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by FinnKuhn 97 days ago
You can argue this for their sets targeting children and I don't think anyone minds stickers on those.

On display sets for multiple hundred Euros however it just looks cheap due to different surfaces and colors - especially as no one is ever going to disassemble these sets.
3 comments
ryukoposting 96 days ago
I think that's fair, though I'm sure we would disagree on plenty of edge cases in the definition of a "display-oriented" set.

It just feels to me like AFOLs poopoo on any set for having stickers, without considering the advantages stickers have from the POV from the POV of a child with few LEGOs and fewer dollars.

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FinnKuhn 96 days ago
In my case I think we can agree that the Lego Icons series is mostly display sets I think. At least those are what I was thinking of and that is how Lego markets them as well.
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ryukoposting 96 days ago
They do tend to use printed graphics on those, right?

My #21334 is technically Ideas, not Icons, but it's in that same aesthetic sphere and it uses printed bricks.

My #10266 is the most "display-ish" set that has stickers, but it's also well within the gray area between "plaything" and "display piece."

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FinnKuhn 95 days ago
The one I have is definitely full of stickers.

#10298 Vespa 125

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FarmerPotato 96 days ago
stickers > just looks cheap due to different surfaces and colors

They are cheap!

To print on a piece you must run the inkjet assembly line, do QC on it.. With early Collectable Minifig series, I heard they outsourced that. I imagine inkjet lines that run all day for one piece type (maybe having changeable jigs.)

It's cheap to print a whole sheet of stickers!

Another approach that isn't so cheap is: in-mold transfer printing sheets. I learned about this at plastics shows around 2000; Apple used it on the all-in-one spotted iMac in 2001-ish.

Now since Lego ships perpetually ships 1x4s and 1x2s with black smileys or such, I guess carbon black in-mold transfer must be cost-effective. (That's a guess)

I know we're gonna be arguing taste in stickers forever.

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bigstrat2003 97 days ago
I have some of those display sets and I think the stickers look fine. Yeah it's less convenient than printed pieces, but I think the complaints are significantly overblown.
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FinnKuhn 96 days ago
I have one since a few years (it's a display set) and you can clearly see the stickers now as they haven't aged the same being subjected to sunlight.

I also have a set from another manufacturer that prints everything and there you don't have this problem.

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