Review: 75967 Forbidden Forest: Umbridge's Encounter
Posted by CapnRex101,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was only represented by one set within the original Harry Potter range. Many new sets accordingly focus upon scenes which have previously been absent. These include 75967 Forbidden Forest: Umbridge's Encounter.
Several important characters therefore appear exclusively here, including Grawp and the enigmatic Centaurs dwelling within the Forbidden Forest. These figures seem impressive and I am particularly pleased to see another enlarged minifigure here, following examples that have appeared in Marvel and DC Super Heroes sets.
Minifigures
Numerous minifigures depicting Harry Potter are available. This example is shared with 75980 Attack on the Burrow and the torso originates from the Jurassic World theme. Even so, the light bluish grey jacket and dark red shirt appear remarkably faithful to the movie and the tousled hair piece looks superb as well, reflecting Harry's updated hairstyle.
Hermione Granger does incorporate an exclusive torso component that corresponds precisely with the source material, featuring several colourful stripes across her grey jumper. The reddish brown hair piece also seems appropriate and has only appeared in this colour once before, with 75947 Hagrid's Hut: Buckbeak's Rescue during 2019.
Both characters include double-sided heads which display smiling and determined expressions, returning from earlier sets. They are also equipped with their respective wands for travelling into the Forbidden Forest so Harry carries his dark brown holly wand while Hermione wields her dark tan vine wand, as usual.
5005254 Harry Potter Minifigure Collection offered an impressive Professor Dolores Umbridge minifigure and another version appears here. The reddish brown hair piece and smiling face are both unchanged from the 2018 figure, although the alternative expression now appears terrified to reflect the movie. However, the insincere smile remains my favourite aspect of this minifigure, perfectly encapsulating Umbridge's cruel personality.
The pink clothing has also been altered so matches Umbridge's onscreen visit to the Forbidden Forest, contrasting with her brighter indoor attire. I love the metallic gold brooch and bow on her jacket as well as the subtle woollen texture. Moreover, the dual-moulded legs look excellent and bright pink shoes are printed on her feet, completing an outstanding minifigure.
However, the new Centaurs have probably elicited the greatest excitement from Harry Potter fans and these woodland creatures are definitely worthy of such attention. The dual-moulded legs and body component looks superb. This piece is significantly smaller than standard LEGO horses but includes similar shaping and the dark tan tail is exceptionally effective.
Unfortunately, these characters share the same torso and head which is slightly disappointing for army building. The facial expressions look good though, displaying the unfriendly emotions traditionally associated with Centaurs from the Wizarding World. Moreover, I like the black hair pieces that were originally created for Dumbledore but have not been produced in black before.
The Completed Model
76051 Super Hero Airport Battle introduced an enlarged brick-built minifigure that represented Giant Man and another example appeared in 76075 Wonder Woman Warrior Battle. Grawp is the newest addition to this varied selection of characters and choosing to depict Hagrid's half-brother using these construction techniques was ingenious, based upon his onscreen scale.
The figure measures 13cm in height which seems reasonably accurate beside minifigures, as demonstrated below. The articulation is satisfying as well, loosely corresponding with standard minifigures as the legs are attached using Technic pins and the head can rotate. Grawp's arms incorporate ball joints at each shoulder, allowing them to move outwards, while the hands twist like those on traditional minifigures.
Corresponding with earlier figures, Grawp's face is formed using a printed 2x4x2 half cylinder component. His facial expression looks fantastic when compared with the movie and I like the upturned nose, even though noses only rarely appear on LEGO minifigures. Ears are similarly uncommon but 1x1 bows have been employed to good effect here.
Various tooth elements and textured rock pieces have been combined to form unkempt hair. This design is relatively successful in my opinion, especially when viewed from behind where separate layers appear wholly natural. Unfortunately, there is a gap that becomes visible from the front and I think that should have been improved as it does seem awkward.
Grawp wears a reddish brown vest which has been replicated nicely, appropriately integrating two stickers that show where damage has been repaired. Another sticker represents chest hair but my favourite detail on the torso is certainly Grawp's belly button, formed using a 1x2 jumper plate! The accompanying car bonnet element also looks great, capturing the giant's portly figure.
The arms are connected using ball joints, enabling reasonable articulation in conjunction with rotating hands. The light bluish grey shoulder joints stand out against the surrounding tan parts and matching colours would have been ideal, although some pieces are only available in limited shades to ensure consistent quality. The same issue affected Giant Man and Ares but this figure differs from its predecessors as the Technic hands have been replaced with those from bigfigs.
Reddish brown clothing continues across Grawp's legs, incorporating two additional stickers. These designs appear suitably ragged but cannot easily be integrated with the reddish brown pieces as the stickers do not completely fill the 2x3 tiles underneath. The resulting gaps seem somewhat disappointing and I think using reddish brown 2x2 tiles and smaller stickers on 1x2 tiles above the feet would have been more successful.
However, the most significant weakness of this figure, along with past models, is definitely its appearance from behind. The exposed undersides of plates and enormous gaps surrounding the torso should have been concealed, preferably using inverted tiles. Admittedly, the voids in the torso are required to accommodate the arms, although I think their size and visibility could have been reduced.
Grawp resides within the Forbidden Forest and a tree is accordingly included. This design is comparatively similar to earlier structures and includes a specialised 3x3x5 trunk component which has been integrated nicely. The reddish brown, dark brown and dark tan colour scheme looks good, resembling the tree from 75950 Aragog's Lair, but my favourite details are definitely the bright red mushrooms.
These mushrooms lack printing which is disappointing but I love how sand green sausages create their curved stalks. Moreover, the liberal distribution of green foliage elements is very appealing and the uneven structure of the base provides an appropriate effect, capturing the overgrown wilderness of the Forbidden Forest. A spider is included too, again corresponding with 75950 Aragog's Lair from 2018.
Generous storage space is available inside the tree and can be accessed with ease. Several accessories are found here, including a chicken leg, a bone and a lantern. However, the most notable item is Grawp's bicycle handlebars and the accompanying golden bell which assists in developing particular trust between Grawp and Hermione during the film.
Overall
75967 Forbidden Forest: Umbridge's Encounter contains an outstanding collection of unique characters and is undoubtedly a worthy addition to the Harry Potter theme. Grawp looks very faithful to his movie counterpart and I like the previous enlarged minifigures so am pleased to see another such figure here. However, substantial potential for improvement remains across his back.
The minifigures are similarly impressive, closely resembling their respective source materials. The new Centaurs seem likely to become particularly popular and this depiction of Professor Umbridge looks marvellous too. Additionally, I think the price of £24.99 or $29.99 represents acceptable value, maintaining the standard established by past Harry Potter sets.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
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45 comments on this article
Bummer about the back view! I've never purchased a set with a "giant Minifigure," but I think the other Minifigures alone are worth the purchase. Lovely review, I can't wait for the others—thanks. :)
I love that they’re sticking th that sort of brick built figure design, I feel like it could be used for a lot of things. I do think they should start putting plates on their backs though.
All I see are Centaurs, Centaurs and Centaurs!!!!! Oh, and some city minifigs. And an ugly big-fig. And did I mentioned Centaurs!?!?!?!?!?!?! So excited excluding the pricetag that is 37,99€ in lego.com where I live :-(
Is that really what Hermione's hair looks like from the back?
I don't yet own a big LEGO minifigure but the back is always a problem.
Edit: but I love them.
Lets face it, this is an ugly set with 2 great centaurs
-tree: ugly build
-big fig: words cannot describe how bad this one is.
-harry and hermoine: meh
-centaurs: NEED TO HAVE!!
Also, stop using this: -"although some pieces are only available in limited shades to ensure consistent quality." - as an excuse for LEGO-laziness...
Fact(?): Weren't Harry's and Hermione's wands confiscated in Umbridge's office before the three left for the forbidden forest?
They got them back when they met with the rest of the the Order on the bridge (in the movie).
@Tuun - Suggesting that certain elements are only produced in particular colours because they require unusually strict tolerances, including the ball joints, is not an excuse, it is a fact!
Of course, I would love for LEGO to improve their production so those restrictions would no longer be necessary but limitations must be acknowledged currently.
@CapnRex101 said:
" @Tuun - Suggesting that certain elements are only produced in particular colours because they require unusually strict tolerances, including the ball joints, is not an excuse, it is a fact!
Of course, I would love for LEGO to improve their production so those restrictions would no longer be necessary but limitations must be acknowledged currently."
It seems odd that the color of the parts would have an effect on tolerances, especially given that Bionicle ball joints were made in at least 16 different colors.
While I love HP sets, this to me is the weakest of the current wave. Great Centaurs though.
And re: "Is there a article about this? I would be interested to read about this in detail"
Me too. I don't believe LEGO claims on anything regarding quality anymore. Have been burned too many times recently.
Why should the colour have anything to do with it? As long as they use the same ABS or whatever plastic, there should be no difference.
@datsunrobbie said:
"It seems odd that the color of the parts would have an effect on tolerances, especially given that Bionicle ball joints were made in at least 16 different colors. "
Weren't the green ones infamous for snapping (at least in later models)?
I realized recently just how many trees there are in this theme. Nearly every set on the lower end of the price range includes a tree build. It feels like they're determined to give us a full fledged Forbidden Forest, one or two trees at a time. :p
@Robot99 said:
" @datsunrobbie said:
"It seems odd that the color of the parts would have an effect on tolerances, especially given that Bionicle ball joints were made in at least 16 different colors. "
Weren't the green ones infamous for snapping (at least in later models)?"
I really don't know. I only started building a lot of Bionicle and Hero Factory just in the last couple of months, all getting pulled from a half dozen 55 liter tubs of mixed parts. I've assembled around 100 sets, and so far no broken ball joints/sockets.
I like this set I've even ordered parts from this set from bricks n pieces this week just to make my forest scene bigger,
I hope there is an updated Diagon alley and rescue from the meur people soon,
And I wouldn't say no to Hagrids motorcycle as a set!!
@Klinton77 said:
"I realized recently just how many trees there are in this theme. Nearly every set on the lower end of the price range includes a tree build. It feels like they're determined to give us a full fledged Forbidden Forest, one or two trees at a time. :p"
Perhaps the set designers are fans of Bob Ross.
Happy little trees indeed... :-)
Set looks drab and the big figure looks terrible.
@AustinPowers said:
"While I love HP sets, this to me is the weakest of the current wave. Great Centaurs though.
And re: "Is there a article about this? I would be interested to read about this in detail"
Me too. I don't believe LEGO claims on anything regarding quality anymore. Have been burned too many times recently.
Why should the colour have anything to do with it? As long as they use the same ABS or whatever plastic, there should be no difference. "
The colorant in the plastic does have quite an impact on the properties of the material. This is because some colors need a very high loading of the colorant in order for it to look brilliant. For example red, oranges, browns, greens. Grays however need very little colorant. A high loading of colorant can also affect the shrink rate as the plastic cools, therefore tolerances can be off. I don’t know the history of Bionicle, but it is possible they could have had multiple molds to produce the joints, which compensate for the change in shrink rate.
@Robot99 said:
"Weren't the green ones infamous for snapping (at least in later models)?"
The lime ones in 2007, yeah: Ehlek, Lessovikk and Hahli Mahri all had that problem. I heard it continued into 2008, too, despite the introduction of a modified mould specifically to counter that issue, but I never had a problem with the 2008 ones personally.
--
As for this set... I'm sorry, I can't like it. Grawp's scenes in the movie felt incredibly uncomfortable to me, though I can't place a finger on exactly why. That said, I do get the appeal of these oversized minifigures; they're a neat concept for making large characters, without needing to rely on custom moulds, and - aside from the obvious - look quite effective as the minifigure's large cousins. I'm just... biased against the particular character xD;
(To be fair, I'm usually pretty good about book-to-movie changes; I know movies have different requirements, more limited length, and what works in print doesn't always translate well. Phoenix is just... something of an exception for me, being my favourite Harry Potter book (but not one of my favourite of the movies!))
@AustinPowers said:
"While I love HP sets, this to me is the weakest of the current wave. Great Centaurs though.
And re: "Is there a article about this? I would be interested to read about this in detail"
Me too. I don't believe LEGO claims on anything regarding quality anymore. Have been burned too many times recently.
Why should the colour have anything to do with it? As long as they use the same ABS or whatever plastic, there should be no difference. "
@Antoine_23 From a different manufacturer, but same basic principles
https://www.rodongroup.com/blog/how-plastic-resins-get-their-color
Check out the Impact of Colorants on Plastic Characteristics section
Thanks for the heads up. I admit I don't quite understand the details. I thought the pellets were already coloured to begin with. Why the need for colorants? I think the older process was far better quality-wise. The new is just there to save money.
I love those giant figs but I don't understand why every new addition is a step back from the previous one when they completely nailed the design on the first try with Ant-Man. The visible anti studs don't bother me but the shape is wrong. On Ant-Man, they used wedge plates instead of the 1x4 plates and that made all the difference (Ant-Man also had too grilled 1x2 slopes on the sides to fill in the gap). It's the first thing I changed on Ares.
They did put them back on the giant stone warrior from the remake of Cole's Earth Driller so I thought they would on this one too. I really don't understand why they didn't :(
Technically, Giant-Man didn't have the same issue with the Mixel joints. Marvel/Disney made them produce the lone standout in dark-bley, which to date remains the sole original Mixel joint that has been produced in more than one color. Also, Hermione looks like her hair was teased...by a Van de Graaff generator.
@Tuun:
No, he's serious. The Mixel joints have such a tight fit that the color used in the plastic reportedly affects how tight or loose the ball joint will be. They reportedly required a significant increase in stress testing, which they only did for the two bleys. Making them in any random color could reportedly require a new ever-so-slightly different mold to be cut just to achieve the exact same level of tension in the ball joint. And there's always the risk that any additional color could produce a slightly weaker ball joint that could crack over time.
@datsunrobbie:
And it's not like Bionicle ball joints have ever broken...
@Antoine_23:
I know I read a pretty in-depth explanation of what was involved on an AFOL site, but I don't believe it was here. And I'm pretty sure it was in the comment section, not an actual article.
@AustinPowers:
Have you ever wondered how they make ABS different colors? I know a few, but two of them are obsolete. Black doesn't fade in the sun because they use carbon, which is also capable of overpowering any other color that might have been recycled into it. OSHA Safety Yellow and Safety Orange used to be achieved, by some plastic producers, with cadmium-based pigments. Those are dirt cheap, but pretty nasty for the environment, so about 20 years ago the US banned their use. One supplier we worked with on a periodic basis at my last job produced orange plastic that smelled like oranges when it was heated, which was really weird (seriously, it was like sticking your nose in a bottle of orange juice). We offered "FDA white", which was approved for use in food production. Natural ABS is a creamy tan color, so the white pigment had to overpower that. So, two things at issue here are what exactly did they use to achieve that color, and how much of the "plastic" is actual plastic vs color additives. Two colors made using the same dye are bound to have different strengths if one is light (using minimal dye) and the other is really dark (supersaturated with dye). Finally, one more issue is recycled plastic. Regrinding your scrap and adding it back into the next batch of plastic is cost effective, and better for the environment. It also shortens the polymer chains, which makes it easier to form some parts (small polymer chains flow better, especially in injection molding), but inherently weakens the final result.
@legoavenger14:
Now _that_ is going to be difficult. They have motorcycles. They have Hagrids. They don't have a motorcycle that Hagrid can actually sit on. I ended up making my own, using Wolverine's motorcycle, and an actual minifig of Hagrid that I whipped up using all stock parts. The sidecar is still the wrong color (originally dark-bley, then rebuilt in primary blue when the Joker balloon set came out, but it should be medium-blue), and only accommodates Harry from the torso up. But all the HP fans love it when the spot it on our layouts.
@STL_Brick_Co:
I don't believe they did. The original ball socket, from the Throwbots, was produced in 30 different colors, including three transparent colors! The parts were bigger, and the sockets were a bit more robust, where the Mixel joints are really pushing the limits of the material.
I don't collect Harry Potter, but I want this for the Centaurs and the tree. I do wish it used the printed mushroom piece though. I still don't have any of those :/
Red dye always been the most expensive as it's much less potent, and costs more to produce, compared to blue, not just in plastic, but historically , red ceramic tiles and paint were/are more expensive .
Also note that Dark Red and Reddish Brown LEGO parts have had issues of becoming brittle, so colors have mattered for strength in the past.
While I'm not an expert, but I remember at least from Bob Ross that different colors of paint have different potency, like blue is much stronger compared to red if you want a purple color you certainly need a lot less blue compared to red most of the time.
I assume the different pigments used in LEGO have different physical and chemical properties.
So LEGO using the same color for "mixel" joints keeps the consistency.
Wouldn't surprise me if they still used pre-colored pellets for those specific parts.
Also another color change LEGO seemed to have more recently is their transparent parts seem a bit more milky/frosty compared to the past, and might scratch a bit easier.
@AustinPowers:
You can go to a bakery and buy a cake, or you can go to a grocery store and buy the ingredients to make your own. They're both going to be cakes. Pre-colored pellets aren't magically different colors. Someone created natural ABS and added the color before turning it into little pellets. Alternately, they can just produce natural ABS without the color, and the dyes can be mixed with the ABS pellets as they're melting and being churned up inside the injection molding machine. While the color consistency may be better on the pre-colored stuff (if it's too out of whack, they can probably reject it and ask for a new batch), it doesn't really matter when the dye is added as long as the same dyes are used to achieve the same colors.
I don't remember exactly when they switched from pre-colored to in-line coloring, but I believe it's been at least a decade under the new system. Yes, it absolutely is cost-driven. Remember back when they made the Maersk Sealand, they announced that it would be the very last Maersk set they produced, because they were running out of Maersk-blue pellets? Maersk hadn't shown any interest in ordering more sets going forward, and there was no way they were going to buy another batch of that color if the one customer they used it for didn't want it. In-line coloring bypasses that whole problem. You buy _one_ type of ABS, you buy _one_ type of polycarbonate, and then you just stock all your color additives. Some of those may be used in multiple different production colors. You no longer have to warehouse a rainbow of different pellets. You're no longer sitting on literal tons of raw materials that you just don't have any current use for. By reducing everything down to uncolored plastic, all you have to do is track when they were received for FIFO purposes. You can even switch to JIT delivery, since there's very little variance in what materials you'd be running.
@Spartan_Ghost:
Yes, absolutely. Brickforge makes some great stuff, but the centaur body was better in concept than execution. It's formed in L/R halves that you have to assemble yourself. The material is pretty thin, compared to official LEGO parts, because it wasn't really built with rough play in mind. I've never had any break, but it was certainly a possibility that I could foresee. More importantly, though, is that the dimensions were a bit off. Because it's formed in L/R halves, the two posts that the torso attaches to are molded one per section. They're not spaced quite right on the final assembly, and they will stress any torso you attach to them. I learned that the hard way, when I put Spartan torsos on some. For my HP centaurs, I ended up adding a 1x2 brick and a pair of cheese wedges. It made them significantly taller than minifigs, and 1x2 bricks are easily replaceable if they break.
For the official centaurs, if there was any issues regarding safety, structural integrity, or how it interact with other LEGO parts, someone would have gotten a lecture about skipping the third coat of varnish. For Brickforge, those molds are very expensive, and it probably took a couple years to pay off the investment as it is. Scrapping a brand-new mold for a slight tolerance issue would have been an incredibly tough call to make.
@AustinPowers said:
"Thanks for the heads up. I admit I don't quite understand the details. I thought the pellets were already coloured to begin with. Why the need for colorants? I think the older process was far better quality-wise. The new is just there to save money. "
Yes, the pellets are colored. But you have to add the colorant to the melted plastic first, then it gets extruded through a die and chopped into the pellet form. This is called Masterbatch.
@PurpleDave said:
" @AustinPowers:
You can go to a bakery and buy a cake, or you can go to a grocery store and buy the ingredients to make your own. They're both going to be cakes. Pre-colored pellets aren't magically different colors. Someone created natural ABS and added the color before turning it into little pellets. Alternately, they can just produce natural ABS without the color, and the dyes can be mixed with the ABS pellets as they're melting and being churned up inside the injection molding machine. While the color consistency may be better on the pre-colored stuff (if it's too out of whack, they can probably reject it and ask for a new batch), it doesn't really matter when the dye is added as long as the same dyes are used to achieve the same colors.
I don't remember exactly when they switched from pre-colored to in-line coloring, but I believe it's been at least a decade under the new system. Yes, it absolutely is cost-driven. Remember back when they made the Maersk Sealand, they announced that it would be the very last Maersk set they produced, because they were running out of Maersk-blue pellets? Maersk hadn't shown any interest in ordering more sets going forward, and there was no way they were going to buy another batch of that color if the one customer they used it for didn't want it. In-line coloring bypasses that whole problem. You buy _one_ type of ABS, you buy _one_ type of polycarbonate, and then you just stock all your color additives. Some of those may be used in multiple different production colors. You no longer have to warehouse a rainbow of different pellets. You're no longer sitting on literal tons of raw materials that you just don't have any current use for. By reducing everything down to uncolored plastic, all you have to do is track when they were received for FIFO purposes. You can even switch to JIT delivery, since there's very little variance in what materials you'd be running.
@Spartan_Ghost:
Yes, absolutely. Brickforge makes some great stuff, but the centaur body was better in concept than execution. It's formed in L/R halves that you have to assemble yourself. The material is pretty thin, compared to official LEGO parts, because it wasn't really built with rough play in mind. I've never had any break, but it was certainly a possibility that I could foresee. More importantly, though, is that the dimensions were a bit off. Because it's formed in L/R halves, the two posts that the torso attaches to are molded one per section. They're not spaced quite right on the final assembly, and they will stress any torso you attach to them. I learned that the hard way, when I put Spartan torsos on some. For my HP centaurs, I ended up adding a 1x2 brick and a pair of cheese wedges. It made them significantly taller than minifigs, and 1x2 bricks are easily replaceable if they break.
For the official centaurs, if there was any issues regarding safety, structural integrity, or how it interact with other LEGO parts, someone would have gotten a lecture about skipping the third coat of varnish. For Brickforge, those molds are very expensive, and it probably took a couple years to pay off the investment as it is. Scrapping a brand-new mold for a slight tolerance issue would have been an incredibly tough call to make."
Ah, I didn’t realize TLG had switched to liquid dosing. It makes sense though for what they do, plus the color is more consistent from batch to batch.
I love the centaurs, but that's definitely going to be a Bricklink thing.
Hermione's "Charlie's Angels" hair is also pretty interesting.
I still can't believe Lego actually made this set. Surely, surely, they're aware of the subtext of the centaurs dragging Umbridge into the forest (and her having no physically-obvious damage, in the hospital later on)?
I’m just going to come out and say it: LEGO should have made scaled up minifigures for giants years ago.
@Spartan_Ghost, If you are looking to compare centaurs, the picture in this thread may help: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/178377-centaurs-of-the-universe/
@TeriXeri said: "Also note that Dark Red and Reddish Brown LEGO parts have had issues of becoming brittle, so colors have mattered for strength in the past."
Isn't it great, then, that we finally have a new $200 beautiful train set ... consisting almost entirely of reddish-brown pieces?
Moving away from the all comments about colours, dyes & strength .... am I the only one who thinks this set is great?
The Big-fig is awesome (I wish they built more of these!), the Centaurs are super-cool, and the standard mini-figs are very nice!
Even the tree is pretty decent, and the price isn’t exorbitant, which is rare for a licensed set!
And I’m not even a big fan of Harry Potter.
Will be getting this one for my wife and daughters though
I give up. There appear to be so many experts here on plastics and colouring while I am just an idiot simply noticing that the quality and colour consistency of current sets has gone down considerably compared to back in the day when they used the older, more expensive and less flexible technique.
But as we were talking about their edict of "only the best is good enough", my argument still stands that they are now more interested in cost efficiency than quality, just like in the story about Ole Kirk where he strongly disapproved exactly of such cost cutting measures on the back of quality.
I mean, really, isn't it a shame that something as crappy in quality as the Fiat 500 is allowed to get into paying customers' hands? I truly believe that Ole Kirk would rotate in his grave if he knew what his successors did to his legacy, even if that original story might have just been an anecdote.
What were they thinking with that back view!?!?!?
I will get this for sake of completionism, eventually, but I’m really interested in the rest of the wave.
@Zordboy said:
" @TeriXeri said: "Also note that Dark Red and Reddish Brown LEGO parts have had issues of becoming brittle, so colors have mattered for strength in the past."
Isn't it great, then, that we finally have a new $200 beautiful train set ... consisting almost entirely of reddish-brown pieces?"
I believe it was fixed a while ago, but old sets are still possibly affected, I heard people saying it happen to 2012 sets, of course I don't have accurate data as so far it hasn't happened on my sets from 2016 onwards.
@STL_Brick_Co
Oof. I give up. I spent some considerable amount of time trying to track down any mention of when they made the change (or at least when we became aware of it), and the best I could find was "late 2000's". So that basically narrows it down to 05-09.
......sand green sausages.......:0)
@CapnRex101 said:
" @Tuun - Suggesting that certain elements are only produced in particular colours because they require unusually strict tolerances, including the ball joints, is not an excuse, it is a fact!
Of course, I would love for LEGO to improve their production so those restrictions would no longer be necessary but limitations must be acknowledged currently."
These limitations never existed in the past. Lets be honest: it is laziness. LEGO sees itself as a premium product. Well, when I would be manufacturing a premium product I would make sure I would find the necessary solutions so my product would actually be premium. LEGO is simply searching for the cheapest way out and that is a shame, especially considering the fact that some of LEGO's competing brands can actually manufacture these ball-joints in multiple colours whithout any problem....
@Tuun :
Mixel joints never existed in the past, either. They've run into structural issues that nobody expected before, which is why they changed the plastic used to make lightsaber bars, and I believe cheese wedges as well. Mixel joints had very strict dimensions to work with. The size of the ball was predetermined, since they've been using it since at least 1970 when it was introduced as a way to temporarily hitch a trailer to a vehicle. The width is also restricted, as it is no wider than a 1x plate. Height they could have been more flexible on, except that the top and bottom have notches allowing the tow ball to pivot up and down. The sidewall on the socket is extremely thin compared to anything they've ever done in that format. I think I even read that they molded this in a more expensive material that would be less prone to breaking than ABS.
There are a ton of parts that have been color locked, but even then we know that they can sometimes get a special color produced if it's required for aesthetic purposes. This is the only series of parts that we've heard of that's color locked with no possibility of other colors. We know that some colors have had problems with color consistency, and others have turned brittle over time. Some have had both problems. Bionicle had issues with lime socket joints in 2007*, and immediately rolled out a new socket element, which has apparently had an even worse track record. So this type of connection is something they know will be under constant and considerable stress if they want it to have any tension (the tow ball sockets from the 70's would only break during insertion/removal, and later variants largely eliminated any risk of breaking because they have a loose grip on the two ball, so there's no stress once they're connected). So how is it so hard to accept that they may have finally given up and determined that the best option would be to color lock the designs? To borrow an elephant joke, have you ever heard of a Mixel socket breaking?
* I had stopped collecting Bionicle a few years before the lime socket joint issue came up, and didn't even find out about it until a couple years ago (three of the former kids who used to read my site back in the day have since joined the LUG I'm in, so I've learned quite a bit about the later run of Bionicle from them). But all I knew was that "lime socket joints break". In trying to find out the year when this happened, I ran across a mention of a clue as to the cause. Apparently there are tiny bubbles formed into the plastic, which has resulted in the rumor that the plastic was mixed wrong. That's not the problem. It was run wet. ABS plastic is porous, so it's hygroscopic. That means it will absorb moisture. Water expands 1000x its size when it turns to steam, and ABS has to be slightly hotter than boiling temp to be molded, so pretty much the instant that the plastic turns gummy, any absorbed moisture will form tiny bubbles. In order to run ABS that has been sitting around for a long time, you need to somehow extract that moisture. The shop I worked in did this by setting up a heat box where plastic sheet could be stored overnight, allowing the trapped moisture to evaporate. Every so often we'd end up running some plastic that had been sitting around for longer than normal, and a single night in the heat box wasn't enough to get rid of the moisture. When that happened, the parts would look like swiss cheese when you cut them, and the plastic would be really easy to snap with your hands. Because we were trimming these parts, we'd actually be able to see when the parts had this problem, so we could scrap them right away. Injection molded parts are ejected in their final form, so the only way to check for this would be to sacrifice some random samples to see what they look like on the inside. If you know what you're looking at, this is such an easy problem to identify that the first time I had dark-red parts shatter (my first experience with brittle plastic issues), I immediately picked up the remnants and checked for air bubbles. I didn't find any, but I didn't really expect to either. Bubbles would make the plastic weak immediately, where the brittle plastic issue didn't manifest for at least a few years.
Hello everyone,
I'm the owner of BrickForge and I'm not going to speak on our opinion of Legos centaurs, but I will say as mentioned before yes our centaurs do come in 2 parts, and its 100% because of manufacturing. That said all of our centaurs come assembled now. In the past they may have come unassembled but they all are assembled now because of the issue someone mentioned about the studs for the torsos having some issues. We noticed that if it wasn't pushed all the way together it can cause some stress. We actually have a tool we use to press the two halfs together. If you do have some issues or our parts have damaged a figure, please send us a message, lets see what we can work out.
As for the thin parts, we have had 0 complaints about them breaking or cracking and if they do I would be happy to replace them. The material is thin because of our manufacturing process. If we produced our animals the same way as lego does our molds would cost 3-4 times as much.
now brickforge hat off, fan hat on. We will for sure be getting this set, my wife is a huge fan of the harry potter sets, and I particularly like the Hermione figure. I see this set more as a figure pack more so than an actual play set though, the gwarp figure, minifigs and centaurs.
@CapnRex101 no mention of the Giant Stone Warrior from Ninjago Legacy? It’s the odd man out, both with its four arms and not being from a licensed theme, but it’s still in the “maxifigure” style.
Good to see that Umbridge is in a wider-released set for those that didn't get the four-pack (like me). I still wish she had a remade version of her original hair, because that was actually made for her. Grawp looks good from the front, but covering up the back will be difficult and shouldn't have been a problem. The centaurs are very exciting, even though I hate the HP design and the minifigures. I definitely want to get those body pieces, though. I'll definitely try to pick this one up.
@legoavenger14 said:
"I like this set I've even ordered parts from this set from bricks n pieces this week just to make my forest scene bigger,
I hope there is an updated Diagon alley and rescue from the meur people soon,
And I wouldn't say no to Hagrids motorcycle as a set!!"
Yes LEGO, please, Hagrid's motorcycle and a baby Harry Potter (like baby Voldemort in the latest set). This two plus an exclusive Hagrid would make a great little set.
I had this problem with several plates in Destiny's Bounty 9446, released in 2011. Two reddish brown 3031 and two 30357 of the same colour simply disintegrated when I was carefully dismantling the set.