What's your opinions on "Lego clones"?

[fred67]

I'm not sure what you're offended by?

OP asked for our opinions, and I gave mine. It's obviously different from your own, but it was in no way a personal attack on you or anyone else.

I was being facetious, but thinking about it I guess what bothers me is not that you merely don't like it but that you're actually "offended" by merely the thought of it.

I like the LEGO system. I like to build with LEGO bricks. I like the designs that the LEGO Group produces.

I feel that what other clone products have to offer is of no interest to me. It's inferior in every aspect that I find appealing about LEGO.

I find it hard to believe you've tried every clone brand and came to that conclusion. Like I said, I doubt anybody here denies the superior quality of LEGO, but some "clone" brands do things TLG won't, and have pieces TLG doesn't make... like plates with studs on both sides, or the kinds of things brickforge and brickarms make... of the variety of leaf colors offered by altbricks.

I just think people's brand loyalty to TLG is terribly misplaced... if anything, TLG is the original clone manufacturer, and here we are, with most people bashing other companies for being clones.

[Jared]

Unless it's brands like decool, which essentially just produce cheap copies of figures most people wouldn't justify spending $500+ for, I'm not really big on them. Mega bloks is a hard topic, because it's a Canadian company, and so, as a Canadian, I'm obligated to support it since it helps our economy. However, LEGO always has been and always will (hopefully) be better in quality, and I'd rather LEGO over megabloks.

[BirdOPrey5]

BricTek/WOMA even does one thing a little better than Lego - in the instructions they put the stud count next to long bricks... No more having to count if you're looking at a 2x8 or a 2x10, it says so right next to the part.

[moijk]

While the finish is not up to LEGO standards, I really like the fact that some of the clone sets looks like the style lego did when I was a kid (more blocky, less refined). Some even have direct copies of 80s lego. And not to mention, you get a whole lot of stuff LEGO doesn't want to make.

[klinton]

I was being facetious, but thinking about it I guess what bothers me is not that you merely don't like it but that you're actually "offended" by merely the thought of it.

Fair enough. Perhaps my own wording was a little too strong as well. Sorry about that.

A more honest way of expressing what I was trying to say would be that I'm not literally 'offended' by them so much as I'm averse to products that are not actually LEGO.

It might not even be rational, in all actuality. I just don't like the idea of mixing other parts that don't belong.

I'm the same way with everything though, not only LEGO. Like, there's a company that makes accessories and vehicles scaled for GI Joe and I'll have none of it among my own collection.

Authenticity is rather imoprtant to me, and clone bricks (no matter the quality level or 'cool' factor) would just annoy my sensibilities. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with the products themselves nor the companies that make them.

So, yeah, you were perhaps correct in calling me out there. My original post was rather abrasive, looking at it again. :D

[Robert8]

While the finish is not up to LEGO standards, I really like the fact that some of the clone sets looks like the style lego did when I was a kid (more blocky, less refined). Some even have direct copies of 80s lego. And not to mention, you get a whole lot of stuff LEGO doesn't want to make.

829 totally nailed it. Looks pretty close to a real LEGO product

[fred67]

Fair enough. Perhaps my own wording was a little too strong as well. Sorry about that.

No problems, we're just discussing...

It might not even be rational, in all actuality. I just don't like the idea of mixing other parts that don't belong.

See, now here's where I (kind of) agree; I do NOT mix megablocks with my LEGO... NO NO NO. I'm as OCD about that as anybody.

At the same time, I will include brickarms, brickforge, altbricks, etc, in my collection without a problem.

So right now I have two MB sets; one is unassembled in the box:

(I only recently got it half price at Target... more because of the Zombie theme than because it was building blocks). It is fairly close to the iconic scene at the end of season 2 of the Walking Dead. The other I bought way back when I was first getting back into LEGO - a mech, years before TLG ever released anything like it. It's assembled, but stored somewhere (I couldn't even tell you which closet it's in); but I've kept all the pieces separate because it would bother me to mix them.

Yes, I realize it's a little crazy and OCD, but I am like that. I'm realizing I have a lot of issues when it comes to LEGO, actually... like that I can't buy a single set just for parts; if I like the parts in a set, I have to buy two so that I can build one and use the parts from the other.

But back on subject... I'm not a huge fan of "clone" bricks (of course, as said before, TLC was the "original" clone), but I have no problem with them, especially given certain themes people might be fans of, and I hope that some of the competitors (do we still call MB a "clone" when their sets are completely different than TLG?) step up and start rivaling the quality of LEGO. We need some good competition to get TLG to cut their really high profit margins down a little. I don't want them to go bankrupt, but a little decent competition is good for consumers.

[Vorkosigan]

It was actually a clone that started the process of getting me out of my dark age. I was traveling in Korea and saw Oxford sets. I thought it was really cool that they had military models. My interest grew from there and I got back into real LEGO. I will say I like some of the Oxford sets quite a bit. The quality is close to LEGO though the model design is somewhat simplistic. I like some of their models a lot, the Oshkosh HEMTT and missile launcher set, the blackhawk helicopter, the HMMV and some of the tanks. Their jeeps are weird looking though. The only serious quality issue is really bad color matching on the stickers sometimes. Their sets remind me a bit of older LEGO models, with very brick intensive layered builds and a fairly blocky look. I appreciate that they don't do straight up rip off of LEGO sets, its all their own models. Prices are very good if you buy them in Korea.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Has anyone tried the OYO brand yet? For those unaware: Oyo has the license to make bricks for American Major sports, like Major League baseball and NFL football. They may be exclusive to sports stadiums, as I've never seen them in stores.

I took my daughter to a Phillies game today, and the promotional giveaway was an Oyo Phillies dugout with a Phillie Phanatic minifigure. It's free "Lego," so I won't complain about that. It's something like 40 bricks, including the parts that make the figure. The figure by himself retails for $12.99, so that and the bricks I guess make for a decent value (though as a Lego set, this would probably be a $4.99 polybag--the licensing fee must be through the roof). What we got looks something like this (the actual colors turned out to be a little different):

I will say the following: one, it's free, so I don't have a lot of room to complain. Two, the bricks seem a little harder and I wonder if they'll prove to be brittle over time. They don't seem to have the same slight flexibility that actual Lego bricks have. Three, the printing on the dugout roof is lousy. It's literally printed right on top of the studs and is only readable if you're looking at it directly from above. At least Lego would have used a tile with studs only on the border.

Four, the minifigure isn't great. Aside from the facial printing (Lego would have made a full-on Phanatic head), he really doesn't hold together very well. The arms and hands pop out of their sockets very easily. The feet do plug into studs, but you REALLY have to press to get them in and he's otherwise inclined to lean backwards on his loose feet.

I was tempted to buy another Oyo set at the ballpark, but the prices are pretty high and I'm dissatisfied with the quality of the parts. I do, however, wish that I'd gotten some baseball players from the CMF series to get some ballgames going in my city.

[Jeannehk2007]

I have no offense to 'clone' or whatever it is called

I will just buy those I like no matter what are they

And what made me like it?

Of course its price, quality etc

[Kumpelkante]

I once bought a minifig from Megablocks. I think the overall quality (the plastic and the design) was ok, and way better than purist Afols say. But it looked more than a small action figure than a minifig from tlg, so not much to compare here.

I also never bought a complete set from MB, but i think from what they look like they are more like play sets than building sets. So not much to compare here either.

But then there are the other clones. Once in a while i buy one of these from a flea market or bargain bin.

See for yourself:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=50434&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78472&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

And the most funny of them all:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=83106&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

Now something completely different: What do you think of Playmobil? It may not be building brick but i think the are more comparable to Lego when it comes to quality and design. (At least it were in the nineties when lego had non-licensed themes too)

[Legogal]

While not personally into clone LEGO, I do collect both LEGO and Playmobil because of their higher quality and outstanding designs. And each brand has its advantages.

PM has better dollhouses than system LEGO, and PM figures are quite well designed and built. However, the rare Duplo playhouses are somewhat competitive with the PM dollhouses.

PM seems to be better for just playing with rather than building because the large parts (like wall pieces of which I have a ton) are quite expensive. (As an avid gardener, PM makes it easier to build detailed gardens and parks with so many different kinds of flowers, etc.)

LEGO are more of a building toy with so many small generic parts and the ease of making anything your want. So generally if I want to build something, LEGO tend to be more attractive. If I feel like playing with something, PM get my attention. It will be interesting to see which brand my infant granddaughter prefers as she grows up.

I view these two product lines as being quite different but also as complementary because they both are building toys.

[Kumpelkante]

I view these two product lines as being quite different but also as complementary because they both are building toys.

Exatly my thought. By the way Lego(system scale in particular) and Playmobil had the exact same themed during the 80s and 90s

[Legogal]

Kumpelkante,

Good point! Yes, their themes were quite similar for many years. And it would seem that many families bought products from both companies.

PM is still much more popular in Europe than in the US, where it is mainly found in TRU and a few smaller, independent toy stores. It is admirable that both companies still make such lovely, high quality products as at least 95 per cent of the products offered in US stores are pure junk these days.

While clone brands such as MB and Kreo have some wonderful designs, my very limited personal experience with them is that they just do not have the quality of LEGO. They mostly have infiltrated our home in boxes of "LEGO" purchased off of eBay, and quickly find themselves dumped off at charity reception bins. But I could be wrong about their newer sets.

[Tyberious Funk]

Getting Lego here in Australia at a reasonable price is pretty difficult. For many years, consumers put up with massive price discrepencies because the exchange rate was so rubbish. But over recent years, the Australian dollar has been very strong, and yet we still pay a significant difference to Americans (and, to a lesser extent, Europeans). It's not uncommon for some Lego sets to be almost double the American price despite an exchange rate of maybe 1:1.1. And that's assuming you can actually find the set you are after. Melbourne is a city of more than 4 million people, but most of the retailers still have a pretty limited range. And most American online retailers (like Amazon) have contracts in place that forbid them from shipping Lego to Australia. So generally your online option (other than just buying from local retailers), is to buy from Bricklink -- where postage for sets is often massively inflated.

By contrast, I can go on to AliExpress and find all sorts of Chinese lego... it's cheap, they happily ship to Australia and shipping is usually free. Sure, some of the products are rubbish... but not all of them are. With a little bit of research, you quickly figure out which brands are good and which are rubbish. I've bought some Enlighten stuff which was very good. Almost indistinguishable from Lego, and generally very high quality. The clutch power on their bricks is a little bit erratic, so I'd be wary of buying a large (expensive) set. But I have no problem spending a few bucks on some of their smaller sets. At the very least, the sets are usually very generous with minifigs and accessories.

I've also bought Decool, Sheng Yuan and Lele minifigs. These are typically AUD$1.20 per figure (delivered) which is fraction of the price you can buy minifigs anywhere else. Absolutely awesome for building armies or filling out your legitimate Lego sets that don't have enough minifigs. They serve a market for customers like myself who are often more interested in figures than sets, and they frequently sell stuff that Lego simply don't make. The quality of the Lele stuff is pretty rubbish (and I believe this is similar with CB, IQ and Bozhi brands too), but the Decool and Sheng Yuan stuff is very, very good. Occasionally i've needed to swap out some parts because of quality control issues... but again, at a price of little more than a dollar per figure, the additional cost of a few spare parts is more than worth it.

For me, some of these bootleg companies are providing a product that Lego simply doesn't offer me. Why wouldn't I buy from them?

[Jared]

Wow, I never realized aussie's had it so difficult. It's nice then that bootleg products provide reasonable rates for figures that would normally not be available.

[SamuelHKHon]

I generally don't buy other construction toy brands, mainly due to limited space at home. Megabloks' quality have improved a lot in recent years. I have their stuff from the Alien Agency and Dragons days, they were not bad but some of the earlier Alien Agency sets had bad quality. I think their HALO and COD stuff is a lot better now.

I think Megabloks sometimes has more interesting ideas than LEGO, I found their Alien Agency concept quite fun. But their quality was not good. Haven't tried other brands.

Getting Lego here in Australia at a reasonable price is pretty difficult. For many years, consumers put up with massive price discrepencies because the exchange rate was so rubbish. But over recent years, the Australian dollar has been very strong, and yet we still pay a significant difference to Americans (and, to a lesser extent, Europeans). It's not uncommon for some Lego sets to be almost double the American price despite an exchange rate of maybe 1:1.1. And that's assuming you can actually find the set you are after. Melbourne is a city of more than 4 million people, but most of the retailers still have a pretty limited range. And most American online retailers (like Amazon) have contracts in place that forbid them from shipping Lego to Australia. So generally your online option (other than just buying from local retailers), is to buy from Bricklink -- where postage for sets is often massively inflated.

I second Tyberious Funk's comments. We get ripped off for almost every product, including LEGO. The only places that I know of where LEGO costs more are New Zealand and New Caledonia.

I have written to LEGO about the price discrepancy, they tell me it's due to stuff like VAT taxes (which we don't need to pay for) and the economic situation (I received this "reason" even back when the AUD was stronger than the USD).

Hence I think most Aussies only buy LEGO when they are on sale at 20% or similar, to make the prices more reasonable...

[Artifex]

Kre-O has GIJoe. Plastic is not as good as Lego, but oh, well, they got GIJoe. And the sets do look good, even among Lego.

I don't care about other brands, to be quite honest.

[Sven F]

I don't like most, but I don't go this far- http://thebrickblogg...hen-lego-burns/

I pretty much share this view "other brick-brands deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth" except I don't find any amusement in burning plastic.

In the beginning I would even boycott stores that sold lego clones altogether, but this has proven more difficult in recent years. Why? I don't know, i'm sensitive to stealing ideas and designs, it hurts me personally. Quality has very little to do with it.

[Tyberious Funk]

I don't know, i'm sensitive to stealing ideas and designs, it hurts me personally. Quality has very little to do with it.

So, Decool or Sheng Yuan "stealing" from Lego hurts you personally... but Lego stealing from Kiddicraft is... ok?

[Faefrost]

Occasionally something non Lego will spark my interest and I will try it out. Although more often than not the cons seem to out weight the pros. Case in point Megabloks new Asassins Creed Ship. I love ships. I like AS. It was fairly inexpensive for a ship and I had been hearing how much better Megabloks had been getting. So I tried building it last night.

Note I said "tried"

Yeah it is that bad. Flash and poor QC make the mast in my set near impossible to build. The actual color quality brick to brick is atrocious. Something they seem to mask by doing swirled camo or weathered bricks. But where it is supposed to be solid same colors? It isn't. I should not need to take modeling tools like jewelers files and ax to knives to a brick set just to get the pieces to actually go together.

[J.V.D.]

Up till now I am loyal to Lego when it comes to sets and loose parts for my own (AFOL) purposes.

I do buy from other suppliers sometimes, e.g. Brickarms, but I do not see them as clone brands, since they deliver parts TLG doesn't produce.

However, lately I am more and more turning to actual clone brands because imho Lego fails to be what it is supposed to be : a kid's toy.

I still might buy (on sale) a missing set for my AFOL SW OT collection, or a set that is a good parts pack for its price..

But paying ridiculous prices for a poorly designed licensed set, who's only reason to exist, and only reason why the kids want that set, are the included minifigs.. I don't do that anymore.

One can of course try to get the desired figures from bricklink, which I sometimes do. But though paying between 10 -20 euros for a 1.5 inch, 10 g plastic fig can be "justified" when you see it as an addition to an (adults) collection, it becomes another story when you see it as a toy which will be tossed around and engage in "combat".. Which is what my 9 and 11 year old boys, as most kids I guess, do with their figures..

So if I can get then a 6 or 8 figs set from a knock off brand, for about half the price of 1 legit figure, its an easy decision..

[BirdOPrey5]

I will never get the obsession some people have with minifigs... I don't much care about their specifics... as long as they have a space helmet for space sets or a pirate hat for a pirate ship, I'm good.

[Peppermint_M]

£3.50 for a rather large baseplate. I am getting some of those soon! I would think everyone knows my position on Clone brand and Bootleg, though with a few of them these days the proces are just as high.

[dirk]

just got this bozhi set which is identical to lego's 76006 extemis sea port battle set.

http://lotsoflegos.blogspot.ca/2014/10/bozhi-iron-man-extremis-sea-port-battle.html