JeagerEX

Fake CMF Series

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1) They're giving us things Lego Won't.

2) They're giving us things that Lego refused to make available reasonably.

If I could obtain Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, and Bizarro reasonably, and affordably from Lego, I would. But they have chosen instead to protect opportunistic scalpers.

It has now come full circle. The Free Market is strong. Everybody wins. Hooray Capitalism!

I absolutely agree with you on this! China is really the world's most capitalist nation! And all thanks to the western lego company buisinessmen who decided to build their factory in China! O-ho-ho! Not only do these factories produce official lego for western company, they also make "bootleg" lego for the chinese market, and adventurous non-chinese buyers may also snatch up some. Who cares if it's not certified, copyrighted, or patented, well I really do hate formalities these days. Some people here may say "It's illegal to do that...don't feed the communist dragon with your purchases" but I think the western buisinessmen of L@GO company are more like monopolists then capitalists! :head_back: Why one or two company has exclusive right to make legoes bricks? I think not. Besides, the chinese are really making availibale (and will) lego products that you just can't get in the west like "Black Pearl" (modified Black Seas Barracuda but who cares) and the superheroes mario-carts! I say for all the critics,

Sure, rant all you want, but don't ruin the fun for the rest of us now.

Think about it logically, why should the government of China favor a western lego producer instead of a native chinese one? Of cource they will favor chinese "bootleg" brands. Why should the snobby TLG high rank employees have a monopoly of lego bricks over the whole planet? The philosophy of true capitalism is this: no regulation on what you produce. Buyers may in theory buy what they want. Companies try to make better and better products to convince buyers to buy it. That applies to China. Quality these days varies among chinese brands, but wait a decade I'll tell you...

Edited by AmazingPharaoh

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Maybe it's a sign on the wall for Lego to expand the variety in minifigures (especially in the licensed themes) and sell them cmf-wise in bags or small boxes. Now people need to buy those knockoffs because those characters they want aren't made by TLC and there's a real uncertainty if Lego will produce them at all.

If Lego would produce single minifigs, people will have hope that TLC might produce the characters they yearn for and thus stop buying knockoffs.

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Maybe it's a sign on the wall for Lego to expand the variety in minifigures (especially in the licensed themes) and sell them cmf-wise in bags or small boxes. Now people need to buy those knockoffs because those characters they want aren't made by TLC and there's a real uncertainty if Lego will produce them at all.

If Lego would produce single minifigs, people will have hope that TLC might produce the characters they yearn for and thus stop buying knockoffs.

They can't. Individual characters is not part of the construction licence. Companies like Hasbro and Mattel already have the action figure licence which LEGO would need to do what you are asking.

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They can't. Individual characters is not part of the construction licence. Companies like Hasbro and Mattel already have the action figure licence which LEGO would need to do what you are asking.

Bummer! But since you have to construct lego minifigs, aren't they technically constructions? Lawyers, go help Lego!

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They can't. Individual characters is not part of the construction licence. Companies like Hasbro and Mattel already have the action figure licence which LEGO would need to do what you are asking.

This is not necessarily true. We know that they cannot do this with Star Wars because Hasbro has challenged them on it. But each license is unique in what it does and does not allow. (Case in point the Middle Earth licenses do not allow SW style Battlepacks.) remember Megobloks had Marvel blind bags. And it is long rumored that the SDCC exclusives used minifig art that was originally proposed for a Superheroes CMF type blind bag line.

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I could actually see a market for CMF super heroes, but not in the way everyone wants. Everyone wants a ton of unique figures instead of buying expensive sets with them in it. I don't see LEGO ever doing that. However, I could see them basically re-releasing some of these figures in their official sets, but only after they have retired the set. That way you get better quality figures, but in the same context as all of these knock-offs. You get an old Robin or Batman figure in cheap Chinese plastic, or the same figure in ABS directly from LEGO. I'd rather give LEGO my money. Granted, I typically will buy the set anyway, but for the people who missed out on the sets, LEGO could still capture some purchases instead of aftermarket resellers getting all of the profit. LEGO would have had the design and molds already created. The downside would be to extend the life of some of those on the pipeline, which can make it difficult for other lines getting produced. Can they make their factories go 24/7?

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A lot of people also don't have the money to buy all those sets. Especially the bigger and exclusive or ucs sets contain exclusive minifigs. So to complete your minifigcollection some folks need to buy knockoffs. Even bricklink can be pretty expensive.

A superheroes CMF will ease the pain of not getting everybody imho. And is great way of making characters that won't fit in sets.

A way that Lego also can use is through polybags. A small build with a nice minifig. That would also be nice for kids, because they can finally buy something with their allowance money without having to save first for a couple of weeks

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These are being sold at toy stores located at major malls here in Los Angeles (i.e. West Field) for a few months now. They also have the accompanying sets. If you're not looking closely there's not much difference except for the LEGO logo (replaced with the bootleg logo).

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Recently there is this Hulk made by Sheng Yuan which seem to be more advanced than the Hulk made by Lego.

Imagine the big Hulk being sold in a standard CMF pack. That's how I found this Hulk at my local shopping mall. For RM 5.90 I can get this big Hulk figure.

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The biggest surprised was that this particular Hulk has a removable head like a normal minifigure!

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A close-up view of the head.

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This new head assembly allows Hulk to turn his head to look to his side. I checked the original Hulk in the 76018 set, the original Hulk does not seem to be able to turn his head around.

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If he is very very angry, Hulk can even throw his head at his enemies.

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So once again TLG got beaten by this clone brick company. By right TLG should be the one who should be ahead in producing advanced minifigures!

Not only that, this clone companies are doing licenses we can only dream off. So far I already seen stuff like:-

1) World cup minifigure set; got Wayne Rooney and even Maradona minifigure with miniature football

2) World Wrestling Federation minifigures

3) Dragonball

4) Naruto

I can only imagine what is the next line of figures they will produced.

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Not only that, this clone companies are doing licenses we can only dream off.

It's a lot easier to "do licenses" when you don't bother with the pesky business of actually negotiating and paying for the license.

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Recently there is this Hulk made by Sheng Yuan which seem to be more advanced than the Hulk made by Lego.

So once again TLG got beaten by this clone brick company. By right TLG should be the one who should be ahead in producing advanced minifigures!

Not only that, this clone companies are doing licenses we can only dream off. So far I already seen stuff like:-

1) World cup minifigure set; got Wayne Rooney and even Maradona minifigure with miniature football

2) World Wrestling Federation minifigures

3) Dragonball

4) Naruto

I can only imagine what is the next line of figures they will produced.

Lego did not get beaten by a clone company. A clone company in this instance is not simply stealing from Lego, but several other vendors. There is a reason why Lego cannot make this. It is rather blatantly what is commonly referred to as an "action figure". Lego does not have an action figure license. Hasbro has that. Yeah it's easier to make cool stuff when you ignore any and all IP law and simply steal what you want.

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Over here in Malaysia we have fakes flooding the market that are getting really close to copying the exact minifigure. I bought these 2 minifigure packs out of curiosity and to compare with my actual Lego minifigures. Can you imagine Lego doing this? Batman and Iron Man minifigure pack instead of a large set which cost alot.

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The packs is part of a series of 8 packs. The Iron Man ones comes with 7 other figures like Thor, mini Hulk etc. The Batman ones is part of a series for Batman, Robin and Joker.

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Each pack contents is 1 bag of the figure unassembled and 1 card pack. Interestingly the Batman pack comes with 2 guns that are very similar to the guns in Star Wars sets.

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The comparison of the Batman figure with the fake. It pains me to see that it is near impossible to distinguish between the 2 unless they are placed side by side. Can you spot the fake?

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Iron Man is no different. Unless you know what the actual Iron Man looks like you cannot tell the fake apart.

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The funny thing is, at the place where I bought it on the receipt the product description was "Lego". Not surprising since I have seen parents and children seeing fakes like Enlighten and calling them Lego in stores before. Add to the fact Lego is extremely expensive and hard to get here and you allow these fakes to thrive. Even funnier is that these stuff is sold in most large establish shopping malls where there are TRUs too.

Do note I bought them to do a comparison and to educate some of the Lego fans on the Lego Facebook group I go to.

Are the fakes the ones on the left? With the Batman one I can see the printing of his muscles on the torso to be too thick and the grey is too light. With the Iron Man one is helmet for he left one looks really weird.

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Are the fakes the ones on the left? With the Batman one I can see the printing of his muscles on the torso to be too thick and the grey is too light. With the Iron Man one is helmet for he left one looks really weird.

I think the point of his statement was to say that these companies can easily sell these products to unaware customers (such as most parents and grandparents).

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The feet are obvious, especially on Iron Man. harder to tell on batman due to the colour and facing forwards.

Do parents and grandparents get duped? It is plainly obvious that these are not lego when these are bought in shops due to the packaging. I imagine they don't care, they pick them up as it is a cheap toy. Buying minifigures without packaging on ebay is a little murkier, but normally still obvious that they are not genuine lego. But for many people that do not care about the branding, I think it is just that they don't care. Why pay $20 for a set for one wanted minifig, when you can buy the minifig for $2.

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Warning: the images contained below are not for the faint-hearted. Proceed at your own risk.

Currently Taiwan is under the attack by Cloners. They mostly live under the shadow of independent bookstores or small chain retailers.

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Kinda cool, but sadly the faces don't make good matches.

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Outdated.

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I have a feeling that we'll eventually see the Parallel Dimension...... :sceptic:

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uhhhhhhh......

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Ultra....man?

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Obviously Chinese factories have lots of Chima stocks left, so they are just making the best use.

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.... umhmmm... Wait, should it be LEGO Dimensions' duty?

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Well, to those who are upset about Angry Birds, I'll say this: at least TLG didn't go for the MySpace license.

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Some of these are hilarious. I laughed at LEGO Myspace and the Simpsons!

But honestly, I find all bootlegs, good or not, reprehensible. They infringe on original LEGO designs, and often trick people who don't know better. I can understand why people would want to buy these, but I don't approve. Hulk really should have a removable head, though.

Edited by 8BrickMario

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I bet all these Lego fans who can't comprehend Bootlegs have never watched a pirated film or ripped some illegal music.....

Heaven must be full of Lego Angels!

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