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In article <I0AAo9.227G@lugnet.com>, "Mark Bellis" <mark.bellis@tiscali.co.uk>
wrote:
> I believe that over the years the tolerance has been widened, with the aim of
> reducing production cost.
Hmm. In the realm of tangential anecdotal evidence, I bought the Mini-Robots
(4097) set. I noticed that many of the 1x1 elements coming with the set, such as
cylinders, 1x1 bricks with technic holes, headlight bricks, etc seemed to be
having some problems.
Specifically, I find it hard to securly affix these elements to anything, because
they have a tendency to "pop" off. Making a stack of these elements is especially
unreliable because of this. On the other hand, the 1x1 bases for hinge control
sticks, when stuck on a stud, are painful to remove!
This is a new experience, buying childrens' toys is not a commonplace occurance
for me-- the only other exposure I have to lego is from the collection I amassed
as I child. These old parts did not have this problem.
For Mr. McKee to shrug these off as merely "perceived" is perhaps somewhat rash.
The precision of the human nervous system is great. If you have a person stick
their hand habitually into a tub of water of a certain temperature, and then have
them stick there hand in a tub slightly warmer or colder, they will immediately
and easily notice even a slight difference, and think it quite a dramatic one.
If people then are perceiving quality degredation, it is real. If anything, they
may be overstating the amount of degredation, but it's there nonetheless. These
people have handled these bits of plastic for many years both formative and
otherwise. They will notice anything changed and to shrug off their perception is
wishful thinking. Then they are asked to put the assuring words of another above
experiences of their own. Few modern empirical people will do so.
Perhaps costs are being cut. Some outrageous and melodramatic person might even
wonder if the very top of Lego has seen nigh the collapse of Lego Group, and in
the meantime is trying to extract profits by simple methods. Did they also happen
to find at cut rate prices a large consignment of gray dye, maybe of a slightly
bluish tint? Did they perhaps find that click hinges could be manufactured more
cheaply than three pronged hinge? Is this the shocking explanation for the
seemingly inexplicable phenomena seen of late? Perhaps Oliver Stone will make a
picture about it. :)
SD
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Quality issue - update
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| (...) For storage I stack my 2x3 plates with 3 studs along one edge overlapping. There is a 3mm difference in height between two stacks of 38 2x3 plates. This is within the tolerance you quoted of 3.2mm +/-0.1mm, since 3mm/38 = 0.0789mm per plate. I (...) (20 years ago, 3-Jul-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.color, lugnet.general, FTX)
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