NagaSadow Posted January 15, 2016 Hi everyone, I'm a canadian AFOL who has been living in China for over a decade and, surprise surprise, I have bought fake, look-a-like LEGO sets. The biggest attraction for me and for many I suspect is the price. Since LEGO does not ship to China, that means most of the time I buy sets from taobao with never a discount :( So I have succumbed once in a while and bought fakes from decool, bela, and another name I don't remember. from my experience, decool has always been of disappointing quality. bela on the other hand, has minifigures that are (sometimes) almost the same quality as LEGO. Their sets on the other hand is like the roll of a dice. I've bought sets that were just fine, maybe 9/10 compared to LEGO quality, while another set I'd have rated at 5/10... So now if I do buy fakes, I stick to bela and only to minifigures such as stormtrooper army builds and such. for anything bigger than battle packs, I stick to LEGO :) I do wish that LEGO could ship to me though. With 30,000 yuans in LEGO in 4 years and no intention of stopping, my wallet could use the help. :P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
large88 Posted January 15, 2016 Interesting to get a point of view from China! I suppose the new factory is going to help you out a bit where availability of actual Lego products is concerned. Can you tell us where fake sets are sold in China? Do regular toy stores sell them? A bit off topic, what can you say about the Afol community in China? I know Hong Kong has a strong community, but what about the rest of the country? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NagaSadow Posted January 15, 2016 Some stores sell fake sets yes. Sometimes side by side with LEGO sets! 99% percent of the time though I buy fake sets online on taobao.com out of convenience. And I always buy LEGO sets from taobao. LEGO sets in the stores are just too expensive. As for the AFOL community, I wouldn't know. From the amount of LEGOs sold on taobao I would say its big but I'm the only one in my circle of friends who collects them. :P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
briksen Posted January 15, 2016 i've seen reports about fake chinese lego, i mean not usual clone brands but boxes with regular lego logo on it.... otherwise bela has a reputation of poor quality, you should try shen yuan, especially for figures.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
