DISplay is worse than play?!

Fizyx

SumoLego said:

Jelly comes from plants!?!?!

Well yeah, how else you gunna get grapes for jelly?

SumoLego

I don't think I'm ready for that jelly.

Ankhros

I've seen a few of the kids' Legos crack when they've made swords out of them and fought with them, and I've also seen minifigures crack where arm joints meet the torso. I know cheap plastic gets brittle. It's disappointing to see that Legos have gotten more cheaply made over time. I've come to associate Lego with quality.

But I'm a bit neurotic about my Legos. I don't keep springs compressed because I know that over time, they'll lose their sproinginess. I don't like the idea of keeping sets on display for extended periods of time because they stick together due to elasticity that will diminish over time if left stretched even the tiny bit that they're stretched when two pieces are connected. If I was going to keep something build permanently, I'd just use the dreaded Kragle.

willobee498

I think expecting bricks to survive a sword fight is a bit beyond "high quality," all the way up to "why aren't these invincible?!"

CathyVT

bluedragon said:

I am in NY. Had the same Groot issue and a bunch of 1x1 dark red tiles from Fire Brigade break ...

monkeyhanger said:
Even with the supposedly highly brittle reddish brown bricks or 1 stud cheese slopes,...

I'm glad to hear other people have had problems with reddish brown and dark red. Makes my situation feel less like the Twilight Zone. I splurged and bought a new-in-box 10193 Medieval Market Village. I started putting it together and several of the small brown windows (4542131) started cracking, one after another (7 out of 17). Serious cracks, like whole sides coming off entirely. Then reddish brown 1x2 plates (4 of 18). Then the arches (11 of 17 cracked). 4 of 17 rounded 1x2 bricks (4211180); all 7 1x1x7 bricks; 2 of 12 2x1x1 slopes. I thought that was it, then I had some dark red pieces crack - 5 of 10 4162206 and 1 of 1 1x2 dark red plate. 

So, 41 cracked pieces. All reddish brown or dark red. All have a footprint of 1x1 or 1x2. It's absolutely bizarre. I've never before (and I've been playing with Lego for most of my 44 years, and have some sets from the 80's I still play with) experienced this kind of cracking, where you fear putting a piece on, and you're listening for the sickening "crack" instead of the satisfying "snap". 

I just started a chat with Lego. I know it's hard to believe what happened but I hope they do.

CCC

CathyVT said:

I just started a chat with Lego. I know it's hard to believe what happened but I hope they do.

If they don't believe you, tell them you will send photos. Ask them for an email address and they will give you a number to include to link it to your chat case.

CathyVT

Any chance they'll believe me but say it's an old set and I didn't buy it from them, so they won't replace? Replacing them myself wouldn't be insanely expensive considering the cost of the set, but I'm also hoping they might move it to the front of the line - there's a month backlog on piece orders right now.

The chat now button lit up but when I clicked on it, it said no one available, so I'll wait. 

A bad week for breakage - I also had a tree damage my car in a windstorm, and I'm waiting for the insurance claims adjuster to call me back...

CathyVT

They said, "Since this is something that was purchased through a third party we would have to charge for replacement parts however we are happy to help replace them if we have them in stock!"

But then I pushed back just a little, and said when I had a piece crack once before, I wasn't asked where I bought it, and it was new in the box, and I heard maybe there was a known issue with reddish brown and dark red, and she said OK, normally we'd charge but this time we can replace for free. Whew.

Oh, and she asked for the seal codes. Weird - I've got different seal codes on the two ends of the box - 47 S1 and 29 R2. Two different codes? The 2nd one, there are two clear tapes/seals one on top of the other, and I can't tell if the number is on the top seal or the bottom seal. Why would there be two different codes?

Astrobricks

^ Those codes are suspicious. S is supposedly Czech Republic and R is Mexico. 

Ankhros

willobee498 said:

I think expecting bricks to survive a sword fight is a bit beyond "high quality," all the way up to "why aren't these invincible?!"

Yeah, I don't think there's any plastic that would survive a sword fight between my boys. They get very into it. Maybe they need real swords instead.