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Backstory: When I was a youngster in the 80's, I was a very big fan of LEGO. I collected and built many sets, and had many minifigures. I used to regularly switch around pieces to make the best looking minifigures. This included swapping out everything from torsos, heads, and hands, to arms, legs, and hips. I was aware of every detail. I loved when new sets would come out that had minifigures with more advanced details than in previous sets. New head prints, beyond the standard smile, were a step forward for LEGO as a company. I grew away from LEGO in my teens and twenties as I explored other hobbies and interests. When I returned to LEGO in my thirties, I was happy to see that this progress never stopped. LEGO was now printing on the legs and backs of minifigures, and their prints were looking better than ever. And this has continued to the present day, with new developments like side leg printing, arm printing, and dual molded parts. The point: LEGO has made considerable progress in the way that they detail their minifigures. They are capable of so much more now than they were 20-30 years ago. They have increased their standards of design again and again, constantly creating more and more detailed minifigures. But they don't seem to use these techniques as often as I would expect. Leg and back printing have become commonplace, but the more recent advances of side leg printing, arm printing, and dual molding are seen less frequently. Is it because they are new techniques? We see these advances in Collectible Minifigures, in Dimensions, in polybags, and in larger sets. If they can use these new techniques, then why aren't more sets including them? For example, why is it that they have made very detailed versions of C-3PO and Boba Fett from Star Wars in 2015, both of which include highly detailed printing, only to make less detailed versions of the same characters the next year in 2016 that lack these advances? It would seem to me that this is a step backwards in progress, a regression, stepping away from the design apex that was set only a year earlier. Do others see it this way? Some have made the point that the idea is to make more detailed minifigures exclusive, bringing more incentive to spend on more expensive sets. Does this not reduce the incentive to spend on the sets with newer, less detailed minifigures? Others have made the point that it would make the sets more expensive if they would include these details. Would it really increase the cost enough to be a big factor in the overall set price? Conclusion: What is the general concensus of the people on Eurobricks? As LEGO advances their techniques, should they make these advanced printing and molding techniques a new standard for minifigures, or should they keep these more detailed minifigures as exclusives and incentives?
