HomeOther Fake Lego building blocks from Aliexpress Other Aliexpress is full of lego replicas, does anyone bought them, and can say something about it's build quality? I'm sure it shouldn't be stored together with regular Lego blocks, but if these are taken as a separate product, can this replicas be used without any unexpected issues? You might be interested in the excellent, hilarious and comprehensive Communist LEGO report. It tells you all you can expect, from the good brands to the bad brands. At a minimum, it'll get you rolling of your chair with laughter. A summary taken from the document: LEGO is a global brand and has been the subject of many copies over the years. The US company Tyco were the first with ‘Super Blocks’ in 1984, after LEGO’s brick patent expired in 1983. Almost every attempt at cloni ng has been inferior, mainly due to production costs being lower resulting in inferior grade materials and poor fitting pieces.
Set design has generally varied from mediocre to rubbish. invigorated factories of China have begun to chu rn out variousIt’s worth noting that the potential Chinese domestic market is far, far larger than that of Europe and America combined . There are many Chinese companies making LEGO copies, with new ones starting up at an astounding rate. seems to be endemic, taking advantage of enormous demand for collectable box sets that LEGO cannot do due to contractualA brief trawl of the AliExpress export website finds a list of 50 companies making plastic building blocks, with probably at least half doing LEGO clones. Most if not all are based in Chenghai, the toy capital of China. Some companies appear to source their products from each other and subcontract, so working out exactly who makes which branded kits is not always str aightforward. are of random quality and there is a lot of chaff andThe following is an incomplete list of some of the more
By the time you read this, there willIt is interesting to note that many Far East websites list the keyword ‘Enlighten’ above ‘LEGO’. Net: Some knock-off brands are getting really good and compare in quality with LEGO. Some are absolutely horrific. Some are complete cloners (and will likely disappear soon when the LEGO lawyers swoop in), some have found a niche that LEGO doesn't cover and will likely stay around. I should post the answer as a comment to Phil B.'s post, but since it contains some useful content for the others, it will also be an answer. First of all Phil B. thanks for the link, that's exactly what i was looking for and i will mark it as an accepted answer. After reading the PDF, here is the summary of which blocks can we risk buying and which to avoid. Lego (99) - obviously - http://amzn.to/1NcybMJ Gudi (99) - http://bit.ly/1hCKxCp Star Diamond (99) - http://bit.ly/1Gd5Mq7 Lite-Up Bricks (97) - this one are interesting, bring Led lighting powered by USB port.
Click Brick (93) - not produced anymore Oxford Toys / Kre-o (90) - http://hasb.ro/1jodMec Cobi (87) - http://amzn.to/1jyUFxs LELE (-79) - I don't know how did they come below 0, but they did it. Decool blocks didn't have a little lower rating, but after checking the online reviews - they are a good quality too - http://bit.ly/1OvZpkF Thanks for checking the list I've bought some sci-fi military-themed sets from Gudi, and this is my opinion: Plastic quality is almost on par with Lego, albeit a bit harder. Minifig are slightly less good. They seemed to have a quite good model designer in 2014-15: there are some sci-fi and military kits that actually look good. However, 2016 models marked a step backward, IMHO. I blogged my adventures with Gudi here: http://bricks.lamboz.net/tag/gudi.html (in Italian, sorry!) My son got a LELE set and I am really impressed! The quality is VERY good, the pieces are totally regular like a LEGO, it has some sticks to glue on some pieces and I really believe these sets are the best clones in China.
The manual for assembling is perfect, LEGO like, all the pieces match perfectly. LEGO forgive me, but this LELE is a high quality copy. And it has several languages stamped in the box, and as far as I know, they are spelled correctly (many chinese products have lousy translations). Browse other questions tagged building sets or ask your own question.I have a unhealthy fascination with Chinese LEGO knock-offs, and we've published several articles, like this one, about the rubbish that's available in markets across the far east in the past. I think it's because I find it incredible that the stuff, which violates so many intellectual properties, is being made at all. Brickset member woodywood currently resides in Shanghai so sees a lot of the junk first-hand. He's kindly sent me some minifig packs so I can see how bad they are for myself. Warning: this article contains disturbing images and strong language. First under inspection is JLB's (Jai Li Bo toys) Anna from Frozen. The box certainly looks attractive, and very LEGO-like.
The contents, the figure and cards, are well packaged in heat-sealed bags. Unfortunately, that's all I have good to say about it. Once you open the packet it's immediately apparent what rubbish this is. Now, when I watched Frozen I'm sure Anna was a fair-skinned girl with what the Disney wiki calls 'long strawberry-blonde hair' in ponytails and a long-flowing blue dress and red cape. I must assume that a different version was shown in China because this figure has a blue crop-top and an impressive tan... :-) As you can see the figure needs to be assembled from the cheap plastic parts, some of which are still on their sprue. The joints are loose and it's difficult to get the hair to stay on. A flower is thrown in for good measure. The best part of it is the trading cards... Next under the microscope is Star Wars Han Solo by Bom Bom. Again, the box, a good rip-off of a real LEGO one, and the packaging is not bad, but it soon becomes apparent that the photo on the front is that of the LEGO version of the figure, not the one in the box.
The arms and hands are not pre-assembled and if I had to guess I'd say the plastic used is polystyrene rather than ABS. The parts are very badly moulded and have sprue marks in prominent places. The hair fits better than on Anna, but once on it's impossible to get it off!. It bears a passing resemblance to the image on the box, but the printing is absolutely shockingly bad. Once again, the best part of the set are the cards, which have the appearance that they are part of some sort of game but the numbers and information is all rubbish. Collectors will want the whole set of them, I'm sure... Frankly they are complete and utter rubbish and I would not wish them on any child. Not only are they terrible quality and possibly made from unsafe materials, but in the case of Anna, in particular, the contents of the box bears no resemblance to what you think you're buying which can only result in disappointment. I know you won't need me to tell you this, but steer well clear!