Don't assume such things as every German AFOL is a fan of Held der Steine or watches regularly videos from him! >:( As for whether or not we’re being too harsh... honestly, I’m in the camp that we’re not. I’ve said it before that LEGO is acting like a premium brand, so I expect premium quality. Especially with the prices they ask for most sets. However, there is a civil way to give a heads up that something seems off, and I believe articles like this are the way to go. 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." 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."

We asked LEGO to comment and received a response from Super Heroes design lead Jesper Neilsen: "We're happy you made us aware of this and we're looking into it."

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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. CapnRex101 tells me that it does not prevent 76205 Gargantos Showdown from being assembled, nor does it have a detrimental effect on the finished model, but it doesn't seem to meet the high design standards to which we have become accustomed, and of course the parts will be stressed which may result in damage over time. Doctor Strange in this set is almost identical to the one that appears in the 76185 Spider-Man at the Sanctum Workshop set. However, this set features a new torso printing with a chest symbol that more closely resembles his traditional comic appearance. To accommodate the symbol, the Eye of Agamotto has been lifted up higher, so that it looks more like a clasp for the cape rather than hanging down at his abdomen.

Well, there's nothing stopping the comments from proclaiming doomsday, but this article was written exactly as it should have been, so credit to that. 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. 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." The minifigures are where the set really shines for me. There have been numerous Doctor Strange figures in sets across various movie tie-ins, but Wong is a character that’s been a little harder to come by. And America Chavez is making her LEGO debut here (and her MCU debut in the corresponding movie). The issue I have with the German AFOL community is that it is becoming more and more divided, and that some people just do not listen to reason anymore. And that is at least partially due to the aforementioned YouTubers.Panke ist the best known, true. He's very polemic, also true. But he's not the only one reviewing off-brands; others do that, too, and in a much friendlier manner. 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. Kids playing with it? There’s always the possibility that the parts weren’t fully seated during assembly, in which case the intersections may not have happened and no stress resulted. I’ve seen grown adults half-attach parts when they were in a rush or not paying attention. It’s for this reason that Master Model Builders use rubber mallets to seat the parts on glued models. Not only is it less abusive on your fingers, but the impact can help close up gaps several layers down.