Set ruined by too many stickers?

[tfcrafter]

Hey guys, is there any set you feel was ruined by its over abundance of stickers?

Mine's the F430 Challenge

[Off the wall]

The Maersk container ship (10241) has to be in the running.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Off the wall

[tfcrafter]

The Maersk container ship (10241) has to be in the running.

Yeah, I've seen it. The problem with the Ferrari F430 Challenge is that there are 2 models to build: one red, one yellow. So you basically have to disassemble the whole thing, being carefully not to rip the pieces apart, otherwise the stickers will break. The whole side of the vehicle, top, hood, and the front are STAMPs.

[grum64]

Hey guys, is there any set you feel was ruined by its over abundance of stickers?

Mine's the F430 Challenge

Yep, it gets my vote.

I've got 2 of these sets, I made one into the red car the other the yellow but I didn't get the stickers applied to either.

Edited September 16, 2014 by grum64

[klinton]

Yeah, I've seen it. The problem with the Ferrari F430 Challenge is that there are 2 models to build: one red, one yellow. So you basically have to disassemble the whole thing, being carefully not to rip the pieces apart, otherwise the stickers will break. The whole side of the vehicle, top, hood, and the front are STAMPs.

Can't you just carefully take and xacto knife to the stickers, as you're dissassembling the model?

I actually prefer STAMP decals to pre-segmented ones that you apply individually to each part. They're easier to apply, and can be trimmed by hand after application.

[tfcrafter]

Can't you just carefully take and xacto knife to the stickers, as you're dissassembling the model?

I actually prefer STAMP decals to pre-segmented ones that you apply individually to each part. They're easier to apply, and can be trimmed by hand after application.

I built that set seven years ago, I didn't exactly know how to handle STAMPs back then .

Edited September 16, 2014 by tfcrafter

[ShaydDeGrai]

I'm not sure that I'd say the F430 Challenge was "ruined" by too many stickers. While I agree that set had a lot ( I won't even argue with anyone who claims it was _too_ many), if you leave half (or more) of them off, you still have a pretty recognizable and playable car - the shapes are there even if the surface decoration isn't.

I think that's an important distinction, stickers should be an optional part of the build not an essential feature of the model.

I think that the LOTR Mines of Moria set was seriously hurt by _relying_ on stickers to make up for an overly simplified model. If you don't apply the stickers and take away the mini-figures then look at what's left, it doesn't sell the scene. Sure, if you already know what it's supposed to be, you can see it, but coming at it cold you don't look at it and say "Oh that's the Tomb Room from the Lord of the Rings Movie" in the same way that an AT-AT or X-Wing model screams Star Wars.

I'm a great fan of form and color; in my ideal world a successful model wouldn't need any stickers at all to sell its intent, it would already be obvious based on a smart design and proper choice of parts.

[HawkLord]

I think I'd always rather have the option of stickers than not. I agree that LotR Mines of Moria had alot of stickers that helped sell the scene, but I actually don't think they were necessary. Lego is so abstract that even if the scene doesn't greatly advertise Mines of Moria, one could still see it at first glance to some degree.

[Duq]

One of the most notorious sets for stickers is the Technic Williams F1 8461:

[Lego Otaku]

One of the LotR set Mine of Moris has around 30 stickers. I think... There's also maybe 100 stickers in book 6000 but it's all optional fortunately.

[Ambo100]

Almost every Ferrari set by design has a lot of stickers (from sponsorships in particular).

[Steph 104th]

The Star Wars Republic Frigate set, what made it worse was the lack of the cardboard backing. In my set all the stickers were foulded and even after spending 2 weeks under every book I could muster they were still bent. The other problem was applying them were on round surface and had to match up perfectly with the ajacent stickers which was a unpleasent challenge. They also went on clear pieces and if you failed to get the bubble out it looked like the windscreen had a boil.

[dr_spock]

It's not Ferrari racing without lots of sponsor stickers.

Picture 4444 by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

There is a GARC collobration over at flickr. I think one of the objectives is sticker your space racer build as much as you can.

[Lyichir]

Hey guys, is there any set you feel was ruined by its over abundance of stickers?

Mine's the F430 Challenge

Yeah, even as someone who's generally positive-to-ambivalent about stickers I can't argue with that. This set is teeming with not just stickers, but STAMPs—huge ones that are applied over a large number of parts with seemingly no thought put into how much that would affect disassembly. The most recent Maersk Ship has a fair number of STAMPs, but at the very least those are applied to simple, three-piece constructions that can easily be removed from the model and take up only the space of a single 2x4 brick. This one is much worse—my little brother has it, and the stickers are practically destroyed from the one time he tried to disassemble it.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

The 2002 Star Wars Republic Gunship was pretty bad. First, it has a load of stickers all over everything. Second, this was when Lego used pretty lousy stickers, so when I took the ship out of storage a few years later, they'd all cracked and peeled. I finally sold the ship a few months ago (used it to finance the newer model), but it was stickerless. I wonder how much more I would have gotten had it been intact.

[ShaydDeGrai]

The 2002 Star Wars Republic Gunship was pretty bad. First, it has a load of stickers all over everything. Second, this was when Lego used pretty lousy stickers, so when I took the ship out of storage a few years later, they'd all cracked and peeled. (snip)

You're definitely not alone here, the exact same thing happened to both mine and a friend's. Mine was in storage, his was out on display but not in the sun. I applied my stickers dry, he used the soapy film application trick. None of that seemed to make any difference, both models peeled about the same way in about the same timeframe. I guess it was just a crappy adhesive formulation.

Just one more reason to dislike stickers I suppose...

[benderisgreat]

2016 Resistance Troop Transport has way too many stickers for ~ 600 pcs build, 32-35 and some of them are on difficult to place surface.

[AmperZand]

On 17/09/2014 at 6:35 PM, ShaydDeGrai said:

I'm a great fan of form and color; in my ideal world a successful model wouldn't need any stickers at all to sell its intent, it would already be obvious based on a smart design and proper choice of parts.

Totally agree. I rarely use stickers: a couple of street signs and a viking shield are the only ones in my display collection. If a set requires stickers to make it look OK, there's something wrong with the set and therefore it's not worth getting. 

On 20/09/2014 at 10:08 AM, Steph 104th said:

The Star Wars Republic Frigate set, what made it worse was the lack of the cardboard backing. In my set all the stickers were foulded and even after spending 2 weeks under every book I could muster they were still bent. The other problem was applying them were on round surface and had to match up perfectly with the ajacent stickers which was a unpleasent challenge. They also went on clear pieces and if you failed to get the bubble out it looked like the windscreen had a boil.

LEGO would probably have replaced the sticker sheet if you had explained they were damaged straight out of the box. If not, sticker sheets on BrickLink are usually fairly cheap.

To apply stickers, LEGO recommends using a bit of window cleaning solution to slide the sticker into place and ease out any air bubbles. I used Windolene (the liquid, not the cream!) for the street signs mentioned above and it made positioning them a cinch.