useful clone parts thread

[Space Police XVIII]

by OVERWHELMING POPULAR DEMAND here is a thread for useful parts from clone brands.

Everybody's welcome to contribute.  I'll be updating it now and then with stuff from my collection.

For a start, some hands.  I haven't been too happy with what's available for mech building, so these immediately caught my eye.

These are rather nice.  Poseable, expressive, good for medium mechs.  They can't actually hold things - thumbs are too loose and there's not enough finger segments - but there's an attachment point in each palm, either stud or pin-sized.  

They're exclusive to this one nameless action figure series.  Since the sellers shove as many keywords into the title as possible to game search results, you can only find them by searching for character name (Xiang Yu, there's also Lu Bu, Gao Jianli, Han Xin, maybe others) and digging through the sellers' inventory for others.  Welcome to aliexpress.

Some of those sets have interesting parts, like the big sword blades in black.  Quality overall is poor.  The hands hold up well, but the parts often have sprue remains that have to be cut off, the face prints are terrible, and so on... still, most of it is standard bionicle parts, durable enough to be useful.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Space Police XVIII

[Space Police XVIII]

reversers collection

Most are thinner than Lego, 0.5 plate thick, equal to the narrow side of a bracket piece.

The Tyco antistud-to-antistud parts are 1.5 plate thick.  This is standard Tyco plate thickness, sometimes useful, when building around baseplates for example.

The Wange parts are dimensionally standard 1x2 plates.  This gray doesn't quite match Lego gray, color comparison here

 

[Space Police XVIII]

Towball joints next.  Black, some dark bley, interesting variation like 1x1 plates with balls or sockets.

These are from Sembo Block sets 8600 through 8604, sold as a set, but you have to search for   

4pc/set Ninjagoes dragon knight building blocks kids hot toys ninja bricks mini action figures enlighten toy for children friend compatible legoing

Yeah.  Here's a link to where I bought mine.

And here's links to pics of parts inventories:

1
2
3
4

[Digger of Bricks]

Already, you've shown a pretty interesting assortment here! Looking quite forward to what else you may have! 

[Space Police XVIII]

Oh, the next one will be really mindblowing, I have to think about presenting it properly.

[Digger of Bricks]

10 minutes ago, Space Police XVIII said:

Oh, the next one will be really mindblowing, I have to think about presenting it properly.

Ooooh, sounds most intriguing. 

[Peppermint_M]

Ok, so from the annals of history and the time I was Queen of the Clone Brands.

This very nice Jerry Can is like a modded tile.

These odd parts are Cobi

I have more to add once I get photos of them, but these are the ones just hanging around on an old brickshelf folder.

[Digger of Bricks]

5 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

These odd parts are Cobi

The black, reverse studded 1×4 plate in the middle is rather interesting.

[Borex]

i recently bought a Fry and that dog from the Family Guy from a clone brand. A lot of pretty unique elements as well. Nowadays i have zero time for building so i have to discover if the pieces are of use yet. But it is always fun to see new pieces anyway. One clone part that i do use is a round 1x1 brick with studs on both sides. Very good for Spider-Man hanging upside down

[Space Police XVIII]

On 5/13/2018 at 1:07 PM, Peppermint_M said:

These odd parts are Cobi

How is Cobi, qualitywise?  I've been thinking of picking up some of their tanks.

On 5/14/2018 at 1:20 PM, Borex said:

round 1x1 brick with studs on both sides

That would be useful.  I've made similar by cutting down these parts a while ago.

[Space Police XVIII]

The magnificence and genius of this thing really needs theme music

 

That's right. 

1 X 1 X 2/3 BRICK

From Gudi.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Space Police XVIII

[Digger of Bricks]

14 minutes ago, Space Police XVIII said:

1 X 1 X 2/3 BRICK

Are there other types of 2/3 bricks out there by this brand, or others for that matter?

[Space Police XVIII]

9 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Are there other types of 2/3 bricks out there by this brand, or others for that matter?

Enlighten makes a 1x2 version, that's all I know about.

[Peppermint_M]

4 hours ago, Space Police XVIII said:

I've been thinking of picking up some of their tanks.

Very good, a bit different from LEGO, but it is hard to describe exactly what is different about it. The colours are consistent, the parts fit together well and the plastic is good quality. 

The figures are the only real let down, but nothing beats a LEGO minifig.

[MAB]

6 hours ago, Space Police XVIII said:

The magnificence and genius of this thing really needs theme music

 

 

That's right. 

1 X 1 X 2/3 BRICK

From Gudi.

 

What can it do that two stacked 1x1 plates cannot?

I'm guessing the interior is a little deeper, so you'd be able to push it a little further onto a minifigure neck or similar, but I cannot think of much else.

[Space Police XVIII]

19 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

Very good, a bit different from LEGO, but it is hard to describe exactly what is different about it. The colours are consistent, the parts fit together well and the plastic is good quality. 

The figures are the only real let down, but nothing beats a LEGO minifig.

Fantastic.

And yeah, some of their figures are hilariously bad

17 hours ago, MAB said:

What can it do that two stacked 1x1 plates cannot?

Save your fingers from the interminable torturous travails of stacking little bitsy sharp edged plates, that's what.

and make you wonder who thought that was a good idea

[Space Police XVIII]

next!

This thing is built around a mech chassis from MyFrame, website here: https://www.mybuildtoy.com/

here's a review photo aaaand here's another

These guys sell some individual parts, a kit that's just the bare mech frame, and a few complete figure/mech kits.  Those might be worth checking for other interesting bits - for instance one comes with two of these roof pieces in light bley, which lego hasn't made; anyway I ended up buying just two of the bare frames.

My only real complaint is, the clip/bar connections are off.  Lego clips fit loosely, trying to force a Lego bar through the MF clips makes me worry about breaking something, so this limits compatibility a little. 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Space Police XVIII
I like editing. don't judge me

[Space Police XVIII]

Some Gudi sets (and Sluban, and Star Diamond, probably others since these guys copy each other constantly) come with this nice missile launcher piece, angry science elf for scale

It attaches to this 2x2 plate with short pin.  Stud or axle also works.

Gudi uses the same plate as one half of their take on the 2x2 turntable. 

Two of the launcher pieces come with set 8616, and while on that subject, it's also got three of these neat bidirectional hinge bricks.

 

[Digger of Bricks]

On 5/17/2018 at 7:52 PM, Space Police XVIII said:

Two of the launcher pieces come with set 8616, and while on that subject, it's also got three of these neat bidirectional hinge bricks.

Ooooh, bidirectional hinge bricks!  

[Space Police XVIII]

18 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Ooooh, bidirectional hinge bricks!  

Right, right, aren't they just unspeakably awesome?

 

Kre-O set 38953 is worth picking up if you find one cheap.  It has six of those dark gray 1x1 round bricks with holes, perfect for engine pieces or cannon muzzles, and some other useful junk.  Like this weapon that looks like an oversized Skorpion.

Also for anyone that cares, their light gray is a perfect match for Lego old light gray.

 

 

[Digger of Bricks]

6 hours ago, Space Police XVIII said:

Kre-O set 38953 is worth picking up if you find one cheap.  It has six of those dark gray 1x1 round bricks with holes, perfect for engine pieces or cannon muzzles, and some other useful junk.  Like this weapon that looks like an oversized Skorpion

I have a copy of Kre-O set 38955 which I found at a Goodwill a few years ago, which is also from their Battleship theme. That set does have a nice semi-automatic handgun mold that is most fitting for Lego minifigures in terms of scale and TLG-like design quality.

[Space Police XVIII]

something for the Classic Space people:

there's this Canadian guy on bricklink that sells custom glass in several colors and sizes.

Including these.  IIRC Lego only offered this part in trans dark blue. 

Good quality, good fit, close match to Lego's own trans yellow, they're a little pricy but not as pricy as original Lego parts.

Edited June 15, 2018 by Space Police XVIII

[Digger of Bricks]

9 hours ago, Space Police XVIII said:

there's this Canadian guy on bricklink that sells custom glass in several colors and sizes.

Nice find! Looks like he also sells custom 1×4×3, 1×6×5, and 4×4×3 panels in that color too! 

[Space Police XVIII]

21 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Nice find! Looks like he also sells custom 1×4×3, 1×6×5, and 4×4×3 panels in that color too! 

Yeah.  I just bought glass for all the empty frames in this set....   My wallet hurts.

[Space Police XVIII]

Aliexpress stores are starting to sell individual parts.

Unfortunately they're on aliexpress and there's no such thing as standardized tags or titles; good luck finding them.  Searching for blocks, moc, diy, rebrickable, that sort of thing, should work. 

I'm sure I had a good reason to get a couple hundred 1x1 round tiles in dark bley...