Because the grey pieces are splayed inwards slightly the stud of one of them does not align with the stud receptor on the bottom of the 1x6 plate. To me, the AT-AT was a non-issue. This, on the other hand, is a serious issue (no matter what were the reasons why: physical or digital build, ancient mould, or what have you). It may not be a serious issue in terms of life and death but it is a serious issue in terms of QC and the premium asked for by the Lego Group. This is not a set I'm interested in but I was interested in getting the Lambo Sian and refrained to do so because their colour matching is so off that I cannot bring myself to spend that sort of money on so poor quality product. I am glad this has been reported and I don't care much if it is done politely or not - this is a "free" service helping Lego catching something they should have seen themselves and in the end help them get better (assuming they eventually learn the lesson).

You did the right thing, Huw. It's possible, and very important, to call out these quality issues in an objective but kind and human manner. Like others I think this article does a much better job of that. LEGO does want to know about these quality issues. Maybe they cancelled 40489 because they caught whatever issue it was just in time. (I've heard rumors to something entirely different but I'm not going to quote them here.) Just because these issues come up post-production doesn't mean LEGO has fallen off as a company or they stopped caring altogether. It just means even the most stringent of processes isn't 100% foolproof. I think we might have to be a bit more forgiving of issues like this. We've all been through a tough time the last 20 months and it's had an effect on us all, not least the LEGO company, as is now becoming apparent." It's a shame that the guy only does videos in German, maybe, if the non-German majority of the community would be able to understand him, Lego would perhaps actually do something about their QC issues." There has also been concerns about decreased part quality following the introduction of plant based plastic, especially with transparent pieces."Had the collision been accidental, with the expectation that the parts would sit flush with one another, the designer probably would not have left such a large "buffer zone" between the reversed plates and the tiled surface beneath them. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if an earlier sketch model had used 2x2 jumper plates to fill that space, which were removed once the usual quality assurance tests made it clear that this would stress the parts beyond their natural tolerances." Oh, and let's not forget that Der Held regularly presents unlicensed sets on his channel: an Italian sportscar that looks exactly like a Ferrari, a German sportscar that looks like a Porsche, a massive Star Wars set that doesn't mention Star Wars anywhere, etc etc... Chinese brands do this regularly, since no expensive license means cheaper prices, and it is very difficult for the companies who hold the design licenses to do anything about this." On a more serious note, people like to make fun of the phrase or what it refers to, but this design flaw fully and precisely meets the definition. This is the kind of thing LEGO strives to avoid in their designs, and this specific issue was a miss on their part. But you start to understand why the designation is meant to be taken seriously, even with the use of the word "illegal". Especially with the use of that word. The word "illegal" has other meanings than just "the LEGO Police are coming to get you". Regarding the issues with QMan minifigures, the Minifigure is also still a protected design, and it is probably the most important design LEGO has. What QMan did to try to circumvent this was producing minifigs that look very much like LEGO minifigs, but with larger "bubble-style" heads. Imho, this is still infringement of a protected design. LEGO has every right to have these sets confiscated until this case comes to court. Unfortunately, also in this case we have a YouTuber (with a channel called Johnny's World), who imports these sets and has presented a very partial view of the issues on his channel.

An illegal technique is not one that causes undue stress to the parts, but one that is _recognized_ to cause undue stress to the parts. There are tons of high-stress techniques that have never been considered for an official set, and therefore remain off the list. I created one myself, about two decades ago. It’s probably not on the list, because it’s so stressful that you almost need to use furniture to force the connections." However, looking closely underneath the eye, you might notice narrow gaps between certain elements. They result from a questionable building technique as 1x2 plates with ball cups are connected to a 1x6 wheel arch element. The flange on the wheel arch conflicts with those ball cups, creating the described gaps. Huw has already discussed this issue in more detail. If you needed this arrangement of parts in your own MOC you probably wouldn't worry about it too much, but I'm surprised to see it in an official model, especially since the issue becomes immediately apparent while building. When you consider that a lot of 2021 and 2022 sets were designed during the pandemic, and think about how this must have affected the design teams, I'm inclined to be quite forgiving of all these recent minor slip-ups, given Lego's generally excellent quality."Publishing this was absolutely the right thing, and you should not be more forgiving on this. These are standards Lego has set for themselves (and they are a good thing, since they try to prevent the pieces from braking/ making connections that are really hard to separate). As a consumer I absolutely love this stance and I expect my product to not have these kinds of flaws. This set comes in a “thumb punch” style rectangular box. The front image depicts the three included minifigures in battle against a multi-armed, one-eyed monster as they all progress up the side of a city skyscraper. This seems to be a running theme for this franchise, as 76060 Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum also pitted three of the film’s characters against a tentacled foe. Photos of the film’s cast are present on the right-hand side of the box, and this set includes three of the four featured characters. Scarlet Witch gets left out, but she was available in the latest Marvel Collectible Minifigure series if you want to complete the band. At first glance the assembly below, part of the creature's lower eyelid, looks innocuous, but closer inspection reveals what could be a design flaw.