Lego Mike

Actually, yeah, I wanted to mention this. And it's a sidebar, really having nothing to do with the Lepin ruling, but it does underscore the general mood among consumers in South Korea when it comes to Lego. Things rarely go on sale here. The only time they do is when there's old sets they want to flush off the shelves. I mean, there's a fairly nice toy store here (where toy stores are a rarity themselves). It's been open two years in a huge department store in a large-ish city. It's still trying to sell Chima, TMNT, and Angry Birds sets. Popular items never go on sale. Junk they can't unload? On sale maybe three times a year, if you consider 30% off a sale on items that are marked up 50% over online retailers. Anyway, they don't sell, they stay on the shelf until next time they're discounted, they don't sell, they stay on the shelf... Rinse and repeat. Nevermind that South Korea seems to be one of those markets where all the overstock gets unloaded from overseas. Justice League BrickHeadz, anyone? Buy an armful of Aquaman BrickHeadz -- just $13 each. How about the 2016 Vampire and Bat Halloween set (40203)? The aforementioned toy store has had literally about 80 of them stacked up on a shelf for the low, low price of $15 each. Case upon case of Series 16 CMFs, anyone? Just $5...per minifigure. Now I'm just complaining again. My point is, Lepin and other knock-off brands will never really go away because they're out-classing Lego by price at every turn. And as I said, I'm not super-excited about that fact myself, but if I were an eight-year-old I sure as heck wouldn't care as long as I got a ton of bricks to play with. As someone else said, yeah, Lego is a luxury brand. It's ridiculous. I tell someone here that I'm an AFOL, and it's like, wow, I must be rich. What is my job? Doctor?

Yeah. I mean, I'm with Lego. I'm a writer by profession, so I'm all about IP rights -- oh wait, just a second. I just finished downloading the first season of Frasier. Where was I...? Oh right. I'm all with Lego, but they have to understand that in East Asia the prices are just crazy. I know they put a ton of time and energy into figuring out what the market will bear in terms of price and selection...but that doesn't explain why I still see local retailers awash in 2015 Nexo Knights sets and shelf space gradually losing space to knock-off brands like Oxford Blocks. (Though in all fairness, Oxford does not clone Lego. They actually have some really nice licensed sets, like a Dunkin' Donuts shop and Baskin-Robbins ice cream truck.) For example, I wanted to buy the Fantastic Beasts "Grindelwald's Escape" (75951). I bop on down to the local big-box retailer -- whoa! $34 USD?! I feel like I've been mugged, and I haven't even paid anything. Looking on Aliexpress -- $14 for an uncanny clone. (Do I buy it? No way! But the point remains.) They can chase IP rights all they want (and they should), but that just isn't the culture over here. People simply don't get that unique creations belong uniquely to the creator. From a Western perspective -- boo, hiss, thumbs down, yeah. But in East Asia, it's clone or be cloned. China's not going to do diddly as long as Chinese companies are making bank and officials are getting their "donations." And even if they did, it's just not hard-wired into the culture to think that copying is bad. You have to price yourself to compete. That's the bottom line. You can't expect to get by on reputation or quality, though I wish that were the case. An office worker looking for a fun gift for his kids isn't ultimately going to care whether that Downtown Diner is by Lego or Lepin; he's going to care whether it's $190 (in South Korea) or $85 (Aliexpress). And I can't say I blame him. Which really sucks.

A symbolic win. I'm glad to see it, but as has been said, Lepin will disappear, retool, and come back as something else. Anyone know how Lepin and the like can clone Lego properties so quickly and accurately? The blueprints, production info, etc., are pilfered from factories and funneled to Lepin in exchange for a handful of sweaty cash. China is the world capital of bootlegs because a) most of the originals are made there and b) the Chinese government often requires foreign businesses to register their IP information and partner with a domestic producer. I live in South Korea, and it's somewhat the same, but by no means as bad. The government requires foreign businesses to partner with local businesses -- it's an old way of boosting the local economy -- but it also has the side effect of dumping tons of IP and confidential business details, strategies, and such into the hands of inept local businesses and producers who would never come up with such things themselves. So long story short -- huzzah. Awesome achievement, Lego. But when it comes to China, you will absolutely never squash IP theft. There's too much money for the crooked bureaucracy to feast on. This was a symbolic move by the court -- "Look, Lego, we made a small gesture in your favor. Okay, back to business as usual, right? Right?" Meanwhile, I'll walk about five minutes from my apartment and find a toy shop that's 80% Lego clones, all for about 30% of Lego prices. (In South Korea, the average set is at least a third more than the US, and even double is not uncommon. People can't get enough of Lego clones and couldn't care less about what some foreign company thinks about IP rights.) </rant>

Yeah, confirmed -- these sets are (for the time being) exclusive to South Korea, specifically the big-box retailer E-Mart.

That's what I'm saying -- I've never seen the like before, and I've only seen them here. So I'm asking if anyone has any info.

I live in South Korea and received a message from Lego Korea on a social network service popular here. It's advertising a sales event for November 2018. On Thursday of each week, customers spending 80,000 KRW ($70 USD) or more can receive a "Brick4Me" set featuring a brick-built dog. Here's a link to some images I shared on Instagram: Brick4Me dog sets There are no set numbers on the box, and I've never seen either these sets or the "Brick4Me" label before. I'm led to assume these are exclusive to South Korea (from my horrible Korean translation), but I can't imagine that would actually be the case. I wanted to see what the rest of you knew. Anyone? That dachshund looks awesome! Can't wait to grab him up. EDIT: Nuts. And I posted this in the wrong forum.

Cool. My undergraduate degree is in historic preservation and history. Right, though -- the Lego system scale is really wonky when it comes to minifigures. That's just part of the design process for the rest of us. The key to remember when designing something for minifigures (or most other things in Lego) is that it's overall much more impressionistic than anything. Accuracy on the minifigure scale will drive you nuts if that's your priority! Anyway, thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'll start tossing handfuls of bricks onto a baseplate and see what happens. I think I'll skip the bathroom and just stick some second-floor stairs on the side of the building (right now I'm thinking of a first-floor temple with a living space on the second floor).

I've just sorted my bricks for about the fifth time this year, and I can't avoid it any longer: It's time to build something. I've had dozens of ideas for minifig scale buildings, but I've just been put off by the time it takes and, most of all, not having all the bricks I need. But I just need to go all in and see what I can come up with. I have a couple of questions, though, and I just want to get some general feedback and what you guys think. And of course, yeah, it's ultimately up to me. As I said, I just want to get some perspective. 1. Does it really matter if a building doesn't have a bathroom/restroom? Like, in your estimation, does an apartment or whatever strike you as odd if it doesn't have something like that? The Fire Brigard modular (10197) doesn't have one, nor do most of them, come to think of it. 2. Do multi-floor buildings really need stairs? I think they take up space and don't really add much to the overall project. If you saw a three- or four-floor building without stairs, would you wonder "What the..."? I guess what I mean is, what are some elements that really probably most likely should be in a minifig scale building?