wickedlemon

Lego know a lot of people are only interested in collecting the figures but seem happy to release them as limited runs or available only in large sets. At a quick guess there's about 200 superhero figures so far. Who has the room to build and display all the sets you'd have to buy to get these figures? Lego have chosen to be a premium brand. Their business model relies on well-off middle-aged fan-boys snapping up everything they sell. With their position as one of the largest, and most profitable, toy manufacturers they could easily make their products cheaper or the figures more accessible but they choose not to. It's no suprise that sooner or later somebody will come along and fill the void for the customer base that can't or won't pay Lego prices

Really? As soon as the set was announced I added a watch for Bullseye in Construction Blocks and today I had loads of hits emailed to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraman Been running since the 60s. I'm more of a Kamen Rider person myself, but these are a cool step in the right direction.

Stop teasing me! I'm still waiting for my set to arrive. These will go nice with my Mega Bloks Ultraman figures.

It could happen. They've changed the feet from round to square in other waves so in time they may all swap over. My TMNT set has square feet for starters and I'm sure there are others.

So has anyone spotted the number on this box? There are six gaps between the end of the Punisher wave (0174) and this (0181), so are we expecting another 6 figure wave before we get to the Hulkbuster?

If you check in My Orders you should have a tracking number, so you know when your stuff has been shipped. I've had stuff arrive in 3 or 4 days and others 3 or 4 weeks. Check the seller's listed processing time as, unlike eBay, AE doesn't insist sellers ship next day. You're probably worrying over nothing.. Still a problem as eBay require buyers to pay return shipping in the event of a problem, which to China is normally more than the figures cost! My biggest bootleg lose was actually on eBay from a UK seller. Go figure. Badly damaged boxes, but it just wasn't worth my while returning them due to the cost. At least most Ali sellers will offer you a couple of dollars refund in this instance.

I have to admit I've had problems with sellers on Aliexpress and eBay in equal measure. I try to buy boxed figures and they often come crushed where the seller packs them in a plastic bag :/ I've also had a few instances where I've been sent completely the wrong thing. Most have been resolved ok with partial or full refunds. The only parcels that have actually never arrived (never sent?) were all from eBay as all the Ali stuff is also sent with a tracking number. It's a stressful experience dealing with sellers in China on both sites, but at the end of the day you're only chancing a few dollars if something does go wrong. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the Ali sellers are just drop shippers. I've ordered from dozens of different sellers and all the parcels have come from the same few addresses. I've probably had over 300 figures come in about a 50/50 site split and really have no preference which site I buy from. It's down to the cheapest one normally.

Shame it's JLB, but this looks interesting. Hopefully SY or Decool will branch out into Ultraman too. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/6-pcs-lot-JLB-Ultraman-mini-figures-Japanese-cartoon-characters-figures-Ultraman-Taro-TIGA-figures-Superhero/2027349389.html

It's my favourite of the wave. Looked way better than I was expecting. I've got some pics of it here: http://www.herobloks.co.uk/figures/Decool/189/Iron%20Man%20Mark%201 . They're a little dark as I couldn't wait for some decent lighting to take them.

New LeLe wave on Aliexpress, including Electro, Modok and Taskmaster. They've scooped Decool and Sheng Yuan on these. All they need is the quality to match. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/8pcs-super-hero-Amazing-Spider-Man-Electro-Modok-Taskmaster-mini-figures-block-toys-The-Avengers-catwoman/2000574246.html

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Decool-Building-Blocks-Super-Heroes-Avengers-Iron-Man-Action-Figures-Tony-STARK-IRON-PATRIOT-MARK-4/2006819515.html

New Iron Man wave is £7.22 on Aliexpress without boxes.

Nice find. Nowhere advertising them for sale yet though.

I'm starting to do the same thing on my website, although I haven't added many (any?) SY figures yet. I'll probably have a big SY photo session on Sunday and update then.

I'm not sure I would believe a Chinese product description. It was probably copied from a Lego box

I've wondered about potential health risks. Apprarently it's not just obvious paint, but the dye in the plastic that can contain lead. Hard to tell what the real issue is and how much of the hysteria is just the Western toy industry trying to protect itself. I wouldn't give these to a young kid who may suck/eat them just in case but otherwise? China has a pretty large population, when by rights all the kids ought to have died from lead poisioning if our press is to be believed. I'd love someone to test some of these figures though.

I've been trying to pick them up in boxes, but it's a pain. It's a nightmare trawling through Aliexpress or eBay as sellers often use boxed pictures to advertise a product that they don't supply boxed. So far my experience hasn't been great. Most of the boxes I've received so far have been crushed in the post due to poor or no packaging. I'm still searching for a decent source of boxed figures. I'll let you know if I find one.

I like the fact that I can get Comi-con exclusive figures without being forced to pay hundreds of dollars on the second-hand market. I like the fact I can avoid having to buy expensive sets to get exclusive figures, in what seems like a very cynical marketing strategy to extract every penny possible from what should be a 'children's toy' by one of the most profitable toy manufacturers in the world. Unfortunately laws are just the pick and choose ethics and morals of those already with power and money. If you choose to release a prestige brand then the 'value' end of the market is bound to be filled sooner or later for those who can't buy in to your product.

Just to spoil the fun, the big Thing in the white shorts doesn't have the correct outfit to match the new FF figures though :-)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4pcs-1set-Future-Foundation-human-torch-Spider-Man-set-Figures-Building-toys-/171383618807?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item27e7427cf7

Nice spot! Although that is pricey. Adds an extra $2 for shipping for me too. The original Fantastic Four wave can be picked up for a couple of dollars. So do we know what customs these designs are taken from?

I think if some of these companies asked, there would be lots of people offer designs for them to use. After all, the main aim of customisers is to create characters that Lego don't, not to make money. The money side is surely just to cover time and costs. If that's not the case then the customisers are really no different (or even worse) than Decool or Sheng Yuan as they have no licences either. Is making these figures in China actually breaking any laws (Chinese not EU/US or 'morals')? I can use Illustrator and Photoshop, but the thing that stops me making Lego characters is the manufacturing side. How cool would be it to submit designs of your favourite characters and have a chance of them being mass-produced?

Out of interest, what original designs have Sheng Yuan put out? My customs knowledge isn't good enough to tell for myself.

They had the numbering wrong on the Punisher pictures wave anyway as 154 and 155 were already big Things.