TheItalianBrick Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 (edited) Does anyone know about this chinese copy of LEGO models? It's called Decool and they are cheap copies of the our beloved LEGO models!! They sell the Ferrari 599GTB for $54 and apparently looks exactly the same! I'm not sure if I can put any link on here (it's a chinese shop) but just goodle it! What you guys think? Edited December 2, 2015 by TheItalianBrick
JamesJT Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 They have been around for a long time. Just don't buy a used 8653, 8674 or 8145 off ebay without the original box and instructions.
TheItalianBrick Posted December 2, 2015 Author Posted December 2, 2015 boo this is a lego site not FONG KONG! The opinion I'm looking for aren't about the model itself. They are about what people think of a company that copies another one! What's our thoughs about it? Does it upset us? Are we ok with it? Please only uselful answers...
AOW Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I used to look for 8081 and Deecool has it .. in both models A & B in a separate box ... but still even the price is low it somehow does not convince me ... beside as someone mentioned earlier this is LEGO forum ... please find a post somewhere back in time about Lego#FAKE or something like that. Regards
MaxSupercars Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I think it's good that TheItalianBrick posted the info. This helps me a lot because I have also seen guys selling this sets. Now I pay attention. Thanx... Max
Dafgek81 Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I only buy Lego new in the box or on a Dutch site Marktplaats.nl, there the prices are normal for original Lego
TheItalianBrick Posted December 2, 2015 Author Posted December 2, 2015 I think it's good that TheItalianBrick posted the info. This helps me a lot because I have also seen guys selling this sets. Now I pay attention. Thanx... Max Oh finally someone understands what I meant to say with this post!!! Great Max, it's good to inform people so they can keep the "spoilt" away....
vliet Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 On sites like ebay people selling this low quality chinese sh.. as Lego so always be carefull selling second hand, because people advertise with Lego but it is not always Lego.
nerdsforprez Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 The opinion I'm looking for aren't about the model itself. They are about what people think of a company that copies another one! What's our thoughs about it? Does it upset us? Are we ok with it? Please only uselful answers... Useful answers can only come from useful questions. To ask if people are okay with copying others' work, okay with one company copying another, IMO is not a useful question. Seriously, no one is going to respond to your query with a "yea, I'm okay with this Decool company copying Lego at only a fraction of the quality" Of course we are all upset with it.
TheItalianBrick Posted December 2, 2015 Author Posted December 2, 2015 (edited) Useful answers can only come from useful questions. To ask if people are okay with copying others' work, okay with one company copying another, IMO is not a useful question. Seriously, no one is going to respond to your query with a "yea, I'm okay with this Decool company copying Lego at only a fraction of the quality" Of course we are all upset with it. well it's a topic; a topic means other questions can be raised, and so on. I've just noticed this company/product new to me and here I'm! Also, what about all these people posting and using 3D parts, 3rd parts, NON-LEGO parts?? Isn't the same? Then basically should be banned from this forum isn't it? Some people could agree with buying fake sets, some may not. Some people may say that lego monopolise this "closed" market, where isntead should be more open so it could offer similar products. It's like a water supply, if there was only one company then they could rise the price as up as they want! maybe there is a company out there able to give a better quality product for less money as LEGO won't be the only one! It's not all about the price. So let's talk about our thoughts mr nerd! But looks like you know better... Edited December 2, 2015 by TheItalianBrick
Dafgek81 Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I personaly hate those copycat firms. Yes Lego is (to) expensive, but it is good quality. The cheap sh.t others are making is something that is forbidden in my house.
D3K Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 well it's a topic; a topic means other questions can be raised, and so on. I've just noticed this company/product new to me and here I'm! Also, what about all these people posting and using 3D parts, 3rd parts, NON-LEGO parts?? Isn't the same? Then basically should be banned from this forum isn't it? Some people could agree with buying fake sets, some may not. Some people may say that lego monopolise this "closed" market, where isntead should be more open so it could offer similar products. It's like a water supply, if there was only one company then they could rise the price as up as they want! maybe there is a company out there able to give a better quality product for less money as LEGO won't be the only one! It's not all about the price. So let's talk about our thoughts mr nerd! But looks like you know better... Lordy lord, overreact much? Oh finally someone understands what I meant to say with this post!!! Great Max, it's good to inform people so they can keep the "spoilt" away.... Well, if you want people to finally understand what you meant with that post, it might help to give your opinion in that post, not just leave everyone guessing! Nowhere do you express your concerns/worries regarding Decool, you just inform that there is such a thing. One could just as easily read your initial post as if you're concidering buying this stuff. Does anyone know about this chinese copy of LEGO models? It's called Decool and they are cheap copies of the our beloved LEGO models!! They sell the Ferrari 599GTB for $54 and apparently looks exactly the same! I'm not sure if I can put any link on here (it's a chinese shop) but just goodle it! What you guys think? You ask for peoples' opinion, yet you react when people express them, seemingly looking for a "correct" answer that only you knew what was [...finally someone understands what I meant to say...]. Also, you have been a member on this forum for quite some time, and these Chinese knockoffs have been discussed at length before, and I'm sure you must have caught some of it? On topic, I fully agree with nerdsforprez, and he sums up the view of most of us here. At the end of the day, it's up to the individual if he/she want to use Only original Lego, chinese knockoffs, 3Dprinted parts, etc etc.
TheItalianBrick Posted December 2, 2015 Author Posted December 2, 2015 Funny how my position on fake-chinese- 3Dprinted parts has always been the same and quite clear! I do not accept them at all! Also, I don't get what you mean simply because I'm sure there are a lot of people like me that didn't/doesn't know about Decool, so I was just posting it here and then we can take it from there. A "useful answer" can be something about the product itself, not a comment like "here is not FONG KONG" !! I don't want people to understand me, I was happy to see there is someone else on my same page! SImple as this! To say " everybody doesn't agree with fake copies" or "of course we are all upset with it" it's not an opinion simply because you can't speak on behalf someone else. My reaction? No hard feelings at all...again I'm showing something, then people comments, and we go on.
lee82gx Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 Let me add something technical : the quality of decool knock offs for technics sets are actually pretty bad. I have 2 sets, first an exploratory set to look see, and without doing a lengthy review: 1. You will see flashing in most parts. (Material excess from molding) 2. Tolerances are like crap. You can expect friction pins to have no friction and frictionless pins to get semi stuck. 3. Parting lines of parts like beams and lift arms are visible and they use different draft surfaces compared to Lego. 4. Part variation is pretty poor, so the same part may have differences. This makes gears and mechanisms unreliable. 5. Density of material is maybe 70-85% of Lego abs. Now the magic question is why do I have 2 sets, well I plan on gluing the 2nd set as display. This is what happened to my first one anyway.
Dafgek81 Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 In short words, stay with the original. I think good and useful 3D printed parts are ok, TLG can't make parts to be used in very limited sets. So in my opinion it's okay to use them if Lego doesn't give a satisfying solution for it. But the cheap Chinese knockoffs should be banned!!!!
M_longer Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 4. Part variation is pretty poor, so the same part may have differences. This makes gears and mechanisms unreliable. I have seen chinese version of this set: It had some cost-cuts on the material, which ended with gears that had smaller diameter and they just didn't worked.
Robianco Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 Decool is one of many Chinese brands that have been putting out Lego clone products for a while. It started with minifigures and has grown into cloning full sets. The figures started off pretty badly BUT some of the companies are actually putting out figures that are pretty close in quality to Lego and when they've cloned a new Lego product there have been occasions when it's very difficult to tell them apart. With figures there are obviously licensing issues that they're ignoring... especially when it comes to range such as the Super Heroes themes etc... so there are immediate issues there... but there has always been a 'grey' area when it comes to custom minifigs... even those that are printed on genuine Lego parts because those minifies are created by Lego under license to DC or Marvel etc but the customisers don't hold that license so they're breaking the same copyright laws as the Chinese bootleggers but are actually considered part of the Lego community and are, for the most part, ignored by the license holders even though the customisers have stores in the US and sell things by the hundreds and thousands. Increasingly there is a pattern of complete sets being copied and this seems to have now moved on from simply jumping on the Super Heroes / Star Wars / Chima etc themes to purer building themes such as Technic. First thing to realise is that while Minifigure parts are more specific so the change in plastic is easier to mask the clone bricks are nowhere near the quality of Lego... it can hurt to build with them... even small sets so I wouldn't attempt building a complicated Technic set. Making people aware of the difference between a clone brand and a genuine product is important but none of the clone bricks carry a Lego stamp on any of the studs so they'll be very easy to spot should someone try to pass things off as a genuine product.
SevenStuds Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I've seen their models and its obviously not cool. Its hard to argue otherwise. These people are copying two things: the parts AND the assembled designs of the models! Double felony! Also, what about all these people posting and using 3D parts, 3rd parts, NON-LEGO parts?? Isn't the same? Then basically should be banned from this forum isn't it? In my opinion it is not the same and has everything to do with authenticity of design. If someone uses a third party tire, then the designs are often the property of the manufacturer or licensed from the full scale manufacturers as with most of the products we see from RC4WD. As far as non-LEGO additions like custom lighting, stickers or 3D printed parts, these I have no problem with because they are "original" non-LEGO parts and not a copy of something that another brand like LEGO designed or invented.
Sven F Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I despise all companies that STEAL ideas and designs from others out of incompetence to make their own. They use loopholes in the law or simply break the law to make easy money. They are criminals. Quality and price play no part in this. I consider anyone who buys these "brands" a traitor to TLG and their fans, and they should be responsible by law to pay damages for supporting the illegal copying industry that costs the original company money which you in turn pay back through their products. I also think this forum as a loyal fan-base should not support any topics that promote the sale of such knockoffs, which it currently does. In fact, I would go to such lengths to automatically censor the names of such "brands" to avoid improving their search ranks or potentially informing anyone of their existence.
Saberwing40k Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I also think this forum as a loyal fan-base should not support any topics that promote the sale of such knockoffs, which it currently does. In fact, I would go to such lengths to automatically censor the names of such "brands" to avoid improving their search ranks or potentially informing anyone of their existence. See, this thread is NOT promoting anything of the sort. The OP is just telling us Lego fans about it so we know that hey, this KO is out there, watch out. I would not actually censor the names, for the same reason. Truth to be told, Chinese knockoffs are rarely imported into the US or other Western countries, being mainly for the domestic market. Things are very different in China, keep that in mind.
BigPoppaBrick Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 Lol at suggesting censoring bootleg companies names. I buy Lego and I buy bootleg figures too. It's called consumer choice and it's my right to decide what to spend my cash on, not some white nights on a forum looking to protect TLG. Maybe if Lego didn't split its most desirable figures across several sets that cost ££££££, then there wouldn't be demand for a bootleg market?......
Sven F Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 I didn't mean to suggest that this topic promotes them, but others do. BigPoppa, what is your right is decided by law. If you live in China where copyrights and trademarks hold no meaning, then those rights you have. You also have the right to spend your money on cocaine if your moral standards differ from those implied by your state. I don't really care what you do, and i care even less about spoilt consumers with a sense of entitlement towards toys they can't afford.
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