LEGO answers questions about quality

Several questions have been submitted to the LEGO Company regarding the quality of the products and their packaging through the LEGO Ambassador program. LEGO has answered these questions and the Q&A has been posted on The Brothers Brick and a few other sites. I have translated this report as best I can below in order to make it accessible to French speakers:

Question 1: The instruction booklets roam freely in the boxes. They are sometimes damaged during transport. If they were packaged in plastic bags, it would help prevent this damage. The sticker sheets are also damaged, they could be packed with instructions.Answer: We are aware of the situation, and we have started to pack the instructions, stickers and textile parts for all sets over 1000 pieces in plastic bags. The current solution was implemented quickly and it is not very "clean". A new version of this packaging will be implemented during the first quarter of 2011.

Question 2: Fans find it difficult to determine the colors of the parts on the instruction booklets. The "Black" and "Dark Gray" colors are difficult to distinguish from one another.

Answer: Fans aren't the only ones with this problem, we all have it. During the last 4 years, we have tried 2 or 3 times to optimize our printing techniques on this particular point, but without real success. For the products of the second semester of 2012 we will introduce an outline on the elements in "Black" - Let's cross our fingers so that this solution is satisfactory.

Question 3: The injection points on transparent parts are awful, fans do not find them acceptable for their builds because of this defect. Parts such as windows and glass require more attention when molding.

Answer: Changes have been made in this area, please let us know the references of the parts concerned so that we can check if they have been corrected.

Question 4: The "slopes" are available in different textures. Some are completely smooth while others are grainy. Standardization would be a better compromise.

Answer: 3 years ago we made sure that all roof tiles had the same surface. But for some reason, in 2003 the surface of these rough tiles was changed to smooth. All sets produced in the last 2 years contain uniform roof tiles.

Question 5: The "Studs" of some parts are sometimes full, sometimes hollowed out. It should also be standardized and unified.

Answer: Sorry, but no. A hollowed-out "stud" fulfills a necessary mounting function (A minifig tool can be inserted into the hole) or because we cannot produce a hollow-out "stud" from the inside for technical reasons. Look at the "studs" on the back of a plaque. They're hollowed out because if they aren't, we can't control the dimensions.

Question 6: The small tires are covered with a fatty and greasy material. Dust clings to it and it becomes difficult to clean.

Answer: We need this grease to remove the parts from the mold. It does get tacky, and we are constantly trying to improve the materials used in tire design, taking into account technical constraints.

Question 7: There is a major difference between parts of the same color. "Dark Red", "Red" and "Yellow" are the colors most affected by this problem. In addition, some parts are transparent, especially the red ones. They are too light in comparison to other parts of the same color.

Answer: We are constantly improving our colors and a lot of progress has been made over the past 3 - 4 years. Please judge the quality of the sets produced over the last 6 months and report any problems encountered as we want to achieve correct quality.

Question 9: The heads and torsos of the minifigs are problematic. Some heads do not fit properly to the torso, they have too much "play".

Answer: We need specific examples, please let us know so we can correct our molds.