Lego Pirates Decal and Weapon Problems

[Andre1983nl]

It's probably just the weak acid on your fingers that have slowly worn it off, and the Lego color gold is easier to wear off than all the normal colors.

I agree with this.

I build a model kit (revell) of large sailship and the copper/gold seens never to dry. but that is of the acid/dirty fingers

And some "new"lego bricks/parts are indeed of softer materials.

I got some 2009 pirates sets and if i compare them with my first 1989 sets ..... is older better

[evendor]

Maybe they has do it because then we dont can get so many of them, then they earn more money, and we get not so many soilders

[Jack-O-lantern]

Woah, Good thing I looked at this, Otherwise My Pirate figure(LOL ONLY 1) Would be as Bad as doom can get!

[Scouty]

Well I do make brickfilms with them

Don't put the lights too close to the set. Place them at a good distance away.

[Lord Augusta]

sad, sad to hear about the new lego having more and more problems.

first is the design, being more childish and offering less brick.

the only improvement is the minifigs printing beautiful than the old pirates, however the quality.........first is report on using cheapo plastic in TTT and the chess set, which disappoint me and give up buying the chess set.....

and now even the gold print will fade...

will there be anymore up coming complaint? really wish LEGO control their quality carefully.

Nevertheless, I believe it only happen in some minifigs ( maybe made in different country).

I also has that blue coat pirate minifigs, I hv MOC its colour before, paint the blue to black, and I hv been wash off the paint again by alcohol several times, the gold paint didnt fade even in alcohol.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Lord Augusta

[curtisrlee]

Don't put the lights too close to the set. Place them at a good distance away.

I dont

[Admiral M]

However my Imperial Admiral (or Governor), Which is as old as the old soldier shown above,

is unaffected...

Not quite... If you look at a new imperial governor, you will find that the printing is slightly blurred.

[Piterio]

wash your hands before handling them

Hello hand-washers! Let me say something.

Legos are (or were) produced mostly for kids. Now imagine 9-year old (or whatever) boy who gets back from the outside, and then grabs his awesome minifig of a pirate from Creator. About half a year he doesn't want it anymore. Why? Because minifig's awesome gold decals are completely gone. Pirate looses about 50% of his awesomness. And he just played it with quite clean hands.

Now - pirate from 89' - He can play with him many many years and the gold decal of his belt is not fading away.

Newer one cannot be washed by water, older can.

So why older ones are better? Because they were made from better plastic and paint. Because lego cared abbout playability.

And most important - those minifigs are designed for kids, not forelders, who always wash rheir hands and play in gloves!

And one more thing - i can understand why silver/gold decal of sword is fading - because I played it a lot, and it just snaps NOT fades. And it takes about two/three years. Quite impressive, huh? Now - I taken pirate in pencil case twice. Nothing happened. It was standing near the stearing, standing on the deck, carrying indiana jones bag.

And after half'a year... gold trimmlings gone.

MOREOVER

Remember governor's daughter? Her upper gold decals got worse - now they're bronze. Funny thing that the lower part ("dress") doesn't changed. Because it's regular lego brick. So now i have governor's daughter with bronze and shiny gold belt. Looks awful. Now I got creator pirate with almost faded gold decals (even in the back), now I got pirate with faded three buttons and two faded in the back. And of course two Imperials with faded buttons. One - with regular backpack - still has gold decals on his printed bag on the back.

Stored in normal room, with air conditioning, regular lightings, stored sometimes on the air, sometimes in plastic container. And nothing changed till this moment. They faded away just like that.

LEGO I don't know you anymore. What kind of paintings you use nowadays?

[Piterio]

remove something went wrong...

Edited November 12, 2009 by Piterio

[David Thomsen]

I have a question about the durability of a particular Lego piece, and here seems as good a place as any to ask...

When I was a kid, it always seemed to me that every small pirate flag I ever owned had a broken clip. I'm not sure if I was too rough with the pieces, or if they were just very fragile, but I couldn't seem to own a set for two days without the flag piece breaking. I went through a fair amount of 'buried treasure' sets, just because it was the cheapest way to get new pirate flags.

Now whenever I get a flag piece in a set I shudder slightly, just because I remember them being so breakable. I handle them as carefully as I can and sigh in relief whenever they click onto something without breaking.

I just need to know... am I being overly cautious, or are those pieces actually as fragile as I remember them being? I haven't broken any since I started collecting them as an adult, so I'm just wondering if they're always going to snap eventually if I keep using them, or if I do have to mishandle them pretty badly.

Looking at the Imperial Flagship with four flag pieces on each side of the ship, I begin to feel slightly nervous...

[Rick]

I remember some (not too many) broken clips from my childhood as well, but they seem to be making them of a softer plastic nowadays that keeps them from breaking too easily.

[Captain M]

Same with this one, he's supposed to have some gold trimmings but they're gone

Oh, you too? I can tell mine is starting to fade away, and that was my favorite pirate minifigure.

[Commodore_Norrington]

i think i have the same problem with the gold marking

one of my admiral gold mark is already turn into brown

and i have about 20 police minifigs and more than 15 have lost their shiny gold badge...

so sad....

[Swash Buckler]

Hi, I searched but found no topic like this one (even though i'm a horrible searcher)

I noticed some fading gold decals on the 2009 Pirates line and the Muskets and Swords seem to wear more easily than the pistols

The Gold:

On the left is a old torso, on the right is a newer one. Notice how the Gold button is faded...

One of my redcoats have identical problem- i noticed it yesterday- i haven't done anything strange to that torso but it is only one which is faded- i have even used others with armorplate and they are not faded but this one is

[Enigma-85]

Well that's pretty bad, they shouldn't wear off after such a short time no matter what you're doing with them (well, unless you were intentionally stripping the decals off, in which case yeah they should disappear in a short time, but I'm assuming you're not doing that!). My old Roger Redbeard, from the first Pirates sets, has seen his dazzling gold adornments fade a little over the last twenty years, but that's pretty impressive. This... this is poor. It's sad to see the quality dwindle so much after all those years of greatness.

[Destroydacre]

That's pretty sad, but it is good to know. I rarely handle my figs and when I do, I always hold them on the sides, so I haven't had any problems. Still as many have stated it's a toy designed for children first so this will probably be a pretty common occurrence. For any ebayers out there, I'd make sure to double check all photos before buying figs for your armies!

[Erdbeereis]

Hm, I'll have to check, but I don't think I've had any problem with that yet. Hopefully it stays that way.

Then again, I hardly ever touch my figs, unless I'm using them for a MOC.

[harrysnapperorgans]

I wonder if it has anything to go with finger acid?

I'm a guitarist.

New guitar strings last me quite a long time without getting rusty or tarnished. A while ago, I lent a friend a guitar for a 4 day tour. I gave it to him with brand new strings, and when I got it back 5 days later, those strings were wrecked, rusty, dull and tarnished. His sweat was so acidic that those strings lasted only 4 gigs. I can make a set of strings last 10/15 gigs.

So I wonder if those who are having issues with gold paint coming off have more acidic finger oils, causing the metalic pigment to wear fast?

[Sir Norman Ray]

It's not just the pirates.

This link here, outs you to a few of my pictures of Major Norman Ray. If you look closely, the gold buckly and stars on the Soviet Colonel uniform have faded. Now the figure is probably a year old by my books, I'm not too sure when I it. Now I do admit I do handle my figures a bit much, combined with going to Seattle in October, but the paint just isn't lasting!

-Sir Norman "But I'm not moaning that much. THos Soviet symbols annoyed me." Ray.

[Captain M]

I agree with harrysnapperorgans's post. There's one way to prove it. Notice the new Gold Coins? Take one and place it in your hand. Rub it; then look at your hand. See the tiny gold paint in your hand? Most likely this is caused by finger acid.

[Piterio]

Oh my... I managed to buy second pirate guy with lovely gold decals. I think I will just store him in lego plastic bag - just because I'm afraid of ripping off gold decals.

You are talking about gold coins. They seem to be ok, but I am not rubbing them too much. (actually they' re stored inside chest all the time :D).

Some of you mentioned that broke the flag clips, when you were younger. Strange... my old flags are in good shape, considering that I used them a lot. One flagfrom material lost all his "pike-holes" but I used it as a superhero cape (In mid-nineties there was no jedi robes yet :D).

Here we are talking about adult (well, if 19-year old man is actually adult) who grabs minifigs, stares at their decals, gives them a weapon and places on the deck/island/whenever. Then after half a year I took them and watched, how gold decals faded out.

I made a test: I placed one new Imperial Soldier in the same place... nothing happened. I placed old-series pirate - still nothing. So where is the problem? Is it acid for real, or sudden change of climate? Because I took some pirates with me to another city for a while ( I just couldn't leave them... ern... alone? :D ).

Suprisingly all of my Knights from fantasy era castle are okay (Remember, that some of them have golden crown decal on their bodies). And I used them the same way, like pirates. Hoveover there were rumors, that some people have problem with those minifigs.

Lego group should consider this, and improove the quality of golden paint. Maybe using materials from 20 years ago could help? (Golden decals on the belts of old-series pirates are all IN GREAT CONDICION! And then I used to play with them a lot)

Sad and fragile.

[David Thomsen]

Does anyone know a quick way to test your own skin acidity level? My girlfriend thinks that everyone has the same skin acidity, but harrysnapperorgans' anecdote suggest otherwise.

I tried googling it, but all I could find were a bunch of expensive tests I don't feel like paying for. Something involving common household products would be much better.

Edited November 20, 2009 by David Thomsen