Tyberious Funk

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

I've just put an order in from these guys; http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pre-sale-2014-move-Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-6pcs-lot-ronan-camora-drax-the-destroyer-nebula/2051290402.html That's a little less than $1.50 per figure, which is only marginally more than I'd typically pay for bootlegs. Given that these things can take as much as 6 weeks to be delivered, I'm not going to hang around and wait for a price drop just to save a buck or two. If another seller comes out with a better price, or I see a listing from a seller that I know has faster delivery... I'll probably just order a second set.

I have a number of Lele sets... mostly because they have some pretty interesting fantasy stuff, including a couple of LotR/Hobbit waves. It's true their quality isn't great. I've generally found the printing to be decent, with the occasional exception, but they are more prone to mold marks. And their legs, for some reason, are utter garbage. Almost all of them seem to bow inwards -- less noticeable when they are locked onto a stand, but often very noticeable when they are standing freely. That said, if you don't mind replacing the legs, and doing a bit of cleanup work on the mold marks... the end result can be... reasonable. But it's probably only worth the effort for figures that you can't get through SY or Decool. That said, it's all a matter of perspective. I've seen various armies on sale via AliExpress, which I suspect are Lele brand. They are typically $19.99 for 20 soldiers of some kind, plus a commander. That's less than a dollar per figure, delivered. Even assuming you need to replace the legs on every single one of them, at 50c per set of legs... you are still getting an army for around ~$1.50/figure.

If you want a better quality product, you could check out the Sheng Yuan SWAT series too; http://www.aliexpress.com/item/4pcs-CS-Squad-Navy-Seal-Team-Swat-Army-Builder-SWAT-Police-City-Officer-Riot-Shield-Minifigures/2040829740.html I haven't bought any myself. But as a general rule, SY is much better quality than Lele. And judging from the pictures, these are figs that use the newer, more Lego-like legs.

I bought this set a few weeks ago, and it arrived earlier in the week. It's my first Decool set, after buying some Sheng Yuan sets, and some Lele sets. I bought the Lele stuff because I wanted their Lord of the Rings figures... but in the end, the quality of their product just isn't good enough. Their printing seems pretty decent, but their figures have inconsistent clutch power, several mold marks and most annoyingly, really, really wonky legs. Oh, one of them had missing pieces! By contrast, I'd avoided buying Decool because I wasn't really interested in some of their super heroes. But I'm a Decool convert now. Bought two sets, so a total of 12 figures, and I couldn't find a noticable flaw in any of them. No mould marks or misprints. A few of the body parts are a little bit looser than I'd like (usually the legs), but not significant in any way. One of the figures had a slight scratch across the face, but I suspect that may have happened during shipping. But with a double-printed head, I was just able to use the alternative face. I've now ordered two sets of their League of Legends series (one via eBay, one via AliExpress). And I'll order their Guardians of the Galaxy as soon as they are available.

All the vendors on AliExpress (and, I presume on eBay too) sell minifigs in sets. And yet, if you buy these figures off the street in Asia, they can be purchased individually. Since most of the vendors offer free shipping, I assume they only sell the figures in sets due to the economies of scale covering the cost of the shipping. I wonder if there are any vendors prepared to sell multiple copies of the same minifig (for army building)? I tried contacting a couple on AliExpress, but the language barrier was a problem... I suspect some of them are using google to translate. Anyone had any luck communicating directly with any vendors?

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?