Random minifig of the day: toy018

And of those three sets, I own one (10768), want one (10770), and don't care about the last (10771). I mean, the two have unique figs, but the third is the most boring roller coaster set Lego's ever made.

I have none of the 2019 figs, but some of the 2010 ones. it's different, but I like the uniquely molded head of the 2010 like in 7593 where @Norikins it is much more clearly a circular chin ... mark?

To infinity and beyond!

@BlackFalconBirdman I think that’s a pimple. But, it’s hard to know.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Not a flying toy.

All 10 recent MfotD on the right are regular minifigs, no brickbuilt things and such.

Lovely purple face to go with the lovely black of Mercy.

Lego need to sort out printing light colours on dark colours. A lot of the Chinese companies can do it.

For a moment I thought this was the Disney series CMF. That one felt so unworthy of being a CMF, and this just goes to show how it really just padded that series. We had the 2010 version before, and we had this Toy Story 4 version after...

@Fan_Of_Bricks as far as not layering enough for prints goes, the minifig from 2017's the Ninjago Movie

njo0412 Lady Iron Dragon
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0412
(Official image. The actual fig looked very pale)

had a similarly shocking bad case of transparant printing, so personally I'd say it started at least in 2017. In 2018 and 2019 it became worse as there were now several imfamous cases of it, such as

OW012 Mercy
https://brickset.com/minifigs/ow012

and NJO0390 Samurai X
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0390/samurai-x-(pixal-p-i-x-a-l-)-sons-of-garmadon-hunted-large-horns
(Official image. The actual fig looked very pale)

Part quality noticably declined in 2021 though in my experience, especially the horribly milky transparant color plastic that was introduced back then.

@Binnekamp said:
"For a moment I thought this was the Disney series CMF. That one felt so unworthy of being a CMF, and this just goes to show how it really just padded that series. We had the 2010 version before, and we had this Toy Story 4 version after...

@Fan_Of_Bricks as far as not layering enough for prints goes, the minifig from 2017's the Ninjago Movie

njo0412 Lady Iron Dragon
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0412
(Official image. The actual fig looked very pale)

had a similarly shocking bad case of transparant printing, so personally I'd say it started at least in 2017. In 2018 and 2019 it became worse as there were now several imfamous cases of it, such as

OW012 Mercy
https://brickset.com/minifigs/ow012

and NJO0390 Samurai X
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0390/samurai-x- (pixal-p-i-x-a-l-)-sons-of-garmadon-hunted-large-horns
(Official image. The actual fig looked very pale)

Part quality noticably declined in 2021 though in my experience, especially the horribly milky transparant color plastic that was introduced back then.
"

The "milky" transparent colors date back even further. I have that Hidden Side School Bus from 2019 and the windows are a mess. Not sure if that was an official statement or fan speculation, but it's said to be because of "increasing regulations" they switched from Polycarbonate to MABS...

But regarding quality there were several steps over the past decades. Still very annoyed about all the brittle browns from late 2000s...

Poor color matching (for plastics) seemingly started in 2004. There even was an official statement from that time that "[their] quality is too high" and they need to change that (which is a little bit connected to the whole close-to-bancruptcy thing, that is not as one-dimensional as everyone seems to think). That seemingly was also peak time for cracking/peeling stickers. Those started a bit earlier, but printed parts became drastically scarcer in mid 2000s, making the problem more common.

As for the prints, well it certainly was getting worse, but it rarely was perfect ever. The various mis-labelings of print colors on Bricklink etc. are good evidence of poor print color matching even in the 90s.

@Modeltrainman said:
"Not a flying toy."

or a leaf...
but it's not a bowl

Jango Fett in 2002 had problems.

@Norikins said:
"Is that really a chin or is it a weird circular goatee?"

Short answer, it’s supposed to represent the identical mark on the character’s chin. Long answer, it’s likely intended to indicate that the character the toy was modeled after had a cleft chin. They’re not very common, so it’s not a huge shock that nobody figured that out. Offhand, I think my mom’s brother was my only relative who had one. The younger sister of a former coworker briefly worked for my company, and is the only female I can recall meeting who had one. I know I’ve met a handful of others who had one, but I can’t recall any other specific people.

Basically, you need to be genetically predisposed to have one, plus I think you need a certain percentage of body fat in your facial structure to kind of “inflate” the skin immediately surrounding the cleft. The genetic component is likely recessive (neither my mom nor her sister have one), and now I’m wondering if it’s on the X-gene like Male Pattern Baldness. And if your face is too gaunt, even if you do have one, it’s not going to show.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Norikins said:
"Is that really a chin or is it a weird circular goatee?"

Short answer, it’s supposed to represent the identical mark on the character’s chin. Long answer, it’s likely intended to indicate that the character the toy was modeled after had a cleft chin. They’re not very common, so it’s not a huge shock that nobody figured that out. Offhand, I think my mom’s brother was my only relative who had one. The younger sister of a former coworker briefly worked for my company, and is the only female I can recall meeting who had one. I know I’ve met a handful of others who had one, but I can’t recall any other specific people.

Basically, you need to be genetically predisposed to have one, plus I think you need a certain percentage of body fat in your facial structure to kind of “inflate” the skin immediately surrounding the cleft. The genetic component is likely recessive (neither my mom nor her sister have one), and now I’m wondering if it’s on the X-gene like Male Pattern Baldness. And if your face is too gaunt, even if you do have one, it’s not going to show."

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LanternJawOfJustice

@Binnekamp said:
"For a moment I thought this was the Disney series CMF. That one felt so unworthy of being a CMF, and this just goes to show how it really just padded that series. We had the 2010 version before, and we had this Toy Story 4 version after...

@Fan_Of_Bricks as far as not layering enough for prints goes, the minifig from 2017's the Ninjago Movie

njo0412 Lady Iron Dragon
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0412
(Official image. The actual fig looked very pale)

had a similarly shocking bad case of transparant printing, so personally I'd say it started at least in 2017. In 2018 and 2019 it became worse as there were now several imfamous cases of it, such as

OW012 Mercy
https://brickset.com/minifigs/ow012

and NJO0390 Samurai X
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0390/samurai-x-(pixal-p-i-x-a-l-)-sons-of-garmadon-hunted-large-horns
(Official image. The actual fig looked very pale)
"

I would argue that the issue of light colored printing on dark minifigure head prints is far, far, older than that, and has almost never not been an issue. I know that my 2002 Jango Fett fig (one of the first Star Wars figs with a face printed on a black head, to allow for a face print on the old-style helmets which needed plain black to show through for the visor) had a very off-color print thanks to trying to print yellow on black similarly to the Lady Iron Dragon fig. So while I do think it's an issue when it occurs, the idea that it's a recent decline in quality as opposed to a consistent challenge when that sort of printing is required for fig designs doesn't exactly seem to be the case from my experience.