Robianco

Firstly I'd say it's probably legally wrong to produce any custom figure as long as that figure or the likeness is owned by someone and you don't have permission to do so.... That's aside from any moral or ethical standpoint. Whether the license holders choose to act over it is actually irrelevant. The infringement of Lego's IP covers both physically produced figures and game design figures. The copying of game design figures is something that happens more with 'customisers' over 'bootleggers'. Whether someone chooses to buy a custom figure or bootleg figure is a dilemma and a choice personal to them as an individual. Whether that's a figure produced by Lego or not. I'd say choosing bootleg figures over a genuine Lego one continually makes you a minifig 'fan' but that's also down to whether you build with actual Lego. Minifigs are just a part of Lego as a whole. It could also be argued that you can be a 'fan' of Lego without owning any but that can be down to budgetary constraints. I'm a Lego fan. I'm also able to buy it but within any budget I restrict myself to. I own many customs and consider that a part of my interest in Lego regardless of the legality of producing them. Bootlegs are a continuation of that for me although I, personally, only pick up a bootleg if it's good quality and there isn't a genuine Lego or pad printed version as that's my preference. On a side note I don't think the origination of the word 'fan' still applies in the same way. Regardless of the original meaning of 'fanatic' or 'zealot' it now means something less extreme. You can be a fan of one band and a fan of another in the same way you can be a fan of Lego and a fan of another toy. Brand loyalty to an extreme is something else entirely. There will always be people who 'ethically' think it's wrong and those that 'morally' have no issue with it. On a Lego board you're going to have extremes including many who object but it'll still happen. I'm worried that this discussion will go around in circles until the threads falls off the page. Ultimately it's ethically, morally, and even legally wrong.... will that deter people from doing it? No. Regardless of how many people will say it's wrong there are others who don't care. When it comes down to it I don't care what anybody thinks of my decision to do anything whether that's buying a bootleg figure to buying a custom figure to wearing odd socks. I'm too old to worry about other people's opinion and this site isn't a popularity contest. As an individual I don't think it matters what other people do so I'll happily let them get on with it.

That s a good looking custom, Ed. is it pad or digital print? It's a shame there's not more of them as even having got out of Marvel I think I'd still like one. Looks great with your wing set up too!

I got mine from JL in Liverpool One. Only set they'd received so it went on the shelves. Shelf Label will had a Wolf name on it.

Digger has picked up the two remaining Mech builds and it looks like Banner has a lab coat on... that's just from the cover image. Same hair as the MRM custom but it looks like more of a 'concerned' face rather than worried face design. Always changeable anyway... I've always thought Frodo's head from the Shelob set would make a really good one as a double sided effort. By the way... to whoever mentioned Chris Pratt's head for Constantine... I've now done that and it looks great so thanks!

As good. His early figures were printed by Christo. He has his designs put together by a designer in the Flickr community and he basically produces Marvel Lego game designs. Christo's designs are getting more and more detailed and obviously he creates new moulds that really push his prices up but MRM's stuff has always been nice and clean. I was about to reply to your pm and I saw this by the way! ;)

I'm more interested in them being a new company in the bootleg market. They have three figures to copy as well as 5 new figures/variants so we'll get to see just how good their moulds are as well as how good their artwork and printing department are.

Creating Constantine can be pretty easy though... even if it's not perfect.

They've actually started to hit shelves in the UK which has surprised the hell out of me as I don't usually see stuff like that.

I'll take the Ewok Village as a UCS set over the bust of Darth Maul anyday. It's all a matter of opinion and it's been discussed at length previously so there's no real right or wrong (at least not for me). I just mentioned Hoth as a UCS set as that's how it has been referred to previously in the thread. Of course if it has UCS label on it then I suppose there can be no argument but that'll be clear once we get any official box images.

It's an old argument but Ultimate Collectors doesn't say Ultimate Vehicle... It's just a large set. R2 was a UCS set as was the bust of Darth Maul. I think it's reasonable to consider very large location based sets as UCS . The AT-ST or the Lambda Shuttle didn't have the UCS label on the front but they're considered UCS. ...and I'd much prefer an Aston Martin over a Ferrari anyway ;)

The microfighter or the system scale set?

Well it's the closest thing we've heard to a UCS set. They've at least been putting the UCS tag on the boxes which makes it easier to properly label them as such but now the numbering has changed I suppose time will well. I've always considered sets above £150 a UCS set and if this is around the £200 mark such as the Ewok Village then I'd probably include it in that. The Sandcrawler had the UCS tag but no information plaque but I see where you're coming from on the playset thing. It may not technically be as such but that's another conversation... I think for the sake of how it's been described in this thread I'm happy to go with it.

I'd probably say the Snowspeeder too. I'm a fan of Rebel pilots anyway. The AT-AT pilot if a nice figure and obviously only available in the larger 75054 set but as MartinCliffe says above it's not swooshable.

The only UCS set that has any kind of rumour (which can be backed up with a source) is the Hoth set and at the moment we have nothing to go by other than the cost and some reference which may or not be included from a recent Lego animation. I don't think we need a new thread just for that.

Pod racing... with sharks! ;)

I don't think the issue is buying the item, reviewing it or posting it to a blog. I think the only issue arises with the request for people to PM things that have expressly been forbidden at this moment. I'm not sure how the linking to a blog relates to that but I'm guessing the sensitivity of the issue would mean that common sense should be shown. I'd withdraw that request if I were you. The mods aren't happy with people looking to circumvent the embargo by requesting things be passed around via PM. Just a friendly warning...

Every year there's at least one clown who turns up and gives details of the next big wave only to be found out as a liar. The last one even apologised and said he was sorry before he was banned....

I can't wait for September 4th so this rubbish can be at an end.

I must admit I've never had a wrong order from Ali... and anyone I know who may have had a wrong order has had it replaced pretty quickly. I think the comment was pretty fair in the sense that there are single figures in your listings that are from sets of eight figures that cost less than the single figure listed. I think most of the people on this thread have enough experience from both AliExpress as well as Taobao to recognise that there is much better value to be had in buying direct. I understand that you're happy to root out misprinted figures and offer that as a guarantee and with it ask for a premium for the figures but I also think you can expect some kind of resistance due to seemingly high pricing.

That hair mod for Han is something that should have officially happened a long time ago. It looks much better. I always forget to add aroun 10 of those hairpieces to BL orders for the very same thing!

Wow... That's a right pain in the backside right there. I'd just make a claim against it and order from someone else!

it does look like it's a slightly different colour from the arm but the lighting of the shot also doesn't make it clear if it's chrome gold or pearly gold. The printing looks great on it so I don't mind what the arm looks like as long as it's chrome. Might need to pick up one of those chrome gold keyring minifigures to switch the arm out on it.

That's a superb looking poly... It's difficult to tell if it's chromed on there but if it is then I'll aim to pick two up and replace the red arm with a gold chromed regular arm for an OT version. I, too, hope they get plenty of circulation in the UK... Otherwise I'll be eBaying them.

It can do... it can also take a while for items to arrive and also for the tracking details to work.. I recently had an items and for three weeks the tracking didn't work... then as soon as it did it arrived within 5 days. It's not eBay and some items are listed as for sale when they're not actually in stock... it's frustrating when that happens but I've never had an order not arrive yet... which is actually a better percentage rate than I get with eBay.

Nobody's forcing anyone to stick around or make posts...