UCS plaques will be printed in the future
Posted by CapnRex101,
Huw and I are currently attending Fan Media Days in Billund and had an opportunity to ask some questions about 75331 The Razor Crest, alongside our colleagues from other outlets.
Perhaps the most exciting answer was confirmation, following a question from Solid Brix Studios, that the plaques in Ultimate Collector Series sets will be printed in the future.
No timescale has been given for the change, so the plaque in 75331 The Razor Crest is stickered and the update may not apply to the next UCS set either, but it will be coming soon...
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61 comments on this article
About time
At last
I guess they have to increase the prices again for this modern technology. Waiting for the first UCS to be 4-digit.
The extra cost will be in the proofreaders they’ll need to hire to eliminate spelling and fact errors
Mmm... printed spelling mistakes
I would assume then that this will lead to the plaques being smaller overall - like the buildable Droid plaques. I hope not. From my perspective, the stickered plaques are not all that terrible.
Finally
I mean, neat, but not if the print quality is bad.
I never use them anyway. Plate goes in the spares box, sticker stays on the sheet. With this in mind I hope the printed plaques don’t increase the price of the set :-/
With so many spelling mistakes and false infos on the specs persisting, isn't this creating a bunch of waste with the first wave of 8x16 tiles of every single UCS set?
The plaque is the last thing that needs to be printed. They should eliminate prints for the outer details of models first.
The Technic Ferrari Daytona had a printed plaque and that looked just fine.
Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake.
@CapnRex101 said:
"Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake."
Is that the name having the “The” in standard font and “Razor Crest” in italics or even that it has the “The” at all?
Though looking at the images of the box, it is the same only having “Razor Crest” in italics. With 75192 they just had it as “Millennium Falcon”, no “the’s” to worry about
@IgelCampus said:
"I guess they have to increase the prices again for this modern technology. Waiting for the first UCS to be 4-digit."
Or even the first retail set to reach 1000
A plaque is, by several orders of magnitude, the least important sticker to replace with a print. Other than making any moulding mark more easily visible!
I'm not a fan of this. If you look at the most recent Lego Technic supercar, the printed Plague was terrible.
The printing was low quality, and the mold mark in the middle was too noticeable.
As soon as we get paper bags ;)
@CapnRex101 said:
"Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake."
The ‘h’ in ‘The Razor Quest’ being taller than the upper case ‘T’ it is next to ie. different font size?
@CapnRex101 said:
"Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake."
Looks like the "e" in the "The" of "The Razor Crest" is italicised, but the rest of the world "The" is not.
The Razor Crest plaque says "m"
All the plaques I know say "meters"
It is not consistent.
I guess the error on the plaque might actually be the TM (as trademark) should be at the top after Crest, not at the bottom
I'm actually pretty happy about this, the 8x16 UCS plaques are some of the most difficult stickers to get properly aligned. They're rectangular, which is helpful, but at that scale any minor misalignment whatsoever when starting to place the sticker propagates into noticable crookedness by the time the whole sticker is placed down. And the large area makes it difficult to pull up to try again. 97% of the time I roll my eyes at people whining about stickers, but UCS plaques are one of the very few instances where I believe the hate is justified.
Nice change indeed...
... but everything in the more expensive D2C sets should be printed imho, we pay premium and should be getting premium in return.
@IgelCampus said:
"I guess they have to increase the prices again for this modern technology. Waiting for the first UCS to be 4-digit."
In Canada we already have 4 digit prices after the latest round if price increases: both the UCS Falcon and AT-AT are $1050
@IgelCampus said:
"I guess they have to increase the prices again for this modern technology. Waiting for the first UCS to be 4-digit."
Been that way for a few in Australia, this is only $900, a bargain ! /s
@IgelCampus said:
"I guess they have to increase the prices again for this modern technology. Waiting for the first UCS to be 4-digit."
Death Star II re-make
It's bloody time. For what Lego costs there should be no stickers involved in any build.
@CapnRex101 said:
"Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake."
Shouldn't the Razor Crest be about 14 meters long? But that is a factual error.
The error I had in mind actually relates to the blue image of the Razor Crest on the plaque; the left engine, close to the edge of the plaque, specifically.
I usually don’t bother assembling the plaque when a set includes one, but fewer stickers is good.
@darthnorman said:
"As soon as we get paper bags ;)"
Well they've made it into a few instruction books... can't rush them with the real thing!
I've ALWAYS wanted printed plaques and printed elements for UCS sets but now thinking about it, with so many 'errors', maybe it's best to have stickers?
And like some others have said, unless they solved the injection mold area to disguise it more, maybe it's best left as a sticker?
Maybe smaller plaque but bolder, larger more opaque type face.
yay
This was always the most baffling to me . . . how did the very expensive UCS sets have stickers for the plaques?
Especially considering that much cheaper sets like 4+ have no printing.
This is the way.
@IgelCampus said:
"I guess they have to increase the prices again for this modern technology. Waiting for the first UCS to be 4-digit."
They are 4 digits in Canada
@CapnRex101 said:
"The error I had in mind actually relates to the blue image of the Razor Crest on the plaque; the left engine, close to the edge of the plaque, specifically."
That is very odd. Two of the four front-facing curved bricks have been left off. Good spot!
The year is 2032. xLEGOstarwarsfanx_1995, the disgruntled Disney Star Wars collector, stares menacingly at the printed UCS plate for his Lego set 69420 F-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars Episode LCXVII: The Return Of Luke Skywalker Revisited: Revelations.
He seethes at the clear factual error that specifies the wingspan as 37 metres and not 37 meters. He holds back tears, his perception of fandom inferiority saturating his cold Jedi-loving heart the same way that the midichlorians saturated the new supersonic Jedi character from Star Wars Episode LCXVI - a plot point that he still argues about on Twitter to this day. Even the mere thought of that scene where Clone Trooper D-4NK M3M35 smacks his shoulder pad against the Wampa's knee makes him want to pick up the set and throw it against the floor.
If only Lego had listened to the fans and given them what they wanted, when they wanted it!
An idea comes to his mind, at last - a desperate revelation that, if fully realized, will be the true salvation of the beloved galaxy far, far away. He hastily grabs a piece of paper and scribbles the correct statistics for the F-Wing, then, with graceful, Force-sensitive dexterity and grace, glues it to the printed plate. A brilliant solution to a long-lasting problem. Has he finally done it? Has he created the ultimate solution to UCS display plates? Some sort of adhesive labeling mechanism?
Epiphany. Pure, raw, unadulterated epiphany.
He smiles, then logs into Brickset VR - ready to enlighten the other Lego Star Wars fans with his grand revelation. The world will be changed forever.
Since LEGO also retroactively increased prices of sets already produced and in shelves, then the minimally decent thing to do would be to provide printed plaques to the owners of currently available UCS models and switch them on the currently for sale too.
Of course, LEGO being LEGO, they'll hike the price of the upcoming UCS sets even more and don't give anything away because "money".
White printing on a black piece? Trading one issue for another! :)
@B_Space_Man said:
"White printing on a black piece? Trading one issue for another! :) "
Truth.
We AFOLs are finally getting what we asked for: the usual misspellings, factual inaccuracies and now (possibly) illegible / smudged parts and very faint writing. But as a PRINTED piece!
If I was Lego Quality Control I'd be tearing my hair out at this decision...
Y'all are impossible to please. You've been asking for years for printed plaques, and now that they say they're going to do it, you immediately complain about that too
@hamMOC said:
"Y'all are impossible to please. You've been asking for years for printed plaques, and now that they say they're going to do it, you immediately complain about that too"
Because people have been asking for quality printed plaques and are certain LEGO will not deliver. If only they could afford someone to proofread those plaques AND use printing machines that weren't cobbled together from junk in someone's basement, I'm sure you wouldn't see as many complaints here (that from what I see are still mostly snarky comments made in jest and not the usual "the world is ending" stuff you see in other articles).
Of all the printing topics I’d like to see fixed, this would be the last. I own a few sets with these plaques...do people really care that much that they’re printed? Wouldn’t minifg printing be a better use of labor/cost? Or parts for the actual ships? This doesn’t seem like much of a win.
I'd rather see prints in the builds themselves, but as a card-carrying sticker hater I'll take whatever I can get.
The important follow-up question to this would have been if they plan to impose a rule about avoiding the dimple where the gate is located. With stickers, there were always complaints about how the dimple would make the sticker prone to damage, but now it just won't receive any printing because there won't be any contact with the pad.
@CCC:
The plaques were never consistent during the early years anyways, and have changed quite a bit as new elements (like the 8x16 tile) became available.
@Anonym:
Plaques have been a sticking point because they are much more difficult to apply nicely than just about any other sticker they've ever produced. The large size not only makes them difficult to handle off the backing, but the large size compounds any minor errors in alignment.
@LegoMike:
The "f" in "forward" looks taller than the "T" in "Two" (the "h" in "heavy" is too isolated to compare), so it could just be a quirky aspect of the font they used, and a reason that font ends up on "worst font" lists written by font snobs everywhere.
@GBP_Chris said:
"The year is 2032. xLEGOstarwarsfanx_1995, the disgruntled Disney Star Wars collector, stares menacingly at the printed UCS plate for his Lego set 69420 F-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars Episode LCXVII: The Return Of Luke Skywalker Revisited: Revelations.
He seethes at the clear factual error that specifies the wingspan as 37 metres and not 37 meters. He holds back tears, his perception of fandom inferiority saturating his cold Jedi-loving heart the same way that the midichlorians saturated the new supersonic Jedi character from Star Wars Episode LCXVI - a plot point that he still argues about on Twitter to this day. Even the mere thought of that scene where Clone Trooper D-4NK M3M35 smacks his shoulder pad against the Wampa's knee makes him want to pick up the set and throw it against the floor.
If only Lego had listened to the fans and given them what they wanted, when they wanted it!
An idea comes to his mind, at last - a desperate revelation that, if fully realized, will be the true salvation of the beloved galaxy far, far away. He hastily grabs a piece of paper and scribbles the correct statistics for the F-Wing, then, with graceful, Force-sensitive dexterity and grace, glues it to the printed plate. A brilliant solution to a long-lasting problem. Has he finally done it? Has he created the ultimate solution to UCS display plates? Some sort of adhesive labeling mechanism?
Epiphany. Pure, raw, unadulterated epiphany.
He smiles, then logs into Brickset VR - ready to enlighten the other Lego Star Wars fans with his grand revelation. The world will be changed forever.
"
Bravo!
@GBP_Chris: You don't know how Roman numerals work, do you? "LCXVII" doesn't make any sense. It would basically be fifty-one-hundred-seventeen.
I'd like to see printed plaques use design number 6178 - Tile, Modified 6 x 12 with Studs on Edges. A nice, shiny surface.
I prefer stickered. Blank 8x16 tiles are more useful in MOCing.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @GBP_Chris: You don't know how Roman numerals work, do you? "LCXVII" doesn't make any sense. It would basically be fifty-one-hundred-seventeen."
I put as much effort into that numeral as the writers for Star Wars Ep. XIIIVCLZ will put into the script in 2032.
@CapnRex101 said:
"Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake."
Shouldn't it be "forward mounted" (without the hyphen)?
@CartoonKid: That would be a good idea. Could use tiles (whether printed or not, or maybe grille tile) to make a decorative border.
If Lego could get rid of stickers on a large scale...
@TheOtherMike:
The only hard and fast rule for Roman numerals is that a smaller number written to the left of a bigger number is subtracted, and to the right it is added. Everything else is modern contrivance for ease of translation. You can legitimately write the number nine as XI, VIIII, IIIIIIIII, VXIIII, or IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL.
At these prices they shouldn't have stickers full stop!
@Wrecknbuild said:
" @CapnRex101 said:
"Speaking of mistakes, has anyone spotted the error on the Razor Crest plaque? It is extremely subtle and not a factual mistake."
Shouldn't it be "forward mounted" (without the hyphen)?"
No.
@PurpleDave said:
" @TheOtherMike:
The only hard and fast rule for Roman numerals is that a smaller number written to the left of a bigger number is subtracted, and to the right it is added. Everything else is modern contrivance for ease of translation. You can legitimately write the number nine as XI, VIIII, IIIIIIIII, VXIIII, or IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL."
IX not XI.
(Finally my Asterix collection pays off!)
@TheRichrocker:
…
And welcome to “Why we use Arabic numerals instead.”
Maybe get rid of stickers altogether? LEGO is a premium product isn’t it?
I hope it won't lead to "printed plaques with mistakes" followed by "corrective stickers" to hide the errors