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When I assembled the new bought "Old Fishing Store, Item No: 21310-1" I noticed a very unusual imperfection of parts. On every one of the 43 tiles "1 x 8, reddish brown, Item No: 4162" I found scratches on both ends. Also the injection points I think are much more visible than normal. I contacted Lego and they sent me 43 new tiles. Great, but still the same mistake. I contacted them again and, Lego service being Lego service, again they sent me 43 new tiles. Great again, but still the same phenomena again. So I ended up with 86 additional bricks that I found not fitting to the Lego quality standards that I'm used to. There was also no explanation or comment from Lego service.

My question is what is causing this strange scratches? The appearance is not consistent. They are not straight and appear in different strength's and lengths.

enter image description here

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    I'm not sure, but I wouldn't contact lego again for replacements because it seems the mold is creating parts like that.
    – user9399
    Jan 6, 2018 at 12:33
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    Looks like something is wrong with one of their machines and it scratches up the surface. What I do find interesting though is that you keep getting scratched tiles even as replacements. While parts are moulded in several different factories (the ones we get in North America are mostly from Mexico), as far as I know, all replacement parts come from Billund, Denmark. So it's really odd that both the original parts and the replacement parts have the scratches. It seems to indicate that you somehow ended up with parts from the same factory made on the same machine.
    – TheBrickBlogger
    Jan 6, 2018 at 15:11
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    @Stephen. Actually, I was thinking the opposite, contact them again and see how many times they would send the same stuff or if they start to change the strategy, get into the case and send good bricks or react in another way. This are only some bricks with minor problems but sending the same damaged stuff twice means somewhere the internal process is flawed. I have no use for the tiles, sold the model anyway, but just out of curiosity.
    – fabian
    Jan 6, 2018 at 22:57
  • @TheBrickBlogger. Yep, I absolutely agree. I wonder if this also indicates that Lego is becoming victim of its own success and is starting to lose quality control. There are some videos online where you can see how they supposedly test the bricks in detail when starting a new batch. It is not easy to miss this obvious mistakes.
    – fabian
    Jan 6, 2018 at 22:58
  • Oh this is not good! I don't know why there scratches on the Lego tile, but I am sure you can exchange the tiles in the Lego community center!
    – CvJ Bricks
    Jan 15, 2018 at 14:49

1 Answer 1

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I have seen this happen with parts originating from older Lego part molds (dies) (like the 16L studded Technic beams in the 42009 Mk2 crane truck). My take is that the molds have been scratched during a maintenance operation but that the mold damage is still within tolerance for Lego.

Creating a new mold (die) is very expensive.

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    I have sent Lego another mail where I asked not for new damaged tiles, i have no use for them, but for a comment. will keep you posted
    – fabian
    Jan 8, 2018 at 14:29
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    they sent me 43 new tiles now the third times but still no answer and of cause still the same mistake. So for now I ended up with 129 additional bricks which I do not want to use. I am considering to do this 10 times more and open up a specialized BrickLink store.
    – fabian
    Mar 17, 2018 at 12:21
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    I found the same mistake in the Ship in the bottle.
    – fabian
    Mar 17, 2018 at 12:22
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    Since you now have so many spares, you can try polishing one see how difficult it is to remove the cosmetic flaws. Toothpaste will probably work, but I expect you'll end up with a matte finish. If you have access to very fine abrasives (or very fine wet sanding paper), you could also give them a go.
    – ShutterFreak
    Mar 26, 2019 at 9:26

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