Finally LEGO!

[FireHawk302]

I just bought a Space Police set today, and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box.

The instructions were on the bottom of the box, with the part bags on top, giving some nice protection, but there's more, the sticker sheet was inside the pages of the instruction book! So thus everything was in perfect condition. So now you no longer have to worry about bad sticker sheets! I might have to grab another cheap set pretty soon to make sure this wasn't just a nice coincidence. Hopefully it's not.

[Legoliner Pilot]

It is a coincidence, I bought another City Corner yesterday and three stickers were missing, plus the instructions manual was severely mangled.

[FireHawk302]

Ah. That's too bad. But maybe there's a slim chance that you got a set that was in the store for awhile, and mine was a new shipment. I know, extremely unlikely, but one can still be hopeful.

[The Who]

The instructions were on the bottom of the box, with the part bags on top, giving some nice protection, but there's more, the sticker sheet was inside the pages of the instruction book!

I've found the stickers inside the instructions in some older sets, and some newer ones have everything all over the place, so I don't think that always happens on purpose.

I could be wrong, though.

[Legoliner Pilot]

Ah. That's too bad. But maybe there's a slim chance that you got a set that was in the store for awhile, and mine was a new shipment. I know, extremely unlikely, but one can still be hopeful.

It's no problem, really. I returned that sucker and got a fresh one for free.

Actually, when I bought my 8401 City Minifigure question in July from Legoland Carlsbad, the sticker sheet was safely packed inside the instruction manual.

Edited November 22, 2009 by Legoliner Pilot

[Torax]

This has never happened to me, and I frequently buy sets.

On the other side, I have never found a mangled instruction booklet or folded/destroyed sticker sheet.

I don't know what to think, maybe you were just lucky?

[Rick]

I haven't really had a terribly bad experience with sticker sheets and/or instruction manuals. No really 'hard' folds in any of them. Perhaps this is another reason to reach to the back of a shelf in a toy store - those boxes are less likely to be handled by kids ("mam, can i have this?" * heavily shaking the box *, "no, you can't, go put it back"... do that a couple of times et voila, you have your shaken about instruction manuals and stickers). In fact the worst condition sticker sheet I can remember is from a heavily worn box that I bought on discount.

[Big Cam]

I am almost positive that the sticker sheet just randomly found it's way into the instruction booklet, but it's nice to know these random happy events can still happen.

[ILikePi]

I think that all sets are packed like how you described you got your set, but it's the shipping and other factors that moves all the bags and booklets around, resulting in mangled instruction booklets or sticker sheets.

I have only bought one summer '09 set so far (the Separatist Shuttle), and it came with the worst instruction booklet that I got so far. It was curved like a wave diagonally (not damaged though).

[filip skywalker]

the sticker sheet was inside the pages of the instruction book!

This happened to me when I got the Ashokas starfighter and droids. I spent 5 minutes looking for it, getting more and more angry, until I saw it was stuck between the part inventory pages...

[Legoliner Pilot]

I think I might have the reason pinned down pretty darn well.

In the DK LEGO book, it says that part bags, instruction manuals, and sticker sheets travel down chutes to an attendant, where the finished boxes are moving along on a slow conveyor belt, and he/she puts all of the goodies in the box.

Now, if you have a nice employee, who actually cares about the quality of the sticker sheet and the instruction manual(s), he or she may neatly place the sticker sheet inside the snug and protective pages of the instruction manual(s), and then places it at the bottom of the box with the part poly bags on top.

If you have a bad employee who couldn't care less, then they just shove everything in the box and make sure it all fits.

I think that explains your situation pretty well.

[Luke McAwesome]

It is a coincidence, I bought another City Corner yesterday and three stickers were missing, plus the instructions manual was severely mangled.

I bought 7641 City Corner on the same day, and my sticker sheet was mangled, and missing one sticker, too.

But it seems to just be incredibly random.

Most of my sets are apparently made my the "nice employees".

[ILikePi]

That sounds like a plausible theory Legoliner Pilot, thanks for sharing.

Most of my sets are apparently made my the "nice employees".

The sets are made by "indifferent" employees, since they are robots!

You probably meant to say packed.

[Ricecracker]

Well I jus bought three 2010 sets, and have opened one. It had the sticker sheet tucked inside the instruction sheet. I'm guessing that Lego took notice of all the complaints made by fans, and instructed their employees in order to remedy the situation.

[Legoliner Pilot]

The sets are made by "indifferent" employees, since they are robots!

Well, the parts and boxes are manufactured, bagged, and organized by robots, but the content in the set box was put inside by an employee.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Legoliner Pilot

[Lord Admiral]

I've only ever had one sticker sheet problem from a really old set that I got at a heavy discount at KB Toys or something like that. For those who don't know, KB Toys, while it was still around, was like the toy outlet where all the unsold inventory from the bigger toy stores goes to be sold at a moderate to heavy discount. I used to find discontinued lines there all the time. They're gone now. But the set (I don't remember exactly which--I think it was one of the Dinosaur ones) was big, and the sticker sheet had a bad fold in it. Not that it concerned me, since I have a hatred for stickers...

Otherwise, I've never had trouble with the instruction booklet. They usually come folded in half, but they're never ripped and the pages aren't creased or otherwise mangled. Let's just say that more instruction booklets have been mangled by my hands than during transportation from factory to my house. The best booklets are from the huge UCS sets. Those are spiral bound, IIRC.