Pirate Tic Tac Toe - Cheap Part Alert

[posades]

That really is a shame; I know with a magnet pack I bought the quality was markedly worse, so it's sad to see the same thing happening here.

If I recall correctly the knight/skeleton castle battlepacks didn't suffer from the same issues so there still may be some hope for the pirate battlepacks.

[Destroydacre]

Thanks for the pics Apache. It's good to know what you're getting before hand. I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way, but I suppose someone had to be the first.

[Rick]

They look terrible, thanks for the warning indeed...

Do they glow in the dark?

[Svelte]

Thanks for the pictorial update. You've done a neat job of making these horrors easy to identify

Perhaps Brickbeard's pegleg is a mould not available in the new factory, hence the difference in quality.

It is a sad day for minifigs and I really hope we don't see an expansion across more lines with parts produced with inferior quality.

[Apache]

Thanks for the pictorial update. You've done a neat job of making these horrors easy to identify

Perhaps Brickbeard's pegleg is a mould not available in the new factory, hence the difference in quality.

It is a sad day for minifigs and I really hope we don't see an expansion across more lines with parts produced with inferior quality.

That brickbeard leg idea makes sense. I'm curious though as if perhaps my Tic-Tac Toe's were perhaps a bad batch. I ordered mine from S@H as my lego store still doesn't have them. So maybe other people who get TTT's can pull of an arm to verify.

Glow in the dark!!! Terrible, no they are not that bad, and it does look worse on the pic, but they are that different.

[Kaptein Rob]

thanks for the pics. if it turns out all TTT sets contains these cheap parts, I will stay away from the set.

I don't want megablox-lego

[David Thomsen]

Thanks for the info... I actually had no idea before now that Lego had different standards of minifig within their own product lines. I was thinking of getting the vintage minifig sets too, but this new information puts that possibility firmly in the 'no' category.

Of course, the people who refrain from buying these sets because of this information probably only counts for about 0.01% of potential sales... not enough to discourage the Lego company from releasing more inferior product in the future.

[Rick]

I'm not sure whether this is the right place to call for this, but is it worthwhile to let the ambassadors address the issue of inferior minifig parts with Lego? I'd really like to know the reasons for this direction* and a promise that this will be confined to certain sets. It would be totally unacceptable if these parts reach regular sets.

* I'm quite sure it has to do with the cheap manual labor involved in putting these minifigs together and the associated location of the factories. Apparently quality control is severely lacking at these locations. Furthermore, I simply cannot understand why minifigs in Battle Packs and Tic-Tac-Toe sets should be pre-assembled! It's mainly sold through S@H (and Lego stores) and I can't imagine it would make a difference whether they would sell these sets in packaging where you can see the assembled figs or in a closed box with the box art depicting the assembled contents.

[GIR 3691]

I just went to the LEGO store and didn't see this item, but I got the chrome Stormtrooper and some keychains, all of which had looser joints and those weird indents in the arms. All the sets I've gotten in the last few months have had regular minifigs, so I'm guessing it's just the non-set minifigs that are like this. The chrome minifig was really disappointing since they're charging $10 for it, and it uses these cheaper processes.

[andy0002]

your right! those ARENT regular lego people. they're "reissues". reissues are usually made of bad quality like that. i gto some in the "vintage minifigure pack" and, yeah, they have no neck box, numbers on their armpits, and the white space man was a lesser bright white than normal.

the only thing i dont completely agree with what you said is that the lego emblem on their neck is backwards. their not always in the same direction. some of mine point forward(front of torso out)

i suggest that if you dont like these figs, find some of your old arms and hands to switch with these! i know i have alot of random torsos i dont use anymore and alot of red arms.

[Svelte]

Furthermore, I simply cannot understand why minifigs in Battle Packs and Tic-Tac-Toe sets should be pre-assembled! It's mainly sold through S@H (and Lego stores) and I can't imagine it would make a difference whether they would sell these sets in packaging where you can see the assembled figs or in a closed box with the box art depicting the assembled contents.

I completely agree; I don't understand why they have to come pre-assembled and even glued when these are mainly exclusives or sold through brand stores where the consumer knows what Lego is (interchangeable blocks!) and what they're supposed to do (be stuck together!). It can only be a marketing angle, where the customer is lured in by 'seeing' all the minifigs straight up.

[Lordofdragonss]

This is very sad that Lego do this... I wish they had a quality like in 90'....

[Joey Lock]

Well I guess if your just using the Tic Tac Toe as a Army builder its pretty useful. Dispite the quality, You won't exactly see the detailing on a Collar if your looking at a army of 150 men will you?

"Hmm, instead of looking at my vast majority of troops parading, I think Im going to examine each and ever one of their uniforms, to make sure we look dashing when charging into battle!"

[Captain Cannon]

lego betrayed us all

[Keith Turner]

I spoke to customer services and complained about the colours of the dwarfs in the battle packs and they said that all minifgs comply with the same quality control and no one has told them of a problem. Well I have now and was offered a full refund, but I was asked to tell you all to contact lego direct and put in a complaint so that they can look into the problem. If enough people complain then they should do something about it.

[Lego_Warlord_8]

Oh wow, that must be why it has a price drop. It might not matter if the quality of the minifigs have gone down a step if your carefull not to damage your Lego. Even so, too bad. I sure hope this won't happen to all the minifigs. ~LW 8~

Well I guess if your just using the Tic Tac Toe as a Army builder its pretty useful. Dispite the quality, You won't exactly see the detailing on a Collar if your looking at a army of 150 men will you?

Very true. ~LW 8~

[Paul cantu]

I spoke to customer services and complained about the colours of the dwarfs in the battle packs and they said that all minifgs comply with the same quality control and no one has told them of a problem. Well I have now and was offered a full refund, but I was asked to tell you all to contact lego direct and put in a complaint so that they can look into the problem. If enough people complain then they should do something about it.

Great job! I am going to order the Tic Tac Toe and if there is a problem I will complain too. We need to fix the problem and the only way is to contact TLG.

[Callum]

Great job! I am going to order the Tic Tac Toe and if there is a problem I will complain too. We need to fix the problem and the only way is to contact TLG.

Out of all of the Magnet sets I purchased earlier in the year, I can confirm they are all showing print on the arms. Some colours are also somewhat transparent (especially the red ones)

I contacted lego customer services and got the "No one has told us there is anything wrong" line, but that was a few months back. Lego looks like TLG might have a communication issue.

How annoyed am I? Well, how annoyed would you be if you spent over 1000$ on sub-par figures.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Callum

[Apache]

Out of all of the Magnet sets I purchased earlier in the year, I can confirm they are all showing print on the arms. Some colours are also somewhat transparent (especially the red ones)

I contacted lego customer services and got the "No one has told us there is anything wrong" line, but that was a few months back. Lego looks like TLG might have a communication issue.

How annoyed am I? Well, how annoyed would you be if you spent over 1000$ on sub-par figures.

Wow, yeah I would be more angry if I had spent a $1000 on TTT sets, but I only spent a Franklin, so I was just kind of mad. The Soldier Torso's and hands are the worse...everything else isn't as bad, but definately different quality. I will have to contact lego and lodge a complaint. I wonder if someone who is in charge of the magnet, battle pack molds isn't doing their job, and LEGO headquarters really doesn't know about the quality or if they do and are lying. Very interested in whats going on.

[Bonaparte]

I'm reporting this to the LEGO Group right away via the ambassador program. Thanks for the report Apache.

[Apache]

Thank you, Bonaparte. I have been really thinking about the different material that they have been using, wondering why it's different? Cheaper perhaps? Wrong mixture? Different Ingrediants?.

And then I was sorting a bin of legos I bought off of craigslist and I saw a lemon yellow looking brick and pulled it out because it looked like the lemon like hands in the TTT set, and it is a megablock. I will try to post a picture of the TTT hands next to the lemon yellow megablock and old lego yellow.

[etcknight]

Went to the Lego Co brick-mortar store today and was looking in the "Make Your Own Figure" bins. I was saddened to see they are pawning off these "sub-standard" pieces to children and collectors here as well. We need to seriously start some sort of campaign or something that lets our Lego Ambassadors and the Lego Co know that none of its collectors (adults and children alike) want this sort of "sub-standard" quality product to become what Lego brand products are known for.

I have been a happy collector of Lego for over 30 years, but sadly if this is what Lego products are going to be in the future, I will have to stop collecting. Part of the appeal of Lego products is their longevity and durability. If this "sub-standard, Mega-blok" quality piece is the future - then Lego products will lose their appeal and longevity.

[Rick]

Went to the Lego Co brick-mortar store today and was looking in the "Make Your Own Figure" bins. I was saddened to see they are pawning off these "sub-standard" pieces to children and collectors here as well.

We need to seriously start some sort of campaign or something that lets our Lego Ambassadors and the Lego Co know that none of its collectors (adults and children alike) want this sort of "sub-standard" quality product to become what Lego brand products are known for.

Here and even...

I'm reporting this to the LEGO Group right away via the ambassador program. Thanks for the report Apache.

[Bonaparte]

The problem has been reported by myself and several other ambassadors. I've also added a subset of quotes from this thread to give them an idea of fans feelings about these quality issues. The LEGO Community team has reported the issue to LEGO Quality and is waiting for feedback.

[muffinman42]

you know the only diffrence ive found in my giant castle chess set is the number, the hands are the same, and the heads, they feel the same, the only diffrence is a number that probelly allows an assembly robot to recognise the piece (who would want a job putting minifigures together ), so really theres no big deal.

but seeing them in makr-your-own-fig is strange, they might be cheaper to counter the people who take about 4 minifigures and put them in a pick-a-brick pot and sorround them with bricks.