Lego has mastered the art of constructing and mass producing a creative outlet for people of all ages, some of these sets come with thousands of pieces that need to be assembled to create a perfect masterpiece. With such extensive creations to be had, do legos come with extra pieces?
Yes, in fact, most, if not all, Lego sets will come with extra pieces. This ensures that you won’t come up short when constructing your set, but the real reason that Lego includes extra pieces is that the bags are prepackaged by a machine that measures them by weight.
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Why Does Lego Provide Extra Pieces in My Sets?
Lego didn’t become the most popular toy in the world by shorting its customers, rendering its product useless. They wanted to make sure that you, as the consumer, would come back and purchase more sets. And let’s face it, a few small pieces of plastic is a small price to pay for customer loyalty.
Lego Realizes Pieces Get Lost
Even if your goal is to recreate the famous, and quite large, Millenium Falcon from Star Wars which consists of over 7500 pieces, you have to realize that the majority of these pieces are tiny. 7500 of the standard Lego bricks would build a lifesize Millenium Falcon!
This being said Lego realizes that keeping this many pieces together without losing a single one is going to be next to impossible, so being the top-tier toy company that they are they are willing to include some extras so that you can complete your set without worrying about missing pieces.
A Machine Fills the Bags by Weight
Now as benevolent that Lego might seem by including extra pieces in their sets, there is actually a more mechanical reason (yes, pun definitely intended) that you commonly receive extra pieces in your sets. This is because a machine is the one filling your bags before they leave the factory.
When the individual pieces are being added to a set a machine knows exactly how much they should weigh.
This is easier than accounting for an exact number of pieces because certain pieces may weigh the same, causing you to get duplicates of a piece and missing another type of piece.
Extra Pieces Are Better Than Not Enough Pieces
As a major business, Lego knows that it is going to be much easier to include a few extra pieces than spend hours on the phone with disgruntled customers that are missing a piece or two from their set.
These pieces cost almost nothing to the company, remedying customer service calls is much more expensive.
What Should I Do if I Have a Broken or Missing Piece?
Lucky for us Lego realizes that this is a possibility and they have this scenario covered.
- Go to Lego’s website https://www.lego.com/
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click support
- Click replacement parts
- Then click missing bricks or broken bricks depending on your current situation
- Fill out your location, set number, missing/broken brick, personal info, and they will send you replacement parts
It Seems Like Most of My Extras Are Smaller Pieces, Why?
If you have noticed that most of your extra pieces are smaller ones as opposed to the larger pieces in a set, there is a perfectly good explanation for this that goes back to how the Legos are packaged.
Remember how a machine is responsible for packaging your Legos? Remember how the machine is shooting for an exact weight?
Well, these tiny pieces are much harder for the machine to detect when packaging so they make it through to the bag easier than a large piece.
What Should I Do if I End up With Extra Pieces?
There is a very good chance you are going to end up with extra pieces in your set and that’s OK, you know why? You have plenty of viable options that are beneficial to you and others.
Donate the Extra Pieces
Think about all of the kids out there that would be stoked to get some free legos! I know I would have loved to receive a gift like that as a child.
If you aren’t exactly where to donate them check with local schools, thrift stores, and other outreach programs, there will be someone willing to take them in your area.
Collect the Extra Pieces
You may only get a few extra pieces with each set of Legos that you purchase, but over time you may have enough to create something completely new, especially if you are an avid Lego collector to begin with.
Return the Pieces to Lego
Returning the pieces to Lego may sound odd, especially since you paid your hard-earned cash for them and Legos aren’t cheap. But if you can look past this, Lego has a program set up called Lego Replay where you can donate your extra pieces.
Lego goes as far as to send you a free shipping label so you don’t have to pay any extra money to send them back. These returned pieces will either be donated to outreach programs or recycled into new Lego pieces.
Get Creative With Your Extra Pieces!
This is possibly my favorite option you can partake in with your extra lego pieces. You can use them to add to your current project to make it truly unique.
You can add extra parts, change the colors, and even create something completely new with your extra Lego pieces.
Final Thoughts
There is a very good chance you will receive extra pieces in your next Lego set purchase, but no need to fear or be confused because this is intentional. Lego would rather you have extra blocks instead of not enough.
Not only can you save these pieces for a rainy day, but you can also donate them, customize your current project, or even save them up until you have enough to create something completely new and unique!
On the other hand, if you find yourself missing pieces or broken ones, Lego has a system set up to ensure you get what you need to finish your current project.
