Please don’t get me wrong with the title here: I can find stickers to be as irritating as the next person. However, after looking at Stephanie’s House last week, I came to realise that some LEGO elements are used in a recurring fashion, but that the final appearance and effect is dependent on the labels used.
On this occasion, I am specifically thinking of the humble laptop computer. Design number 18659. This piece is currently available in two colours: black and medium lilac. It appeared in black in 2010, and medium lilac in 2016.
It appears simple enough: Slightly less than 3×4 studs in area when open, there are no clear system connections. No studs, no tubes, no clear handle. However, when closed, there is an indentation in the upper and lower parts of the laptop that accepts a clip type attacment such as a minifigure hand. Actually, when open, a lip along the bottom section allows a clip connection there as well.
Now, these laptops appear simple enough. But they are a little plain. I can see the benefit of only having one part, without printing it. From the manufacturing point of view: every new element – a part in a new colour – needs a new bin in the warehouse for storage. Once you go the next step, and print on that part, each printed design has a new element ID, and therefore requires a new place to store it too. For the MOC Builder, the role of this element is not locked in: It’s a little hard to pretend that a part printed with decorative bows is, in fact, a vital tool in the war against crime!
The medium lilac laptop (Element ID 6141902) appears in three distinct sets, all in the Friends theme: 41314 Stephanie’s House, as discussed already; 41115 Emma’s Creative Workshop and 41116 Olivia’s Exploration Car. Each set has a new sticker added to the sheet, which can (if you wish) be attached to the laptop present in the set, and allow you to give it an appearance of functionality.
Emma’s computer is focussed on different colours for clothing; Olivia is using her computer to help look into the night sky, and while this is going on, Stephanie is booking a holiday online. I love the way that the sticker acts like a snoop through the browser history in order to gain an insight into the mind of the computer’s owner…
But what about the black version(Element ID 6087083)? This was introduced in 2010, and has appeared in eleven sets. Have there been labels to provide screen content over this time?
Going back to 2015, Olivia had a black notebook, with different stellar images appearing on screen. It is so nice to see that she had the chance to upgrade since then: technology moves fast. This was included with the Heartlake Private Jet(41100), and another with the Heartlake Food Market (41108). But it has not just been limited to Friends! The laptop also featured in the Ultra Agents Mission HQ(70165), with some sensitive data ready to be stolen!
This black laptop also appears without a screen label, in the Heartlake Shopping Mall (41058), the Jungle Tree Sanctuary (41059), Heartlake High (41005), Andrea’s Bedroom (41009), CITY Airport VIP Service (60102) and several educational boxes of minifigures (9348, 45022).
Without the label, the laptop is a nice generic laptop. Like our own computers, the appearance can be customised to suit its user, or uses!
As you can see, the use of stickers transforms the context of the computer from the world of Agents or Aliens to Heartlake City, for retail or personal use! If you are using this element in the context of a MOC, it is useful to not have your machine defined as a spy buster or retail management system. If you using these sets in theme based play, then the display on the screen can make a huge difference to the way in which it might be interpreted. Having the choice to use them as you wish is part of the play. I find this amount of choice, for this type of element appealing.
Until then,
Play Well.
Ah, the old “stickers vs printed elements” argument.
I have to say that I’m less aggravated by stickers than most people seem to be. Yes, they’re a pain to get straight, and yes, they do come off after a while and get lost, or just start to look ratty and papery around the edges. Printed pieces look so much more professional somehow.
However, as you say, printed pieces are more expensive due not only to adding another process to the manufacture but also to the additional storage costs. This raises the set price per brick, which is something I pay attention to as I’m not made of money.
Also, the printed piece ties you into a single use. It’s all very well trying to use the blue elements from Jay’s dragon, for example, in a Classic Space MOC, but if they’re printed with lightning bolts and electrical designs it might detract from the look you’re after.
Of course, once a sticker has been applied I never peel it off again if I can avoid it (though I think my kids have done so a few times), so it’s functionally now like a printed piece, but there have been several sets where I’ve deliberately chosen to not apply the stickers just so I wasn’t so constrained in my piece usage for MOCs afterwards.
And sometimes I even want the stickers, such as the little “POLICE” sticker on a 1×2 tile that I acquired on my son’s sole City police chase set and never expected to use again, only to discover I actually wanted it for my first real-bricks Space Police MOC the other day.
At least they’ve stopped doing what they used to when I was a kid: making you assemble several bricks and then put a sticker over the top of it. Now _that_ was annoying.
Absolutely: so glad stickers never cross 2 bricks these days.
The other thing of interest is the longevity of stickers from the 6000 Ideas book, a little rubbed down on the edges of the brick they were attached to 40 years ago, but not peeling off or cracking. They don’t make them like they used to!
I think the laptop because of the flexibility of the hinge isn’t made of ABS but some other plastic possibly PE. they might have serious issues trying to print on other plastics than ABS.
That’s a great point that you raise. And even if it could be printed in, it may not have the same longevity as a ‘non flexing’ part