Lego Minifig Rectangles

[Dralcax]

What is the purpose of those white or or black rectangles printed on most minifig necks? The collectible minifigs don't have them, but several of my minifigs have those mysterious rectangles on the necks, covered by the head when assembled. Do those rectangles serve any purpose?

[Daiker]

Perhaps to preserve ink?Or maybe it's some sort of indicator as to the model/time period it was made?

[FrozenFlash]

I don't think those rectangles even serve any purpose. I'm pretty sure they're just some spots of paint or ink.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Veigar's Shadow

[Bfahome]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

[Plague]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

Yeah, but collectible minifigs are mass-produced too, right? So why don't THEY have them?

[Ballom Nom Nom]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

Yeah, but collectible minifigs are mass-produced too, right? So why don't THEY have them?

Probably to improve the appearances, as they are meant to be display pieces of sorts.~B~

[Bfahome]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

Yeah, but collectible minifigs are mass-produced too, right? So why don't THEY have them?

Probably to improve the appearances, as they are meant to be display pieces of sorts.~B~

But the patch wouldn't be seen; it's be covered by the head.The minifig sets, as well as some of the figure packs (like for the Pirates theme), use torsos that don't have the neck print on them. People tend, or tended, to associate this with cheaper-looking plastic and being made in China, though the connection is dubious at best. However, the earlier minifigs without the neck patch did appear to be of a different quality than the ones that came in sets, so there might be a different process for producing minifigs for figure packs and collectibles than for normal sets.

[Chols]

If you look closely, you can tell that the collectible minifigures are made with different manufacturing machines (look under the arms, you'll notice small grooves not present on minifigures in sets). From my understanding, these pieces are made with newer machines that use a different method to tell which side is the front. this means they don't need to use a patch of ink on the stud to identify it. My guess is that they have different, newer machines for minifigure-only products (Minifigures and Vintage Minifigures series) since they are packaged differently from regular sets.Of course all these differences are not visible on a fully assembled figure, so it's not a big deal.

[Dralcax]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

So how do the machines indicate which side to put the neck mark on?

[Lyichir]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

So how do the machines indicate which side to put the neck mark on?

I'm pretty sure the neck mark goes on at the same time as the torso printing, before the arms go on. Then the arm attaching machine "reads" the neck print so that it knows which way the arms go. Obviously this doesn't apply with the newer machines, particularly those at the Chinese plant. I facepalmed when people started taking the lack of neck printing as another "sign" of Chinese parts being lower quality, ignoring that the fact that they no longer needed that printing signified a step up!

[T.B.O.C]

The ink is there to keep the minifigure head on the neck, it keeps it on rather stiffly, and you can see the difference with older minifigs that have had this worn off, they are really loose.

[Dralcax]

The ink is there to keep the minifigure head on the neck, it keeps it on rather stiffly, and you can see the difference with older minifigs that have had this worn off, they are really loose.

So why aren't the collectible minifigs easily decapitated? I'm going with the arm theory.

[T.B.O.C]

The ink is there to keep the minifigure head on the neck, it keeps it on rather stiffly, and you can see the difference with older minifigs that have had this worn off, they are really loose.

So why aren't the collectible minifigs easily decapitated? I'm going with the arm theory.

They are manufactured differently, and in vast numbers, more so than normal minifigs, it would be a waste of ink to do so. In my own experiences, the CM necks look slightly thinker than normal minifigure necks. That may just be me, however.

[Aanchir]

I think they're probably there to indicate which side of the torso is the front. I don't know much about the manufacturing process, but I imagine the torsos are printed before the arms are attached, and the mark would make it easier to tell which side each arm goes on.

So how do the machines indicate which side to put the neck mark on?

I'm pretty sure the neck mark goes on at the same time as the torso printing, before the arms go on. Then the arm attaching machine "reads" the neck print so that it knows which way the arms go. Obviously this doesn't apply with the newer machines, particularly those at the Chinese plant. I facepalmed when people started taking the lack of neck printing as another "sign" of Chinese parts being lower quality, ignoring that the fact that they no longer needed that printing signified a step up!

This is exactly the reason why the neck mark exists on minifigures from older factories and not on ones from the Chinese plant.

The ink is there to keep the minifigure head on the neck, it keeps it on rather stiffly, and you can see the difference with older minifigs that have had this worn off, they are really loose.

This has nothing to do with it. The printing adds no considerable thickness, and the only reason older minifigures might be looser is because the same connecting and disconnecting that caused the printing to wear away likely also loosened the connection. If you were to remove the printing from a minifigure neck by some means other than friction (which didn't affect the plastic itself), the connectivity would still be exactly the same.

[Black Six]

Question answered.Thread closed.