Lego Sites

[Dogg Thang]

You would bring shame to your family and couldn't ever exhibit them without being spurned by your peers.

[wakka]

If you buy and display fake Lego you are living a lie.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/faking-it/

And you should be ashamed.

->Open Spoiler<-

It's not that bad really.

[_SD_]

I may well have to order the Akira bike, it looks awesome. And the F40 is a fantastic build, well worth getting. I quite like the Creator vehicles, I have all five plus the Caterham 7. I’m hoping for a black London taxi next...




This is awesome, always been fascinated by ships in bottles...

[Neon Ignition]

It's certainly design theft by Lepin, there's typically as little as possible difference between the sets. However, from a consumer side it comes down to personal judgment based on how they view knock offs and how much they want a set.

Using the Falcon as an example, I wouldn't pay £650 for it in any circumstance so buying the Lepin version loses Lego nothing. A better example would be the Firehouse which is currently the only Lepin set I own. I did want that one but the official version simply wasn't going to be bought given the price (even at its reduced price). Lego lost nothing in essence. Of course that's setting aside the moral question as to supporting a knock off outfitter but again, there's whole avenues of discussion that rabbit hole can go down.

Personally, I tend to buy mostly Legos own stuff. The only exceptions to date are the Firehouse and some supermarket brand base pieces that are identical in design. I'm fine with that balance.

Legos huge markups on rrp, that may impact sales more though. I'd genuinely be curious as to whether its knock offs or Legos inflated rrps that impact the most

[Dogg Thang]

Not sure I believe that (I suspect you might have caved and bought the GB HQ some time) but I certainly don't buy it as a justification. The rrp thing is whataboutery - it can be 100% accurate and still not make another thing okay. I'm frowning right now and you are experiencing the harsh judgement of your Lego peers and you made some bald guy in Denmark cry and as punishment you must try to get a bunch of little two pieces off a baseplate without the orange magic tool. Shame to your family, SF. Shame.

Still, must admit I had never heard of them before and, when I went googling, I expected their quality to be slaughtered in reviews but it doesn't seem that's the case. As knockoffs go, they seem to be pretty good. I wouldn't be tempted but I can see why someone would be.

[Neon Ignition]

There's no way I'd have ended up with the Firehouse officially. Cheapest I've seen it realistically is around £240 and even then its rolling towards retirement which is another feather in Lepins cap. It's a bit like when I had Transformer Masterpiece figures, I was wary at first but the quality of KOs haa come along in leaps and bounds.

The missus still wants the Disney Castle at some point which is basically £93 vs £300+ I'd never pay either. Can't imagine me getting any more Lepin beyond the two sets though, I have have finite plans for my collection and am nearly there.

[QualityChimp]

I'm with Supes on this one.

I think LEGO is incredibly overpriced. I think £650 for that Falcon is obscene, if I'm honest.

They've moved away from selling a child's toy, to an adult collector's toy that still makes a child's toy, but at adult collector prices.
This is partly why they're struggling financially and have laid staff off, plus the eternal struggle for attention from digital distractions and other toys.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/09/05/lego-cuts-1-400-jobs-sales-fall-amid-digital-competition/632427001/

Like SF, my choices are:
- Don't have it
- Buy a cheaper knockoff

I looked at the F40 kit and I can't justify £125 to myself, let alone my wife, but I can cope with £23 from Aliexpress.

So that's what I've gone for, sorry.
If it comes and there's no bits missing, I'll build it and spoiler the results to shield you honest people from the filth sullying the thread.

I'm sorry I've let everyone down, but I partially blame you for building all these great kits that I can't afford.

Secret message for Superman Falls only:

->Open Spoiler<-

I'm not that sorry.
If the F40 is fun to build, I'll probably get the Akira bike.
I'll claim this is what I built and displayed:

[toythatkills]

QC: The F40 is (EDIT: was) £75 on Lego, which will net you VIP points and potentially a bonus set. Not as cheap as £23 but not £125 either. Don't forget as well that the re-sale value on that set as Lego is £75+, on Lepin it's nothing.

I can see why people would buy Lepin, I guess, I don't see why it would be offered as an alternative in a place like this.

If someone was looking for a bargain on a new PC game, it absolutely wouldn't be okay to post a link to somewhere selling stolen keys for cheap, or posting a link to a torrent of it, but yet for Lego it's deemed to be okay because you personally believe it costs too much? Just doesn't seem right.

By all means buy Lepin if your conscience allows it, but maybe just keep it to yourselves so we can enjoy Lego in the Lego thread.

[QualityChimp]

QC: The F40 is (EDIT: was) £75 on Lego, which will net you VIP points and potentially a bonus set. Not as cheap as £23 but not £125 either. Don't forget as well that the re-sale value on that set as Lego is £75+, on Lepin it's nothing.

I just did the same thing. I could find it on Amazon for £125, then saw John Lewis had it for £75, but it's out of stock.
I don't plan to resell anything and the fact LEGO is worth more than gold at the moment, shows how out-of-hand prices have got.

If someone was looking for a bargain on a new PC game, it absolutely wouldn't be okay to post a link to somewhere selling stolen keys for cheap, or posting a link to a torrent of it, but yet for Lego it's deemed to be okay because you personally believe it costs too much? Just doesn't seem right.

By all means buy Lepin if your conscience allows it, but maybe just keep it to yourselves so we can enjoy Lego in the Lego thread.

Fair play. I don't think it's exactly the same, but it's close enough.

The forum rules stipulate against warez and torrent links and so on, so no more knockoff talk.

I'll only post if I get genuine stuff, but I think it's fair game to post opinions on quality of kits and value for money.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm fine with not highlighting non-Lego branded companies too, we'll have to apply that rule to other threads too as KO comes up in other discussions such as the Mecha thread etc

[toythatkills]

Just to clarify, I've got no problem with Lepin (or other "Lego" brands) if they're designing and creating their own products. Like that dodgy looking stuff they've got in Wilko, for example.

The only issue is when a company steals Lego's designs and just makes and sells them on the cheap.

[QualityChimp]

Just to clarify, I've got no problem with Lepin (or other "Lego" brands) if they're designing and creating their own products. Like that dodgy looking stuff they've got in Wilko, for example.

The only issue is when a company steals Lego's designs and just makes and sells them on the cheap.

Yeah, Cobi is a good example of that. They do their own range of WWII vehicles that LEGO don't make.
Ironically, it was VanPeebles' post about it that sent me down the rabbit hole of knockoffs, once I started searching for "alternatives to LEGO".

[Neon Ignition]

I'm assuming the R&D side of things is why there aren't a ton of original sets being made. The room to spin-off from Lego's modular releases is quite wide, I've seen a couple like this:



Which I think is an original design likely made up of existing pieces they use elsewhere.

[Atticus]

I think LEGO is incredibly overpriced.

I don't agree with that. I think it's what quality costs. And Lego is a quality product in every way.

How many other kids toys are as durable, lastable, adaptable? Our kids have mine and my wife's childhood Lego mixed in with their 'gen-pop' boxes. It just lasts because it's well designed and well made. And like the old strapline said: it's a new toy every day. That's great value for money Imo.

Costs rise with licenced sets but they're what saved the company back in the 90s. And like the big licences the big-buck sets seem to sell very well. If Lego are courting the adult market more these days it's because the market wants it. But they don't neglect the kids, their bread and butter.

Like ttk I'm fine with knock-off Lego doing its own designs and stuff, but the copying of proper, currently on sale sets is so blatant it seems wrong to me.

[Atticus]

I'm assuming the R&D side of things is why there aren't a ton of original sets being made. The room to spin-off from Lego's modular releases is quite wide, I've seen a couple like this:



Which I think is an original design likely made up of existing pieces they use elsewhere.

I wouldn't be surprised if other modular designs like this are lifted from the Lego Ideas site.