Hi all

I played lego back in the 90s and stored them for quite a while. I recently unpacked them to play with my kids and they are all still in a very good shape.

I'm now considering buying some new sets but saw a lot of YouTubers complaining about the quality control of lego. They complained mostly about cracks on the minifigs and on some 1×1 or 1x2 slopes.

I'm now afraid buying them and having some defects on some of them after a few weeks / months. I would have never imagined seeing some cracks on lego parts back in the days.

Is this quality control issue vastly exaggerated or should I expect a lower quality of the current sets compared to the Lego I played with when I was a kid in the 90s ?

It's very exaggerated. That sort of content gets the clicks.

I have not experienced anything quite so severe and those I know who have find it uncommon.

I bought my Lego in the past 5 years and so far not a single piece broke.

Thanks both, I'm relieved in regards with the future purchase of lego big sets 😀 

There have been recent(ish) problems. The reddish brown issue of a decade ago still occasionally crops up if old new stick is opened. I had a horse fall apart in my hands about a year ago and some plates I sold on BL apparently cracked on first use.

Aside from that, the only part I get fairly regular issues with still is the 1x1 cheese slope. Every colour seems to crack easily, although unless you look closely, it doesn't notice.

Most of the quality problems now are not with cracking, but with colour consistency and texture/flow lines/injection defects. Even the clutch strength is still ok, only the black pins are now made from softer plastic, feels much less satisfying to assemble.

21 hours ago, Ozorion said:

Is this quality control issue vastly exaggerated or should I expect a lower quality of the current sets compared to the Lego I played with when I was a kid in the 90s ?

Pretty much irrelevant. The overall level of issues is the same, it's just different types of issues. Are they exaggerated? Perhaps, perhaps not. If you're unlucky you can indeed end up with a set full of problematic pieces with ugly injection points, misaligned prints with not enough opacity, poorly printed instructions, messy parts colors and clutch power deficiencies, but the same set from a different production batch could not expose a single one of those same problems. And ultimately that in and of itself is the largest issue here: The inconsistency. LEGO really need to work on that. That famous "Forrest Gump" quote applies: It's like a box of chocolates and you never know what you get.

Mylenium

37 minutes ago, Mylenium said:

Pretty much irrelevant. The overall level of issues is the same, it's just different types of issues. Are they exaggerated? Perhaps, perhaps not. If you're unlucky you can indeed end up with a set full of problematic pieces with ugly injection points, misaligned prints with not enough opacity, poorly printed instructions, messy parts colors and clutch power deficiencies, but the same set from a different production batch could not expose a single one of those same problems. And ultimately that in and of itself is the largest issue here: The inconsistency. LEGO really need to work on that. That famous "Forrest Gump" quote applies: It's like a box of chocolates and you never know what you get.

Mylenium

Thanks for your input. This issue didn't seem to exist in the 90s. At least I've never experienced it. Maybe my sample was too small to be statistically significant though.

The most damage i've experienced, both in 90s, and now, are clips or minifig hands are prone to damage, but mostly from putting in objects wrong or fast, falling on the ground , etc. 

 

Old parts like first generation classic space helmets, town traffic signs, large flags, thin clips, saddles, 90s dragons wing attachment clips.

 

I think older parts could get more stiff (talking about parts that are 20-30+ year old mainly), and combined with thin clip designs, are more at risk, or other retired designs like those 2/3 fingered round grabbing arms, used as far back as pre-minifig figure arms, classic space, to later in themes like aquazone. 

And then going back even to older days, LEGO used another type of plastic so even the regular bricks could warp, but that's talking like parts from before 1964.

 

In more recent years (parts from after 2017) I had a minifig hand, traffic sign with clip, motorcycle handlebar clip, break (all black but probably cooincidence), but that's mostly due to falling and that's likely if an object is in a clip, + shock from falling, seems to split a clip easier, but yes, that's falling damage, not normal handling. 

Edited December 6, 20231 yr by TeriXeri

On 12/4/2023 at 2:46 PM, Ozorion said:

Hi all

I played lego back in the 90s and stored them for quite a while. I recently unpacked them to play with my kids and they are all still in a very good shape.

I'm now considering buying some new sets but saw a lot of YouTubers complaining about the quality control of lego. They complained mostly about cracks on the minifigs and on some 1×1 or 1x2 slopes.

I'm now afraid buying them and having some defects on some of them after a few weeks / months. I would have never imagined seeing some cracks on lego parts back in the days.

Is this quality control issue vastly exaggerated or should I expect a lower quality of the current sets compared to the Lego I played with when I was a kid in the 90s ?

Quality is still very good but not as good as it was during the 80s and 90s. The difference in quality between old and new pieces is so small that most of the time it doesn't matter. Nowadays color consistency between pieces can sometimes be a problem as well as transparent pieces that get easily scratched. Newer pieces also feels "softer" in some way, I don't know how to explain it better. I started to notice a small decline in quality in the mid 2000s but overall Lego still makes a very high end quality product just like they used to do during the golden era in the 80s and 90s. You can safely buy new Lego sets because the quality is still very high. The modern instructions are the worst, the old ones have very clear colors and outlines but the new ones are very dark and it's difficult to tell some colors apart. 

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by SpacePolice89

Quality control for Lego has really gone down hill as a of late. Too many times I've gotten sets that aren't necessarily missing pieces but just flat out have the wrong piece. The most egregious example was in set 75324: Dark Trooper Attack. Luke was missing his torso and in replace was part #32250 technic liftarm , modified l-shape quarter ellipse thin 3x5. like what. Worst part is I don't even care that much for star wars, I just like the Mandalorian. 

The worst issue i had was a twisted switch from the city freight train i bought 2019. It was impossible to somehow get it straight.

And just yesterday i noticed some color incosistencies between parts of dark red. But i must say, i don't mind color incosistency much.

 

On 12/11/2023 at 11:41 AM, SpacePolice89 said:

golden era in the 80s and 90s.

Just out of curiosity, please let me ask why is that the golden era? I was a kid back then, playing with Lego, but i would not call it the golden era.

 

23 minutes ago, PaleozoicBricks said:

Quality control for Lego has really gone down hill as a of late. Too many times I've gotten sets that aren't necessarily missing pieces but just flat out have the wrong piece. The most egregious example was in set 75324: Dark Trooper Attack. Luke was missing his torso and in replace was part #32250 technic liftarm , modified l-shape quarter ellipse thin 3x5. like what. Worst part is I don't even care that much for star wars, I just like the Mandalorian. 

Packing errors are rare, so two errors in a set is very rare especially if their masses match so that the weight rejection method doesnt pick it up. Are you sure you didn't make an error or lose a part.

@Yperio_BricksTown, Castle, Space and later Pirates sets available every year. Appearance of many iconic sets like the Futuron Monorail and the Black Seas Barracuda. And of course the introduction of the ghost, skeleton and the green dragon. And by 90s I mean the early and mid 90s before juni orization happened. The catalogs were a piece of art with beautiful landscapes and brick built worlds. Better quality control and materials. But of course this is individual and it has been discussed before.

 

Edited December 17, 20231 yr by SpacePolice89

38 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Just out of curiosity, please let me ask why is that the golden era? I was a kid back then, playing with Lego, but i would not call it the golden era.

2010s were a golden age for me. Lots of in-house themes, some great licensed themes, the recognition of AFOLs by LEGO, and huge discounts before the popularity took off.

38 minutes ago, MAB said:

Packing errors are rare, so two errors in a set is very rare especially if their masses match so that the weight rejection method doesnt pick it up. Are you sure you didn't make an error or lose a part.

This has happened before to me, where you just flat out get the wrong part. Most notably I never go the frog in the blacksmith set in its place the piece that looks like among us in sand green 

Color consistency is a much bigger problem today than pre-2000, but cracks are not more common than the past. Certain pieces have always been prone to cracks.

11 hours ago, MAB said:

Packing errors are rare

Probably not as rare as one would think. I had two such occurrences in the last two years plus very recently one where a mangled part found its way into the package. It wasn't anything important and I could fix it by resorting to my own parts, but it would have been annoying contacting LEGO support again, especially since they've become very unfriendly lately about replacing parts. With that in mind it becomes a mere function of statistics. If I can be hit by such mishaps in relatively short succession then there are many more out there. This also gets further confirmed by many reviews (on reputable German and English sites) I read this year also mentioning missing or wrong parts. If I remember correctly, one of them was in one of the Sonic sets missing a whole half of the "ball" and also getting a weird Technic part instead of it and the other was some plates in the UCS Razor Crest gone AWOL or being wrong. I'm sure if I were to re-read all the articles I would find even more. Therefore, while it may not be an overwhelming number of packing errors/ missing parts/ damaged parts, it is at least significant even when set against the millions of parts and tens of thousands of sets produced every day. I'm not going to argue that there would be a way to avoid this completely, but based on how LEGO explain their own handling of these things it should be nearly impossible and that's the part that kind of puzzles me. A piece that isn't even in the set inventory should not randomly appear in a box.

Mylenium 

I am a "come lately" to LEGO sets. One of the first sets I purchased, the Land Rover was missing a few cosmetic parts that took nearly two weeks for LEGO to send out. All the remaining sets actually had a few extra parts left over after the build. At first I wondered if I have messed up, but an audit showed I simply had extra parts. As for the quality of the parts, I have no complaints. Everything seems within specs, assembles as it should and so on. I do have some concerns about instructions however. There have been reported errors in some, so any set you buy, it would be wise to search to see if there are any reported errors. Also, sometimes the pictures are very clear in the placement of parts. Lastly, it can be difficult, at least for my old eyes, to distinguish between black parts and dark grey in the drawings, so be mindful when dealing with parts of those colors. For functionality it won't matter if you use a dark grey part instead of a black one, but for appearances it probably will, plus you'll be scratching your head about why you're short a dark grey part but have an extra black one left over.

Edited December 17, 20231 yr by Lego Tom

4 hours ago, Mylenium said:

A piece that isn't even in the set inventory should not randomly appear in a box.

True. And this is what recently happened to as well.

 

I think you are mixing few issues.

One is lowering quality standard - for me color inconsistency goes into this.

Second is poorer quality control - here goes missing or wrong parts.

Third is regulatory requirements, like more environmentally friendly plastic material (if there is one ) - the best example is softer pins wit friction.

And another pool of problems is with unexpected things, like brittle plastic after some time or degradation of clutch power, that goes unnoticed during lab testing.

Yes the color issues are not a "problem" as such, more of a deliberate choice they made to reduce costs by changing the coloring process around 20 years ago. You can ask them for replacements but often the new bricks have the same issues, so it's not worth it.

On 12/16/2023 at 8:27 PM, Yperio_Bricks said:

Just out of curiosity, please let me ask why is that the golden era? I was a kid back then, playing with Lego, but i would not call it the golden era.

Nostalgia for the most part, I would say   People ignore design flaws or even flat out boring/janky work because it was the cool stuff when they were a kid. I do enjoy the simplistic designs, don't get me wrong, but some sets today are much more fun than the past. 

As for part oddities? I think I have only ever had a wrong colour plate. Obi Wan's hut I believe. I got a 1x 3 black plate, not a 1x3 tan plate as needed (or something close, it had to be tan though, not the black I had). No big deal to me though, I got the set on discount as a parts pack and was only building it to examine the techniques.

26 minutes ago, Peppermint_M said:

Nostalgia for the most part, I would say   People ignore design flaws or even flat out boring/janky work because it was the cool stuff when they were a kid. I do enjoy the simplistic designs, don't get me wrong, but some sets today are much more fun than the past.

For me the golden age is today, where we have the most parts and colors!

As for cracking parts. I remember as a kid we had a lot of cracked clips. For example the ones from the saddles. But maybe that was because of intensive and rough play. Also the handles from shields would sometimes break. Nowadays i handle all parts with much more care

I always found the old hinge parts (for canopies and the like) to be scary fragile at times, either bending or snapping, these days they have little clutch and won't stay in place. It is sad, as they look a lot smoother than the "click" hinges that replaced them. 

I don´t remember anything ever broke from my Sets - however might be that I just forgot, but I guess I handled my Lego always good even as a child