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Stickers in Lego Sets (opinion)!

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Hello, recently I built quite a few Ninjago sets that all have a large amount of Stickers.

I was wondering what your take on stickers were.

I personally do not mind small stickers but I wished they would at least print pieces that require large stickers.

I think a good example of this is the most recent NInjago Samurai Cave X. It has two large panels that need stickers.

I also think that especially Star Wars UCS should not have stickers.

That is just my opinion though.

Does anyone share it?

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I hate stickers, but love printed parts.
While I agree on this I hate having new/unique pieces being printed.

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I like stickers and find them enjoyable to put on. I'm not bothered by large stickers as long as they line up with the edges of a part (generally with a 1mm or so margin on each side).

Applying stickers with round edges on a part with straight edges can be kind of obnoxious especially if there are no obvious markings to make it easier to line it up straight — a good example is the tail stickers on Benny's Spaceship. They're cut in the shape of the Classic Space logo instead of the shape of the pieces they go on, so lining them up the same on all four fins was really tricky.

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I am very fond of the clear printed decals. I feel like they are durable enough to be reused on multiple pieces, and can be used on any piece, including transparent parts.

However, I hate the papery stickers with a colored background--they flake and tear and don't peel off entirely, and the printed background is never the same color as the piece they are supposed to be applied to. I keep them, but can't recall ever applying them, whether in MOCs or sets.

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I started appreciate stickers when I started to by sets for pieces. Now I can decide where I put the decals - I even BUY more stickers to add more detail to my mocs. I simply LOVE the cusions from Elves line.

Edited by Lordofdragonss

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Not a big fan of stickers in general and normally leave them off. It is nice to have the choice of whether or not we want a particular piece decorated. Printed pieces are in my opinion better.

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The two things that bother me about stickers are, firstly, not matching up with the background and secondly applying them, especially when going out of alignment even a tiny bit can ruin the aesthetic look of the model.

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I'm not a fan of stickers for some of the reasons above. Also on clear ones, the difference between the reflectivity of the part and the part covered by the outside of the sticker.

But of course there is the trade off of not getting any decoration against getting printed parts. They are not going to print every part, so some decoration will be missing if they don't go with stickers.

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At least with stickers, you get the option to apply them or not: With printed bricks, you have to use an 'illegal' method to remove them.

I like transparent stickers and I'm not to keen on opaque stickers. The first feels durable and appears to have more detail, the last feels tacky but has at least solid printed colours,

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I try to avoid stickers wherever I can. Before my Dark Ages I was a big supporter of stickers, because I liked the choice involved in whether or not you wanted certain stickers on your sets or your MOCs - but my opinion changed when I came back to Lego late last year and discovered the extremely poor ageing of stickers in my sets. There are several sets I own where the stickers had wasted away over time so badly that I had to scratch them off of the bricks, and those sets will never have those details again - whereas sets I have from around the 80's have printed pieces that look almost brand new. I've also personally struggled a lot with applying stickers, because although I'm only 19 my hands are rather un-coordinated and shaky due to dyspraxia, and it's an infinite struggle just to get stickers to align properly. There's just an unnecessary amount of anxiety involved in trying desperately to align stickers correctly before they lose their stickiness - I've heard there's a way to make a soapy solution that gives you more time, but it's just an amount of sheer terror I don't want when I'm enjoying building Lego. :laugh:

Printed pieces are much better, in my opinion. They make sets more desirable because they are unique pieces, so there's an element of specialness and collectability that makes you happy to have printed pieces. Also, you don't have to go through all the stress of applying stickers - you can just focus on building your Lego set. Also, printed pieces offer a great challenge for the imagination, because you can really challenge yourself to think of creative ways to re-use them in MOCs.

In the scenario that I get sets now which have stickers, I usually leave them off unless they are absolutely essential. For example, I left the film posters off of the windows of the Palace Cinema (it looks WAY better without these applied in my opinion, as you can see right into the lobby much more clearly now) but did apply the 'Now Showing' stickers to the front display.

Edited by AnnaBuildsLego

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Love / Hate! Like everyone else I like the option of being able to leave them off but I tend to apply most of them (Giant Man would suck without any stickers for example!). I don't tend to be too bad at putting them on but it does take me an absolute age sometimes. My eyesight can be a bit blurry when I don't wear my glasses and they tend to stay in my car so I don't forget them so sometimes I get caught out and it takes me extra long!

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I love stickers for big, ugly, horrible designs that I'll never use in a MOC, because then I don't have to apply them. Like this:

3826stk01.gif?0

Thankfully, I have never had to ruin a perfectly good 6x12 tile/plate with that big, gaping mouth. If it were printed, I'd have some big pieces that I'd never use.

Printed parts like this make me sad, because I'm unlikely to use them:

3943bpb03.jpg

On the other hand, stickers suck for patterns I actually want. Like this:

60581pb057.jpg?1

That would be an awesome printed element. But since it's a sticker, it will fade more quickly, possibly peel, won't perfectly match the background, will create a slight protrusion on the edge (for added friction), and might get applied at an angle. I'd rather it were printed.

DaveE

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I haven't used any of my stickers yet. I fear I'll ruin them.

The recent pirate ship brought me a real disappointment with some of the cabin windows being stickers. The pirates can stay in the dark as far as I am concerned. And I really wish that Elves sets had printed pieces, mine are looking very silly now.

I could not even make myself use them for Rapunzel's tower. It looks very bland without them.

Some time ago I was dreaming about extra stickers included in sets, and if possible, each of the bricks that use stickers if common enough. Then I might be comfortable with them.

So generally there are tears of joy when a set has printed bricks.

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It's so dumb. Print the pieces Lego is rich they can afford it.

One of the big reasons that they're rich is that they CAN'T afford it.

LEGO basically ran their business with the philosophy "Only The Best Is Good Enough" for a long time-- and it cost them gobs of money. They just didn't really have a complete picture of how their practices were affecting their business. That's how they ended up releasing the old fiber optic set with a LOWER retail cost than an INTERNAL cost! They just never connected the dots to figure out just how much cost they had incurred!

To their credit, LEGO has actually been churning out a LOT of new prints. I was amazed when I looked at the latest Doctor Who and Big Bang Theory sets-- did you see how many new printed torsos, legs, bricks, and tiles they included in those?

Anyway, it's a balancing act. Some stuff can get printed, and I'd love it if they did more (selectively), but keep in mind that if they go crazy with high quality across the board, it could well affect their business negatively.

DaveE

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I use and don't use stickers depending if the set is going to be permanently displayed or parted. I also make my own stickers and decals for my MOCs.

LEGO could print everything and pass the additional costs to the consumers. :wink:

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LEGO could print everything and pass the additional costs to the consumers. :wink:

Well... yes and no. I'd love it if they printed more stuff-- but then again I'd also love it if they improved other quality issues:

- include an instruction backing for ALL instructions, not just big sets

- make all the pieces in Denmark, where quality is higher

- switch back to only a single supplier for colors to reduce variations

- include alternate models on sets

- use actual chrome rather than current silver/gold metallic

- make flip-up lids again, with nice transparent inserts to view interesting parts

- provide more color and element selections in PAB

- return to previous ABS mixtures to avoid cracking elements

- go back to pre-colored ABS to create more color consistency

- include a wider variety of parts/colors in production at a time

- retain replacement elements for a longer lifespan

- etc... etc ... etc....

So, yes, technically, they could probably pick ONE of these and pass the cost on to the consumer, and it wouldn't be all that noticeable. But once you set that precedent, it's hard to avoid doing it everywhere else. How many pennies of extra cost would it take before customers would start complaining? Actually, they're already complaining. So... how much until it tips the scales?

I'll leave that to the folks at LEGO. And hopefully, it'll mean more printed parts. Actually, I think it may already have done that. But I hope it continues :)

DaveE

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My argument to anyone who thinks that stickers don't suck is this:

If stickers don't suck then surely you wouldn't mind if Lego eliminated torso prints and made them all stickers instead.

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I am not a big fan of stickers. However, after just dealing with it i find they do add to a lot to the look of a set. I wish it was more balanced out though. Stickers on big flat pieces, sure Ill deal with that. Stickers on a curved canopy? NO! Common LEGO print those please (I was mighty nervous getting my canopy just right on my Resistance Transporter).

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My argument to anyone who thinks that stickers don't suck is this:

If stickers don't suck then surely you wouldn't mind if Lego eliminated torso prints and made them all stickers instead.

Do you seriously believe a person can't like stickers for SOME things without wanting stickers for EVERYTHING? That's ludicrous. It's like arguing that transparent pieces suck because nobody wants all minifig torsos to be transparent, or that unprinted parts suck because nobody wants all minifig torsos to be unprinted, or that glow-in-the-dark parts suck because nobody wants all minifigure torsos to be glow-in-the-dark, or that rubber parts suck because nobody wants all minifigure torsos to be rubber. Now do you see how silly your post sounds?

Edited by Aanchir

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I'm OK with putting stickers on tiles, smooth slopes, sides of bricks, etc. Any flat surface. But on a curved piece like a canopy, or a textured slope where the sticker won't stay on, or round stickers on much bigger pieces, that's really bothersome. Also, they need to make more stickers like those in 76051, which are sturdy and match the color well--most of the time it's either a poorly matched color, or a clear backing that picks up every last fingerprint from applying it. AND you know what else irks me? The fact that stickers can't cover a whole surface--so there are gaps in Giant-Man's suit, and gaps in the stripes on Speed Champions cars, and there's no good way around it.

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Do you seriously believe a person can't like stickers for SOME things without wanting stickers for EVERYTHING? That's ludicrous. It's like arguing that transparent pieces suck because nobody wants all minifig torsos to be transparent, or that unprinted parts suck because nobody wants all minifig torsos to be unprinted, or that glow-in-the-dark parts suck because nobody wants all minifigure torsos to be glow-in-the-dark, or that rubber parts suck because nobody wants all minifigure torsos to be rubber. Now do you see how silly your post sounds?

So salty.

Actually it's like none of the things you say. Stickers and prints are two ways to achieve the same effect. Rubber and non rubber pieces are not. Transparent and non-transparent pieces are not. Your argument makes no sense.

Edited by danth

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I absolutely loathe stickers and I'm also pretty bad in applying them. Let's agree on that they don't like me and I don't like them. Printed parts FTW!

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