Beware of fake minifigures

[happymark]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Heroes-Hulk-mini-figures-Hulk-super-heroes-minifig-/261389514353?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item3cdc077671

Only $5 for a hulk?

to be honest, I cannot tell the difference. and this seller has many non-LEGO minifigures - superhero etc.

he does mention it is not LEGO.

[B-Lister]

Hey, if Lego doesn't want to make certain characters easily available, I am more than happy to give my money to those who will.

[WaysofSorting]

I am in the camp with Large88 - I only buy LEGO products - but also think I'm close to swaying over. I remember in the early 20-aughts, nobody would even dare think of using clone or other brand bricks. Now there are compatible products made by passionate third-parties, with quality and care. Even some of the clone companies at least put out some pieces using good plastic and design. Who's to say what's right and wrong anymore.

Also - worth noting that in my perception the quality of some LEGO elements has indeed declined since back in my youth. Here I mean opacity and color strength, as well as general "softness" of the plastic. Not terribly, but again - when the CMF line is sometimes so poor in quality, who is to say a knock-off is bad in comparison (Especially when they could have possibly been made with the same-sourced materials)

But ultimately, I think counterfeits are worse than clone brands. I've seen multiple ebay auctions that were clearly stolen from the bad QC pile from a factory or blatant knock-offs. Tempted sometimes (Just to feel the quality in-hand...maybe it's close?!).

If anyone does buy one of these I'd enjoy hearing how the "not lego but fits lego" disclaimer matches up...I always heard tell of discarded molds being shopped on a black-market for other toys - I in no way doubt that LEGO molds are finding their way out in the wild as well.

Worth noting - some cool Iron Man Variants in the seller's "portfolio." I wonder who generated those designs. I think if they came from another community member, I'd be more upset about THAT theft than from TLG or Marvel.

[B-Lister]

I will buy custom print on official Lego product. And I don't feel an ounce of pity for Lego's loss in the matter. If they wanted my money they could have had it by making the figures I want more available to the fans who want them.

Edited March 9, 2014 by B-Lister

[kinggregus]

I will buy custom print on official Lego product. And I don't feel an ounce of pity for Lego's loss in the matter. If they wanted my money they could have had it by making the figures I want more available to the fans who want them.

I could not agree more. I am a bit tired of Lego trying to make figures or other items too exclusive.

Edited March 9, 2014 by kinggregus

[B-Lister]

I will happily pay a premium for an exclusive. I am not saying the figures can't be exclusive, just that they should do as Mattel does. Produce more and make them available to those who can't make it to the con.

[VintageLegoEra]

it is obvious not Lego,,,,the lego logo is not on the Brick dots too...

we need to be carefull in ebay as not only Lego they sell fake, but maany other products ;)

[hjmediastudios]

... And they pop up again. The Iron Man designs from the seller are actually my designs that I had made available for free personal use, and the knock-off manufacturer Decool has been stealing and selling the designs on their figures. I have yet to trace this to the source- if anyone has information on where these seem to be shipped from (i.e. are they all coming from one person or address), I'd greatly appreciate the help in tracking whoever's behind this down.

[SnapLock]

I have bought heaps of the "Kock Off" figure's from Ninjago,Chima,Turtles.Avenger,Lone Ranger& Castle themes, they are great for filling up spots on my layout, however i would never try to resell them as Lego or claim they are Lego in any way shape or form.

[Toby Adams]

I will purchase some and post reviews

[Robianco]

The Iron Man figures are being picked up and sold from several places throughout Asia... With several different designs and various printing success. I own about 10 of them now.

My Black suit Superman looks superb now I've replaced the head, hair and legs with legit Lego versions... Green Lantern looks great... Although printing has been hit and miss.

Same for my Bizarro although I do tend to replace legs and hair with genuine Lego on all of these Asian variations.

I'm now waiting on Green Arrow, Winter Soldier, Odin and a new Batman variation. There's even a copy of Christo's Flash with the game variation helmet. In fact there's quite a few replicas of Christo designs.

I picked up a set of Lanterns for a Comic Con GL and it's pretty good although the dark green in the torso is a little too bright. The Saint Walker figure is pretty good as is the Atrocitus so I'll keep those but Los the others for a couple of pound.

The Wolverine, Batman and Robin figures I've received have all been very good in terms of printing... Very good indeed.

There's a couple of Spiderman variations I'll pick up as they work out only slightly more than a CMF and are a reasonable way to fill out some gaps... They'll never replace genuine TLG product where they exist but they're a very viable alternative to some custom figures at a tiny fraction of the cost.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Robianco

[ReplicaProfile]

The Iron Man figures are being picked up and sold from several places throughout Asia... With several different designs and various printing success. I own about 10 of them now.

My Black suit Superman looks superb now I've replaced the head, hair and legs with legit Lego versions... Green Lantern looks great... Although printing has been hit and miss.

Same for my Bizarro although I do tend to replace legs and hair with genuine Lego on all of these Asian variations.

I'm now waiting on Green Arrow, Winter Soldier, Odin and a new Batman variation. There's even a copy of Christo's Flash with the game variation helmet. In fact there's quite a few replicas of Christo designs.

I picked up a set of Lanterns for a Comic Con GL and it's pretty good although the dark green in the torso is a little too bright. The Saint Walker figure is pretty good as is the Atrocitus so I'll keep those but Los the others for a couple of pound.

The Wolverine, Batman and Robin figures I've received have all been very good in terms of printing... Very good indeed.

There's a couple of Spiderman variations I'll pick up as they work out only slightly more than a CMF and are a reasonable way to fill out some gaps... They'll never replace genuine TLG product where they exist but they're a very viable alternative to some custom figures at a tiny fraction of the cost.

Any pictures of the modified figs?

[Robianco]

The figures with tapered feet aren't the best although the Black Superman torso and the New York Toy Fair are worth picking up.

Iron Man figures are done by a couple of places from what I can see... One of them doesn't use metallic inks although their printing is tidier.

Face printing does seem to be a let down at the moment. Some odd choices such as line details being printed in gold etc... The Pepper Potts fave on the Rescue minifig is really iffy but the rest of the dig is fine.

Capes are quite poor quality... Very flimsy and soft.

Some hair moulds are quite good although colouring is a bit off.

I'll get some pics up over the next day or two of the figs... I'll mark up what's modded and what's as it arrived.

I'm really hoping the GA and Winter Soldier figs are decent quality when they arrive.., that'll probably be in around a week.

[BJM]

I will try hard to resist non TLG stuff if I can - for as long as possible. I like customising real parts, but feel quite sick at the thought of real Lego getting mixed up with "fake" stuff. My OCD is going crazy at the thought. It was bad enough with just mega bloks, but I am concerned that the fake stuff is getting more and more and that ebay sellers are still using the word LEGO in the top description - with just small disclaimers in the description.

One other point that does occur to me is that say 10 years ago TLG was not doing so well. The first Star War sets were not the greatest, and if they had of gotten overtaken by third party stuff back then we simply would not have the Lego Death Star of Rancor or Gamorrean Guard or generally all the mega mega cool stuff that we get now. Surely it is worth paying a bit of a premium to keep the product so well managed as it is - and at such a high standard (I do appreciate some sets are getting more and more expensive though).

[Robianco]

I agree. I can't see me ever buying non Lego sets... And I always track down genuine Lego figures where they're readily available.

But I'll take the opportunity to assemble a set of Comic Con exclusives for around £20 or have a hall of armour for Iron Man that's 16 strong for around the same cost if I can and if TLG aren't going to offer me these figs.

I'll take well made, inexpensive clones all day for customs if that leaves me with more money to purchase my official sets.

It ultimately comes down to quality... If they look crap I won't put them with my good stuff... But at the moment they don't look out of place and I think they may just get better as time goes on. The quality is already inch better on these than they were 6 months ago.

*much better

[gt182237]

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3cdc077671

Only $5 for a hulk?

to be honest, I cannot tell the difference. and this seller has many non-LEGO minifigures - superhero etc.

he does mention it is not LEGO.

Sometimes they show the back part of the mf and you can tell by looking at the legs.

[Robianco]

Yeah... There are a few kinds of legs on those I've received.

There are the tapered toes, the standard toes (Lego style) which have bars either side rather than the 2 studs on official legs and now there are clones of the official legs but the moulding isn't quite right and don't sit as tight as official ones.

The backs of the tapered toe variant have an open back on the foot area.

They're getting closer to TLG legs but the quality isn't quite there yet... It all depends on the factory and manufacturer.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Robianco

[Robianco]

Edited March 27, 2014 by Robianco

[Toby Adams]

Are the Iron Men safe?

[Robianco]

OK... So here's some of the customs I've picked up from the Far Eastern sellers on eBay.

The Superman is essentially just the torso but with the official head and hair from Supes and the legs from Zod.

Green Arrow is at it came... this arrived today actually and isn't too bad.

Green Lantern is from a UK guy based out in the Phillipines. He checks for print issues and this one is pretty good. I've had 2 others that were OK but had slight issues. The head is from another custom seller although the one on this was double sided and not too bad... the heads suffer from print issues too.

The Robin on the left is the official one and the one on the right is a custom... so not too bad in comparison.

Odin arrived today too and thankfully his print is pretty well aligned.

There's some of the Iron Man figures I've picked up. I've got several extras of these as I picked them up for the 'non-official' customs as I have the TLG official versions of those.

Finally there's the Winter Soldier figure that arrived today too. I think I'll replace his arm with a Light Bley one or maybe even spray this one silver. Head is double sided on this (most of them actually are).

So there you go... Quality is actually getting better on these... Misprinting is happening less and less I think and they're working out at around £2 at most... closer to £1.50 actually which makes them nice additions to fill out a collection... and definitely for those Comic Con figs that have eluded those of us that weren't there or have £100s to spend on them.

Are the Iron Men safe?

None of them have attacked me so far ;)

Batman arrived as part of a batch of 6 today (with Green Arrow, Odin, Winter Soldier, Venom and Cyclops) Cyclops is a pretty iffy design if you ask me. Not sure what variation this is meant to be but all 6 were around £9 so I'm happy for the odd variation that doesn't mean anything is it's around £1.50 and the print is OK. I'll post the Cyclops image next but I warn you it's not pretty.

My Bizarro... Not sure why the cape has come out looking so dark on this shot... its actually much lighter and closer to the original. Again... Not something I'd pay a huge amount for but for less than £2 it's a winner for me.

Here he is on the custom backing card I created and had printed. My Shazam, Green Lantern and CC Batman are mounted on their cards too.

I had a few of these printed and was selling them on eBay before a seller reported me (as they had a Lego logo on them).. It just so happens that he was selling real Comic Con carded figures for around $200 each whereas my cards are £5 each.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Robianco

[TheLegoDr]

Nice customs.. I have considered purchasing some of the knock-offs to fill the ranks. I've been unsure of the quality also, so I've never pulled the trigger. But there are some obvious choices that LEGO will likely never do, so a good custom would be ideal. I've seen some that are custom printing on official LEGO pieces, so those are ideal, but they also ask for a premium usually. If some of these are cheaper, yet still good (enough) quality, I'd go for them.

Where did you get these from again, Robianco? As in, which sellers, if you don't mind my asking. Thanks! That Odin is awesome.

[Robianco]

I've purchased customs from several people in the last couple of years. I'd still say Christo is the best customiser out there but those figs sell for quite a bit (although I've always been 100% happy with everything I've ever bought from him)

Other sellers that print on official Lego pieces also charge a premium as you say (more than they used to!). The thing I actually like about these is the finish is closer to pad printing than a lot of customisers and most of them use metallic inks.

I can't see anyone offering me a better Green Lantern, Comic Con Superman, Odin and Bizarro for this kind of outlay and I'm quite content with my Hall of Armour being almost 20 strong (feels much more like a Hall now!)

Rather than post people I've bought from (as I'm not sure if that's OK or not) I'll drop you a PM with them.

[TheLegoDr]

^Thanks! I was going to ask in a pm, but I thought I'd ask here just in case others were interested. But good call about not name dropping on the site. I will go read that message right now.

[rosalind14]

My Bizarro... Not sure why the cape has come out looking so dark on this shot... its actually much lighter and closer to the original. Again... Not something I'd pay a huge amount for but for less than £2 it's a winner for me.

I purchased that too from eBay for probably the same price. It arrived today and I thought it was quite good!

[jee_ace_guy]

Can you tell us who are the most reliable sellers on ebay for those bootleged minifigures ? Thanks