40085: LEGO Valentine Quality

andrewqwy · March 2014

Hi guys,

I just want to share something with the community. Recently, I bought 40085: LEGO Valentine for my daughter (like a month ago). We finished building the set together and the bear has been sitting on my table since. Today, when my wife took a closer look at the bear, she noticed some of the parts have developed cracks! Some of the 1 x 1 slope bricks have developed a "hairline fracture" right down the middle of the part itself. If I applied strength to it, I could easily break the part in 2. And mind you, this is not just isolated to a single colour. Other colours of the same parts have the same problem.

I don't know about you guys but since I started my LEGO hobby in 1997, I have never encountered something like this. It's very disturbing and worrying that something like this could happen. Makes you wonder if you'll get more cracked parts in future LEGO sets you buy. I really hope this is an isolated case but you'll never know. It's better to be safe than sorry.

theLEGOman · March 2014

I noticed some of my old technic sets (mid 90's) have really fragile fasteners like the thin round 1x1 the thickness of a plate and also the 1 x 1 x 1 fasteners. Also all my pneumatic stuff doesn't work either, it seems to have failed not being used over the years, real shame.

TheLoneTensor · March 2014

You're not alone. I have a number of cheese slopes doing that, plus pieces like http://brickset.com/parts/609101 (which are in that bear, you might want to check them too).

andrewqwy · March 2014

Not sure what happened to the photos I posted before, but here are the photos again:

andhe · March 2014

I think it's a general problem with that 1x1 slope piece. I have a number that have developed cracks.

Aleydita · March 2014

You should contact TLG for replacements. If enough people do this every time one of those pieces suffers a crack, they'll eventually do something about improving the moulds.

cheshirecat · March 2014

andrewqwy said:

.... It's very disturbing and worrying that something like this could happen.

Not really - I don't think I'm very disturbed by it. To be honest i'm more disturbed by many things - the proliferation and easy availability of porn on the internet and its impact on how relationships are viewed by my children's generation for example? The seeming lack of the Wests ability to prevent Russia from flexing its muscles in Eastern Europe and lack of any obvious and calm way to back out of a spiralling international situation perhaps? Where the hell did that plane go? A few cracked Lego bricks? Not quite as disturbing to me.

andrewqwy said:

.... It's better to be safe than sorry.

It is - I always wear a seat belt when driving and a helmet when on my bike. I make my kids do the same. Not sure how it applies to a cracked piece of LEGO though?

Sorry for my snarky comments, but seriously just contact customer services (if they're contactable yet) and they'll send you replacements. Cheese wedges are susceptible to cracks, I suspect because they are often snapped on from an angle rather than more vertically, increasing stress as the walls stretch over the underlying stud.

andrewqwy · March 2014

cheshirecat said:

Sorry for my snarky comments.

No worries. Comments are always welcomed. I am in the process of contacting LEGO's customer services, hopefully I'll get a reply soon. Thanks to everyone for the advice!

TheLoneTensor · March 2014

Heh, talk about illuminating what really matters (and a little heavy, sheesh). It's like watching the new Cosmos, in the "Cosmic Calendar Year," all of written human history is encompassed in the last 14 seconds, with modern science being within merely the last second. The one thing most of us fail to understand is our own absolute insignificance.

So anyway, I still give a crap about my splitting cheese slopes.

40085: LEGO Valentine Quality

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