Minifig Quality

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DarthPaka
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Minifig Quality

Post by DarthPaka » Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:21 am

Has anyone else noticed a lack of quality in new minifigs? I recently bought 2 new star wars sets and the arms on all figs in both sets were cracked!! Customer service sent me replacements after I supplied proof of purchase via a code on the back of the instructions. But Ive noticed the same defect of figs ordered thru Bricklink, and I dont think Lego would do replacements for those. Seems to be a cheaper plastic or something, Ive got minifigs from the 80s that are still in perfect condition.

Anyone else noticed this?

lego the hutt
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Re: Minifig Quality

Post by lego the hutt » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:55 am

I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Where do you live? Is it a very humid, or lack there of, climate?

That being said, comparing bricks from the 80s to bricks from the last 10 or 15ish years are quite different.

DarthPaka
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Re: Minifig Quality

Post by DarthPaka » Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:12 am

I live in Red Deer AB, but my figs havent been exposed to the elements, unless it happened before purchase.

lego the hutt
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Re: Minifig Quality

Post by lego the hutt » Tue Dec 15, 2015 8:28 pm

Take this all with a grain of salt, I am not an expert and I only know the little I have read and what I have seen where I live. It rains a lot and rarely snows here. The temperature is generally mild.

Humidity and being exposed to the elements isn't really the same.

From what I have read in the past, 55% humidity is the number you want to shoot for as far as storing collectibles...though it seems to me that a little higher humidity would be better than lower humidity since we are talking about abs plastic specifically in this case. A little bit of extra moisture shouldn't hurt to much I wouldn't think but drying out seems like it could lead to cracking. You are never going to keep it exact (i do use a dehumidifier...I live in the Pacific NW). I'm guessing that extreme fluctuations might affect things a lot more than just high or low humidity in general.

This kind of thing is usually discussed more pertaining to higher end collectibles.

Once again, I'm no expert, but a quick search does seem to show that your area has a very high variance in humidity. It ranges from a low of 25% humidity to a high of 100% humidity in the last 3 months. Here is some info:
http://reddeer.weatherstats.ca/metrics/ ... idity.html

Could this be the reason why you are seeing cracking? I give it a definite maybe. It is something to consider.

DarthPaka
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Re: Minifig Quality

Post by DarthPaka » Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:17 pm

Could be, but ive noticed this in figs when I lived in the pacific northwest too. Like all of us, ive got a huge collection, so if its the humidity or lack there of then I should be seeing this in more of my figs. I got the replacements today in the mail from Lego, and the letter that came with it basically says "it happens". At least they replaced them.

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Re: Minifig Quality

Post by lego the hutt » Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:35 am

yep, that's all that matters.

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