LEGO Missing Pieces Rant

[markwo]

I bought two LEGO sets this week, the Fire Brigade (my first modular house) and the Winter Toy Shop (my first Winter Village set).

The sets arrive Wednesday and I begin putting together the Fire Brigade. I start building the fire truck and quickly realize (on step three or four) that I am missing some 1x2 flat pieces and cannot proceed. I start building the first floor of the fire house and again run into missing pieces. I give up on that and start building the second floor, which I almost finish before running into missing pieces.

The tape on the box was loose, and had bits of fabric and dirt stuck to it, so I figured maybe the box popped open in the warehouse and a bag fell out. No big deal, I'll have Amazon send me another one.

The replacement set arrives last night, well sealed and is missing the same pieces as the first set.

Oh well, I guess there's just a problem with this run of the fire brigade. At least I can build the Winter Toy Shop, right?

I bring it to a family gathering for a group activity and we gather around the dining table and start to build. We build the large tree, the minifigs, the bench and lamppost, etc.

When we start on the house we quickly find that we are again missing pieces (1x2 flats) and have to abort the build. Instead, the activity turns to leafing through the instruction manual to find out what remaining pieces are used, and via process of elimination, what other pieces are missing. It seems that I may have gotten an extra bag of parts in place of the missing bag of parts, as there are more leftover pieces than is typical.

I understand that accidents happen, but three sets in a row?

Has anyone else ever had this kind of luck?

Sorry for the rant, and have a Merry Christmas!

[Legobrandon]

It is normal to have one or two parts missing from a set, but three in a row? I bet some one bought it, opened it, took at his favourite parts, and then returned it. You must contact LEGO Customaer service, they will definatley solve your problem. Just explain your problem to them and they will be able to assist you from there on.

[Brickbuilder0937]

Most of the pieces that I think are missing turn out to be either still in the plastic bags, hidden under other pieces or I'm looking for the wrong color piece. Only 2-3% of the sets I build actually have missing/broken parts so finding three in a row is really bad.

[markwo]

Most of the pieces that I think are missing turn out to be either still in the plastic bags, hidden under other pieces or I'm looking for the wrong color piece. Only 2-3% of the sets I build actually have missing/broken parts so finding three in a row is really bad.

That happens a lot to me too, so I took extra care (and significant time) going through everything to be sure that the pieces were really missing.

I will say that over the twenty five or so years I've been building LEGO, these are the first instances of missing bricks that I remember. Maybe it's just my turn.

[dr_spock]

I did a review of Fire Brigade a few months ago.

http://www.toysnbricks.com/forums/viewt ... =35&t=3877" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a pics of all the bags. Do you have the same number of bags?

Come to think of it, I think I had trouble with a couple of tiny pieces too. I thought my cats got to them overnight. I used a couple of spares from my parts collection.

[loporjai2003]

What batch number were the 2 FB sets?
You can tell by the #'s ie: 39R1 on the tape that sealed the flaps.

I recall reading a bad run of FB that had 39R1 batch:

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion ... g-parts/p1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best to call LEGO customer service and let them know, could be another bad batch since 2 in row had it.
Post what batch # so people can check theirs too and maybe call in and get replacements, especially for those holding MISB one's!

[pterribilis]

I've never had a missing piece. There were a few times I thought I did but I re-checked the bags and they were inside in a crevice or crease.

[Shijima]

Ive had a few missing pieces, but its usually something major for me, like a missing Sail off the Troll Warship a few years back. The others I usually think its missing and later find it under pieces or used it incorrectly in the set earlier on in the build.

[legogod]

I've had the sweats early on for some sets too. It has to do with the black/dark gray/gray/ dark blue/ hell anything dark. I've held the instructions up to the light, asked other family members what color they thought it was. Most recent was the Winter Village sets and their trans colored orange, red and yellow. On the instructions the colors are very similar. It's frustrating.

I've also misused a piece and backtracked. "I know what that is'" I'll tell myself and place the brick I think it is without looking for seams or checking the parts list. Then later on I'll need a 1x6 and only have 2 1x3s left. Something like that-user error. Ashamed to say it.

Shijima-How did the sail replacement go? That's an odd piece to forget.
Markwo-Really sorry to hear there was a bad batch of sets from Lego. Hopefully they'll do right by you.

Jared

[Shijima]

It went fine, I thought it was really odd as well, my guess is since the sails weren't bagged in the box it must have come out the end? Or I got a returned set unknowingly.

All my lego customer service interactions have been smooth. The only exception being I have a severely misprinted tie pilot helmet that was replaced with a slightly less misprinted one, I think its a problem with he printer since my Sw advent calendar tie pilots helm is off as well.

[markwo]

Both of the fire brigade sets were labelled 39R1 on the tape sealing the box. I had already thrown away the bags for the first set, but the second set had 19 bags - 10 labeled "1" and 9 labeled "2."

I ended up just returning all three sets to Amazon. I'm sure LEGO would have sent me the missing pieces, but somehow I've kind of lost interest in finishing these sets.

[wintersun]

The first (new) set I build was missing a piece. (7639: Camper). I'm bit disappointed since it's my first new set in like 15 years :)

I hope I can find a replacement in my collection

[loporjai2003]

Both of the fire brigade sets were labelled 39R1 on the tape sealing the box. I had already thrown away the bags for the first set, but the second set had 19 bags - 10 labeled "1" and 9 labeled "2."

I ended up just returning all three sets to Amazon. I'm sure LEGO would have sent me the missing pieces, but somehow I've kind of lost interest in finishing these sets.

So it was the 39R1's, I am surprised a recall was not done to LEGO can correct them, especially ones sent to 3rd party sellers. From what I read, call LEGO, they will send you the bags or a new one, and pay for your shipping back of the old one.

[sadowsk1]

It sucks to be short some pieces for sure. It's nice that Lego is good about sending spare parts to replace missing ones so quickly and usually no questions asked.

[slacker]

Markwo: FB is a great set so don't give up. I noticed when I built Petshop that they substituted other colored parts or longer parts. It is a turnoff but atleast you can finish the sets. I'mback from the DA for 2 years now. I've had about 3 sets that were missing parts. Mostly the larger sets. I'm lucky enough to have a Lego store 10 minutes from me and 2-3 more within 30-60 minutes. The good thing is that Lego does a great job sending you missing pieces.

[ENeuman600]

It really odd about that we received lego star wars UCS Super Destroyer 10221 that at first thought it was short missing pieces so I had report missing piece for replacement through Lego which total of 17 pieces parts total of around 150 pieces missing then finally receive replacement pieces and then build it and Notice other piece was to so many pieces I did not check the bags to be verified sound like they put extra bags for other piece but not the piece I need. I seems that TLG headquarter did not pay attention to proper bags in the boxes.

That really interesting that we got about 80 pieces extra in last box number 3.