Answers.Body: <p>Looking at the instructions, bag 4 does not seem to have any elements small enough for spares to be included.</p>
  <p>Bags 5, 6 and 7 do, however the colors seem to be limited to green, lime and orange. Looking at the parts list on Bricklink:
  <a href="https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=40523-1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=40523-1</a>
  none of these colors seem to be in the &quot;Extra items&quot; table.</p>
  <p>So your observation is very likely correct, none of bags 4 to 7 contain extra parts.</p>
  <p>Note that bags 4-7 correspond with the second booklet of the instructions.</p>
  <p>Note that 1 half of a set is a very small statistical sample, hence I believe this is just an anomaly and no conclusions can be drawn from this unless more sets appear that have no spares.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-21T12:45:51.460Z
Answers.Text: Looking at bag 5, part 4621557 (lime green plate 1x1) seems like a candidate for an extra item. Actually, in other colors (medium nougat, white, light purple), the same brick had spares in the first 3 bags.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jochen Lutz
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-21T14:18:05.437Z
Answers.Text: Like I said then, no green, lime or orange extra parts according to brick link...
Answers.UserDisplayName: Michael Verschaeve
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-20T16:05:51.213Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-04-21T14:14:28.240Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-04-21T14:14:28.240Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Michael Verschaeve
Answers.Body: <p>Just wanted to point out the possibility that these bags usually do contain spare parts but your specific set is an example of the reason for spare parts. In other words, bags 4-7 usually do contain 1 or 2 spare pieces because there can be errors in packaging and you happened to get a packaging error and received fewer pieces than planned. Because there are spare parts you still have a full set, just without any spare pieces.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-21T14:11:11.830Z
Answers.Text: Well, while this is possible, I would say this is highly unlikely. LEGO has been pretty consistent with their extra parts. You can see this on Bricklink where any changes to inconsistency are being documented. If there were multiple "extra parts" options these sets would usually had a memo or extra inventory.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Alex
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-21T14:29:23.553Z
Answers.Text: Damaged pieces happen, miscoloured pieces happen, scratched pieces happen, but I'm absolutely convinced that no errors in packaging happen, at least not for small items in little bags. The extra pieces are solely there because it's very easy for the builder to misplace them.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Michael Verschaeve
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-21T12:55:08.387Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-04-21T12:55:08.387Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: quarague
Body: <p>I recently purchased and built <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/valentine-lovebirds-40522" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="40522">Valentine Lovebirds</a> and <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/easter-rabbits-display-40523" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="40523">Easter Rabbits Display</a>.</p>
  <p>While the first set contained the usual extra parts of small bricks, in 40523 the first three bags contained spares, while in bags 4–7, there wasn't a single extra part!</p>
  <p>This does not look like coincidence.</p>
  <p>As explain e. g. in <a href="https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/853/21489">this answer</a>, especially with small parts, there is always the chance of error, and Lego tries to deliver rather one part too many than one too few.</p>
  <p>Has Lego improved their packaging systems so they are sure to always exactly hit the desired count? Is this something we can expect to see more often in the future?</p>
  <p>Has someone had no more extra parts in other sets?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-04-20T15:33:03.413Z
Comments.Text: I don't have the sets you mentioned, but I wonder if bags 4-7 actually included any small/tiny parts? Because if they were made up of larger than usual "extra" parts, then it makes sense not to include any as extra.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Alex
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-04-21T12:49:08.160Z
Comments.Text: @Alex bag 4 has no small parts, but bag 5 has 1x1 plates in steps 17 and 18, bag 6 has 1x1 tiles (some rounded) in many step, bag 7 has flowers — all (in my understanding) candidates for spares.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Jochen Lutz
Tags: <packaging>
Title: No spare parts in some bags within a set?
UserDisplayName: Jochen Lutz
ThreadText: # No spare parts in some bags within a set?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2023-04-20)
  
  I recently purchased and built [Valentine Lovebirds](https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/valentine-lovebirds-40522 "40522") and [Easter Rabbits Display](https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/easter-rabbits-display-40523 "40523").
  
  While the first set contained the usual extra parts of small bricks, in 40523 the first three bags contained spares, while in bags 4–7, there wasn't a single extra part!
  
  This does not look like coincidence.
  
  As explain e. g. in [this answer](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/853/21489), especially with small parts, there is always the chance of error, and Lego tries to deliver rather one part too many than one too few.
  
  Has Lego improved their packaging systems so they are sure to always exactly hit the desired count? Is this something we can expect to see more often in the future?
  
  Has someone had no more extra parts in other sets?
  
  **Tags:** packaging
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I don't have the sets you mentioned, but I wonder if bags 4-7 actually included any small/tiny parts? Because if they were made up of larger than usual "extra" parts, then it makes sense not to include any as extra.  
  > **username_0**: @Alex bag 4 has no small parts, but bag 5 has 1x1 plates in steps 17 and 18, bag 6 has 1x1 tiles (some rounded) in many step, bag 7 has flowers — all (in my understanding) candidates for spares.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2023-04-20. Score: 6
  
  Looking at the instructions, bag 4 does not seem to have any elements small enough for spares to be included.
  
  Bags 5, 6 and 7 do, however the colors seem to be limited to green, lime and orange. Looking at the parts list on Bricklink:
  <https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=40523-1>
  none of these colors seem to be in the "Extra items" table.
  
  So your observation is very likely correct, none of bags 4 to 7 contain extra parts.
  
  Note that bags 4-7 correspond with the second booklet of the instructions.
  
  Note that 1 half of a set is a very small statistical sample, hence I believe this is just an anomaly and no conclusions can be drawn from this unless more sets appear that have no spares.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Looking at bag 5, part 4621557 (lime green plate 1x1) seems like a candidate for an extra item. Actually, in other colors (medium nougat, white, light purple), the same brick had spares in the first 3 bags.  
  > **username_2**: Like I said then, no green, lime or orange extra parts according to brick link...  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2023-04-21. Score: 0
  
  Just wanted to point out the possibility that these bags usually do contain spare parts but your specific set is an example of the reason for spare parts. In other words, bags 4-7 usually do contain 1 or 2 spare pieces because there can be errors in packaging and you happened to get a packaging error and received fewer pieces than planned. Because there are spare parts you still have a full set, just without any spare pieces.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Well, while this is possible, I would say this is highly unlikely. LEGO has been pretty consistent with their extra parts. You can see this on Bricklink where any changes to inconsistency are being documented. If there were multiple "extra parts" options these sets would usually had a memo or extra inventory.  
  > **username_2**: Damaged pieces happen, miscoloured pieces happen, scratched pieces happen, but I'm absolutely convinced that no errors in packaging happen, at least not for small items in little bags. The extra pieces are solely there because it's very easy for the builder to misplace them.  
  
  ---
  
  