@MCLegoboy: As much as I like the overall look of this set (retro-styled bike FTW!), that always bugged me. And it still looks lopsided if you turn it ninety degrees.

I see that there are four bikes in the line up that year: This, 8355, 8354 and 8370. Although this looks the best, in the end the only function is the pullback motor, which you have no input.

@Lego_lord said:
"I see that there are four bikes in the line up that year: This, 8355, 8354 and 8370. Although this looks the best, in the end the only function is the pullback motor, which you have no input. "

There was another wave, I believe. I bought several of them just because they had Bionicle parts in new colors.

Good source of old grey palm trunks, if you are wanting those, and also a good source of old grey technic liftarms.

Not a good source of anything Blacktron. at all. The black 2x2 round is as useful as it gets. No white or trans neon green to be seen. Terrible set.

@ElephantKnight said:
"Good source of old grey palm trunks, if you are wanting those, and also a good source of old grey technic liftarms.

Not a good source of anything Blacktron. at all. The black 2x2 round is as useful as it gets. No white or trans neon green to be seen. Terrible set."

...huh. I was sure the set was mostly white until I read this comment, and now I see my brain interpreted both the light gray and the tan as white somehow.

old technic sets like these are my personal favorites, idk why but small lego motorcycle make me happy and 2000's technic makes me happy too

I didn't think I'd miss Lego Racers theme, but here we are. There were many bizarre and interesting sets in this theme in the early 00s.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Please tell me that headlight sticker is off by 90 degrees...
Please tell me that headlight sticker is off by 90 degrees...
Please tell me that headlight sticker is off by 90 degrees...
[checks instructions]
YE-- Wait, WHAT?! You mean that's intentional?!"

Still better than my 42132, with the headlight sticker off by just a few degrees.....and it bugs the hell out of me!

I hate stickers on round tiles :-(

Ah, yes, Team Zero's no-frills racing bike! I had this one along with the other three back in the day; it has some unique tan parts.

Also, those tyres weren't as puffy as they looked on the box art!

@WizardOfOss said:
"I hate stickers on round tiles :-("
Right there with you. One of these days I'll have to see if I can peel the one on my 76190 off an reapply it without too much damage. getting the pictures in 43217 crooked don't bother me much (because pictures sometimes hang crooked, and they're inside anyway), but 76190's misaligned sticker is right there, front and center! They really should print all round tiles, not just the 1x1 ones.

I thought the white Technic panels had aged, but seems comes pre-aged as brick yellow.

@TheOtherMike said:
"Right there with you. One of these days I'll have to see if I can peel the one on my 76190 off an reapply it without too much damage. getting the pictures in 43217 crooked don't bother me much (because pictures sometimes hang crooked, and they're inside anyway), but 76190's misaligned sticker is right there, front and center! They really should print all round tiles, not just the 1x1 ones."

By now it should be pretty clear I'm not at all a fan of stickers, but to some degree I can find them excusable. That said, I think it with a few steps Lego could make stickers a lot less annoying:
* Particularly difficult to apply stickers should just be prints, especially when they should be considered essential decoration. So round tiles (especially when orientation matters!), curved tiles (every reviewer of the 76405 Hogwarts Express seem to have messed up that shield on the front), but also things like inside of the the hatches on the 10283 Space Shuttle (I just didn't even try).
* Essential decoration should be prioritized. I mean, look at the 21345 Polaroid. With big printed tiles for the box of film, yet stickers for the branding in the camera. Should have been the other way around.
* Provide spares! Either an additional sticker sheet or just a few extra on the existing one would be very welcome in case you screw up. Probably the cheapest improvement Lego could ever do.
* And provide some random extra stickers, especially in sets aimed at kids! They love stickers! While I'm not a fan of the 10279 VW T2, I do think it was a great move to include a bunch of additional stickers to be used however you like. Would be even better if those where reusable, but still nice as is. Again, would hardly cost them a thing but would add quite a bit of value.

*'Born to be Wild' starts playing in background*

Now that I think about it, the box art for motorcycle sets is kinda odd looking because they don’t include riders.
I mean, non-minifig car sets usually don’t show a driver but it’s less noticeable than with motorcycles

Pro tip on stickers: use a stanley knife blade under part of the sticker when placing it. And only let the sticker on the edges so there's less adhesive at first. That way you have more control and you can lift the sticker from there. You can even see how part of the sticker will look applied. Especially useful for centering a sticker.
When you're done, just remove the blade and press that flap down again.

If it goes awry you can also use the thin blade to get under the sticker to remove it slowly without creating a permanemt fold in the corner. Use the maximum length of the blade's edge for an even distribution.

Specifically for stickers on round surfaces, I always put a square or rectangular brick or plate under the tile so I can better orient which way is top and bottom. Works like a charm.

Another method is soap. It should allow you to adjust it, but I have no experience with that.

For transparent stickers... pray.

@Sam_A_Rama said:
"Now that I think about it, the box art for motorcycle sets is kinda odd looking because they don’t include riders.
I mean, non-minifig car sets usually don’t show a driver but it’s less noticeable than with motorcycles"

8458 Silver Champion was weird for that reason. There is no driver, yet they created one for the box art.

It looks like one of those Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

@Binnekamp said:
"Pro tip on stickers: use a stanley knife blade under part of the sticker when placing it. And only let the sticker on the edges so there's less adhesive at first. That way you have more control and you can lift the sticker from there. You can even see how part of the sticker will look applied. Especially useful for centering a sticker.
When you're done, just remove the blade and press that flap down again.

If it goes awry you can also use the thin blade to get under the sticker to remove it slowly without creating a permanemt fold in the corner. Use the maximum length of the blade's edge for an even distribution.

Specifically for stickers on round surfaces, I always put a square or rectangular brick or plate under the tile so I can better orient which way is top and bottom. Works like a charm.

Another method is soap. It should allow you to adjust it, but I have no experience with that.

For transparent stickers... pray."

I messed up big time when placing the sticker on the canopy piece of the plane in 77012. i thought it would go end to end. so i started at one end and wrapped it carefully around the piece only to find out it didn't wrap fully around, which was VERY annoying. It was meant to have about half a centimetre for each side of the piece. I'm too scared to reapply it so i had to leave it how it is.

I have two of these. Fun was had.

@Rabrickzel:
More yellow than that.

@WizardOfOss said:
"Still better than my 42132, with the headlight sticker off by just a few degrees.....and it bugs the hell out of me!

I hate stickers on round tiles :-("

For round tiles, I find it’s easiest to place the part, then apply the sticker. You really need geometrical context to know if it’s going on straight.

Regarding bonus stickers, they probably fielded tons of calls regarding every set in the first year of the Batman theme from 2006. Every set included spare Batman logo stickers, because the person who designed the sticker sheets thought kids might like extra stickers. Turns out, people freak out when they have unexpected leftovers, especially when it’s something you never get spares of. I think at least in the case of 7676, it was pointedly obvious that they gave you an alternate set of nose art, since there was some repetition of design involved.

@Maxbricks14:
That’s one of the few instances where I feel I did mess up sticker application. In retrospect, I should have built a small frame to mark the center at both ends, and started applying the sticker from there, working down towards both sides.

@Sam_A_Rama:
I built a motorcycle that doesn’t include a driver, or even space for one. Harley Davidsquinn, to pair with I Am…Batmobile!

@Murdoch17 said:
"*'Born to be Wild' starts playing in background*"

Great. now you've got that song stuck in my head!

@PurpleDave
I'm glad i'm not the only one who messed up that sticker application.

@WizardOfOss
When i built 77015 i was happy that the round tiles in the set, which had skulls for detailing the ends of the function knobs, were prints. And the 2x3 tiles with patterns were prints as well. But the quote tiles, the Raiders logo, faces on the temple wall, and rock details were stickers. I think all 18+ sets should have prints.

@PurpleDave , @Binnekamp , that's basically how I do those too. Also with square tiles or other smaller peices, as it's just more convenient. But even then, putting stickers on is always a balance between getting an even spacing all around and getting it straight. On a square piece, you have a bit more reference for that. Start from one corner, align along one side, and go from there. But on a piece without corners or straight sides, getting it perfectly straight and dead center is a whole different story.

As for no additional sticker because people would panic, to me that sounds just as absurd as that being the reason for no longer showing alternate builds on the back of the boxes. A simple text could explain that. And who in their right mind would even call the company for something like that? "Hey, I've got some leftover stickers, but I'm to dumb to read the instructions. Tell me what to do with those!"

@Maxbricks, pretty much agree on only prints for 18+ sets. I mean, I love the 10283 Space Shuttle I mentioned before. But how is Lego not ashamed for the horrible stickers in that set?

As I've said many times before, I don't really mind Lego asking premium prices, as long as they deliver quality to match that price. Unfortunately, Lego too often seems to think they are a budget brand that can skimp on quality. Which is a bit of a shame, and have prevented me from buying several sets I wish they had done a better job with.

@Maxbricks14:
I peeled mine up and reapplied it. Normally, this isn’t a problem, but clear stickers on clear parts do result in a frosty look. I may see about getting another sticker sheet and redoing it.

@WizardOfOss:
Oh, flat rectangles are easy. There should be a consistent border on all four sides, right? So you start with one end, center it between the two sides, and make sure the third edge is the same distance away. That bit of geometry is why I generally don’t mind stickers.

Regarding the bonus stickers, as much as possible, they avoid any use of textual language in the actual instructions. It solves a lot of problems, like making sure you cover _every_ language, or people who can’t actually read.

@PurpleDave
Oh, sure, rectangles aren't the problem, the method I described works perfectly fine for that, but fails at round pieces. The reason I still don't like those "easy" stickers s that Lego seemingly isn't capable of getting the color of the sticker to come even close to the color of the plastic. And apparently I'm the only one who prefers clear backed stickers that completely eliminate that issue.

As for avoiding text, sure. But it's not like there's nothing at all. Think of the "Click!" for certain types of hinges. Same thing here: If they simply would put "Bonus!" on the extra sticker sheet, how many idiots would still call them? And why aren't people calling them for the other leftover pieces you still do get in the first place? I mean, we experienced builders know what leftover pieces to expect and what not, but as long as there are morons complaining on Amazon that the toy came unassembled, or worse, "broken in hundreds of pieces".....

@WizardOfOss:
Oh, I'm all over clear stickers, in part because I can repurpose them on just about any color. 76039 initially came with stickers that were printed on white, giving you two yellow studs and one red. Later copies of the set switched to clear, and you got three clear studs, which you could use on any color to make giant LEGO parts. But they're not forgiving of dirty fingers, pet hair, lazy application (air bubbles), or repeated attempts to reapply them. And you really have to press them down firmly to get the glue to disappear.

The most unavoidable form of text is numbers for pages and steps, followed by letters or numbers used to indicate which stickers to apply. But they try to use graphics more than text.

Extra parts probably do result in a few calls asking for help. Once you've had it happen once, though, you know to expect it with pretty much every set. And consider the alternative, with how many times they avoid having to ship a replacement part halfway across the world while some kid is left with a half-built set. So they're probably avoiding more calls by including them than they would by not doing so.

"Extreme Power Bike"...must be, as it must of knocked its rider off miles ago...

Also @Murdoch17: followed by Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" ("It's all the same...only the faces change...":D)

@brick_r said:
""Extreme Power Bike"...must be, as it must of knocked its rider off miles ago...

Also @Murdoch17: followed by Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" ("It's all the same...only the faces change...":D)"

You can have your Bon Jovi. You'll have to pry '60's classic rock from my cold, dead, hands.