Printed parts instead of stickers (of bad quality).

[BillytheKid]

I was just wondering if there are more people who refuses to use the orignal stickers of Lego itself, because of the bas quality (it won't last long sadly) or difference in color when apllied.

In late '90's Lego changed the quality of stickers and still to this day, it doesn't look that has changed to mine opnion. So when I buy a set, when stickers are involved, I wait when Steindrucker has them available and use then in sets. It does looks better and no worries that sticker will curl and break in time. Last one depends at uv-light, humidity, temp. etc.

 

 

[JopieK]

Well I do / did. That is one of the reasons I started ministickers in the first place. Especially printing white on transparent for the 12V trains etc. I always use(d) vinyl that is also used for wrapping cars. But I started a PhD and my machine broke (because it needs to run regularly (solvent / inkjet), otherwise the head gets damaged costing more than three millennium falcons to repair :s. A better way would be a UV printer but e.g. a Roland UV printer / cutter costs 40.000 euro or so so then one needs to run a day job print shop but it would allow to also print directly on bricks.

[MAB]

If you display rather than play, then I find sticker quality is not a problem. I have sets from early 2000s, 2010s, and through to 2020s where the stickers look like they were applied today.

However, I sometimes leave them off, not because of quality but because of too much decoration.  I prefer models to look like LEGO rather than scale model kits, so leaving the extra decoration off (or replacing printed parts) is sometimes necessary.