Admiral Blockbeard

Enlighten Brick Boats Review

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Well I know this is a Lego fan sight, but I thought most of you would still be interested in seeing the Enlighten version of the bricks attempt at pirates.

An obvious attempt at making ships like Lego’s they have actually done a reasonable job in my opinion. That is to say, I have...

A) Not died of lead poisoning

B) Been hunted down and killed by Lego for betraying them

C) Not had any bits missing, (I’ve had left overs lol)

D) Not had any that would not 'click' together

E) Found that it is 99.98% Lego compatible

The 0.02 % is due to the fact it is lower quality plastic, and the colour does not match, RED is the worst offender when it comes to colour difference. (BTW being Australian means Colour has a U in it... hope it doesn't put off you Americans too much, im sorry if it does)

I am not posting this in a hope to boost enlightens status amongst your ranks, rather consider this a third parties opinion on the war raging between the two brick makers. Personally I will admit bias to Lego, but I will try not to let it get in the way of judgement.

Reason for buying enlighten, only excuse I can give is LACK OF LEGO ALTERNATIVE, simple as that. If Lego had a pirates range in the shops I never would have considered even looking at enlighten. As such Lego personnel reading this PLEASE BRING BACK THE PIRATE RANGE! Enlighten is inferior product to Lego however it is cheaper.

For example the blue boat bellow in the photos is about US$50 on EBay including postage, the Yellow boat about $60, and the BSB red rip off (cough excuse me) $75 compare this to prices of Lego Ships in the 100’s, to be fair though a deal is the 100 mark not 250+ as some pay. (please note im not talking MISB collecting, just complete set)

Well with no further Ramblings here are the pics.

enlighten001.jpg

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enlighten006.jpg

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enlighten008.jpg

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enlighten011.jpg

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enlighten019.jpg

On a side note if you wish to see a quality comparison on Mini Figs here... The real lego are on the bottom at either side.

army003.jpg

Hope you find this useful.

Geo

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From the afar shots you cannot tell this is not lego *wacko* Up close the only complaint I see is the lower quality plastic, apparent color differences in the red, and yellow, and just from the studs you can tell it's not lego. But frankly it looks like quite a copy. With afew small tweaks, it would look like real lego.

Thanks for the review, I am always curious to see how clones match up, personally I only have tested 2 megablocks sets and 1 best lock. Thanks for the pictures.

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The yellow is alot better in real life, these photos show it being dulled but its not its quite close to legos yellow.That said it is a little more 'faded' than lego. Happy to give the review... how did the megablock and best lock compare against lego?

Edited by Cpt. Pegleg Blockbeard

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colour difference. (BTW being Australian means Colour has a U in it... hope it doesn't put off you Americans too much, im sorry if it does)

Though not nationally American, it doesn't matter one bit. I even fancy the two different spellings.

Oh, your review!

____

This is not the first review we have had of clones and or Megabloks. You raise some good points and provide nice pictures of these sets.

On the sets themselves, It is obvious what they were modled after, but the changes are what make it legal (I think). Some of these are interesting, good, or bad. Either way, thank you for the review and telling us of these alternatives.

To me, these copying of sets seem immoral.

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Makes me wish Lego Pirates came back. :'-( Still, thanks for the review, if I weren't so devoted to Lego, I might have considered buying these. X-D

~Peace

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Thanks for the review, it is nice to see the differences in quality, although despite the fact they look quite well made, I don't think I will be purchasing any!

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enlighten011.jpg

I got this one, Pretty good actually.

I upgraded its sides and more Cannon ports. *sweet* I think the Armada Flagship fake is better than the Oringinal since It holds more cannon, has more crew, and its got proper doors. Overall its more Well built. *sad*

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Great Review!

Although I dislike all LEGO rip offs (clone is too decent a word) the shiny swords are *wub*

The sails also look useful too

At a distance these look very LEGO like!

Rip off OFF!

Edited by Piranha

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Thanks for the review, especially the pics. In my experience the Enlighten MO is copying LEGO box art and then subistuting pieces and minifigs at will, so you rarely get precisely what is pictured on the box. It looks like the ships you got are very close copies.

Were there any notable differences between box/dvertisement art and the actual product you received?

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Might it have been better to review each of these sets separately?

But anyway, good job on the review!

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Box art of the ships is 'photo'ed bellow, in my opinion it is close between the real product and advertising art.

unfortunatlly i do not have the lego originals, maybe someone who has them would like to post pics of their ships side by side with mine... And yes they probably should have been reviewed separately however i thought putting four new threads up in one hit would appear as if im flooding the forum...

enlighten104.jpg

enlighten105.jpg

enlighten106.jpg

enlighten101.jpg

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enlighten103.jpg

Also here is a Pic requested by Joey Lock

enlighten107.jpg

Edited by Cpt. Pegleg Blockbeard

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Thanks for the review. As someone said the armada-wannabe ship has a better design than the actual LEGO-ship.

The designs looks a lot like real LEGO-sets, but the colourdifferences gives the clones aways. From the closeups it's pretty clear that the quality of the plastic is poor compared to real LEGO. And the colours has got a weird shade.

I'm i bit confused why you have THREE sets of LEGO-clones but none of the real sets X-D

But thanks for the pics *y*

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Reason for buying enlighten, only excuse I can give is LACK OF LEGO ALTERNATIVE, simple as that. If Lego had a pirates range in the shops I never would have considered even looking at enlighten. As such Lego personnel reading this PLEASE BRING BACK THE PIRATE RANGE! Enlighten is inferior product to Lego however it is cheaper.

For example the blue boat bellow in the photos is about US$50 on EBay including postage

enlighten001.jpg

So you paid US$50 for the above ship? You do realise you could buy the real deal for around that price on BrickLink? At the time of writing there is one for US$45. Sure it's second hand, but at least it's the real thing.

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Firstly that is US$45 without adding postage and handling from GOD knows what country, the US$50 on ebay includes postage, and this was also not the price i payed for it ;-) i payed closer to $35 including postage

i hear what your saying though.

ohh and these came with 4x imperial soldiers (armda clone hats and 'captain') and 2x pirates (Cpt & one eyed jack)

Edited by Cpt. Pegleg Blockbeard

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Firstly that is US$45 without adding postage and handling from GOD knows what country, the US$50 on ebay includes postage, and this was also not the price i payed for it ;-) i payed closer to $35 including postage

I was unaware the US$50 included postage, so yes US$35 is probably quite reasonable if it was MISB. On the other hand, if you're patient, sometimes you can get the real thing off eBay for around US$35. But you'd be competing with me at that price X-D

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lol, i think i will be competing with quite a few people... that was the other advantage it was BUY IT NOW... yay... the other thing is i really do want the bsb to be my first lego ship

Edited by Cpt. Pegleg Blockbeard

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So you don't think this Enlighten ship is a decent substitute for the Black Seas Barracuda?

enlighten006.jpg

Im sorry I have to say how Crappy that certain one is since look at what its sails are Extremly Similar to.. |-/

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The Clones have to Lego and Mega Bloks! X-O

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So you don't think this Enlighten ship is a decent substitute for the Black Seas Barracuda?

ah that one isn't the one that is the same design as the BSB, the red sails ship is basically the exact design of the BSB, although has a scull and cutlass sail at the top, give me a BSB at a competitive price to this ship and i would take the BSB any day of the week, but given it is not, and BSB's are collectors items SIGH... they are way out of my budget...

so in short, its an okayish substitute.

The gold sails are by far my favourite, maybe not the most realistic but the way it shimmers in the light. BTW the 'Adventurer' (the one pictured in your post), has a the thinner hull with two mid sections, in my opinion it is by far the best proportion of the enlighten boats. However it has its draw backs as it only has two cannons!

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ah that one isn't the one that is the same design as the BSB, the red sails ship is basically the exact design of the BSB, although has a scull and cutlass sail at the top, give me a BSB at a competitive price to this ship and i would take the BSB any day of the week, but given it is not, and BSB's are collectors items SIGH... they are way out of my budget...

so in short, its an okayish substitute.

The gold sails are by far my favourite, maybe not the most realistic but the way it shimmers in the light. BTW the 'Adventurer' (the one pictured in your post), has a the thinner hull with two mid sections, in my opinion it is by far the best proportion of the enlighten boats. However it has its draw backs as it only has two cannons!

You didn't mention that the ship had shiny, gold striped sails before! What a detail to miss X-O !

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My 4 yr old son had one of these 'rip-offs' bought for him for Easter. I'm not sure which of the original Lego sets it was based on, but it is much better than I had been lead to believe from reading the last five years of posts in this forum.

A bit of background for you all. My Lego collection includes bricks from the '50s through to the present day. The 1950's ones were inherited from my uncle at about the time I obtained my first sets in the mid '60s. As far as the 'wonderful' quality of Lego bricks is concerned it has varied considerably over the years and some of the earlier stuff is so far below the quality of this Chinese stuff that most of you would probably bin it without a second thought. The plastic is very brittle the colours are almost translucent and quite dull and the fit between them is appalling. Viewed in this light the Megablocks, Bestlock and Chinese copies are vastly superior to some of the Lego products. This having been saidI would buy the Lego products every time if they were available if only out of sentimentality.

My son now has my Governor's Sea Hawk and the equivalent Pirate ship, plus all of the Imperial forts I bought. He can't tell ant difference between the different brands and is quite happy to play with them all - which after all is the only purpose they serve. We tear them apart build new models, he plays with them and smashes them apart and we start all over again, heaven for a Lego fan and just what my brother and I did for many years. MOC???? thats the only thing to do with Lego, lol.

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Yes that is something i had not considered in my review! the KIDS...

AFOL would probably get hung up, (as shown by previous posts) on the fact it is not Lego, it may be considered immoral, and the colour slightly off...

However for kids this product is a winner, although i cant remember any age warnings for small parts, kids that missed out on the pirate range first round (fingers crossed there is a second ;-)) would love these ships! i know i have enjoyed them and so far the only real complaint i can put passed it by product standards not branding or moral is the fact i cant use them for the contests!

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