change of management after 2004 when they were close to bankrupcy. In the doc they said due to internet influences and new multimedia applications of the third millenium, the toy named Lego wasn't as catchy as it used to be and the new generation of kids weren't attracted by Lego as past generations were.

So Lego changed the color palette and added more eye catchy elements so the new generation of kids finally started to be attracted by this toy.

Up to this point, I agree with what Lego has done.

They had to do something to stop their downfall, otherwise now Lego would have been just a page of history, but they acted too much like they aimed to make money and nothing more.

They stopped creating elegant sets, and started to create the sets that I personally consider a joke.

Getting back to what you said, it's normal to aim for kids, because in fact Lego is a toy, but they forgot the adults.

It's extremely easy to imagine a man 60yrs old is displaying Barracuda and being proud of it.

But I can't imagine a man 30yrs old displaying Brickbeard's Bounty and being proud of it.

Just look at its sails... and the general palette of colors reject adults from this set.

The comparsion between Barracuda and Brickbeard's Bounty is just an example, there are plenty of them...

I'd like to see some examples of sets you feel lack color harmonies. For the most part, I like the color schemes of today's sets, which feel a lot more harmonious than even many 90s sets (I'd take most Olivia's House from LEGO Friends over the washed-out-looking pastel theme that was Paradisa in the 90s).

Your point is a very sensitive touch to the subject.

I'll take few examples, and I will start with two ships, 6285-Black Seas Barracuda (1989) and 10210-Imperial Flagship (2010).

BSB has a total of 10 colors

IF has a total of 26 colors

BSB looks elegant and 99% of Lego collectors agrees with.

IF is a very impressive ship, and in fact a very nice ship, and this is mostly due to its impressive size but the ship itself has many flaws.

I won't point all its flaws because this topic is not about IF, but I will talk about its color palette because this is what you asked for.

post-32406-0-01872800-1352504721_thumb.jpg

In the picture above, on a part of 5-6 centimeters is a total of 6 colors.

This simply looks like a bunch of all flowers together.

And the mix between Dark Brown and Reddish Brown all together looks disgusting.

Another comparison where new sets are not in the same harmony is the following:

Lego 6086 has a total of 11 colors.

Lego 7946 has a total of 24 colors.

And so on...

_________________________________________________________________

With all these said, I find no reason into go any further on color palette debate, so I leave this aspect as being a matter of taste.

This is false. The traditional yellow was a lot more saturated and opaque than what we get today. See this for an example. I have not seen any yellow piece like the traditional color in a long time, even accounting for the variation within the color itself. The last time TLG was actually "working to amend this issue" was in 2008, and they haven't done anything on it since then. They actually did improve yellow over 2007, which was the lowest point, but it's remained a long ways off from the traditional color.

Well, I'm extremely glad I'm not the only one who see this change.

Considering many people continued to say there's no difference, I had in mind to take few photos tomorrow and prove it.

Considering you posted that link, now it's definitely not necesarily to make new photos.

Your link shows everything and only a blindman will not see the difference.

Thanks for that, for a short moment I simply thought there is a problem with me. *oh2*

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Its interesting to me that this issue is being raised again, because back in September I was discussing it with another member in the Hero Factory 2013 speculation topic. What confuses me is that the member I was talking with states that that color consistency was actually worse in the classic era than is now: http://www.eurobrick...pic=73334&st=50

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that not the exact opposite of the assumption this latest topic is operating under? Or am I just confused about some of the technical details? Needless to say, I"m not really sure who or what to believe. :sceptic:

Edited by Zarkan

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Well, I'm extremely glad I'm not the only one who see this change.

Considering many people continued to say there's no difference, I had in mind to take few photos tomorrow and prove it.

Considering you posted that link, now it's definitely not necesarily to make new photos.

Your link shows everything and only a blindman will not see the difference.

Thanks for that, for a short moment I simply thought there is a problem with me. *oh2*

I show that around whenever people here start claiming that Lego quality is all perfect. :tongue: Note that this effect is highly dependent on the ambient light level and often doesn't show up in a photo, even though it's very obvious in real life.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that not the exact opposite of the assumption this latest topic is operating under? Or am I just confused about some of the technical details? Needless to say, I"m not really sure who or what to believe. :sceptic:

There were some problems in the early to mid 80s with blue and red, but all the colors were practically flawless throughout the 90s. TLG introduced a lot of new colors around 2000, some of which had big consistency issues (purple comes to mind), but most of these colors were quite obscure at the time and none of the common colors were affected. This is probably what that guy is thinking about. The change to clear ABS since 2006 has affected almost every common color except black, and brought in opacity issues that even the early 2000s colors didn't suffer from. More than anything else, I think the low opacity is what makes these pieces look cheap.

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I have to say that I have not myself noticed anything wrong in any of sets I bought or even parts. But I would say that pulling out of China is a good move. I don't have anything against the Chinese, but more jobs outsourced to places where labour is cheap are jobs that could go to people in the countries where the Employer is based. Especially with the current economic climate we should be looking to look after our own first. It may add a few pence to sets but it will be worth it in the long run I would hope. I have seen loads of people loosing their job because production or sometimes even whole companies have relocated. It is a bitter pill to swallow when you have been with the same company for thirty years plus to be told you are loosing your job as they can make whatever cheaper in countries where a labour cost is less. So the idea of bringing a few back sounds like a good one to me..

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I have to say that I have not myself noticed anything wrong in any of sets I bought or even parts. But I would say that pulling out of China is a good move. I don't have anything against the Chinese, but more jobs outsourced to places where labour is cheap are jobs that could go to people in the countries where the Employer is based. Especially with the current economic climate we should be looking to look after our own first. It may add a few pence to sets but it will be worth it in the long run I would hope. I have seen loads of people loosing their job because production or sometimes even whole companies have relocated. It is a bitter pill to swallow when you have been with the same company for thirty years plus to be told you are loosing your job as they can make whatever cheaper in countries where a labour cost is less. So the idea of bringing a few back sounds like a good one to me..

That may be true, but I guarantee that if TLG pulls out of China they're not moving those jobs to Denmark. Chances are they'd instead increase production from their facilities in the Czech Republic, which have recently undergone some major expansions if I'm not mistaken.

China may be a company that a lot of businesses outsource to, but TLG pulling out of China doesn't have anything to do with whether they continue to outsource production to countries other than Denmark.

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TLG does not have any manufacturing sites in China (or Asia for that matter), only an engineering office and a sales office. There are suppliers though, molding bricks for TLG.

Erland

Part Design

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Well hopefully this will increase the quality of some parts. While the print and details of new moulds have increased by an incredible amount the quality has really been holding LEGZo back these past few years. The amount of parts that are faulty in the sets I buy is embarrassing. It's gotten to such a stage that its impossible to get replacement parts because LEGO don't believe me.

Hopefully this should change although I won't hold my breath.

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TLG does not have any manufacturing sites in China (or Asia for that matter), only an engineering office and a sales office. There are suppliers though, molding bricks for TLG.

Erland

Part Design

Check this out.

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Check this out.

The guy in the video interprets in a false manner, and passes on misinformation.

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