crossmr

Eurobricks Citizen
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Everything posted by crossmr

  1. crossmr

    End of Lepin and other bootleggers?

    They'll change the logos and everything else. All they won was a case on the "N" trademark. if the chinese company made the same shoe and put a "P" on it, they probably wouldn't have had a case. Change the logo, take your own box shots, and you're back to where you were. I don't think Lepin or any of the other Chinese brands think they're actually fooling anyone into thinking they're buying real Lego. They're providing a similar product at a much lower price, because Lego priced itself out of competition in China.
  2. crossmr

    Oxford World War Series - WWII Planes, Tanks

    Yet we have castle..which has wars.. a line actually called "Star Wars", future wars with space and space guns, ninjago, which is all about fighting and wars, Chima, which again, wars.. .are you saying lego isn't connected with anything war related? Let's not forget the fact that kids have had war and soldier toys for..well probably since the beginning of time. No sorry, Lego's stance makes absolutely zero sense.
  3. 5 and 8 are the same, that's never a good sign, in regards to 9, yes the companies will replace your parts. If you've bought it through aliexpress they have to or they don't get paid, and reports from those who actually live in China state that when a set is missing a piece they have problems getting the missing pieces. Number 2 is irrelevant. if Lego is trying to make up the price of sets on individual brick prices, that's a stupid business model. They have no legal claim to most of the blocks, and only a trademark on the minifigure in some places. Number 3 is also irrelevant, the chinese companies are not part of any agreement between Lego and Company X. no agreement is being broken by them copying their goods. Yes, they're violating IP law by doing so, but it has no bearing on the legal status of the agreement between Lego and Company X. 4 - They've committed IP theft, they've caused no loss on the design to Lego. Graphical design costs are a sunk cost. Whether they sell 1 or 10,000 they still have to design those boxes. Bootleg companies may use those, but no one anywhere is fooled into believing they are genuine lego. People can clearly tell the Logos apart. Even parents. 6 - Lego isn't hurting for money. The small bite these companies are taking, mostly in China isn't jeopardizing that. 7 - I actually wouldn't mind if there was a brand that focused on sets from, say, 5 years ago and further back. If Lego does provide all the instructions, I'd like to see a company sell "brick packs" for those who want them. No box, no manual, just the correct number of bricks to build set "X" from at least 5 years ago. Since they don't have a patent on the bricks anymore, they couldn't even really do anything about that legally. I think people are overestimating how much damage these clone sets are causing. Clone sets have been around for a long time, it's only recently though that their quality improve and they started doing the really big sets. I think clone lego is a lot like pirated music, in that you can't really tell if people would buy it otherwise. Most pirated music would not be legally purchased if it weren't available and I think the same goes for bootleg bricks. Especially in china where there is a price disparity of something like 1/7th the lego price, people aren't going to shell out the money for those kinds of sets. Real Lego purchases would be few and far between. Also, keep in mind that despite Lego using Chinese factories to make local sets, they still charge the same price in China that they charge in the rest of the world. Lego, in a sense, is basically trying to rip chinese people off, you'd think with cheaper local labour they'd offer a cheaper price domestically, but they don't. I think most westerners who use a site like Aliexpress wouldn't be buying near as much as they do, if at all. So in terms of hurting Lego's bottom line, I think the people who could afford to buy Lego are doing so, and those who couldn't and buy bootleg sets would never spend the cash on genuine lego. What they're doing is clearly illegal and wrong, I'm just not sure how much impact it's actually having on Lego, and how much damage Lego is doing to itself. Personally I'm not overly impressed with Lego in the last decade or so, especially since I've seen that there are quality original companies out there (like Oxford in Korea) who sell stuff at a fraction of the price. I grew up on Lego, loved Lego from that era, but I think they need to take a step back and evaluate everything.
  4. crossmr

    Compatible Minifigures Discussion.

    Only $30 locally in China. I think if you're going to get into ordering even non-bootleg chinese blocks, you're better off finding a forwarding service that operates in China. Chinese people living in the US probably have one they use to cheaply get packages from China to there.
  5. Again, you aren't Lepin's intended audience. The few westerners buying it at ridiculously inflated prices, isn't really indicative of why this product was made. In China the local price is only 41 euros. Not 145 Euros. This also gives you a sense of how much aliexpress sellers rip people off. If you're paying that much for a bootleg it doesn't make much sense, but if you can buy 7-8 for the price you'd pay for a real one, suddenly it's a completely different situation. People should remember that Lego isn't your friend. They're a business first a foremost, and despite their long history and how long we've played with their product, they aren't our buddy, and they're making money hand over fist. They don't need our help to defend them or anything else. The only thing they care about is profit. Why do you think we have stickers instead of printed bricks these days?
  6. Mainly because they lack vision. They make some very good quality sets, some great original designs, but they're limited to South Korea. They have no international presence to speak of, and purchasing them outside Korea can be a bit of a hassle. Not something the average person is going to go through. They also lack some cohesion and direction to their product lines. Lego has had had decades to turn their product lines into well-oiled machines. Oxford doesn't have that yet. I believe if they did create a much more focused product line in the same way that Lego did, and had the capital to go international they could put a dent in Lego's business, a much larger one that megablocks does. Star Diamond is in the same place. They only focus on China, but they're original designs. They are however completely on par with lego quality wise, bricks, figures, the whole deal. Very nice all around. They're also one of the few chinese brands that you can't really find too much of on Aliexpress. Mainly because they are slightly more expensive in China, which means Aliexpress sellers would have to mark the prices up even more. You're right, Lego doesn't have to keep their prices reasonable, that's their right as a private company. But by increasing their prices to an unreasonable level, especially in a place like China, where the average income is quite low, you're create an environment for people to rip you off. Some other industries lower prices in places like that. Certain countries which have lower incomes get price discounts on things like software and other things like that, which is why they introduced region locking on them. Lego hasn't figured that out yet, so they're going ahead with products in a country which can't really afford them. There are cheaper brands that people can buy if they don't want to pay for Lego, but the Chinese ones are the only ones really available worldwide. I don't believe the government is taxing them that much. The prices they charge in China are on par with the prices charged in other countries.
  7. It absolutely is. The prices you see on aliexpress and other places for chinese sets are hugely inflated. In China, lego is priced 7x or more than a bootleg brand. In a country where new kids clothes are sold for around $1-$2, people don't want to be dropping that kind of money on Lego. The reality is companies like Oxford and Star Diamond show it's possible to create an original quality product at a fraction of the of the cost of Lego, and that Lego is probably partially responsible for the current situation.
  8. crossmr

    Compatible Minifigures Discussion.

    quality of printing is irrelevant to breaking the law. No company is going to say "Oh you made a really high quality product when you ripped us off, so I guess that's okay". It just seems very hypocritical of the mods for any thread discussing anything remotely in violation of IP law to be allowed when those threads were closed. If you're making a custom not based on IP using official lego pieces (like WW2 stuff) that's fine, but if you're making your own marvel minis or whatever, whether you're using lego parts or not, you're violating IP and under the new guideline it shouldn't be permitted.
  9. crossmr

    Compatible Minifigures Discussion.

    We are going there yes, and I was genuinely curious why one theft was considered acceptable here while another isn't.
  10. crossmr

    Compatible Minifigures Discussion.

    How is that really different? If someone is just buying some lego figure and painting a marvel suit over top it, they're still violating marvels IP and making money off it. That's just as much a bootleg.
  11. I think the argument is a lot like the one regarding music downloading. When you look at the massive price disparity between real Lego and clone Lego, you have to wonder if any sales for clone Lego would actually go to real Lego. I know those modulars are really expensive. I could never justify the price of even a single one. However, the clones, especially when I ship directly from China are more within my budget. It isn't a matter of saving up either, I simply couldn't justify that amount of money on a single set. Is Lego losing any money by my buying that set? no it isn't. This was the same issue that they had with music where they claimed every download was a lost sale, and that was just patently absurd. Luckily the chinese courts are surprisingly smarter about that, and the last time Lego sued in China, all they got was a nominal fine, something like $6000 because you can't prove there was actual financial damage.
  12. Maybe if Lepin only stuck with old sets Lego wouldn't have gone after them, but... companies like Lele and Bela also do current sets. Their quality is also good. I found one of the Bela elves sets awhile back for my kid. I had no experience with Bela and wanted to give it a shot. Their new stuff is on par with Lepin. Good quality bricks. Good clutch. Only one part was off (kind of rope basket, the part the chain attached too had a hole too big. But I fixed that) SY also copies their current sets in addition to minifigures. SY clones a lot of their Friends sets, Nexon nights, and other stuff. Decool also directly clones sets I believe. The difference with Lepin is simply that it is it the biggest sets. The prestige sets. Until now most of the other companies only did smaller sets. Lepin was going after the really noticeable big size things. However, in reality Lepin isn't doing anything different that other companies haven't been doing for awhile already. I think that might hurt Lego in any court case. Lego let Enlighten copy their products for over a decade without doing anything until Enlighten eventually went legit.
  13. I have several SY figures that my daughter regularly plays with, the print has never rubbed off on any of them.
  14. crossmr

    Bootleg Super Heroes minifigs - worth it or not?

    Anyone done any business with Skyblue Co LTD on aliexpress? They seem to have a big store, around a few years with lots of feedback. I ordered some enlighten sets, really good price, even paid for extra fast shipping since it was pretty cheap to Korea here, and now about 10-11 days after ordering, they still haven't shipped. I've sent a couple messages and no answer.
  15. crossmr

    Bootleg Super Heroes minifigs - worth it or not?

    They're $5.40 in China. That seller is gouging. Wait until more sellers post them.
  16. crossmr

    Pirate theme getting worse

    Sadly what their competitors make, as long as it's not a bootleg of a Lego set, doesn't seem to influence Lego at all. If it did, all the companies making military sets, especially good ones like Oxford would have spurred them to consider that. Or at least Enlighten providing cheap clones of old Lego train sets might have gotten them to do that. I'd say that attempting to rebrick the enlighten stuff in Lego or mixing it as much as you can for the special parts might be your best home here. I might buy some of them and if I do, I'll scan up the instructions.
  17. Sluban is a really bad copy of Oxford. Oxford doesn't make trains anymore, but yes they are slightly different and don't work well with Lego track. As far as the GBL horizon goes. I have that train. They're basically identical from what I've heard. I don't have the original Lego one. It's a decent train. Great clutch, and it has a rechargeable battery in it. Only an on/off function, but for the price. It's very solid. Ausini has a lot of trains/stations and rolling stock. With Enlighten no longer making knock-offs of old lego stuff, Ausini and GBL are basically all that's out there for decent alternative trains. Ausini doesn't come with a full track though.
  18. crossmr

    Pirate theme getting worse

    You are almost asking Lego to now copy Enlighten. Enlighten released a new pirate series this year, and it basically has everything you're asking for: (ignore the old rip off sets they used to do listed on that page, they're all original now) http://enlighten-brick.com/pirates.html There are sea creatures, islanders, magic, supernatural stuff, etc About the only thing they're lacking is a focus on the soldiers. I'd also like to see that. The pirates always got the biggest best boats in the old series. I'd like to see larger forts and unique interest outposts done by lego. But also some other stuff, to make a kind of pirate town. Tavern, merchants, that kind of thing.
  19. crossmr

    Bootleg Super Heroes minifigs - worth it or not?

    Lepin focuses on those big sets a lot, it would be interesting if them or another company did no-longer made medium sets. For example, if someone reissued Lego city or castle stuff from a few years ago or something like that.
  20. crossmr

    Bootleg Super Heroes minifigs - worth it or not?

    Not specifically. I've done just a couple orders on there myself. I had a chinese friend help me set up an account originally, but you need to have a way to get it out of china if you're not there. My friend just suggested to check the feedback. They have little balloons, diamonds, etc beside their name. Click those and you can see how many transactions they have. If something doesn't ship or show up, you can dispute it, but you'll need to know some chinese to do that. if I run into any problems, I'd be lost without my friend to tell me what to click.
  21. crossmr

    Bootleg Super Heroes minifigs - worth it or not?

    That Decool Pokemon Center is showing up with more sellers on Aliexpress. Price seems to be around $50-$55. Local price in China is about $18 on Taobao. I think I'll be ordering it directly and using my Chinese reshipper. Mark-up is way too much on that.
  22. As far as I know they only have trademark not patent. All their basic patents are expired. The minifigure thing is a trademark issue as far as I know. Which is really too bad. Let's be honest, it is the most basic and functional design for a figure to be compatible with these bricks. As much as I love Oxford here in Korea, I do wish they could have the more traditional legs and be compatible with the existing Lego figures. But they're still a decent figure without being weird like some of the other companies make.
  23. It works in Trademark. I know this will likely be some kind of copyright argument, but when it comes to trademark if you let it become diluted and don't actively protect it, you basically lose it. This is an example on Trademark: http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverherzfeld/2013/02/28/failure-to-enforce-trademarks-if-you-snooze-do-you-lose/#5c234cdc7718 Now this talks about something that goes on for nearly 40 years, and I don't know how long Chinese companies have been creating Lego knock-offs, but it may not be a simple straightforward argument. In this case, they aren't actually violating the Lego trademark. They aren't using the Lego name, they are using the image, and set design. I don't believe lego has a trademark on the minifigure shape in China, so really it'll probably come down to using their images and design. Lepin could take their own photos, so really it would mostly be about design and whether China gives you legal protection over a design like that. If they don't, Lego can't do anything.
  24. crossmr

    Bootleg Super Heroes minifigs - worth it or not?

    Lepin has been doing a few of the sets they're currently selling. But a lot of them are older sets that aren't made any more, and let's be honest. If someone could actually afford to buy the larger sets they're making directly from Lego, they probably aren't trying to buy them from Lepin, especially inside China where these sets are mainly sold. Lego might get an export ban, or they could go to other countries to get import bans, but given how long bootlegging has gone on in China, yes, they're unlikely to stop it.
  25. Seems strange to target Lepin. They might have a hard time winning since Lepin could simply cite them allowing Bella and other brands to continue, as well as Lego allowing Enlighten to clone them for like a decade with no action. Lepin's argument may simply be that Lego's inaction for a decade became a de facto permission in China. They'd have better luck getting customs in other countries to reject shipments with Lepin items in them.