MINIFIG QC: Original theme BPs, Vintage Collections, etc.

[Daz Hoo]

My theory on the price increase for series 3 collectile minifigs :

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5135#p49911

[deco_droid]

My understanding is that LEGO moved production of "supplemental minifigures" (i.e. figs available outside of traditional sets) to China because plastic or taxation in Europe is expensive...something like that...the main driving force being the demand for more minifigs and making an effort to meet that demand in an affordable way....

plastic taxation? oh man. this, kiddies, is what happens when environmentalist nuts get too involved in government, to the detriment of businesses and democracy...

[Draykov]

Heh...my understanding of the situation is sketchy, at best, as I don't even remember the source that made me believe this. What I meant to convey though was that something about European taxes as they related to the production process made production less affordable. Either that, or something about the price of plastic in China as it related to the production process made production more affordable...or both.

This inspired me to kind of revisit actual sources on the issue though, so, FYI:

01 September 2005 Lego closing Swiss manufacturing sites

19 December 2005 China reins as the world's toy maker

16 February 2006 Lego production moving to ‘low-pay’ countries

21 June 2006 Flextronics to take over Lego plastic brick making

10 March 2008 Lego Group takes Czech production in-house

03 July 2008 Lego taking production back in-house

11 July 2008 Lego taking production back in-house

26 November 2009 LEGO Group lays off 66 Billund employees

07 January 2011 Building block of success

26 January 2011 Lego adds capacity in Czech Republic

[Draykov]

I have a snow day and I was bored, so I decided to follow-up with LEGO Customer Service to confirm that they did indeed get the production samples I sent to their Quality Department. Given that this is almost certainly a known issue within the company, I don't really expect much, but I'm kind of curious as to whether or not they'll respond, and if so, what they'll have to say.

Edit/update:

After my initial follow-up, I was treated to another form response that basically said "you're a pain in the butt, but you're our pain in the butt, so we love you." I prodded further to get something other than a form response, and I got this:

Customer Services does not receive reports from the quality team regarding each parts they receive back. Therefore we would not be able to update you on what they thought about the problem. However if the quality department notices a trend, then they would update our system, so that we can let our customer know about the problem.

So...pretty much what I thought I was going to end up with.

[Drock]

Has anyone else found suspicious cases of the lower quality figs being in regular sets? Awhile ago, I bought my son the Toy Story 3 garbage truck. Today while we were playing, I looked at the Jessie fig and noticed there is no black marking on the front of the neck. Then I saw the rectangle on the arm. It's hard to tell since that's his only Jessie. Still, it's frustrating to find this, especially in a licensed set.

[Flynn]

Has anyone else found suspicious cases of the lower quality figs being in regular sets? Awhile ago, I bought my son the Toy Story 3 garbage truck. Today while we were playing, I looked at the Jessie fig and noticed there is no black marking on the front of the neck. Then I saw the rectangle on the arm. It's hard to tell since that's his only Jessie. Still, it's frustrating to find this, especially in a licensed set.

To my knowledge, all the "special" minifigure parts (IE, the longer arms and legs, molded heads, ect.), are produced in China, hence the rectangular markings and lower quality. I believe this was addressed a while back, but I can't remember where it was, else I would link you there.

[Robzula]

I can attest to that. Both my and my friend's Woody figs are of the cheaper quality and they both came from the RC set. Mine also came already assemble in its own little baggie inside the box (don't know about my friend's, though I assume this was the case as well). So far haven't had any trouble with normal minifig pieces in regular sets.

[Drock]

To my knowledge, all the "special" minifigure parts (IE, the longer arms and legs, molded heads, ect.), are produced in China, hence the rectangular markings and lower quality. I believe this was addressed a while back, but I can't remember where it was, else I would link you there.

Thanks. That makes sense now. I guess I missed that discussion .