You’re so right about all of this. I’ve collected LEGO for about 12-13 years, and in the last 2 years, the amount of missing pieces, misprints, extra pieces that shouldn’t be included, etc has DRASTICALLY increased, especially the misprints. And that’s not even talking about the general cheapness of designs now, like reusing minifig pieces where it doesn’t work, like Wanda’s hair, or the constant terrible face reuses.
@@brennanshane146 Exactly! Especially when they had a perfect design they could’ve brought back. Or like how they use the Hermione face (which was designed to resemble 13-17 year old Emma Watson) for Pepper Potts (even though Gwyneth Paltrow is in her 50s).
It seems like they're turning around a bit with reused faces this year just glimpsing at the new Harry Potter wave (Krum getting a new face print comes to mind) but that's probably just wishful thinking.
They’re definitely downgrading the instructions so that the blowback is lesser when they ultimately stop sending them out with the set. Digital instructions only.
Omg I just thought of this…. What if soon Lego decides to include a QR CODE that takes you to the Lego website for instructions then someday Lego will have digital building and you just buy a at code to build the set digitally and then you go to the Lego store and 3D print it. Sounds stupid but it could happen
Having not bought Lego in a few years, I am astounded to hear this. Lego's quality control and presentation always seemed infallible. I remember whenever I couldn't find a piece in a large set, my family members might suggest the piece was missing, but I always said something to the effect of, "that doesn't happen" and the piece would always turn up. That's really disappointing to hear
Yeah in all my years I have never once got a set that had a missing piece. These days I only buy Lego sets from pre-2006 because none of the new sets interest me so I wasn't aware of this QC issue. Sucks to hear.
well this is actually natural bc the company is tackling a lot larger sets that have a higher piece count for adults and r producing more sets so more room for error and need to expand there facilities . They have a plan on expanding there offices so i really dont see anything near of the decline of lego to happen for any longer. There still a booming business w there priorities on the customer experience, at least i hope. i recently got back into the hobby
all of these replies are overblown and exaggerating small things that DEFINITELY happened when they were too young to notice and be so picky and spoiled. Lego makes plenty of mistakes sure, but videos like this are just neg nancy fuel and all the spoiled lego adults who probably don't even make anything creative that's NOT in a manual, crowd the comments to reckon how things have gotten "so much worse"/
Yes I have this opinion as well. And so many different pieces and colors. They really should go back two or three notches. Too many licensed sets as well
i wish instead of doing soo many limited sets and forcing themselves to design too much; to keep a few mains. we do not need new sets every few months, just keep a few main line in stock for whenever!
As someone who’s joined as a customer advisor. I staggered at amount of emails I have receive say this is their first time having missing parts. 40% of my job was relating to missing parts orders and asking people for their MFG codes. 2022 advent calendars were a complete joke with the amount of duplicate and missing parts. 30% of the job was relating to damage boxes. The AUNZ warehouse during December was a complete mess as we had problems getting orders out of the warehouse due to DHL not having enough drivers, staffing issues in warehouse and problems with people’s address as they didn’t seem to validate for delivery. We had to re-contact people in order to resolve it.
With the advent calendar I was shocked to hear how many people had issues with missing parts. I had three different calendars and all pieces were there, but I had an insane amount of extra pieces.
Highly agree, and the overall quality of the pieces just feel cheaper. I can't remember the last time I bought a set and a window/glass piece wasn't scratched to hell out of the box. In addition, I feel like every brick now is susceptible to the corners being bent, like on 2x4s out of the box! I know I'm not crazy because I just finished sorting my entire collection and this stuff definitely wasn't as prevalent.
Thanks for the big fuckin scratch in the middle of my x-wing's canopy piece because god forbid the use of a lil plastic film, or even better, a paper baggy. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
An example of decreased quality is from the hospital wing set, where Ron just. Has a white leg. No bandage details or blue to represent his pants, just straight up white leg
I completely agree that the quality of LEGO sets seems to be declining lately. The color quality is not as good as it used to be, and the minifigures feel more boring(sometimes). It's a shame to see such a beloved brand seemingly cutting corners on quality. I hope that LEGO will take notice of these concerns and work to improve the quality of their products in the future.
Of all the fabric cuts, it certainly had a lot more purpose and make sense. And while I personally think it doesn't look as good, it let's the cape be it's own character like in the franchise
@@googleislame Oh don't say that or Lego will start putting that in the set and just saying "you wanted more Minifigures, well, here's another! In the MCU, this cloak has a mind of it's own. We will have to remove a character to accommodate this however... "
I recently bought a Friends set for my niece, where one of the large plates used for the roof was completely bent. It evened out after the whole thing was built, but when I took it apart, it sprung right back to being bent again. Not to mention, getting all the pieces to stick to each other took quite a bit of effort because of it. After having bought Lego for 20 years, I do think it's telling my first ever issue with a Lego set seems to be at a time when so many others are having similar issues. This really shouldn't be happening with such a high-priced product.
Every time I open a LEGO set I expect to see the new paper bags, and every time I am left wondering. I agree with you on the boring fronts, but I'm glad they are no longer doing black insides because that was hard to see. However the biggest thing for me is how annoying all of the mistakes are- there's SOO MANY recently. Feels like every time I build a set I find one. I can't imagine how frustrating that must be for younger kids who are very true to following the instructions.
In one of my sets I was missing a piece and thought it was just me being stupid but I was very careful not to lose pieces. I spent like 20 minutes looking and it was nowhere to be found. Now I’m thinking it might have been missing from the set.
Paper bags are not great why? because paper comes from trees and we need trees to survive they provide the air we need so cutting down trees for these paper bags is such a bad idea. Plastic is so much better period.
Didier Wierdsma Trees can be replanted and paper can be recycled. Recent studies show that most plastics cannot be recycled, and consumers have been lied to about where their “recycled” plastic goes for decades now.
@@juice2307 It takes years many years for trees to grow. Plastic is still the better option if lego hates Plastic that much they are clearly in the wrong business because lego's are made out of PLASTIC. Plastic is so much better for the environment period not wood or paper.
This really did need to be said; so many quality issues are driving hardcore fans away and especially the high price points are driving younger fans away/ people who can’t afford it away and it’s very upsetting. I’ve had so many instances with wrong bricks and messed up bricks in the box.
I think a lot of companies are at the point where they know they can cut corners and their customers will still their products regardless. It isn't going to stop until it really starts affecting sales, but they won't.
And that’s just it! I’ve had so many lego sets throughout the years, sold a few UCS sets as a teenager then recently got back into lego. I’ve spent like $2000 this past year getting back into my old hobby and unfortunately there’s no way I’m slowing down. They know that certain people won’t stop buying.
Something I've seen for a while now is the decline of printing on minifigures. For some time now the first thing I would do when opening a bag with a minifig in it is to check "Is the printing not smudgy? Does it align properly?" and so on. It's so frustrating to find out you have to go through extra effort and order replacements just to recieve the quality of product that should have been there to begin with.
@@Yeti_1317 They do. They have a service on their website where you can request replacement parts, even licenced ones. They say they might need confirmation that you own the set, but usually they just send you the parts without asking.
@@scratchsketch1879 I had a broken Marvel torso and it was not available on the replacement brick site and when I called customer service two different representatives explained LEGO does not replace licenced minifigures.
Thank you for speaking up about this. Another one I’ve noticed in the past two-three years is an increased amount of stickers instead of prints. I’ve been collecting Lego for as long as I can remember; I think now might be a good time for me to step away from it
Me too, but the adult market really increased over the last couple of convid years and cashed up adults that had played with lego as kids are now jumping on the lego gravy train and lego can hardly keep up . I dunno
@@richarddietz2659 100 percent, they can continue to decline in quality and these adults will continue to buy into it. The focus is now on the casual buyer/new Lego fans. Lego can get away with the bare minimum because the new consumers don’t care about things like leg printing or other inaccuracies. I only really care about those because I grew up with the era mentioned in this video so I know we’re currently getting an inferior product. You can’t really blame Lego because they are doing the logical thing; maximizing their profits. It’s just sad to see as long time fans.
I wouldn't say to step away from it. Like, I am focusing more on Creator sets nowadays because it feels like the best LEGO experience for now and reminds me of Classic. Anyway, stickers are there to cut costs. But we unfortunately don't see the prices getting cheaper anytime at all
The Luna Minifigure is a great example of why we need skirts again. She had it in the CMF in 2018 and it was beautiful, then in 2022 it’s printing…it just doesn’t give the same feel to that figure anymore.
I've found that most brown pieces made between late 90s to about 2010 ish tend to break and or breakdown like it's a lesser plastic ... especially plates.
@@toshiarichardson9627 yeah that’s a pretty well known fact especially in the 2010-2014 years. Same can be said for dark red, they break really easy from that time.
In October I built the new AT-TE, and I was missing a small piece. I was being extremely careful building it at a desk with plenty of space and good lighting, and even checked the floor with a flashlight so I’m positive I didn’t somehow lose it. Thankfully I had a spare of the piece in an earlier bag in the set, so it didn’t really matter. It’s funny because when I was a kid I would always think I lost a piece, but then would find it quickly afterwards. It’s sad to hear that missing pieces isn’t even uncommon anymore.
Same experience as a kid, whenever I couldn’t find a piece I knew it had to be there because lego never missed a piece, even if it took me an hour to find it would always show up. Not anymore
@@Ben-wp5rxAs a kid i just had to worry about getting too excited and opening the set in the car. I can remember having too many pieces, but never missing a piece on any of my sets.
The current situation of lego is really making me feel grateful for all that I currently have. I really don't feel like I need much more as soon as I got my first adult job I went on a splurge, and I'm blessed to have gotten that out of the way before lego's quality control started lacking. If any other adults with decently sized collections read this, guys just be grateful for what you got when you did and remember a time when you could only dream of having a collection as you do now. Have a blessed day everyone! 🙂
Completely agree with this I have noticed a lack of quality in certain themes more so than usual particularly with misprinted/misaligned stickers or scratches/lines on bricks. More misprints on mini fig faces too. If the price increases as a consumer we expect more or wait for a sale.
After many years of not buying LEGO sets, I got back into LEGO in March 2022, when I bought the Minifigure scale Batmobile from the latest Batman film. Here are my two cents: 1. While they are a bit better now than they were a few years ago, LEGO still aren't doing enough original themes compared to licensed themes. It seems that for every original theme, there's about 5 licensed themes. Too many. 2. They really need to stop doing GWP sets in the current way. You can only get them free if you spend a certain amount. I really wish you could buy them separately, with the GWP aspect coming as a special offer. 3. I have noticed a decrease in the quality of certain bricks. I was building the latest Minifigure scale Tumbler set and a couple of black bricks were far too tight on the studs, almost as though the injection moulding machine was faulty and the brick was very slightly moulded thicker.
because this video, this comment section, is full of picky lego adults who notice this stuff and remember it forever. and statistically, sure there's more. there's more people buying lego than ever before.
It's definitely a weird time to get back into LEGO, because on one hand, the sets (generally) are fantastic, they're giving a lot of love to (most) of my favorite themes, and 2023 is looking like their best year yet, with Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, the 100th anniversary of Disney, Lord of the Rings, and of course more Star Wars. That being said. I have experienced nearly all of these quality drops personally, and if this is the way things are going to be going forward, I'm going to have a tough time buying some upcoming sets that I was previously excited for.
I completely agree, it may do to the fact LEGO doesn't hire enough people for the job. They heavily expanded the number of sets they make and their team may just be overwhelmed. The knockoff quality of the instructions is probably a result of LEGO trying to save money on prints and yet the sets gets more pricey every year. At this point their motto should be quantity over quality.
The most recent issues for me was my Office set missing one of the sticker sheets, and while LEGO was quick to reply and send out a replacement, that still held back the building experience'for about a month. In prior years I've also had multiple figures have cracked heads straight out of the bag, which isn't as common but still discouraging
I'll never forget how mad I was when I ordered "Betrayal At Cloud City" from LEGO's website and the only 2 stormtroopers in the set had the printing backwards on the helmets. IN A $300+ DOLLAR SET!!!
I remember my dad building the Harley Davidson motorbike set in 2021 and there were so many missing pieces! I felt bad as it was his first set, but this wasn’t the only thing - when I went to order the missing pieces, it wouldn’t let me do it, as the sheer amount of missing pieces meant it was cancelled each time I tried (I guess it was due to it looking suspicious, but they were definitely missing, as we both checked). Thankfully, I managed to get it sorted eventually, but I had to speak to customer service. I have never had that many missing pieces, it was insane. Edit: I just went back through my emails, there were 12 different pieces missing! They did ask for the batch code and have someone look into it at least, but I couldn’t believe it.
sorry if i don't trust the guy who doesnt know how to spell Harley Davidson. also, it's like 99.9% likely ur dad lost some pieces. Did you open it with him? 12 missing pieces is absolutely unheard of from lego. incredibly unlikely. and again, you cant even get the set name right.
@@Ro11oTomasi you know this is ages ago right and I'm honestly not into motorbikes and didn't think much of it when I was writing it, I'll correct it for you - * Harley Davidson 😂 it isn't a huge thing in the UK, just like the name Harley isn't a popular name here. Think what you want, they were missing and LEGO did replace them, even though it was a complex process with so many missing pieces.
@@Ro11oTomasi and yes I did open it with him, we checked everywhere and they were missing. Considering how many LEGO sets we built, it was quite the let down!
Some of my recent Lego Technic sets have gears that feel loose and slip off their axels after just 2 or 3 builds! Can't remember them wearing out so fast when I was a kid. And the packaging is also a lot cheaper today, especially since the instructions for alternative builds are online-only.
In the last 2 years, I’ve had 2 sets missing pieces. The pirate ship was missing one piece that I did not have in my bins of bricks so I had to get in touch with LEGO. I bought 2 of the Halloween owls and one of them was missing pieces, which I also did not have duplicates of. In the case of the owl, the particular spot, I thought looked better without the pieces so I didn’t bother requesting the pieces from LEGO. I remember the first Mega Bloks set I got in 2016 had multiple pieces missing. And because their bags weren’t numbered then, I had to request pieces 2 times to get all of them. But Mega Bloks has really turned their quality around over the last 7 years since I got my first set from them. LEGO is going in reverse while Mega Bloks is going full steam ahead and improving. Yikes.
I bought the Eiffel Tower and it was missing two pieces. I’d attribute it to the fact that the pieces are getting smaller and it’s harder for their machines to detect whether a piece is missing or if it is within the margin of error
I’ve had the exact same experience with Mega! My Halo Spirit set is still missing a minor piece to this day, but my only part issue in years was a bent side connector on the Forward Unto Dawn Target Exclusive, meanwhile my Bookshop Modular Building set is missing so many pieces I may eventually just ask Lego for a replacement set and hope it’s not also messed up like other people report.
Same for Cobi. It was a real hit or miss situation with missing parts at the beginning. Now I feel like I get my moneys worth from them. No stickers, everything is printed. No weird rainbow colors for the inner construction (well, except once, but they apologiesed and never did it afterwards) and the parts fit together nicely.
@@patricksnoring4739 That doesn't make sense, Lego has had models with hundreds of tiny pieces in the past, its just a quality control and calibration thing man.
You make great points, especially about the details on minifigures. If LOTR gets minifig sets I’m worried there will be a lot of reused face prints, unlike the original LOTR minifigs which are so detailed.
@@richarddietz2659 microscale Hogwarts is an absolutely amazing set, why would a microscale Rivendell be bad? We could get the entire city instead of just 1 or maybe 2 buildings.
@@dynestis2875 because as much as I love LotR I really don't think Rivendell is much of an iconic location. It'd be much more suited to a few rooms (e.g. Narsil's plinth and the council of Elrond) while a more recognisable location such as Minas Tirith would be better in microscale. Also because most people want new LotR sets for minifigures but we'd only get a few if it's microscale.
This is happening in everything not just Lego. People just seem to care less and quality is just on a downfall since covid for a lot of things including Lego. I've recently opened some factory sealed HP and SW sets from 1999 and the quality just feels better.
The reasons the prints on mini figures are really really weird and just look like the wrong color is cause they’re not putting as many layers so they can save money
I really liked how the Star Wars instructions used to look like the old kenner/palitoy box art from the 70s/80s but that's gone. As a photographer and artist, who does use 3D renders I feel the cover of the instructions, and the design of some of the boxes themselves, has really gone down hill (is that a phrase you use in australia?) We got the skirt piece with luna in the CFM Harry potter range, which is something we havent got again
My biggest complaint lately is the quality of printing on mini figs. Not in terms of detail but what’s there has been really fuzzy and almost translucent at times, like they aren’t using enough ink or it’s being smudged. It was not a problem I ever noticed before the last 5 years maybe. Even looking at old figures from the 70s they look better (sometimes even with all the wear and tear) it’s incredibly disappointing and is part of what has made me become a much more occasional collector. (Come to think of it the last actual set I bought new was the 2020 AAT, I’ve bought a few things since but not not from retail)
I once bought an AT-TE Toys-R-US display model from a guy on craigslist, I didn't realized until I got it home that the thing was glued together. I broke so many pieces trying to get that thing apart.
@@Ro11oTomasi Waldo I’m 24 😂 , I’m not some ancient collector. I’ve bought some stuff since I posted that well over a year ago and have been impressed with the improvement from the problem I’ve seen. It wasn’t like it was just staring at the boxes, I saw the figures online and in other peoples collections. But definitely from like 2015 ish to 2020 the prints on mini figures were noticeably fuzzier than before or since.
Not sure why, but the instruction manual for the new Galaxy Explorer set (classic spaceship remake) actually has the same details as the box, and not some rendered image like the others. I’m curious to know why that is?
My guess is because they wanted it to match the whole nostalgia trip the set has being a remake. I was so happy to see it because it made the set feel more special and tied it all together
I think the worst example of a qc mishap for me was getting Zane's titan mech for Christmas a few years ago and having one of the bags _torn_ right out of the box. This wasn't a case of the bag somehow getting torn while inside the box; the bag was torn during production and a good chunk of the pieces within fell out before packaging. Another bad one was a plate from the Inquisitor's ship seemingly being melted and stressed at the corners. Something else I've noticed is that the spots where plastic is injected into the molds have become much more sloppy looking in recent years. Lego really needs to get their act together with this stuff, it's completely unacceptable. Prior to all of this, I have only had a single instance of a missing piece. It was the Skull Monster Truck from Ninjago and I got it for Christmas at my grandparent's house back in 2011. It was missing one of the parts needed to make the teeth on the face, and losing that part has forever traumatized me. Any time I'm building a set and I can't find a piece it's like that scene from Ratatouille where I'm a little kid again, panicking as I can't find the part I need. Funnily enough, I built the titan mech at my grandparent's house exactly ten years after I built the set that's haunted me all these years.
I vividly remember when I bought the Millennium Falcon microfighter instead of Han Solo's blaster there was a 1×2 grill tile that didn't go anywhere on the build
I have Lego going back to the late 70's and 80's and the gap between the plates when fitted side by side is larger now. They used to be so much tighter. You would think with modern technology the fit would be better than 40 years a go but it isn't.
Price increases as quality decreases. You may be too young to remember the republic red and brown issues. The Goblin King set alone filled a zip lock bag with broken parts. Now it's colours not matching, colour flow, mold marks, etc.
I agree with you 100%. Two more recurrent issues bug me and affect almost every set: 1. Print opacity is usually not good: bright red on black parts looks like dark red (printed front tile in 76956 for example), white is never proper even on light coloured part like yellow (Rococo Aristocrat head in Collectible Minifigures Series 24), yellow doesn’t look right on black or blue parts etc. 2. Stickers usually don’t match brick color : a white sticker doesn’t match the plastic white brick, the same with green, teal. Yellow stickers, black and blue ones match the bricks colors better though. (Clear stickers are not a solution as fingerprints stay on them after being applied).
I really like the new dr. Strange cape because you can take it off way easier and it still has that shape, and the cape leaving dr. Strange to fly around is a big part of his character so it adds playability
I purchased the Scythe Transport last year and recently built it--it had a mismolded dual-bladed lightsaber hilt! That was shocking enough, but when I went to request a replacement piece online, LEGO rejected my request! I had to call a Customer Service representative to finally get a correctly-molded piece.
When I got the new Shrieking Shack, some of the stickers were stuck to the instruction book when I opened the box and the sticker sheet had empty spots for where the stickers on the instructions were supposed to go
I just had that happen with my Ambush on Ferrix set. Ruined half the sticker sheet and I had to order another one off BrickLink. I could’ve done it through Lego for free, but last time I went through their customer service it took them a month to get it to me. Kinda ruined an otherwise fun building experience
Along with product quality, Lego has also gone downhill with shipping partners. In my area Lego used to use FedEx, but lately I've been getting Lego shipments from LaserShip that has horrible reviews. I'm wondering if I should stop ordering from Lego directly because they're using an unreliable shipping partner to likely cut costs.
Australia changed there's too and also moved ther warehouse location, luckily we haven't had many issues with shipping items since it is now with DHL but the processing times are a lot slower. I assume there's staffing issues that are the cause of our delays though
Wow. I bought my son a lot of Mario Lego and I couldn’t believe the problems with them. The Peach Castle is so flimsy and whole chunks would fall off from the slightest touch or bump of the table. The Bowser and Peach throne turning mechanism wouldn’t work and kept falling apart. After so much time building it with the kids, it was disappointing that we couldn’t play with it. The sets are so expensive. Also, my son has adhd and it was so painful arguing with him about using the instructions in the mario app. He kept getting stuck or distracted with the app itself. He couldn’t read the instructions until he could sync the characters. I finally had to try to dig up the PDF files from the website and use those on a tablet. There was also two mini rubber bands we needed and they were long lost. Why is Lego using rubber bands?? I don’t know if they weren’t included or if they got knocked to the ground and swept them up. It was after Xmas so there was a lot of packaging material around. It just seems like they’re churning out so much themed stuff around different fandoms as fast as they can without adequate quality control. And we also had several extra pieces leftover but we thought maybe they were extra replacement pieces?
Large corporations don't really care about your complaints unless your complaints turn into lost sales. If they keep cutting corners (which makes them more money), yet people still buy their products anyway, guess what's going to keep happening .....
It’s never been good, just recently was putting together an old lotr set to sell off, every single minifigure had a crack on the side of its torso. Absolutely laughable. The fact that lego charges money for this is a joke.
This was really well put! It's such a shame that the issues are stacking up so much, I just got back into Lego and it's so disappointing to find that the quality isn't like I remember
I got the Aston Mars- James Bond car recently for $10, the hood and the license plate at the front felt so flimsy. And the worst part is that when I was building the roof of the car, the instruction booklet said I needed three 1 x 3 gray plates which were not included at all in my set and I had to use the 1 x 3 metallic gray pieces because I could not find an extra.
I've had some missing pieces in 2022 in sets from 2020-2021. I think for small sets the new instructions are okay, but for the big sets like the modular buildings there should be nice instructions
My problem is that I have the feeling that the parts are no longer holding up and are totally unstable. I still have Legos from my childhood and they hold up perfectly. My son loves Marvel, so he has a lot of sets, but I keep putting it back together as it keeps falling apart after even the slightest touch. That's why I bought superglue and glued the parts that don't move together. But honestly, if you can't play with it until after you've glued it, then it really sucks ass.
I have been sounding the alarm for awhile now about the “huge” price increases and deteriorating quality of Lego sets. I think the lack of guality and features is because Lego is “framing out” their production to “third world” brick makers. PLEASE…hear me out. I worked in the manufacturing sector for the last 30 years. The company that I worked for made a product that is shipped all over the world. Depending on which country it was being shipped to, it would have different brand names, different identifications codes, etc. I believe Strongly that, Lego has “hired “ some of these foreign companies to make bricks and pieces for them. I bought the Lego Boutique Hotel last year…and then decided I wanted to add an extra floor to it, but I wasn’t prepared to spend another $300 to do that. So I went on another site that sells knockoffs and bought an “identical “ set for $100. Honestly…..the only difference is the end of each “stud” does not have Lego stamped on it. The colours, the quality and everything else, is exactly the same. If you look on the Lego boxes, it clearly states that they now produce their products in China, South America and several other countries…….Do you really think they have built factories in those countries….no!!., They just “farm out” their products to other factories and supply them with the moulding stamps to put the little Lego symbols on each piece…..just like my company did for their products. Some, probably many, will call me a traitor, I really don’t care. I owe no loyalty to Lego. They are the largest, most profitable toy company in the world….and they are privately owned……they have no shareholders…..so why all the huge increases in prices….and the deteriorating quality of product??? I think, because they are “top heavy” with management and designers…..who probably get huge salaries and bonuses….to play with toys all day. The company I worked for made a product that cost less that 25 cents (total cost) to produce, yet sold for several dollars per unit. It also was privately owned and had no shareholders……somebody is making some big money somewhere. I, like most of us “maniacs” , have limited resources and the current price increases are put Lego out of my reach. I don’t know about you but, my hobby is not going to be held for ransom by the Lego Group.
Wow, completely different video than I expected. I too have been extremely disappointed by the quality, but not by any of the things you mentioned. For me, the plastic quality is terrible compared to parts from my childhood. The ribs and gussets are that are part of the internal structure of the pieces are visible from the outside, largely because the plastic seems to warp inwards between them. The colors aren't consistent, the pieces have more play, and they scratch more easily. I've been buying them direct from LEGO (started with the Pirates of Barracuda Bay), but each set feels like it uses counterfeit pieces.
Yep the plastic quality is so shit. I foolishly bought my son some cheap imitation Lego sets and the pieces started cracking so I swore I'd never do that again and bought him genuine Lego sets for most recent birthdays and Christmas - and now some of those pieces have cracked! He's 5 so he's not super gentle but he's not overly rough. He has a bunch of Lego of mine from when I was a kid and that have been played with extensively and none of them have cracked up! I can't believe how poor the quality is now, so disappointing...
One other example of Lego decreasing the quality: The R5 Astromech's domes used to have a 360° print and even prints on the top. However since BB-9E the domes only have a front and back print with gaps at the sides and no prints on the top (the droids or sets with R5 units being BB-9E, the most recent playscale sandcrawler, the Resistance I-TS transport and the Resistance Y-Wing).
My biggest complaint has been the parts quality. Mold marks, bits of mold left over sticking off the edge of a piece, color inconsistencies, etc. stickers and prints also being off center
It feels different these days, it used to feel like plastic, now it feels like Nylon which feels kind of bendy and doesn't in my opinion hold together as well as the old Lego did.
Lego has always been expensive, but they usually made up for it with quality. But after their most profitable year EVER, they decide to cut so many corners like making the instructions look cheap and bland, including super un-detailed figures and not a variety of characters, designing sets to look unfinished and bare, while also INCREASING prices.
um..... inflation is a thing... u might wanna go look it up. They have largely kept their prices the same. Super undetailed figures? They've almost all gotten MORE detailed. Why are the instruction cheap and bland to you, they have more printing than ever before? No variety of characters? again, they have more subthemes than everbefore. These dumbutts in the commments smh lol spoiled AFOLS picky
I've recently started buying more LEGO sets after a gap. I've noticed that my sets have scratched pieces out of the box, and some thinner molds have inconsistent shaping on them (like dents on what is supposed to be a smooth surface). Definitely not the quality standard I'm used to.
Lego speed champions also have detailed prints on the mini figures and cars which is actually getting better this year again, I also think lego is favoring other themes that are little newer because the speed champions theme is getting way more new molds and elements and prints
@@lucasrios2089 I don’t really mind because they are bringing us more elements so obviously it is going to cost more but hopefully they will come back with side builds in the future so it can match the price once more
I actually remember the moment when I noticed when the quality went down. I ordered the technic Land Rover and Hogwart's Castle. Land Rover had a bag of Ninjago parts and there was a problem with the gears which were an actual production problem with the set as if it wasn't playtested. Then I went on to build the Hogwart's castle and the amount of missing pieces or pieces in wrong colors is just staggering
Lego seems to have changed from being a versatile toy to being expensive collectibles. The original run of Star Wars sets had pictures of alternate builds and the instruction books had cartoon strips that encouraged remodelling. Now it seems to be buy it, build it, shelve it, buy the next.
Thank you for making sure to include positive things in the video, I defiantly agree but it’s so much nicer to watch a video that isn’t just pointing out errors with no good things
I fully agree about quality control going down, I have had many pieces missing in my sets. My friend opened up a minifigure series pack and got the wrong head for the figure!
I am much more concerned with the quality of the pieces themselves. Do they still have an 8 in 1,000,000 error threshold? Are their margins for error still 0.00000001 millimeter? I grew up doing school projects on Lego product quality in high school and college, so this kind of news would be especially devastating to me.
the awful misprints on the 212th trooper helmets are really turning me off from buying the ATTE. The set looks great but getting such bad looking clone trooper prints on the helmets is unacceptable in any set and especially in one that costs 140$ and only has around 1000 pieces
That one time they’ve delayed the initial release for the ATTE because of stability issues… you know, I know someone that had a Cody figure, overtime it started to crack all over the place. The head cracking in half, arm cracks, and torso cracks. It was awful
All of what you said I’ve seen as well. Back in the day, I rarely got any missing pieces and everything was in very good condition. Nowadays, I’ve had missing pieces more often and everything just feels rushed to me. I hope lego will be able to fix these issues
I feel like the minifig quality has dropped this few years, scruffs and scratches on minifig torso and legs appear a lot more frequently . Minifig parts in older sets rarely have any misprints or scratches 😢😢
Right now it seems worse than it has been over the last few years but LEGO's currently better than it was in the mid to late 2000s. I remember getting multiple misprints back than and around one out of every 5 minifigures would have a major issue within a few months of getting them (as in the torse, legs, or head would crack at a connection point our the hands would break with one side coming off).
I can't disagree. LEGO has gone down hill. Any brown pieces break too easily. 75% of my brown pieces are broken. A few times I have had missing/broken pieces (after it was too late) and then there is R2-D2. I have had about 3 miss pointed figures. Not really bad *cough R2-D2 and 212/new 501st troopers *cough, just notable.When I bought my Ideas Saturn V I was missing three pieces.(this was before I knew you could get replacements). I haven't gotten any of the new instruction books. Yet. I feel like we need to get LEGO to notice somehow (I guess there is a chance that they know and just don't care. Hopefully not). LEGO need to take 20 steps back an learn how to do things right (again). I thoroughly enjoyed this video. It's a good idea to tell people what they (LEGO) is doing wrong. Please keep it up, we need to know.
I've built a lot of Lego sets through the years and never had to order a replacement piece.... Until recently. I usually build Icon sets, Idea Sets, a couple Hogwarts and an occasional architect set. Recently, there's often been one piece missing in a bag and there is usually a totally unrelated piece in it's place. So the count would be correct which is something they might check, or possibly the weight of the bag. For example the Titanic set and Lighthouse set had missing pieces, along with other sets I have. For the titanic it was a railing piece on the outside so I could continue the build as I ordered the correct piece. The Lighthouse was a piece buried inside. I was able to "borrow" an identical piece from another completed set and continue the build. In the USA it takes about 8 days to get a replacement piece from the time it's ordered. It might be longer at other locations. This can be a pain if the piece is required to continue and one can't find a substitute.
The biggest one for me is the Lego Mustang set that I got. The printed white stripes that run under the doors between the wheels, every one of them is printed at a different angle so none of them align. It looks absolutely shocking! For the premium price that Lego charge for their products we really must expect a premium experience at every stage.
Most my sets from this year were great however one of the x wing sets I got had a bent brick like the mold got messed up so the left wing won’t fully snap together leaving a giant gap in the wing so that’s upsetting
The quality of pretty much every piece has gone down big time. All you have to do is feel a brick from an older set, and then feel a brick from a modern set. The difference is staggering! I don’t think it’s a coincidence this drop in quality started when China was added as a place of manufacture 🤷🏼♂️
Speaking of quality control, I'm not sure if it's just me but the quality of bricks themselves has been horrific recently. I've noticed a massive increase in mould lines, obvious sprue marks, scuffing etc on Lego pieces in recent times, something that wasn't as present a few years prior. For example, clip pieces, I've noticed recently there's a big line right down the middle of the brick presumably where the mould is sandwiched together, and I swear with every new set I buy that has one it gets worse and more obvious, it makes it hard to hide on sets that should have a clean look to them such as the speed champion vehicles. Other pieces have little dots that look almost white in colour, this is where the Lego brick is removed from the sprue, it's something I'm used to seeing because I build model kits on the side but seeing this on Lego sets? If I'm being honest it was very rare to see such a thing even just a year ago. As for scuffing, do I need to say much more? I'll be honest, RacingBrick's review of the Porsche 911 and many other big vehicle sets recently should give you an idea. Don't get me wrong, overall I'm all for Lego releasing big and mighty sets with all these fantastic designs, and I think we've seen some of the best released sets over just the past 2-3 years but if it's at the cost of overall quality? Then I must say I'd rather take quality over quantity any day.
I havent bought lego in many years, but it seems that people having more and more a problem with pieces breaking. Especially minifigures get cracks by just existing being placed on studs. Its only really a thing for the modern ones.
The only mistakes I saw were quality of the pieces, the Galaxy explorer famously has the cockpit piece scratched up and although I love the light house, my pieces had some scuffs and slight printing errors, although I did get an extra sticker sheet for the FRIENDS set
I recently got the new Star Wars advent calendar and the printing on the R2D2 head is printed at an angle and its bad. I can agree that the quality control has gone down. I would buy old sets from the early 2000s.
I recently built the set a lot of dark troopers and Luke in it for a friend, and one of the grill pieces was replaced with a hinge piece that isn't even included in the set
I hate how little care they give their Minifigures now, they don't have that smooth clear coating over the printing anymore, so it's really easy to scuff and scratch them. They gave the Spider-Man Minifigure in 76195 arm printing, but none for the Minifigures in 76184 or 76185. They show a huge lack of care in pretty much everything they do now.
I thought you would raise the fact that over the last 5 or so years the colour consistency of Lego pieces has crashed. You buy many expensive sets and find shocking mismatches. Also, the scratching of big pieces in the production and shipping process is a huge problem. I remember how disappointed I was even with the UCS Tie Fighter and those big black pieces with smooth surfaces which were all scratched. It's an existing problem that has gotten worse with the new softer "glass" elements. Some sets do protect these elements but most do not. And I hate the new "adult" black boxes. Those Creator Expert boxes of the modular buildings were a key factor in me getting back into Lego around the time of the Town Hall, Pet Shop and Parisian Restaurant. You look at the boxes and the box art and you fall in love with Lego. Not anymore. That, and the pretentious 18+ guide make me sad.
I completely agree, I have collected LEGO since 2006 and these past few years their quality has plummeted and their themes have gone downhill, I mean Super-Mario, why?! Then theres the thing with some sets prices going through the roof because of the connected apps, like the Ultra Agents and Hidden Side( which predictably didn't last long). I just hope that LEGO remembers that they almost went out of business once, it wouldn't be impossible for that to happen again.
I've had multiple sets over the last two years come with mangled peices in them. Something that I never encountered as a kid. The Jurrasic Park gate had a mangled slope peice and the new city set with the squirrels had a 1x1 round leaf peice that looked like it was crushed with a hydrolic press and covered in black like it was burned. I also got a mis moulded hairpeice in the stuntz bikes sets. So 3 issues in sets recently where as as a kid there was never anything like that.
You are right on point about the quality. I bought a technic set recently and I am a fan of LEGO for a long time and I was surprised to see that some pieces had few scratches (specially because they were black pieces, so it shows more) and the overall plastic quality is not really the same as it was before. It felt more fragile. Also, I was shocked to see that the instructions for the B model can only be found using an app! Like, it takes way more time to build because the 3D animations and if the servers ever go down, you won't have the instructions at all! And as you also said, the prices are just getting higher so the quality was supposed to be better but that is not what is happening
I just started collecting Lego in 2022. Lego Harry Potter specifically. My Chamber of Secrets set was missing a piece. I’m glad they’ll send me a new one, but with the price of the set it blows my mind. One of my other sets had a mid print and mess up of one of the steps. If it wasn’t for google I wouldn’t have known. Very good points in this video, well done.
And they're also not doing bigfigures anymore, 2022 had no bigfigures, and that's really weird since in 2021 they did a brand new bigfig mold for Thanos that I thought would be used to all bigfigs now
I… didn’t know that, hopefully they’ll be back into that! I want to see them do a bigfig Venom or Kingpin with the new bigfig mold they’ve done for Thanos
You’re so right about all of this. I’ve collected LEGO for about 12-13 years, and in the last 2 years, the amount of missing pieces, misprints, extra pieces that shouldn’t be included, etc has DRASTICALLY increased, especially the misprints. And that’s not even talking about the general cheapness of designs now, like reusing minifig pieces where it doesn’t work, like Wanda’s hair, or the constant terrible face reuses.
Yeah. I love the lego delorean set, but that Marty minifig is awful. Using Han Solo's face was a terrible design choice
Completely agree
@@brennanshane146 Exactly! Especially when they had a perfect design they could’ve brought back. Or like how they use the Hermione face (which was designed to resemble 13-17 year old Emma Watson) for Pepper Potts (even though Gwyneth Paltrow is in her 50s).
It seems like they're turning around a bit with reused faces this year just glimpsing at the new Harry Potter wave (Krum getting a new face print comes to mind) but that's probably just wishful thinking.
Another major face issue is Black Widow/Captain Marvel/Wasp all having similar faces even if they're 3 very different actresses
The instruction covers blow my mind and genuinely feel like knockoffs. I would misprint features on my own face before making uggy manuals
I have misprinted features allready
Wait till there is 0 manuals in the box
@@aarongittoes honestly yea, digital only is probably gonna happen eventually😭
They’re definitely downgrading the instructions so that the blowback is lesser when they ultimately stop sending them out with the set.
Digital instructions only.
Omg I just thought of this…. What if soon Lego decides to include a QR CODE that takes you to the Lego website for instructions then someday Lego will have digital building and you just buy a at code to build the set digitally and then you go to the Lego store and 3D print it. Sounds stupid but it could happen
Having not bought Lego in a few years, I am astounded to hear this. Lego's quality control and presentation always seemed infallible. I remember whenever I couldn't find a piece in a large set, my family members might suggest the piece was missing, but I always said something to the effect of, "that doesn't happen" and the piece would always turn up. That's really disappointing to hear
Yeah in all my years I have never once got a set that had a missing piece. These days I only buy Lego sets from pre-2006 because none of the new sets interest me so I wasn't aware of this QC issue. Sucks to hear.
well this is actually natural bc the company is tackling a lot larger sets that have a higher piece count for adults and r producing more sets so more room for error and need to expand there facilities . They have a plan on expanding there offices so i really dont see anything near of the decline of lego to happen for any longer. There still a booming business w there priorities on the customer experience, at least i hope. i recently got back into the hobby
Same, I left in 2018 and feel like I moved to another reality, where lego degenerates.
all of these replies are overblown and exaggerating small things that DEFINITELY happened when they were too young to notice and be so picky and spoiled. Lego makes plenty of mistakes sure, but videos like this are just neg nancy fuel and all the spoiled lego adults who probably don't even make anything creative that's NOT in a manual, crowd the comments to reckon how things have gotten "so much worse"/
It’s quite clear that LEGO is simply trying to make too many sets
Yes I have this opinion as well. And so many different pieces and colors. They really should go back two or three notches. Too many licensed sets as well
Like what is happening with Marvel. Quantity over quality because money, money, money.
i wish instead of doing soo many limited sets and forcing themselves to design too much; to keep a few mains. we do not need new sets every few months, just keep a few main line in stock for whenever!
I think that they just want to make the maximum amount of profits....
Or maybe too much money. Greed my friend🟰cheapening of products. 💲 💵 🤑
As someone who’s joined as a customer advisor. I staggered at amount of emails I have receive say this is their first time having missing parts. 40% of my job was relating to missing parts orders and asking people for their MFG codes. 2022 advent calendars were a complete joke with the amount of duplicate and missing parts. 30% of the job was relating to damage boxes. The AUNZ warehouse during December was a complete mess as we had problems getting orders out of the warehouse due to DHL not having enough drivers, staffing issues in warehouse and problems with people’s address as they didn’t seem to validate for delivery. We had to re-contact people in order to resolve it.
With the advent calendar I was shocked to hear how many people had issues with missing parts. I had three different calendars and all pieces were there, but I had an insane amount of extra pieces.
I've been wondering why shipping has been taking so long the last year or so.
Highly agree, and the overall quality of the pieces just feel cheaper. I can't remember the last time I bought a set and a window/glass piece wasn't scratched to hell out of the box. In addition, I feel like every brick now is susceptible to the corners being bent, like on 2x4s out of the box! I know I'm not crazy because I just finished sorting my entire collection and this stuff definitely wasn't as prevalent.
I was building the Wakanda Forever War On The Water set, and when I was putting one of those sword pieces into a hole, it snapped in half.
Yes I also noticed the plastic is not the same and feels more fragile. That is a shame
Ever since they started producing in China, Brick Quality overall dropped
Scratched windows and more obvious injection points are the main things that annoy me with the current state of LEGO.
Thanks for the big fuckin scratch in the middle of my x-wing's canopy piece because god forbid the use of a lil plastic film, or even better, a paper baggy. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
An example of decreased quality is from the hospital wing set, where Ron just. Has a white leg. No bandage details or blue to represent his pants, just straight up white leg
I completely agree that the quality of LEGO sets seems to be declining lately. The color quality is not as good as it used to be, and the minifigures feel more boring(sometimes). It's a shame to see such a beloved brand seemingly cutting corners on quality. I hope that LEGO will take notice of these concerns and work to improve the quality of their products in the future.
well said same, i think it will. b a temporary thing only however
not sure how either of these are true but ok
9:20 The molded cape for Dr. Strange might allow the cape to stand on its own, which would make sense given its characteristics.
Of all the fabric cuts, it certainly had a lot more purpose and make sense. And while I personally think it doesn't look as good, it let's the cape be it's own character like in the franchise
It can also chase Peter Parker with a gun or a drilling tool as seen on the Sanctum workshop box
Yeah, given that the Cloak of Levitation is sentient, his cape is practically a minifigure itself.
@@googleislame Oh don't say that or Lego will start putting that in the set and just saying "you wanted more Minifigures, well, here's another! In the MCU, this cloak has a mind of it's own. We will have to remove a character to accommodate this however... "
I recently bought a Friends set for my niece, where one of the large plates used for the roof was completely bent. It evened out after the whole thing was built, but when I took it apart, it sprung right back to being bent again. Not to mention, getting all the pieces to stick to each other took quite a bit of effort because of it.
After having bought Lego for 20 years, I do think it's telling my first ever issue with a Lego set seems to be at a time when so many others are having similar issues.
This really shouldn't be happening with such a high-priced product.
Every Sanctum Sanctorum that I saw had a warped baseplate.
My son had same problem on a big piece on the stunt bike big set with fire and ramps. Big piece was bent to hell.
thats called warping call and get a new one. thats not lego, thats how it was stored or shipped.
Every time I open a LEGO set I expect to see the new paper bags, and every time I am left wondering. I agree with you on the boring fronts, but I'm glad they are no longer doing black insides because that was hard to see. However the biggest thing for me is how annoying all of the mistakes are- there's SOO MANY recently. Feels like every time I build a set I find one. I can't imagine how frustrating that must be for younger kids who are very true to following the instructions.
In one of my sets I was missing a piece and thought it was just me being stupid but I was very careful not to lose pieces. I spent like 20 minutes looking and it was nowhere to be found. Now I’m thinking it might have been missing from the set.
Paper bags are not great why? because paper comes from trees and we need trees to survive they provide the air we need so cutting down trees for these paper bags is such a bad idea.
Plastic is so much better period.
Didier Wierdsma Trees can be replanted and paper can be recycled. Recent studies show that most plastics cannot be recycled, and consumers have been lied to about where their “recycled” plastic goes for decades now.
@@juice2307 It takes years many years for trees to grow.
Plastic is still the better option if lego hates Plastic that much they are clearly in the wrong business because lego's are made out of PLASTIC.
Plastic is so much better for the environment period not wood or paper.
@@DidierWierdsma6335 plastic is quicker but it is VERY bad for the environment.
This really did need to be said; so many quality issues are driving hardcore fans away and especially the high price points are driving younger fans away/ people who can’t afford it away and it’s very upsetting. I’ve had so many instances with wrong bricks and messed up bricks in the box.
I think a lot of companies are at the point where they know they can cut corners and their customers will still their products regardless. It isn't going to stop until it really starts affecting sales, but they won't.
And that’s just it! I’ve had so many lego sets throughout the years, sold a few UCS sets as a teenager then recently got back into lego. I’ve spent like $2000 this past year getting back into my old hobby and unfortunately there’s no way I’m slowing down.
They know that certain people won’t stop buying.
Exactly
Something I've seen for a while now is the decline of printing on minifigures. For some time now the first thing I would do when opening a bag with a minifig in it is to check "Is the printing not smudgy? Does it align properly?" and so on. It's so frustrating to find out you have to go through extra effort and order replacements just to recieve the quality of product that should have been there to begin with.
...and LEGO will not replace licenced minifigures.
@@Yeti_1317 They do. They have a service on their website where you can request replacement parts, even licenced ones. They say they might need confirmation that you own the set, but usually they just send you the parts without asking.
@@scratchsketch1879 I had a broken Marvel torso and it was not available on the replacement brick site and when I called customer service two different representatives explained LEGO does not replace licenced minifigures.
@@Yeti_1317 that's weird. I do it all the time. Maybe it's a territory thing?🤷
@@scratchsketch1879 You could be right. Not a lot of love for Canada from LEGO.
Thank you for speaking up about this. Another one I’ve noticed in the past two-three years is an increased amount of stickers instead of prints. I’ve been collecting Lego for as long as I can remember; I think now might be a good time for me to step away from it
Me too, but the adult market really increased over the last couple of convid years and cashed up adults that had played with lego as kids are now jumping on the lego gravy train and lego can hardly keep up . I dunno
@@richarddietz2659 100 percent, they can continue to decline in quality and these adults will continue to buy into it. The focus is now on the casual buyer/new Lego fans. Lego can get away with the bare minimum because the new consumers don’t care about things like leg printing or other inaccuracies. I only really care about those because I grew up with the era mentioned in this video so I know we’re currently getting an inferior product. You can’t really blame Lego because they are doing the logical thing; maximizing their profits. It’s just sad to see as long time fans.
I wouldn't say to step away from it. Like, I am focusing more on Creator sets nowadays because it feels like the best LEGO experience for now and reminds me of Classic. Anyway, stickers are there to cut costs. But we unfortunately don't see the prices getting cheaper anytime at all
The Luna Minifigure is a great example of why we need skirts again. She had it in the CMF in 2018 and it was beautiful, then in 2022 it’s printing…it just doesn’t give the same feel to that figure anymore.
I've found that most brown pieces made between late 90s to about 2010 ish tend to break and or breakdown like it's a lesser plastic ... especially plates.
@@toshiarichardson9627 yeah that’s a pretty well known fact especially in the 2010-2014 years. Same can be said for dark red, they break really easy from that time.
In October I built the new AT-TE, and I was missing a small piece. I was being extremely careful building it at a desk with plenty of space and good lighting, and even checked the floor with a flashlight so I’m positive I didn’t somehow lose it. Thankfully I had a spare of the piece in an earlier bag in the set, so it didn’t really matter. It’s funny because when I was a kid I would always think I lost a piece, but then would find it quickly afterwards. It’s sad to hear that missing pieces isn’t even uncommon anymore.
Are my worst lego nightmare. Once in a blue moon. I Would get a cool set and almost finish it. For it to remain forever unfinished.
Same experience as a kid, whenever I couldn’t find a piece I knew it had to be there because lego never missed a piece, even if it took me an hour to find it would always show up. Not anymore
@@Ben-wp5rxAs a kid i just had to worry about getting too excited and opening the set in the car. I can remember having too many pieces, but never missing a piece on any of my sets.
@@bikesrcool_1958 why was it a nightmare when they will give it to you for free if you tell them smh dramatic haters
The current situation of lego is really making me feel grateful for all that I currently have. I really don't feel like I need much more as soon as I got my first adult job I went on a splurge, and I'm blessed to have gotten that out of the way before lego's quality control started lacking. If any other adults with decently sized collections read this, guys just be grateful for what you got when you did and remember a time when you could only dream of having a collection as you do now. Have a blessed day everyone! 🙂
thank you for adding some positivity to this comment section full of spoiled AFOLS neg nancies
Completely agree with this I have noticed a lack of quality in certain themes more so than usual particularly with misprinted/misaligned stickers or scratches/lines on bricks. More misprints on mini fig faces too. If the price increases as a consumer we expect more or wait for a sale.
After many years of not buying LEGO sets, I got back into LEGO in March 2022, when I bought the Minifigure scale Batmobile from the latest Batman film. Here are my two cents:
1. While they are a bit better now than they were a few years ago, LEGO still aren't doing enough original themes compared to licensed themes. It seems that for every original theme, there's about 5 licensed themes. Too many.
2. They really need to stop doing GWP sets in the current way. You can only get them free if you spend a certain amount. I really wish you could buy them separately, with the GWP aspect coming as a special offer.
3. I have noticed a decrease in the quality of certain bricks. I was building the latest Minifigure scale Tumbler set and a couple of black bricks were far too tight on the studs, almost as though the injection moulding machine was faulty and the brick was very slightly moulded thicker.
i see on the boxes now that the parts are produced in different countries around the globe. so no more highest standarts for LEGO
Honestly I genuinely don't know how I've managed to never have a missing piece in a set when I've been collecting sets since 2011
because this video, this comment section, is full of picky lego adults who notice this stuff and remember it forever. and statistically, sure there's more. there's more people buying lego than ever before.
It's definitely a weird time to get back into LEGO, because on one hand, the sets (generally) are fantastic, they're giving a lot of love to (most) of my favorite themes, and 2023 is looking like their best year yet, with Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, the 100th anniversary of Disney, Lord of the Rings, and of course more Star Wars. That being said. I have experienced nearly all of these quality drops personally, and if this is the way things are going to be going forward, I'm going to have a tough time buying some upcoming sets that I was previously excited for.
thank you for bringing up an actually discussable topic. this comment section is full of spoiiled AFOLS
I completely agree, it may do to the fact LEGO doesn't hire enough people for the job. They heavily expanded the number of sets they make and their team may just be overwhelmed.
The knockoff quality of the instructions is probably a result of LEGO trying to save money on prints and yet the sets gets more pricey every year.
At this point their motto should be quantity over quality.
The most recent issues for me was my Office set missing one of the sticker sheets, and while LEGO was quick to reply and send out a replacement, that still held back the building experience'for about a month. In prior years I've also had multiple figures have cracked heads straight out of the bag, which isn't as common but still discouraging
Yeah I had a new clone head show signs of stress and I was like “oh shit.”
I won‘t buy Lego with digital only instructions. I buy Lego TO GET AWAY FROM SCREENS not to spend even more time in front of one.
I'll never forget how mad I was when I ordered "Betrayal At Cloud City" from LEGO's website and the only 2 stormtroopers in the set had the printing backwards on the helmets. IN A $300+ DOLLAR SET!!!
I remember my dad building the Harley Davidson motorbike set in 2021 and there were so many missing pieces! I felt bad as it was his first set, but this wasn’t the only thing - when I went to order the missing pieces, it wouldn’t let me do it, as the sheer amount of missing pieces meant it was cancelled each time I tried (I guess it was due to it looking suspicious, but they were definitely missing, as we both checked). Thankfully, I managed to get it sorted eventually, but I had to speak to customer service. I have never had that many missing pieces, it was insane.
Edit: I just went back through my emails, there were 12 different pieces missing! They did ask for the batch code and have someone look into it at least, but I couldn’t believe it.
sorry if i don't trust the guy who doesnt know how to spell Harley Davidson. also, it's like 99.9% likely ur dad lost some pieces. Did you open it with him? 12 missing pieces is absolutely unheard of from lego. incredibly unlikely. and again, you cant even get the set name right.
@@Ro11oTomasi you know this is ages ago right and I'm honestly not into motorbikes and didn't think much of it when I was writing it, I'll correct it for you - * Harley Davidson 😂 it isn't a huge thing in the UK, just like the name Harley isn't a popular name here. Think what you want, they were missing and LEGO did replace them, even though it was a complex process with so many missing pieces.
@@Ro11oTomasi and yes I did open it with him, we checked everywhere and they were missing. Considering how many LEGO sets we built, it was quite the let down!
" only the best is good enough" they are walking away from the core
The one principle that they’ve betrayed 😢😓😭
Just like Disney Parks completly abandoning the quality standards they once held.
Some of my recent Lego Technic sets have gears that feel loose and slip off their axels after just 2 or 3 builds!
Can't remember them wearing out so fast when I was a kid.
And the packaging is also a lot cheaper today, especially since the instructions for alternative builds are online-only.
In the last 2 years, I’ve had 2 sets missing pieces. The pirate ship was missing one piece that I did not have in my bins of bricks so I had to get in touch with LEGO. I bought 2 of the Halloween owls and one of them was missing pieces, which I also did not have duplicates of. In the case of the owl, the particular spot, I thought looked better without the pieces so I didn’t bother requesting the pieces from LEGO.
I remember the first Mega Bloks set I got in 2016 had multiple pieces missing. And because their bags weren’t numbered then, I had to request pieces 2 times to get all of them. But Mega Bloks has really turned their quality around over the last 7 years since I got my first set from them.
LEGO is going in reverse while Mega Bloks is going full steam ahead and improving. Yikes.
I bought the Eiffel Tower and it was missing two pieces. I’d attribute it to the fact that the pieces are getting smaller and it’s harder for their machines to detect whether a piece is missing or if it is within the margin of error
I’ve had the exact same experience with Mega! My Halo Spirit set is still missing a minor piece to this day, but my only part issue in years was a bent side connector on the Forward Unto Dawn Target Exclusive, meanwhile my Bookshop Modular Building set is missing so many pieces I may eventually just ask Lego for a replacement set and hope it’s not also messed up like other people report.
Same for Cobi. It was a real hit or miss situation with missing parts at the beginning. Now I feel like I get my moneys worth from them. No stickers, everything is printed. No weird rainbow colors for the inner construction (well, except once, but they apologiesed and never did it afterwards) and the parts fit together nicely.
@@patricksnoring4739 That doesn't make sense, Lego has had models with hundreds of tiny pieces in the past, its just a quality control and calibration thing man.
You make great points, especially about the details on minifigures. If LOTR gets minifig sets I’m worried there will be a lot of reused face prints, unlike the original LOTR minifigs which are so detailed.
If they will even include minifigures ? I quit if Rivendell is in microscale
I've been thinking the same thing... they were so well done and are better than many figures we get today
@@richarddietz2659 same, I really hope it’s not microscale
@@richarddietz2659 microscale Hogwarts is an absolutely amazing set, why would a microscale Rivendell be bad? We could get the entire city instead of just 1 or maybe 2 buildings.
@@dynestis2875 because as much as I love LotR I really don't think Rivendell is much of an iconic location. It'd be much more suited to a few rooms (e.g. Narsil's plinth and the council of Elrond) while a more recognisable location such as Minas Tirith would be better in microscale.
Also because most people want new LotR sets for minifigures but we'd only get a few if it's microscale.
This is happening in everything not just Lego. People just seem to care less and quality is just on a downfall since covid for a lot of things including Lego. I've recently opened some factory sealed HP and SW sets from 1999 and the quality just feels better.
2004 man, that's when it all changed, they moved production out of Billund Denmark. Yard sales are your best friend for finding good bricks.
I have never to this day had a missing piece in a new lego set. It's so weird to me when I hear people do
I've had the wrong piece twice over the last few decades, but never a missing piece. It does happen to others though, just can't be common.
The reasons the prints on mini figures are really really weird and just look like the wrong color is cause they’re not putting as many layers so they can save money
I really liked how the Star Wars instructions used to look like the old kenner/palitoy box art from the 70s/80s but that's gone. As a photographer and artist, who does use 3D renders I feel the cover of the instructions, and the design of some of the boxes themselves, has really gone down hill (is that a phrase you use in australia?)
We got the skirt piece with luna in the CFM Harry potter range, which is something we havent got again
I experienced my first set error last week; the NES set I got for Christmas had a piece so warped that it was unusable.
My biggest complaint lately is the quality of printing on mini figs. Not in terms of detail but what’s there has been really fuzzy and almost translucent at times, like they aren’t using enough ink or it’s being smudged. It was not a problem I ever noticed before the last 5 years maybe. Even looking at old figures from the 70s they look better (sometimes even with all the wear and tear) it’s incredibly disappointing and is part of what has made me become a much more occasional collector.
(Come to think of it the last actual set I bought new was the 2020 AAT, I’ve bought a few things since but not not from retail)
I once bought an AT-TE Toys-R-US display model from a guy on craigslist, I didn't realized until I got it home that the thing was glued together. I broke so many pieces trying to get that thing apart.
than how would you know... you said you stopped buying and i dont find your claims to be accurate at all. maybe ur old and ur eyesight's gottenworse
@@Ro11oTomasi Waldo I’m 24 😂 , I’m not some ancient collector. I’ve bought some stuff since I posted that well over a year ago and have been impressed with the improvement from the problem I’ve seen. It wasn’t like it was just staring at the boxes, I saw the figures online and in other peoples collections.
But definitely from like 2015 ish to 2020 the prints on mini figures were noticeably fuzzier than before or since.
Not sure why, but the instruction manual for the new Galaxy Explorer set (classic spaceship remake) actually has the same details as the box, and not some rendered image like the others.
I’m curious to know why that is?
My guess is because they wanted it to match the whole nostalgia trip the set has being a remake. I was so happy to see it because it made the set feel more special and tied it all together
I think the worst example of a qc mishap for me was getting Zane's titan mech for Christmas a few years ago and having one of the bags _torn_ right out of the box. This wasn't a case of the bag somehow getting torn while inside the box; the bag was torn during production and a good chunk of the pieces within fell out before packaging. Another bad one was a plate from the Inquisitor's ship seemingly being melted and stressed at the corners.
Something else I've noticed is that the spots where plastic is injected into the molds have become much more sloppy looking in recent years. Lego really needs to get their act together with this stuff, it's completely unacceptable.
Prior to all of this, I have only had a single instance of a missing piece. It was the Skull Monster Truck from Ninjago and I got it for Christmas at my grandparent's house back in 2011. It was missing one of the parts needed to make the teeth on the face, and losing that part has forever traumatized me. Any time I'm building a set and I can't find a piece it's like that scene from Ratatouille where I'm a little kid again, panicking as I can't find the part I need. Funnily enough, I built the titan mech at my grandparent's house exactly ten years after I built the set that's haunted me all these years.
I vividly remember when I bought the Millennium Falcon microfighter instead of Han Solo's blaster there was a 1×2 grill tile that didn't go anywhere on the build
I had that in the 2019 Poe Dameron X wing set. Instead of the blaster I got a clip piece that was never in the se to begin with.
I've never had a missing peice...ever. but yeah the instructions have definitely gone down hill I'm always catching mistakes in those
same
I have Lego going back to the late 70's and 80's and the gap between the plates when fitted side by side is larger now. They used to be so much tighter. You would think with modern technology the fit would be better than 40 years a go but it isn't.
Lego from the 80s and 90s in particular had such a consistent and perfect clutch power too.
Price increases as quality decreases. You may be too young to remember the republic red and brown issues. The Goblin King set alone filled a zip lock bag with broken parts. Now it's colours not matching, colour flow, mold marks, etc.
I agree with you 100%. Two more recurrent issues bug me and affect almost every set:
1. Print opacity is usually not good: bright red on black parts looks like dark red (printed front tile in 76956 for example), white is never proper even on light coloured part like yellow (Rococo Aristocrat head in Collectible Minifigures Series 24), yellow doesn’t look right on black or blue parts etc.
2. Stickers usually don’t match brick color : a white sticker doesn’t match the plastic white brick, the same with green, teal. Yellow stickers, black and blue ones match the bricks colors better though. (Clear stickers are not a solution as fingerprints stay on them after being applied).
I really like the new dr. Strange cape because you can take it off way easier and it still has that shape, and the cape leaving dr. Strange to fly around is a big part of his character so it adds playability
I purchased the Scythe Transport last year and recently built it--it had a mismolded dual-bladed lightsaber hilt! That was shocking enough, but when I went to request a replacement piece online, LEGO rejected my request! I had to call a Customer Service representative to finally get a correctly-molded piece.
I wonder if they are struggling with staffing issues like most large companies right now
When I got the new Shrieking Shack, some of the stickers were stuck to the instruction book when I opened the box and the sticker sheet had empty spots for where the stickers on the instructions were supposed to go
I just had that happen with my Ambush on Ferrix set. Ruined half the sticker sheet and I had to order another one off BrickLink. I could’ve done it through Lego for free, but last time I went through their customer service it took them a month to get it to me. Kinda ruined an otherwise fun building experience
Along with product quality, Lego has also gone downhill with shipping partners. In my area Lego used to use FedEx, but lately I've been getting Lego shipments from LaserShip that has horrible reviews. I'm wondering if I should stop ordering from Lego directly because they're using an unreliable shipping partner to likely cut costs.
Australia changed there's too and also moved ther warehouse location, luckily we haven't had many issues with shipping items since it is now with DHL but the processing times are a lot slower. I assume there's staffing issues that are the cause of our delays though
I heard about someone that lost their package due to LEGO using LaserShip, and not sure if they’ve refunded him or not after the shipment was lost
Wow. I bought my son a lot of Mario Lego and I couldn’t believe the problems with them. The Peach Castle is so flimsy and whole chunks would fall off from the slightest touch or bump of the table. The Bowser and Peach throne turning mechanism wouldn’t work and kept falling apart. After so much time building it with the kids, it was disappointing that we couldn’t play with it. The sets are so expensive. Also, my son has adhd and it was so painful arguing with him about using the instructions in the mario app. He kept getting stuck or distracted with the app itself. He couldn’t read the instructions until he could sync the characters. I finally had to try to dig up the PDF files from the website and use those on a tablet. There was also two mini rubber bands we needed and they were long lost. Why is Lego using rubber bands?? I don’t know if they weren’t included or if they got knocked to the ground and swept them up. It was after Xmas so there was a lot of packaging material around. It just seems like they’re churning out so much themed stuff around different fandoms as fast as they can without adequate quality control.
And we also had several extra pieces leftover but we thought maybe they were extra replacement pieces?
Large corporations don't really care about your complaints unless your complaints turn into lost sales. If they keep cutting corners (which makes them more money), yet people still buy their products anyway, guess what's going to keep happening .....
@𝑻𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝑴𝒆 𝑶𝒏 𝑻𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎🔛HollyOnFilm lol Oh Wow !! I can't believe I won @hollyonfilm !! lol
It’s never been good, just recently was putting together an old lotr set to sell off, every single minifigure had a crack on the side of its torso. Absolutely laughable. The fact that lego charges money for this is a joke.
This was really well put! It's such a shame that the issues are stacking up so much, I just got back into Lego and it's so disappointing to find that the quality isn't like I remember
I got the Aston Mars- James Bond car recently for $10, the hood and the license plate at the front felt so flimsy. And the worst part is that when I was building the roof of the car, the instruction booklet said I needed three 1 x 3 gray plates which were not included at all in my set and I had to use the 1 x 3 metallic gray pieces because I could not find an extra.
I've had some missing pieces in 2022 in sets from 2020-2021.
I think for small sets the new instructions are okay, but for the big sets like the modular buildings there should be nice instructions
They made some ridiculous profit then they raise prices and the quality goes down pretty upsetting.
My problem is that I have the feeling that the parts are no longer holding up and are totally unstable. I still have Legos from my childhood and they hold up perfectly. My son loves Marvel, so he has a lot of sets, but I keep putting it back together as it keeps falling apart after even the slightest touch.
That's why I bought superglue and glued the parts that don't move together. But honestly, if you can't play with it until after you've glued it, then it really sucks ass.
I have been sounding the alarm for awhile now about the “huge” price increases and deteriorating quality of Lego sets. I think the lack of guality and features is because Lego is “framing out” their production to “third world” brick makers.
PLEASE…hear me out. I worked in the manufacturing sector for the last 30 years. The company that I worked for made a product that is shipped all over the world. Depending on which country it was being shipped to, it would have different brand names, different identifications codes, etc. I believe Strongly that, Lego has “hired “ some of these foreign companies to make bricks and pieces for them.
I bought the Lego Boutique Hotel last year…and then decided I wanted to add an extra floor to it, but I wasn’t prepared to spend another $300 to do that. So I went on another site that sells knockoffs and bought an “identical “ set for $100. Honestly…..the only difference is the end of each “stud” does not have Lego stamped on it. The colours, the quality and everything else, is exactly the same.
If you look on the Lego boxes, it clearly states that they now produce their products in China, South America and several other countries…….Do you really think they have built factories in those countries….no!!., They just “farm out” their products to other factories and supply them with the moulding stamps to put the little Lego symbols on each piece…..just like my company did for their products.
Some, probably many, will call me a traitor, I really don’t care. I owe no loyalty to Lego. They are the largest, most profitable toy company in the world….and they are privately owned……they have no shareholders…..so why all the huge increases in prices….and the deteriorating quality of product??? I think, because they are “top heavy” with management and designers…..who probably get huge salaries and bonuses….to play with toys all day. The company I worked for made a product that cost less that 25 cents (total cost) to produce, yet sold for several dollars per unit. It also was privately owned and had no shareholders……somebody is making some big money somewhere. I, like most of us “maniacs” , have limited resources and the current price increases are put Lego out of my reach. I don’t know about you but, my hobby is not going to be held for ransom by the Lego Group.
Wow, completely different video than I expected. I too have been extremely disappointed by the quality, but not by any of the things you mentioned. For me, the plastic quality is terrible compared to parts from my childhood. The ribs and gussets are that are part of the internal structure of the pieces are visible from the outside, largely because the plastic seems to warp inwards between them. The colors aren't consistent, the pieces have more play, and they scratch more easily. I've been buying them direct from LEGO (started with the Pirates of Barracuda Bay), but each set feels like it uses counterfeit pieces.
Yep the plastic quality is so shit. I foolishly bought my son some cheap imitation Lego sets and the pieces started cracking so I swore I'd never do that again and bought him genuine Lego sets for most recent birthdays and Christmas - and now some of those pieces have cracked! He's 5 so he's not super gentle but he's not overly rough. He has a bunch of Lego of mine from when I was a kid and that have been played with extensively and none of them have cracked up! I can't believe how poor the quality is now, so disappointing...
Absolutely agree
One other example of Lego decreasing the quality: The R5 Astromech's domes used to have a 360° print and even prints on the top. However since BB-9E the domes only have a front and back print with gaps at the sides and no prints on the top (the droids or sets with R5 units being BB-9E, the most recent playscale sandcrawler, the Resistance I-TS transport and the Resistance Y-Wing).
My biggest complaint has been the parts quality. Mold marks, bits of mold left over sticking off the edge of a piece, color inconsistencies, etc. stickers and prints also being off center
It feels different these days, it used to feel like plastic, now it feels like Nylon which feels kind of bendy and doesn't in my opinion hold together as well as the old Lego did.
Lego has always been expensive, but they usually made up for it with quality. But after their most profitable year EVER, they decide to cut so many corners like making the instructions look cheap and bland, including super un-detailed figures and not a variety of characters, designing sets to look unfinished and bare, while also INCREASING prices.
um..... inflation is a thing... u might wanna go look it up. They have largely kept their prices the same. Super undetailed figures? They've almost all gotten MORE detailed. Why are the instruction cheap and bland to you, they have more printing than ever before? No variety of characters? again, they have more subthemes than everbefore. These dumbutts in the commments smh lol spoiled AFOLS picky
I've recently started buying more LEGO sets after a gap. I've noticed that my sets have scratched pieces out of the box, and some thinner molds have inconsistent shaping on them (like dents on what is supposed to be a smooth surface). Definitely not the quality standard I'm used to.
Lego speed champions also have detailed prints on the mini figures and cars which is actually getting better this year again, I also think lego is favoring other themes that are little newer because the speed champions theme is getting way more new molds and elements and prints
the trade off unfortunately is that the price of Speed Champions continue to increase
@@lucasrios2089 I don’t really mind because they are bringing us more elements so obviously it is going to cost more but hopefully they will come back with side builds in the future so it can match the price once more
I prefer the plastic bags anyway so they can take as long as they want
I actually remember the moment when I noticed when the quality went down. I ordered the technic Land Rover and Hogwart's Castle. Land Rover had a bag of Ninjago parts and there was a problem with the gears which were an actual production problem with the set as if it wasn't playtested. Then I went on to build the Hogwart's castle and the amount of missing pieces or pieces in wrong colors is just staggering
Lego seems to have changed from being a versatile toy to being expensive collectibles. The original run of Star Wars sets had pictures of alternate builds and the instruction books had cartoon strips that encouraged remodelling. Now it seems to be buy it, build it, shelve it, buy the next.
Thank you for making sure to include positive things in the video, I defiantly agree but it’s so much nicer to watch a video that isn’t just pointing out errors with no good things
I fully agree about quality control going down, I have had many pieces missing in my sets. My friend opened up a minifigure series pack and got the wrong head for the figure!
I am much more concerned with the quality of the pieces themselves. Do they still have an 8 in 1,000,000 error threshold? Are their margins for error still 0.00000001 millimeter? I grew up doing school projects on Lego product quality in high school and college, so this kind of news would be especially devastating to me.
the awful misprints on the 212th trooper helmets are really turning me off from buying the ATTE. The set looks great but getting such bad looking clone trooper prints on the helmets is unacceptable in any set and especially in one that costs 140$ and only has around 1000 pieces
That one time they’ve delayed the initial release for the ATTE because of stability issues… you know, I know someone that had a Cody figure, overtime it started to crack all over the place. The head cracking in half, arm cracks, and torso cracks. It was awful
yes I totally agree, its very noticeable having been a collector since 2006. Like everything its about money not quality
I recently bought a Jurassic Park set for my nephew and it was missing TWO big rubber tires
The reason they stopped using skirts/cloths were since they fell apart over time and the edges got rough
All of what you said I’ve seen as well. Back in the day, I rarely got any missing pieces and everything was in very good condition. Nowadays, I’ve had missing pieces more often and everything just feels rushed to me. I hope lego will be able to fix these issues
I've noticed I got way more scratched pieces then usual. Particularly with the AT-TE set and its window pieces as well as the dark gray plates
I find black plates the worse for showing marks and damage (also slightly misty).
I feel like the minifig quality has dropped this few years, scruffs and scratches on minifig torso and legs appear a lot more frequently . Minifig parts in older sets rarely have any misprints or scratches 😢😢
Right now it seems worse than it has been over the last few years but LEGO's currently better than it was in the mid to late 2000s. I remember getting multiple misprints back than and around one out of every 5 minifigures would have a major issue within a few months of getting them (as in the torse, legs, or head would crack at a connection point our the hands would break with one side coming off).
I can't disagree. LEGO has gone down hill. Any brown pieces break too easily. 75% of my brown pieces are broken. A few times I have had missing/broken pieces (after it was too late) and then there is R2-D2. I have had about 3 miss pointed figures. Not really bad *cough R2-D2 and 212/new 501st troopers *cough, just notable.When I bought my Ideas Saturn V I was missing three pieces.(this was before I knew you could get replacements). I haven't gotten any of the new instruction books. Yet. I feel like we need to get LEGO to notice somehow (I guess there is a chance that they know and just don't care. Hopefully not). LEGO need to take 20 steps back an learn how to do things right (again). I thoroughly enjoyed this video. It's a good idea to tell people what they (LEGO) is doing wrong. Please keep it up, we need to know.
I've built a lot of Lego sets through the years and never had to order a replacement piece.... Until recently. I usually build Icon sets, Idea Sets, a couple Hogwarts and an occasional architect set. Recently, there's often been one piece missing in a bag and there is usually a totally unrelated piece in it's place. So the count would be correct which is something they might check, or possibly the weight of the bag. For example the Titanic set and Lighthouse set had missing pieces, along with other sets I have. For the titanic it was a railing piece on the outside so I could continue the build as I ordered the correct piece. The Lighthouse was a piece buried inside. I was able to "borrow" an identical piece from another completed set and continue the build. In the USA it takes about 8 days to get a replacement piece from the time it's ordered. It might be longer at other locations. This can be a pain if the piece is required to continue and one can't find a substitute.
The biggest one for me is the Lego Mustang set that I got. The printed white stripes that run under the doors between the wheels, every one of them is printed at a different angle so none of them align. It looks absolutely shocking! For the premium price that Lego charge for their products we really must expect a premium experience at every stage.
how ironic
the sets get more complicated and the quality control has gotten worse
Most my sets from this year were great however one of the x wing sets I got had a bent brick like the mold got messed up so the left wing won’t fully snap together leaving a giant gap in the wing so that’s upsetting
The quality of pretty much every piece has gone down big time. All you have to do is feel a brick from an older set, and then feel a brick from a modern set. The difference is staggering! I don’t think it’s a coincidence this drop in quality started when China was added as a place of manufacture 🤷🏼♂️
Speaking of quality control, I'm not sure if it's just me but the quality of bricks themselves has been horrific recently.
I've noticed a massive increase in mould lines, obvious sprue marks, scuffing etc on Lego pieces in recent times, something that wasn't as present a few years prior.
For example, clip pieces, I've noticed recently there's a big line right down the middle of the brick presumably where the mould is sandwiched together, and I swear with every new set I buy that has one it gets worse and more obvious, it makes it hard to hide on sets that should have a clean look to them such as the speed champion vehicles.
Other pieces have little dots that look almost white in colour, this is where the Lego brick is removed from the sprue, it's something I'm used to seeing because I build model kits on the side but seeing this on Lego sets?
If I'm being honest it was very rare to see such a thing even just a year ago.
As for scuffing, do I need to say much more? I'll be honest, RacingBrick's review of the Porsche 911 and many other big vehicle sets recently should give you an idea.
Don't get me wrong, overall I'm all for Lego releasing big and mighty sets with all these fantastic designs, and I think we've seen some of the best released sets over just the past 2-3 years but if it's at the cost of overall quality?
Then I must say I'd rather take quality over quantity any day.
I havent bought lego in many years, but it seems that people having more and more a problem with pieces breaking. Especially minifigures get cracks by just existing being placed on studs.
Its only really a thing for the modern ones.
The only mistakes I saw were quality of the pieces, the Galaxy explorer famously has the cockpit piece scratched up and although I love the light house, my pieces had some scuffs and slight printing errors, although I did get an extra sticker sheet for the FRIENDS set
I recently got the new Star Wars advent calendar and the printing on the R2D2 head is printed at an angle and its bad. I can agree that the quality control has gone down. I would buy old sets from the early 2000s.
I recently built the set a lot of dark troopers and Luke in it for a friend, and one of the grill pieces was replaced with a hinge piece that isn't even included in the set
I hate how little care they give their Minifigures now, they don't have that smooth clear coating over the printing anymore, so it's really easy to scuff and scratch them. They gave the Spider-Man Minifigure in 76195 arm printing, but none for the Minifigures in 76184 or 76185. They show a huge lack of care in pretty much everything they do now.
I thought you would raise the fact that over the last 5 or so years the colour consistency of Lego pieces has crashed. You buy many expensive sets and find shocking mismatches.
Also, the scratching of big pieces in the production and shipping process is a huge problem. I remember how disappointed I was even with the UCS Tie Fighter and those big black pieces with smooth surfaces which were all scratched. It's an existing problem that has gotten worse with the new softer "glass" elements. Some sets do protect these elements but most do not.
And I hate the new "adult" black boxes. Those Creator Expert boxes of the modular buildings were a key factor in me getting back into Lego around the time of the Town Hall, Pet Shop and Parisian Restaurant. You look at the boxes and the box art and you fall in love with Lego. Not anymore. That, and the pretentious 18+ guide make me sad.
There's a ninkago set from last year that literally has the wrong version of a figure depicted on the box art
When playing with newer legos I noticed that the pieces don't hold together quite as well as they used to.
I completely agree, I have collected LEGO since 2006 and these past few years their quality has plummeted and their themes have gone downhill, I mean Super-Mario, why?! Then theres the thing with some sets prices going through the roof because of the connected apps, like the Ultra Agents and Hidden Side( which predictably didn't last long). I just hope that LEGO remembers that they almost went out of business once, it wouldn't be impossible for that to happen again.
I've had multiple sets over the last two years come with mangled peices in them. Something that I never encountered as a kid.
The Jurrasic Park gate had a mangled slope peice and the new city set with the squirrels had a 1x1 round leaf peice that looked like it was crushed with a hydrolic press and covered in black like it was burned.
I also got a mis moulded hairpeice in the stuntz bikes sets.
So 3 issues in sets recently where as as a kid there was never anything like that.
Would honestly love if lego dropped brands like disney and potter and just went back to original lines. Licensing is expensive.
You are right on point about the quality. I bought a technic set recently and I am a fan of LEGO for a long time and I was surprised to see that some pieces had few scratches (specially because they were black pieces, so it shows more) and the overall plastic quality is not really the same as it was before. It felt more fragile. Also, I was shocked to see that the instructions for the B model can only be found using an app! Like, it takes way more time to build because the 3D animations and if the servers ever go down, you won't have the instructions at all! And as you also said, the prices are just getting higher so the quality was supposed to be better but that is not what is happening
I just started collecting Lego in 2022. Lego Harry Potter specifically. My Chamber of Secrets set was missing a piece. I’m glad they’ll send me a new one, but with the price of the set it blows my mind. One of my other sets had a mid print and mess up of one of the steps. If it wasn’t for google I wouldn’t have known. Very good points in this video, well done.
And they're also not doing bigfigures anymore, 2022 had no bigfigures, and that's really weird since in 2021 they did a brand new bigfig mold for Thanos that I thought would be used to all bigfigs now
I… didn’t know that, hopefully they’ll be back into that! I want to see them do a bigfig Venom or Kingpin with the new bigfig mold they’ve done for Thanos