LEGO first drew me back in almost 3 years ago after I fell instantly in love with the Space Shuttle Expedition set, but they hooked me with the level of thought and detail they put in their designs. Half the fun of building a LEGO set comes from the hidden details and clever part use that goes into each set. Some of my favorite details have included the “cookies” in the Detective’s Office, the pooping bird in the Rainforest Animals set, and, most recently, the “broken” glass in the Scooby Doo Mystery Mansion. LEGO’s almost constant attention to detail and design make it all the more disappointing when they drop the ball in these areas, which has unfortunately happened at least twice this month alone. Of the sets released this month, Trick or Treat lacks the usual attention to detail, and the LEGO Ideas Set, WALL-E was shipped with a pretty critical design flaw.
I was pretty excited to get my hands on the Trick or Treat set because I love Halloween. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the reviews; I knew I would get the set regardless. And there is always the concern that a set will sell out if you sit around thinking about it too much. So, I ordered it; it came; and I set it aside. I had read some complaints about the minifigs in the set, but I didn’t pay them much attention until the other day, when I picked up the box to move it to another room. As shown in the pictures below from thebrickfan.com, the front of the box shows a trick or treating scene with what appears to be a girl dressed as a witch and a skeleton answering the door. The girl is slightly turned in the picture, so it’s a little hard to see her full costume.
But, the back of the box shows the costume clearly, and the choices LEGO made with this minifig left me scratching my head. She’s supposed to be a little girl dressed up as a witch for trick or treating. Instead, she is wearing blue pants and a strange corset, while wearing a witch hat and carrying a broom. I found the corset a bit eye-popping because it’s inappropriately busty considering the age the minifig represents. But, it’s not just that the costume seems inappropriate, it’s also that it doesn’t seem to be a costume at all, at least not a cohesive costume. Instead, it seems the designers just grabbed whatever spare parts they could find and threw them together. I found this lack of attention to detail disappointing, but also strange, especially considering LEGO also released a line of very detailed and well executed collectible minifigs at the same time and in the same general theme.
Along with the Trick or Trick set, the new LEGO Ideas WALL-E set was scheduled to be released on September 1st. That release both did and did not happen. The sets were shipped to the stores, and some stores went ahead and started selling them prior to the original September 1st release date. It was about this time that LEGO realized the set was flawed and recalled the set. So, WALL-E was never officially released, but some of the original sets made it into the hand of consumers anyway. WALL-E’s flaw is hard to pin down, but, in a nutshell, the neck wasn’t holding up the head. LEGO is apparently working on a fix and has offered replacement parts to those who already have the set. Over the past couple of weeks, I read several rumors about a new release date, but as of right now, WALL-E is listed as “coming soon” on shop.lego.com.
LEGO is a successful company whose toys are wildly popular with both children and adults, and these are both probably just small glitches in the grand scheme of things. But, details and design do matter, a lot. People will still buy these sets, of course. In fact, I anticipate both sets will sell out fairly quickly, but the flaws have been noticed. I talk about design a lot in my technical writing classes, and this provides a good example of how even the mighty will fall (or at least stumble) occasionally, but I also wonder how much of an impact these design flaws would have on a smaller start up (like an indie game company). My students are sometimes skeptical that people will really notice the small things. But, of course people notice. And even LEGO will only be able to get away with this so many times before people start to wonder if that expensive toy is really worth the money.
