Are fraudulent companies opening the way?

[Peppermint_M]

2 hours ago, Mylenium said:

I mean at the corporate level, in particular manufacturing and  distribution. The sets themselves are fine. It has just become nigh on possible to even get your hands on many of them. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Oh yeah. It is essentially impossible to get Cobi sets here in the UK, and Mega Construx really fluctuates from plenty to choose from in a number of locations, to maybe find it in a dedicated Toy Shop or Pop Culture store. Kreo barely existed on shelves, except for clearance and discount retailers.

20 minutes ago, koalayummies said:

Ugh. Last time I saw that going down here was 5 years ago; dude was building 26-foot long scale models of battleships and the thread spiraled. Unbelievable. What I don't get is how the heck anyone can tell, are they taking magnifying glasses to the photos?

They can tell from the pixels. 

[koalayummies]

2 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

They can tell from the pixels. 

They must be actively seeking it out, the aggressive purists. I've never noticed it myself, its always pointed out by someone else. I don't think I can tell unless the studs are exposed and photographed from an inch away with a macro lens or the resolution is 5000 pixels+ like you said.

[dr_spock]

1 hour ago, koalayummies said:

They must be actively seeking it out, the aggressive purists. I've never noticed it myself, its always pointed out by someone else. I don't think I can tell unless the studs are exposed and photographed from an inch away with a macro lens or the resolution is 5000 pixels+ like you said.

Some times you can tell by the sheen and/or the color.  Years ago I was at a LEGO convention and spotted a single 1x2 MegaBlok plate in someone's MOC.  It stood out like from a mile a way without any actively seeking effort.  

 

[Toastie]

On 11/11/2020 at 11:52 PM, dr_spock said:

Some times you can tell by the sheen and/or the color.

Sometimes.

I have a Black Pearl here for 39 Euro. It is sitting on a shelf, with a good deal of changes I made with original bricks. At first, I thought they either will never clutch, go off in flames, implode, melt down, just evaporate, beam back to Billund - nothing happened. Then I thought in the next weeks: They will get after you. Some day, some time they'll show up in a black car. Wearing black suits, black ties, black sunglasses. I was prepared to ask them "Are you the police?"

But: Nothing happened. The set needs the 5000+ pixels. It just worked out without any problems - and no one can tell.

Time moves on, I guess.

Best
Thorsten