Our friends over at BrickArms were kind enough to send along a couple of their new direct-printed custom minifigs a while back, and they’re quite possibly the single greatest leap forward in minifig customization technology since Brasso.
Will Chapman uses a solvent inkjet printer that bonds the inks with the minifig’s ABS plastic, resulting in printing that I can’t distinguish from minifigs printed in a LEGO factory. And unlike the waterslide decals intended for “gentle play” or “display,” these are likely to withstand much heavier abuse.
I honestly haven’t oohed and aahed over a new BrickArms product in a couple of years, and kind of thought their ability to surprise me was long past. But I have to admit — perhaps a bit grudgingly — that these new direct-printed minifigs may be the coolest thing ever.
I got some for the charity sale and they’re the pinnacle of perfection.
Having seen and handled many of these in person, I’d have to agree. The quality is indistinguishable from official torsos. One of the truly amazing things you may not notice from this post is that the figs now have detailed printing on both the front and the back.
Will’s also been using the solvent printer to crank out all sorts of weapon accessories with camouflage printing on them, and they look amazing. Some of the camo patterns look better than others, but the print quality is as good as the figs.
IANAN
Worker, I think I’ve seen you use that acronym before, but I can’t for the life of me deduce what it means. Google tells me that it stands for “I am not a neurologist”, but that raises more questions than it answers.
^ I am not a Nazi. Which is the standard defense given by anyone who is celebrating the WW2 German military and/or history of the National Socialist party. Can be used earnestly, as in “I am not a Nazi, but I think the Panzer tanks looked pretty cool.” Or it can be used accidentally ironically, as in “I am not a Nazi, but I read Mein Kampf and a lot of it made sense to me.” The key to the humor of IANAN is that on its own it has no context, so you can’t tell if the author is a Nazi or not.