Do you get fake Legos?

[legolandia]

I collect Lego Star Wars minifigures and have been looking on ebay and bricklink for the minifigures from the new second half of 2010 sets. I have noticeed recently that there are some sellers that are listing minifigures in the tens and sometimes hundreds in quantity which, has worried me a bit.

Does anyone know if Legos have a history of being faked?

I mean I know there are some sellers on ebay that stick fancy pictures, and words such as "lego genuine", "collectors guild" etc etc and several accessories to minifigs and sell them for high amounts pretending that they are minifigures that Lego has brought out. But I am not sure if those pesky copymasters in the far far east have turned their attention to Lego as well as everything else?

[Thrund]

Most of the clone/bootleg brands, even the ones who copy LEGO set designs, have different minifigures. The only one I can think of that directly copied any of the LEGO figures is Enlighten, and their bootlegs tend to be of older set designs.

As far as I know, though, none of them do minifigure packs, and by the time you've paid shipping charges the Chinese sets don't work out that much cheaper than LEGO, so I can't see anyone stockpiling fake minifigs that way.

I have seen sellers with lots such as '9 of the same minifig hair', or several copies of a custom figure using standard parts, and in those cases I can only assume they buy the parts directly from LEGO and mark them up enough to make a small profit on each one.

[Skull-Mark_Ladybug]

As Thrund pointed out I don't think I've ever seen a knock off minifigure that could be easily mistaken for genuine minifigure. And for that matter I've never seen a clone brand Starwars set. Some people just have tons of money to buy certain sets in bulk and because of the price they can sell the minifigs for they have ample reason to do so.

[legolandia]

I can understand some sellers buying loads of sets and splitting them to sell the minifigs separately etc. But I got a bit puzzled when I saw someone selling 170+ Anakin Battle damaged (set 8096) "torsos only" on Bricklink?

[legolandia]

I can understand some sellers buying loads of sets and splitting them to sell the minifigs separately etc. But I got a bit puzzled when I saw someone selling 170+ Anakin Battle damaged (set 8096) "torsos only" on Bricklink?

Even more puzzling is the fact that after the above post the person who was selling the mentioned torsos has removed them from Bricklink.

[Captain Blackmoor]

Yeah I did got some Megabollocks from Bricklink once. Mixed up with all the other 2x2 round bricks.

I have just thrown them away...