>>10536930Lego switched production on minifigs and certain accessories to Chinese factories around the time of the launch of the Collectible Minifig series. Those figures were the first to be completely composed of Chinese parts and were noticeably lower in quality- weaker plastic that was more transparent with prints that rubbed off easily. Many of my early collectible minifigs have cracked torsos and feet simply from display.
Even before that, lego also switched away from producing "glossy" minfig parts to matte, which imo made minifigs look cheaper.
