Stomper LegoStomper 70145Stomper KidsLego Chima SetsChima 70145Chima FireMaulas IceMammoth StomperChima SummerForwardTyler loves any of the Chima Lego stuff....but they are pretty expensiveLast month I decided to order some of the fake lego that's readily being sold on sites like AliExpress. It's finally arrived now and here are my first impressions. I ordered three different sets, ranging in size from a few hundred bricks to a few thousand bricks. They were a mix of the 'Lepin' and 'Legeod' brands. The sets were: 2016 LEPIN 05028 Star Wars Execytor Super Star Destroyer, 2016 Legeod Star Wars AT-DP and the Star Wars Legeod Poe's X-Wing. None of the sets came boxed and all my sets were packaged together in what looked like a big plastic mailing satchel. The overall packaging was something to be desired, but it worked. Inside was a load of bubble wrap to protect the kits. The sticky tape that was used to hold bubble wrap in place got stuck to some of the brick bags. When I tried to remove the tape it unfortunately tore some of the bags is places.
Just goes to show how low quality the bags are. All of the kits had instruction booklets inside, the quality of those booklets looked pretty good but I've not had the time to open them up yet for a better look. Graphics on these booklets were a complete rip off of course, with just the logos changed around. There is a combination of 'STAR WNRS' and 'SPACE WARS' in use. It looks like the bigger kit (the Imperial Star Destroyer) which has over 3000 bricks has several brick bags inside. That's exactly how the real Lego is packaged so at least it wasn't all just shoved into a single bag and shipped. In terms of price, it cost me around the $200 (AUD) for all three kits plus the shipping from China. This is probably around 10% of the price if I were to buy the originals. I'm going to build one of these soon and will talk about quality in more detail once I've opened the bags up and had a chance to play with the bricks a bit more. Legeod Star Wars AT-DP Minifig review
Legeod Star Wars AT-DP kit review - part 1 Legeod Star Wars AT-DP kit review - part 2A longtime Lego collector, she has sets that date to the 1980s. “I obsessively organize them,” she said. “Everything is separated by type and color. I have file folders I use to organize all the instructions.” So with help from her two daughters, she completed the Taj Mahal in five days and posted a time-lapse video on YouTube. Videos like these are one reason sales of construction toys have surged. They can mix and match multiple entertainment properties — such as a “Simpsons” character using a castle from Disney’s “Frozen” or “Star Wars” and Halo characters engaged in a battle — and they encourage fans to show off their creativity and building skills. “User-generated content has drawn a lot of attention to the brands,” said Jim Silver, the editor of TTPM, a toy review website. “You could have a Scooby Doo set and find Darth Vader inside.” Lego, the undisputed construction toy king, has more than doubled its profits in the last five years and many of its sets are top sellers during the holiday season.
Its success and the fact that it lost a long-running trademark battle over the interlocking brick in 2010 have encouraged competition. Big toy makers like Hasbro, Mattel and Spin Master have also turned to construction toys to help bolster their sales. And smaller companies like the Bridge Direct, Cobi and OYO Sports have entered the field, putting more pressure on Lego. Interest in construction toys has even led to a secondary market of brick rentals.Lego’s competitors say they want to distinguish themselves from their biggest rival. MEGA Brands, a subsidiary of Mattel and Lego’s closest rival, goes “above and beyond the squares and rectangles,” said Andrew Sparkes, vice president for global brand marketing at MEGA Brands. “We are creating some of the most realistic sets out there,” he said, including sets based on the Halo video games and the movie “Terminator Genisys.” MEGA recently signed licensing deals for the classic “Star Trek” TV series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.MEGA Brands was acquired by Mattel in 2014 in a deal that increased MEGA Brands’ worldwide distribution, said Gerrick Johnson, analyst for BMO Capital Markets.
That global reach may have helped MEGA Brands secure licenses for brands like SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because with a smaller company like MEGA Brands, “you might get more attention and innovation,” Mr. Johnson said. Other companies are exploring themed sets that do not fit with Lego’s more wholesome brand.“We have values in place that the brand is known for that we focus on,” said Michael McNally, brand relations director for Lego. “We don’t do military themes or anything overly violent or grotesque.”Todd McFarlane was happy to pick up the mantle. He started McFarlane Toys in 1994 with a focus on sophisticated action figures, but he recently began to apply his attention to detail to construction toys. He wanted a theme untouched by Lego, so he started with sets based on the immensely popular television show “The Walking Dead,” which was soon followed by “Game of Thrones” sets. With the “Walking Dead” sets, he sought to copy the grim and graphic details shown on the television series.
He said the zombie sets sold well, in part because of the realistic design, which his target consumers sought. “My company sells to consumers 14 and older,” he said. “That’s the biggest difference: They sell to moms and 7-year-olds; I stick to what I know best.” Cobi, a privately held Polish toy company, follows a similar business strategy, making construction toys that Lego passes over. Its military-themed collection has been its best-selling toy since 1999. “From the very beginning, this line has been the key product in our lineup,” Aleksandra Niewierkiewicz, Cobi’s executive export manager, said by email. “We try and develop categories that don’t compete directly with our competition, which is why this continues to be such a strong category.”Ms. Niewierkiewicz acknowledged the importance of licensed properties, which are part of the company’s plan to double its sales by 2020. The company recently added the Penguins of Madagascar to its portfolio of licenses that includes Ben 10, Jeep and Trash Pack.“
A good license, at the right time, in combination with an excellent product gives outstanding results,” she said.Despite the growing competition, Lego continues its command in the category with a 65 percent market share, according to Euromonitor International, a market research provider, which predicts that the worldwide market for construction toys will expand to $14.5 billion in 2019 from $9.3 billion in 2014. A closely held Danish company, Lego reported in September that its net profit in the first half of 2015 rose to 3.55 billion Danish kroner, or $537.5 million, from 2.72 billion kroner in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 23 percent to 14.14 billion kroner.In recent years, Lego jettisoned noncore businesses and expanded its brick toys, adding in-house brands like Ninjago and its recently announced Nexo Knights. And the company capitalized on its other licensing agreements to offer themed play sets for new brands like Minecraft and the Simpsons, as well as stalwarts like Star Wars, Batman and the Avengers.
It also joined with big media and production companies to create a diverse portfolio of video games, television shows and movies. “The Lego Movie,” which was released in February 2014, made $469 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and reignited affinity among children and adults for the Lego brand. The movie’s success led the company to plan a sequel and a Batman-related spinoff.That good fortune meant that Lego did not have to look over its shoulder, said Jaime Katz, an analyst for Morningstar. “Everybody else is just a bit player in the industry,” she said. Lego was an “aspirational brand” that its rivals hoped to become. All this attention on construction toys has helped spur a secondary market around selling and renting bricks. Pley, a Silicon Valley start-up founded in 2013, rents Lego sets by mail via a subscription service. “We are the Netflix of Lego,” said Ranan Lachman, the chief executive and co-founder of Pley.Pley cleans and sanitizes each set after it is returned, and missing pieces are replaced at no charge.