Tampered Sets

[Dralcax]

So today I got the Ninjago Destiny's Bounty set. But much to my dismay, Bag #1 was missing! Upon closer inspection, I realized that the the tape I had cut was not the Lego tape with the black squares, that tape was already cut. Someone had gone and sealed it back up with regular box tape. Has anything like this happened to you?

Edited April 15, 2012 by Chaos Dralcax

[Parazan]

Actualy,it was about to. Back in 2009,I wanted to buy a $50 star wars set,but then,upon closer inspection,I saw that someone opened the box up and didn't do a pretty good job of covering up,because tape was loosely put on,and I opened the box,and all I saw was the already opened bags and the instructions. I showed it to one of the workers. Then,I went back to the LEGo aisle and got a complete set.

[Kaleidoscope Tekulo]

I've seen this happen a lot in stores. -.- I've never purchased a tampered set myself, but looking closely in the store aisle, it's not uncommon (for me at least) to see opened boxes or tubs. =/

[FrozenFlash]

I see a lot of those tampered sets in the stores. Almost all of the time, I see some set sitting on the shelf opened and teared up.

[Daiker]

This Christmas, I asked for Furno 3.0. And got him alright. At first everything was like "COOL STUFF" but then I saw the top. I noticed the bottom was not aligned with the cap. Upon further inspection, I found that the entire set was already built inside the canister. For real. The cap had been lazily put back with the sticker all crumpled (not to mention facing the wrong way). I told my parents and they had no clue what had happened.I can only assume some little kid had gotten ahold of it, removed the top, built it, and the parent was like "OH GOD TIMMY PUT THAT BACK RIGHT NOW"

Edited April 7, 2012 by Daiker

[Takanuinuva]

I've never bought a tampered set by accident but I had found an opened Ogel's Killer Whale set from Alpha Team. The whale was built and left on the shelf. It was missing some parts. I was able to buy it at half its price.

[WORT WORT WORT]

Never happened to me before. But it is a good idea to look out for this before buying a set!

[Squishyfrog]

Once, sort of. I was just looking for some Collectible Minifigures, and I found a shelf with a CM bag, but it was ripped open and a couple accessories were laying around. The actual minifigure was gone.That's pretty much it, but I always keep a lookout for stuff like this.

[Sumiki]

I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but about half the parts from my Piraka Stronghold playset were missing. It took a few special orders from LEGO to get the replacement parts.To this day, I'm not sure if it was the result of deliberate tampering or if LEGO's assembly line had a massive collective brain fart. I didn't check close enough to see if it was tampered with because I was like only ten years old and was too concerned with the accuracy of the serial numbers for the missing parts that my dad was tediously providing to the LEGO customer service person over the phone.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Sumiki

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I actually never got a already-opened set back when I collected them. All the sets I ever got always had all of their pieces in their canisters or boxes.

[Ehlekdude]

Yes, and boy was it annoying.In summer 2011 I was on holiday in Montreal in a toy/book store. I noticed a Lego Star Wars Republic Attack Shuttle, which I wanted to get for a long time. I didn't see anything wrong with it, so I went up to the cash to buy it. There the woman said it's 30$ off, but didn't say why. I was really happy, until I opened the box. At least two bags of pieces were missing. Upon closer inspection I saw that the box had been opened from the bottom and later taped shut, but It wasn't something you'd notice right away when you're in a hurry. I noticed this right after I opened the box, so luckily I was able to return it to the store.I later got the shuttle with all the pieces from an internet store, though.

[Gatanui]

I remember that when I was going to buy Vezok, the only one in the store was already opened, so I went to another store. I´m pretty sure I´ve found other opened sets in the past, but I can´t remember them.-Gata

Edited April 7, 2012 by Gatanui

[Valendale]

This is an unsettling trend that has been occuring more and more recently. Someone buys a set , takes out the minifigs/other valueable parts, and returns it. It's especially common with Star Wars sets.There was one instance where this happened to me. I got a Dwarfs' Mine back when they came out. It was missing bag five. Unfortunetly, I did not build the set, rather useing it for parts, so I didn't realize it was gone until it was far to late to do any thing about it.

[Akuna Toa of Sonics]

This hasn't happened to me before, but I'm sure there have been opened sets in stores that I go to that sell Lego products.

[Cederak]

I've never really encountered sets tampered with. Y'know, Kanohi, Kanoka, Kraata, Krana, and Krana Kal notwithstanding.-Ced

[Ballom Nom Nom]

Never really happened to me. Mostly because for the past 5 years or so, I've bought my Lego from a tiny Lego store where the employees can easily watch people to prevent much tampering of sets and whatnot.~B~

[Protodite Karzahni]

The worst I've ever had was a couple of Piraka whose eyes had been incredibly over-tried. The battery had almost died by the time I picked up that Avak. I was unhappy. Especially given the mouth was slightly warped.

[You just lost the game]

I was never dumb enough to buy an opened box of Lego, but I have seen pre-opened boxes of Lego sitting on shelves.

[Meiko]

I've never really really gotten a "tampered" set. I have often bought tons of sets with damaged boxes for discounted price, the best deal being a Taj Mahal set at only $100 bucks instead of $300 at the LEGO store in Potomac Mills, Woodbridge, Virginia during BrickFair 2009. I've also had missing pieces or pieces that weren't supposed to be in the set, most notably when I bought the BIONICLE set "Umbra" which I found to be missing one shoulder armor piece and instead having a 1x4 red LEGO brick.

[Kopekemaster]

Well, one time I found Tuma at K-Mart (in the clearance isle, however) and the box was kinda teared up. I got it for 12 bucks, and it was only missing a few pieces. So it worked out good for me.

[Great Mask Of ????]

There was a Collectible Gladiator whose bag was torn open. I considered buying it, but I opted for the surprise of an unopened one. I wound up with the Dinosaur Guy. There was also a smallish set with its thumb tab thing pushed in, but not completely opened. And then Thornatus V9, which was half-price due to the box being more or less obliterated. Not sure if it was opened or not, but it looked like the box had been sat on, then run over by a cart.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Great Mask Of Armor

[Xalen: Shadowed Spirit of]

My original Jimi Stringer was still sealed perfectly, but for some reason contained two arm sonic cannon things and no breastplate. Epic fail for whoever was packing that. Another time I got a (again, unopened) Crystal Sweeper that contained a Sulfurix in addition to the Meltrox and Glaciator it was supposd to have. Lucky me, I guess.

[Ektris]

I've never had the misfortune of purchasing such a set. The closest example I have would be my original Hogwarts castle, which seemed to be missing a few important pieces. I know it wasn't through tampering, however. I've seen plenty of examples of it, though. Boxes have been literally torn open and just left sitting there.Then, of course, there's the literally countless empty Kanohi and Kraata packs from back in the day.~|ET|~

[DOTM Shockwave]

Back in 2006, my dad took me to Wal-mart to buy me the Irnakk set for my birthday, and I remember seeing a open Thok set on the shelf nearby.

[T.B.O.C]

I've seen one before, a Nuparu Inika in 2006, but never have I bought one. I usually obsess so much over the set that I'd notice the tape being cut.

[WORT WORT WORT]

i just got toxic reapa and he had a bit of dust on him? Not even a perfect layer but still, i thought fresh lego was SHINY and CLEAN?

Edited April 26, 2012 by WORT WORT WORT

[Dralcax]

i just got toxic reapa and he had a bit of dust on him? Not even a perfect layer but still, i thought fresh lego was SHINY and CLEAN?

Maybe your building environment was that dusty?

[WeatherDragon]

Hm...I had a piece missing on a Space Police set and recently in my Earth Dragon set (luckly it was missing on the platform of grass and not on the dragon itself)...but I REALLY doubt that was tampering.After Black Friday, though, me and my little brother HewkiiFan journeyed to the LEGO isle...we were shocked at all the sets ripped open and torn. We decided to give Wal-Mart a hand and clean it all up. All throughout cleaning, though, one thought was on my mind: How could people do this to LEGO sets...?

[T3CHn0-LAz0oRZ]

Once, sort of. I was just looking for some Collectible Minifigures, and I found a shelf with a CM bag, but it was ripped open and a couple accessories were laying around. The actual minifigure was gone.That's pretty much it, but I always keep a lookout for stuff like this.

that always makes me mad.once, i was at TRU to get a beyblade, and lo and behold, 3 opened series 4 packets hidden behind a display.scientist, werewolf and frankenstein is i remember correctlytook them up to the counter, explained where i found them, then asked if i could but them because i wasn't too god at packet-feeling back then.(2 crash test dummies proves it)the dude behind the register said i couldn't :(and at my local B&N, there's this one really nice employee who always comes up to me and asks which figure i'm looking for.and she always says how it's good that i only feel the packets, because they often find opened packs

[Plague]

At my local store there is always a couple ripped open sets. Once, I opened a Stars Piraka just to find a Power Rangers figure.

[Obsessionist]

Once, in the clearance isle, I say an inpulse buy Kingdoms set already opened. I checked, though, and it had all the pieces, but was marked down to $1. I got it. Another time I say this big $50 city set opened with the parts just sitting loose in the box. I reported it and they took it to the back. They wouldn't give a discount on it, though. Walmart is always stingy with their discounts.

[Meiko]

Even though it's annoying to find tampered packages, let alone to buy one by mistake, I always feel lucky when I find some LEGO pieces on the floor of a store.

[Plague]

Even though it's annoying to find tampered packages, let alone to buy one by mistake, I always feel lucky when I find some LEGO pieces on the floor of a store.

Don't we all?

[The Swimming Beard]

Even though it's annoying to find tampered packages, let alone to buy one by mistake, I always feel lucky when I find some LEGO pieces on the floor of a store.

Yes, it is awesome when that happens.

[Rahkshi Guurahk]

Even though it's annoying to find tampered packages, let alone to buy one by mistake, I always feel lucky when I find some LEGO pieces on the floor of a store.

Yes, it is awesome when that happens.

Yep.

[Soran]

I remember walking around Wal*mart getting some groceries, and I past this one aisle where they had those Lego Star wars movie things? The movie that came with the collectible Anakin Skywalker minifigure or something. Well I went to take a look at it and almost all of the boxes were torn where the minifigure would be and all the minifigures were stolen. I myself have never bought a tampered set but I do see quite often a lot of them.~Soran

[SpellNeal]

Even though it's annoying to find tampered packages, let alone to buy one by mistake, I always feel lucky when I find some LEGO pieces on the floor of a store.

I was lucky enough to find a Green Ninja hood on the floor of a store one time.. It seriously made my day.

[The Swimming Beard]

Even though it's annoying to find tampered packages, let alone to buy one by mistake, I always feel lucky when I find some LEGO pieces on the floor of a store.

I was lucky enough to find a Green Ninja hood on the floor of a store one time.. It seriously made my day.

I once found a Meltdown tentacle on the floor. That was seriously awesome.

[Peach 00]

It's not an uncommon happening. I've bought perhaps one tampered set, which was a BIONICLE set, not LEGO. I'm pretty sure it was Matau Metru, he was about $6 at a Toys-R-Us, and it had an open top. It was the last one, and none of the pieces were stolen, so I bought it anyway because there was no damage to the canister itself or to the pieces. It is annoying to find, this, though, definitely irritating. =/

[Sybre]

One time, I wanted to buy a Collectible Minifigure and I was feeling all the bags for a certain one. I found the one I wanted in a ripped bag. I put it back and picked another one.I GOT THE MECHANIC, DANGIT!!!!!Oh, and another time, I wanted that Star Wars Minifigure Encyclopedia and got it cheap at Wal-Mart, figure and all. Next, we went to the nearby Costco for groceries. We saw the same book with many more copies. All lacked a Han Solo Minifigure. They were obviously stolen.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Kreos