lego should realise that high price is the reason for people to go for the knockoff version of the set..if they lower the price, they will get more customers than usual
I think so too. LEGO has leaned way too heavily into enormous, expensive sets, especially for popular IP. If you want a LOTR set your options are Brickheadz or $500 sets...
@@madeofbricks But the issue is they don't even have to be that price, maybe I'm wrong I'm sure they have done their numbers, but I would think they could still make marginable profits if they lowered the price.
@@sublimeden They could, but why would they? Sales have exploded in the past 4 years. If people are willing to pay (or don't know there's an alternative), why not milk the market for all its worth?
its a bit outrageous for me because i live in mexico (where the biggest lego factory of the world is) and yet the sets are as expensive as if they were imported
Me personally i think knockoff brand lego mocs like MouldKing are fine but the offbrand lego sets that are copying exact sets made by the offical lego group should be shutdown
I think them copying sets isn't even the worst part of it. It's copying the Lego official image and portraying it as if it's an official Lego set which causes concern when trying to buy actual Lego products. While I still don't think copying the sets is ideal, it does keep Lego prices in check I feel which isn't all bad. Imagine a world with no Lego competition whatsoever. I can imagine they'd happily increase the price with their monopoly. So while in concept I don't agree with copying sets, Legos constant desire to rise prices makes it a good thing to keep them in check is how I see it. If they were more affordable, these copycat sets would never have took off to begin with.
When Lego itself is already a clone brand I don’t even give a care at this point I’m more impressed if knockoffs quality reaches closer to Lego so we can use the recolored parts Lego will never make.
@@sublimeden Cloning sets will only make Lego's legal team work harder, not Lego designers. (And legal teams cost a lot of money, which also affects the price of sets.) Lego isn't trying to uphold a monopoly, they're trying to get rid of criminals. Illegal copies will NEVER make the copyright holder make cheaper products. Louis Vuitton hasn't lowered their prices just because criminals copy their designs. Don't forget that Lego does all the marketing and research, which costs money. (Not to mention brand deals, where Marvel/Disney etc wants a few millions.) Copycats ONLY have to spend money on manufacturing, so of course they can be cheaper. I have no problem with COBI, Sluban or Mould King making their own sets or buying MOC designs from fans. That's actually healthy competition, and THAT will drive Lego to make better/cheaper sets. And Lego isn't going after their legit competition who make their own sets. We all want cheaper Lego of course, but rising oil prices have affected Lego a lot. That's why they're looking at alternative materials for bricks. Lego isn't just raising prices for the fun of it.
I think it’s bad that lego doesn’t have any *real* competition in their market. As a lego fan, I’ve seen prices rise up to 15% on their best year. Ive seen them gut unlicensed themes. I’ve heard people act like the company is benevolent.
Lego lost my support years ago with their insane pricing and elitist Lego adults who hoard and scalp older sets. For years the Lego trains crowd were some of the absolute worst when it came to using unofficial bricks. Why would I buy a real Emerald Night set for 800 dollars when I can buy a ko for 50 bucks, same goes for other discontinued train sets.
While it's not entirely LEGO's fault that scalpers are making retired sets unaffordable, it's still a pretty bad look. I think there's a much better case for buying knockoffs for those sets than, for example, the Barad Dur. That set had clones available before it even officially launched.
@@madeofbricks I do agree for the most part that clone sets should be somewhat restricted to retired sets but my main gripe has become the insane pricing on Lego sets. I understand the licensing fees are really high for the Disney properties and a lot of the auto sets but the prices across the board have risen to a crazy level. Individual piece prices have well more than doubled. If anything the ko sellers really show just how cheap the raw material and mould productions can be, I understand that the bulk of a new sets price is going to be the license and design which the ko companies do not worry about.
@@olahf8490 The last I checked LEGO prices actually hadn't changed much per piece in the past few decades when adjusted for inflation, but considering there's more competition now you'd expect it to go down. I haven't looked too far into it though, so I may do a video deep dive in the future. And you're right that other companies are proving that it can be done cheaper. Not just KO companies, either. Design/licensing costs are one thing, but the argument that LEGO's manufacturing costs are higher just doesn't hold water now that the company has factories in Mexico and China. The quality has been slipping, too!
Very true I have noticed the decline of quality as well. From the formulation of brown pieces causing them to be more brittle over time is an older quality issue but for myself I have had sets that come with missing pieces and missing sticker sets. One of my brand new city train sets was missing an entire bag and this was a sealed set I ordered direct from the LEGO website. My sets from Mould king for example have been getting a lot better and instead of missing pieces I end up having some extras left over.
Agreed. I buy almost solely Lego (and my shelves are covered in them), but I do buy CaDA for things that they offer which Lego doesn't, namely Japanese style modern architecture. The even have these roof tile bricks that Lego doesn't and they're just perfect.
Not just IPs. Some of the china brick brands literally sell sets based on mocs with the original creator never knowing of it and not seeing any royalty.
I love and heartily promote some of the Lego competitors like Cobi, Pantasy, Cada, etc. They're often as good as or better than Lego and often cheaper, and they're creating original and licensed designs that are often more interesting than what Lego churns out. But the Lego rip-off copycats, like Lepin, who steal Lego's set and packaging designs, deserve whatever nasty legal fate they get. They're just thieves.
I am hesitant to trying out Cobi and Pantasy but I hear from many AFOLs that their plastic quality is top notch, good clutch power and they contain good building techniques and play functions...even lights...and cheaper too. Just waiting until something off bran peaks my interest....the new Cobi/Cada Shell Service Station looks fantastic and reminds me of when LEGO used to have the Shell IP. Maybe I will take a plunge into the off-brand soon
@@Carboxylated I can't speak for Pantasy but Cobi plastic feels as good as or better than LEGO and the clutch power is almost too good. If i could find a good way to acquire their bricks in bulk i may try for a castle MOC
sets like Rivendell and Lion Knights' Castle are totally inaccessible for so many people, me included why not have the real deal, for the high prices, and the knockoff for us? how is it hurting you?
@@zibberebbiz There's obviously the fact of bad products tricking uninformed customers, but I don't think that's what you're asking about. When it comes to the people who buy legit, the existence of knockoffs can feel underhanded. There's the sense that the Lego company has earned their place while the copycats are just profiting off of their work. Especially when it comes to copyright and design. Even if the knockoff profits are miniscule in comparison, a business like Lego is ultimately dependent on exclusivity, so both the company and the customers feel like there's something to lose if copycats go unpunished. Ultimately it's a very similar conversation to pirating, and a matter where I can't claim to have a concrete right answer.
I honestly think that there should be more competitors with Lego with the market because it force them to lower their prices to compete with the competitions
Why don't they copy the lego products from the 90s and 80s. I would literally just buy the entire stock of space, castle, western and pirate sets. I actually have KO islanders set forbidden cove from way back in 2007.
In all honesty, the only thing worth directly ripping off of The LEGO Company is it's minifigs, and maybe its older themes. Modern Lego is clearly more designed around adults and fine detail sets, which makes it no wonder kids are losing interest.
That’s the entire point though. Legos minis and brands are carrying a company that is gaining luxury status with more 400-500€\$ sets making the rounds especially in themes that are usually killers in the toy market like castles, western and pirates. It’s obvious that Lego doesn’t care about these customers. Hack, half of the images of their sets show them in these large flats as simply room decor. Now, no hate for people who mainly want to display a cool build but Lego used to be more than that at its pricing policies ( 100$/€ sets which are so thin you almost can’t play with them for example ) or the colour dumping on the inside of even the biggest sets is slowly destroying the foundations of the company. In a few decades, there won’t be too many normal kids remaining whose parents once bought them Lego and are therefore interested in the minis and the brand as a whole.
Lego yet needs to learn that their greed is not healthy. Hope the other brands will be able to take a huge portion of the cake because Lego really isn't worth it anymore.
I dislike Lego's prices and some of their policies and design decisions, but to be fair, they're a company, not a charity, and making money is what a company exists for.
I’m honestly surprised that direct clones of sets managed to survive as long as they have. I have no issue with clones of sets that are old and retired as there is no loss on Lego’s part, but clones of sets that Lego just released is kind of egregious. That said, alternative brands have come a long way and have developed many amazing sets that not only not violate Lego IP, but are also of comparable quality on themes that Lego won’t touch. Competition is always good and Lego has been getting complacent with their dip in quality and rise in price. Personally I’m a huge fan of Cobi and Sluban.
I bought the new “Old Corner Antique Store from FunWhole (wish they would change their name) the other day. It has almost the same number of bricks as Lego’s “Jazz Club”, but was less than half the price with an introductory offer. Plus most of the FunWhole sets come with complete lighting kits. If Lego produces another $5-600 Modular this year, I won’t be buying it. I just can’t continue to afford their prices, especially not in this economy.☠️
If you haven't seen it, LEGO also recently made moves to shut down modular buildings for the bricklink designer program and Ideas submission process. Clearly they want those prices to stay high.
@@madeofbricks unfortunately, Lego as a company, has almost become nonexistent a couple of times in the past and it may be heading for that fate again. Even the small sets from $15-25 in 2022, are now selling for $40-65 in Canada. A $450 (US) Modular will be between $600-650 Canada, between the exchange rate and the Canadian taxes. I am retired now and that is a major expense, especially these days.
It always suprised me, that while Lego's quality was roughly the same, only slighty going down, the quality of the so-called "knock-off" brands often went up. The bricks were less often smelly, incompatible or broken during production. For instance, Cobi brand really suprised me by making its quality better and better as years passed, up to the point where it is today. Bearing in mind, that knock-offs were of course cheaper. The thing which often suprised me because of its irony, are all the creative sets actually designed by those chinese brands, which were soon pretty much copied by Lego itself. An instance of this is when I bought a camera model from some brick brand from aliexpress. It was only 3 years later that lego introduced, you guessed it, almost an identical model of a camera to its stores. It noticed it happen very often, that those knock-off brands which decided not to blindly follow Lego, often came up with very suprising ideas, often making their own new bricks, that Lego adapted, or should I say copied for their own use. In conclusion, summarising all I said, I think Lego's stopped being the revolutionary brand thar paves the way for the market to develop, just as it happened to Apple. Once a leader of advancement, now a giant fighting smaller and cheaper brands, basing only on its old prestigeous status. Of course you could say, that Lego just doesn't want their ideas to be stolen. But why does Lego copy ideas of those brands then? If it was as prestigeous as it wants to be viewed, it wouldn't even be compared to other brands and wouldn't need to even copy anything from other brands. Protecting your rights is very alright, but why do just the same thing as the companies you're agaist? I know, simmilarities might be an accident, but I won't believe that when some lego sets look almost as identical as their knock-off predecessors...
This is a LEGO issue, you gotta ask WHY so many people are looking for cheaper alternatives. It's an availability issue, a price issue, a profiteering after Covid towards adults issue.
No it is not. People that buy knock offs and fake products, want to be owners of branded products like LEGO, LV and/or Gucci and Rolex, but cannot afford and thus buy fake. It only shows how strong and appealing the real deal is. Just admit being a cheapskate and a wannabee. That’s the truth.
@@EGO0808 you seem braindead. You can buy a functionnal $20 handbag. You can buy a functionnal $20 watch. If you want to buy these things, you don't have to buy knock off LV or Rolex. People turn to cheaper alternatives to Lego because Lego costs too much, and brands like CaDa or Cobi prove it. Lego is price gouging and it's obvious. CaDa and Cobi aren't "fake" like lepin is. They have their own pieces and their own sets that are designed in-house. Also, Lego isn't a luxury brand. You aren't showing off by brandishing a lego set when you're at the club, and you won't be mocked if your toys are "fake". The reason you would buy a fake Rolex or LV, is the same reason you would buy real ones : you want to show off. The fake ones just allow you to lie about what you're showing off. The reason you buy Lego is to build or display it. There's nothing to show off, except your own engineering skills, if you go into moccing. You can get those same things from cheaper brands like Cada or Cobi. Also, there are things that Lego will simply NEVER make a set of, like any real tank or jet fighter, leaving a huge gap in the market for Cobi
@@EGO0808Na mate your tripping. Lego doesn’t have that big of a brand appeal, it’s sets are desired due to the nostalgia for its minifigures and because it used to (!) produce the best sets and to this day still gets some of the better licensing sets but it’s nowhere in the same league as a fashion brand which gets a 500% boost in profits based on a name. A Gucci back is no longer desirable if it’s a knock off because people want to pay the high price to show of that they are doing well. Almost nobody shows of their Lego like that. Most of it sits at home. Its simply not a status symbol to buy real Lego.
Hate to disapoint you, but Pantasy, Panlos, Mould King or even Cobi or MEGA are not totally legal with their sets. They often infringing LEGOS Design-Protected Part (like for exapmle by using the 1x2 curved slope, the 2x2 jumper tile or the 1x1 round plate with a hole in the middle) Kiddcraft and Funwhole are the only Brands (as i know) that are totaly save by avoiding the protected parts or using their own designed work-around parts. Kiddicraft even invented the Kiddiz figurine to avoid infinging LEGO brand rights) Pantasy also infringes LEGOS 3D Brand by having minifig pics in their manuals to show other sets. Cause the GoBricks FIgures they use in some sets infringing LEGO Minifig protection cause their overall apperance is to close to the LEGO minifigs and customers can be mislead. Further QUestions to that topic? Feel free to contact me *g* I had gone to several courtcases with LEGO and learned a lot from that *g*
Hey @JohnnysWorld! I've watched many of your videos about your court cases and reviews. I just wish they were in English, hahaha. That's news to me about those brands infringing on active patents. Is there a place to see which pieces are still protected? I'll reach out later since you're the expert on this stuff (I guess you can thank LEGO for that... hahaha).
Just found your video from 2019, great stuff. After looking into the listings though, it seems like the 2x2 jumper tile and the 1x1 round plate with hole are currently listed as "Invalidity procedure pending", which I assume means that someone has challenged the design patent in court. This is a fascinating topic so thanks for bringing it to my attention! Link to video for the curious (German): ua-cam.com/video/Lu8dN28FjIM/v-deo.html
Small correction, Xingbao was always a sister company of Lepin and was not affected by the shutdown of Lepin back in the day. Back then, Xingbao was known for making a lot of military sets like tanks and fighter jets, they also produced their own modulars that were Chinese themed. The other owners simply cut out the guy that was arrested and pinned Lepin on him and kept selling legit sets through Xingbao. Then, once the dust settled, they opened up King and Queen which began to sell KO sets again. Also, the producers of the KO sets are usually not the manufacturers of the bricks themselves. There are several huge factories that produce bricks in China for all sorts of brands (usually legit sets). If you ever seen a Chinese brick convention you will see the incredible variety of sets that these manufacturers produce (nearly all of them legit). A lot of military sets, Asian themed sets, or sets based on Chinese IPs or western IPs that Lego doesn't have, and now an insane amount of botanical sets that are not copies of Lego. No joke, some of these botanicals are insane and are really showing Lego up. Now that being said, the actual manufacturers of the bricks also often produced bricks for the "manufacturers" of the KO sets as well. But, they would just ship them a bunch of bricks without manuals, figures, or box art. Those KO manufacturers would then assemble the sets and package them. Then, those KO sets would be purchased by the middle men like physical shops in China, but also places like Yuomko or random aliexpress shops to be sold to people outside China. It seems like what got shut down were several of the "manufacturers" that assembled the bricks into KO sets, not the actual producers of the bricks themselves (which are massive factories that are primarily for producing legit products). Regarding one of your other comments, alt-bricks and not going to drop in quality, in fact they will likely continue to increase in quality as time goes on. Some of the actual manufacturers are incredibly advanced and use high tech manufacturing. I watched a video that toured the GoBricks factory and it looked just like a Lego factory with advanced robotics and high tech modern machinery. And if you've ever had a set with GoBricks, you will see the quality difference compared to what people normally think of Chinese bricks. They are near indistinguishable from Lego other than not having the Lego logo on the stud. The plastic feels very similar, the colors are impressive, and the clutch is just like Lego. Now, that doesn't mean all the factories are that good. But, there are alt-brick manufacturers in China that are producing high quality stuff and as time goes on, the other manufacturers will eventually upgrade their set up too. I mean let's be honest, injection molding is not exactly rocket science. But, I would venture to guess that what happened back when Lepin was shut down will occur again. There will be a lull for a few months, maybe a year, and then new KO shops will be set up and begin producing KO sets. The demand for Lego sets is just too high for there not to be a "black market", especially with how expensive Lego is.
Thanks for the correction! Xingbao is a strange one since it straddles the line between legit sets and knockoffs... iirc they make their own bricks, too, which might explain it. To be honest I haven't built any Xingbao sets even though they've been around forever. The reason why I think the quality will go down is that the more reputable manufacturers of bricks will want to avoid KO makers, at least in the short term. Most of the truly "generic" bricks I've tested have been pretty middling in quality when compared to real brands like Gobricks, Enlighten (Keeppley), Cobi, etc. I'm a big fan of Gobricks, and I'm actually working on a video comparison of the quality/price/etc right now, so hopefully I can get that out soon. They really are right up there with LEGO, even creating some original concepts like the magnetic tracks. I can't wait for the international shop to open.
i just discovered your channel and this is the first video i've seen from it. i hope i'm not the only one who likes this type of content also other than reviews and speed builds as it has a very good quality of information, presentation and sense of humour... keep on going, cheers!
If Lego would stop price gouging and making sets that are discontinued after a year and then charging prices that only the rich can afford, there would be no knockoffs. Lego sucks and they are money thieves.
I completely agree that Lego is overpriced and doesn't even deliver for what they charge in many cases. However, the prices on the aftermarket are out of their hands. Scalpers and greedy traders define the prices in that case. Doesn't make Lego's pricing any better, though
Big companies love the free market and competition when they are winning, but as soon as a new competitor shows up all of a sudden they like to invoke the rules theyd love to ignore themselves. ZERO sympathy for a giant corporation.
I’d be willing to bet money these knock offs are going nowhere, especially in Asia where I live. Things that were banned from sale because of copyrights in the US (probably EU too) are readily and easily available here.
The thing is that the "adult sets" for example are way too overpriced for actually hard working adults who see it as an display piece why pay 220 euro's for a lego globe when you can buy the exact same set for 60 on aliexpress if you are going to build it once and set in on a shelf forever, theres a reason the knockoff market is that big there should be a really good competitor to lego but the problem is lego has the money to buy the trademark themes (minecraft, star wars, etc)
What bothers me even more is: Why pay 220€ for a crusty looking brickbuilt globe if you can get actual nice regular globes for the money? Its like how the polaroid model costs 4x of a real polaroid.
Reason why there are so many knock offs is because of the pricing, I regularly travel to China for vacation, one time I went to a store and look at some Lego out of curiosity. They cost so much, to give you context, a death star(the newer smaller version, not the og big one) it cost about 899 RMB ( about 125USD) their average salary is about 6000-8000 RMB per month (800-1100 USD) for most normal job like waiters, kitchen staff etc, imagine using 1/10 of your salary just to buy a set of Lego.
@@madeofbricks yes, I think why they make it this expensive is because its high quality(at least back then, idk about now as i havent purchased any since like 10-15 years ago), and they have no competitor, thus no competition for the pricing
The issue is that I often want some of the older sets that were released, not the garbage that they often produce today. Many of the lego sets I want today aren't made anymore and I'm not paying north of $300 USD for a kit released in the early to mid 2000s. Then you have the pricing model. The price of a legit lego kits are starting to go through the roof. Like many hobbies and companies, they realized that the majority of their consumer base are adults high on nostalgia, people with money as kids are becoming a smaller and smaller demographic of the (nicer) toy consumer base. Most people aren't exactly willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a what is essentially a build it your self display item, not in this economy at least. The consumer base is there but when there is an alternative to get it for more than 60% off, why would you NOT go 3rd party? I'd like to buy lego sets but when a single set is third or more of my rent, then you're really pushing it. The expenses the average person has has gone through the roof since Covid and with it, the price of hobby items like Legos. Its easier to justify a knock-off or 3rd party kit when its $40 USD vs the brand named Lego kit thats $150 USD. And thats for the more "affordable sets"
100% agreed. And to your point, $150 is actually VERY cheap for a black box 18+ LEGO set these days, which is absolutely ridiculous. You'd also think the value and PPP would be better for larger sets, but the opposite seems to be true. Price gouging at its finest.
@@madeofbricks Another thing that people often times don't think about is that as you get older, you collect what are essentially display items, whether they be from work, your other hobbies, souvenirs of trips, or as gifts you have collected over the years, space on the shelf is becoming more limited and at a premium. You will be hard pressed to be able to find the space to accommodate some of the medium sized lego kits on your shelf, never mind the large or super large sets. And I don't think you're going to sacrifice a an entire table to display it. Maybe if you're not using it already but the chances are that you're going to have to spend more money just to accommodate the large kits
@@BenderRodríguez-p3e Absolutely. I addressed this in my review of the COBI Titanic set, which easily fits on a shelf (unlike the LEGO Titanic). Don't even get me started on the Eiffel Tower. Apart from IP sets from Star Wars or Marvel, the only reasonably-sized "adult" sets are botanicals and a few Icons sets. Unsurprisingly, those are my two favorite themes these days.
I would try bricklink or creephybrid, bricklink usually has decent prices for old sets while the other still has old knockoffs available like the mars mission armoured drill for $100 (which is still similar to ebay or bricklink)
I really hate the knock off lego that try to replicate 1:1. Sometimes I want to buy lots off eBay or other resell sites but I’m scared the seller is being dishonest and may throw a couple fake ones in the bunch. However I’m totally for alternative brick builds like COBI as they are unique builds with fine quality and are really cool to display. Especially since LEGO stays away from military themes.
you can tell when someone is selling ko on ebay. I know, cause I love ko figs and sets. I always hate it when ppl try to sell them on sites like ebay as the real deal. I would never sell my ko figs as lego myself. I buy them purely for my own MoCs and fun
@@xSoulhunterDKx For sure, if you got a keen eye you can tell when it’s real or not. However I’ve seen lots mixed with real and fake, which is my biggest concern.
Knockoff Lego is so mid. I have gotten a few in the past and they all suck. If you can’t afford all the big expensive Lego sets, then just buy smaller cheaper sets.
I never accept straight up copycats but I've seen and used Cobi and other third-party pieces and many of the bigger brands are really good, definitely on par with Lego. As long as those brands make their own models instead of stealing Lego designs, I'm totally okay with third-party plastic bricks.
I've built sets from LEGO, Alt brands and knock offs a lot over the last couple of years. I feel a lot of the time, it can be agreed that the general quality that comes from LEGO tends to be much better, but there is a horrible elitist attitude from a lot of people in the AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO) space that if it isn't LEGO it's rubbish. Terms like FLEGO (Fake LEGO) get thrown around a lot, which I think is unfair. I've had official LEGO sets that have been disappointing. I've had Fake clones that have been really enjoyable. I think a lot of the time, it's another scenario of "Sega is better than Nintendo", "Naa aah, Nintendo is better than SEGA". Or, the Apple vs. Android battle. Only this time with building bricks. As you've said, some alternative brands have kits that are as good if not better than LEGO, if only for the pricing value. My USS Voyager set is easily one of my top 3 favourite builds and that isn't official LEGO stuff. I can understand LEGO wanting to go hard after the companies that are stealing their designs and packaging materials, but if they start to try hitting the more legitimate alternatives, I think it'll be a very bad time for not only AFOLs but all fans of all brick building, young or old. It can also be the only way for some folks to get the experience of building larger sets, like the premium Technic cars, (the £400 ones), which is a shame. P.S. They're a little on the pricey side, but I'd recommend checking out BlueBrixx. They're a Germany based alternative brand that have licences for some pretty big Sci-Fi IPs.
Thanks for your comment, great perspective! Bluebrixx is great. I hope to see more brands expand their IP partnerships, especially outside of China. LEGO has a nasty habit of snagging great IP and releasing just one or two VERY expensive sets.
I've built Lego, CaDA, and a number of brandless bootlego clone sets over the past year. CaDA brick quality, at least on their more recent releases, are really quite good, and IMO near identical to Lego quality. Their Ruf Yellowbird is one of the best looking (and value!) kits I've ever built. At some point I will order their flagship 1:8 AMG ONE, and I expect it will more than hold its own against the Big L's 1:8 Supercar kits. I've literally just ordered some of the bigger BlueBrixx Star Trek sets since they are on sale, and I'm looking forward to see how their quality compared to Lego and CaDA. Also have some Rastar, Guly, and Panlos kits on the way too. I also took a risk and ordered the BlueBrixx Blaustein Castle base set as well. That is one of BlueBrixx's flagship products and highly detailed, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it builds. But really what I've really been surprised is how good some of the no brand bootleg kits are. I think some of them actually sourced their bricks from Gobricks, because a few of those kits are almost as good as Lego too! I just built a custom yellow SP3 knockoff and my God it not only looks perfect but the build quality is excellent too. Other than a few slipping gears in the differential that I replaced, the entire drivetrain, including the transmission, all works pretty smoothly, which really was a pleasant surprise. The SP3 looks INCREDIBLE in yellow, and you can only get it in yellow by going with one of these knockoff sets.
@@mysteriousstranger5873 BlueBrixx does have officially licensed Stargate sets, although most of them don't look as big or detailed as some of their high end Star Trek sets, which look more impressive.
@@mysteriousstranger5873 They do, and Robocop. They're regularly expanding their catalogue of sets too, so there's potential for them to get some really nice stuff out there.
Honestly putting factories in an country and hiring massive amounts of people to work for you in a place where knockoff of your product is rampant so you have leverage and essentially a share in the country to fight over in a ingenious tactic.
I discovered Cobi around 10 years ago. And as a fan of military history i've never looked back. Although the quality may not have been there in the past, it is now as good as regular lego, with more printed bricks instead of stickers.
I don’t like copycats who release the same set the minute it goes into production but Lego has only itself to blame in a lot of ways. If you take a look at pick a brick and try to recreate old battle sets from castle for example, you quickly notice how much more expensive everything has gotten. Arguably, part of the reason is that Lego pays a lot for brand themes and tries to make its product even more profitable via increasing the non brand prices too. The problem is that we are no longer talking about a company that is untouchable in key markets because the economy can’t keep up with legos greed in most of the world. As a result, Lego has to pay more and more for legal battles in order to weaken a competition that only exists because Lego doesn’t care about its customers. In the end, at the core of this is the Lego monopoly on minifigures and of course licensing fees. The problem is that this has directly contributed to a situation where Lego is itself constantly pushing out weak sets and damaging its reputation and as a result, many former die hard Lego fans have started to engage with offbrand stuff. Doesn’t even have to be copies, a lot of designs are entirely original too but every time they buy stuff and get quality Lego looses out because more and more people wake up to the fact that the legal monopoly is actually fairly shaky.
Prices are higher for everything because LEGO keeps buying licenses. There is no licensing for “castles” and things like that, but you still pay more to compensate for things like “Star Wars.”
As someone who only purchases Lego branded sets and bricks for MOC's, I would like to see other manufacturers selling instructions for builds (Similar to Rebrickable). There are some really great stand alone designs which are only obtainable if you buy the set but I'd like to buy the instructions and source Lego bricks for the build. This would also create another revenue stream and appeal to a wider audience.
I'd actually like to see this too! I know Gobricks has an active forum in China, but afaik there isn't an equivalent of Rebrickable. btw you can download instruction manuals from most manufacturers' websites, although it can be hard to navigate in Chinese. Here's CaDA's for example: cn.doubleeagle-group.com/list.php?pid=6&ty=25&tty=19.
@@madeofbricksi think among the LEGO enthusiasts who like to build with LEGO onoy there's probably a pretty big crossover with people who'd pay for high quality printed instructions. LEGO has proposed digital only instructions quite a few times and it's always met with a lot of pushback from fans. People like having the instructions in their hands, and I reckon people would pay decently for it.
i will still buy them. I got my hold on some Bela sets in 2020. Both were Star Wars Rebels sets ko. The quality was great, the cost of both sets were good and I dont "collect" to trick ppl. I just dont get paying hundreds for something lego has complete control of. 1st and secondary market. Same with figs. There are figs Lego NEVER did or didnt make in almost 20 years. I wont pay 200 dollars or more for a single figure.
@@michaelnurse9089 No, the 50$ set will be worth exactly the same to the buyer - being a nice display piece. And for that, 50$ is a very reasonable price, while 1200$ is completely ludicrous.
Online you can see they copy everything from the Lego ideas page and sell as Lego sets. When people obviously copy others work, I think it’s right to shut them down.
If they dropped their licensed brands most of their sets would be fairly affordable if they cam also control their resellers price. Its the Disney tax causing these sets to be 50%+ more than they should be. Dropping their licensed sets, even for half a year would send a message that price gouging from their licensed brands is not ok.
Now i know the reason why some lego knockoff brand like keepley and sembo decided to make their own original set Today they even have official licensed product from japanese ip like pokemon, digimon, doraemon & detective conan (case closed in US)
I also "vote" for cobi here. Not even a lego knockoff for many years now. They have many original brick designs (some were even copied by lego), specialise in realistic sets in specific scales, mostly military and cars, don't use stickers, quality is absolutely on par with lego, and everything is produced in factories in Poland, EU
While they can not exactly produce sets forever, the rising prices and focus on icon sets is simply driving away people who for example mainly want to build and also the entire regular kids market.
@@Arcaryon Funny thing is for the recent years i don't see kids playing lego no more its only the adults. If this continues lego is just going to lose its entire customer base as all the adult ages away and kids just don't even know what a lego is because their parent simply couldn't afford it during their primary years.
@@waihenenterprise It is as you wrote, Lego is arguably going down the road of many cooperations that make the mistake of over-emphasising a single aspect of their business model with predicable harmful longterm consequences. What started with licensing has drifted towards an adult oriented system which can also not provide cheaper sets due to licensing being an increasingly big part of the Lego company, coupled with the expectation to make more and more money every year. Lego will soon connect with most kids from regular households via games alone, except of course that the connection to legofied games or actual Lego games is simply weakening since the physical product is dying. In a world where’s good gaming PC or consoles both are fairly expensive, the comparison with a 500$ set and advanced modern technology isn’t exactly promising for Legos bottom line. Additionally, Lego so focused on defined sets that even their character as a brand built on creativity is suffering. The Lego movie is ironically turning into a prophesy. Instead selling more creative focused sets, the shelves are stacked with themed products that are meant to collect dust. Ironically, with all this in mind, Lego is creating its own worst enemy itself, a flourishing off brand market driven only by so many of Legos own choices occurring to the detriment of non branded IPs ( kids and even a lot of old school fans )decisions. I always mention Castle or Pirates because it’s such a simple thing to get right yet Lego doesn’t even produce it because the margin per set is lower. It’s a golden goose of brand building identity that’s STILL profitable and they aren’t even doing anything outside of nostalgia monuments…
@@waihenenterprise It’s arguably even worse for the company from a longterm POV since the off brand market they are creating is better than modern Lego at being classic Lego. Couple big issues; too many static collector sets, too few basic brand building line ups like castle or original themes beyond a show driven one, often downright ridiculous prices partially as a result branding driving up the price of non branded bricks and partially due to greed. They are not just loosing customers now, they are effectively destroying their own monopoly for good since they fumble so much money into their rivals pockets which is partially being invested into competing R&D. The whole company is already mainly being held together by the minifigure copy right.
@@waihenenterprise It’s arguably even worse for the company from a longterm POV since the off brand market they are creating is better than modern L3G0 at being classic L3G0. Couple big issues; too many static collector sets, too few basic brand building line ups like castle or original themes beyond a show driven one, often downright ridiculous prices partially as a result branding driving up the price of non branded bricks and partially due to greed. They are not just loosing customers now, they are effectively destroying their own monopoly for good since they fumble so much money into their rivals pockets which is partially being invested into competing R&D. The whole company is already mainly being held together by the minifigure copy right.
i just bought a knock off zane ice dragon creature lego set for 15 bucks because i'm 100% sure i'm not spending 100 bucks on the real thing. 100 bucks is the equivalent of 50 meals in my country, i only buy real lego on outlet sales
I've mostly seen LEGO knock-offs at a now debunked book store known as Birchells, which we used to visit quite often, before they closed down well in the 2010s. Considering it was a place that sold certain toys nobody wanted, I can understand why. For example: I could of sworn there was a whole bin of Hungry Pumpkin plushies nobody cared about.
Ko sets will be there for sure. There is simply too much money involved. Meanwhile im having a blast with 90 percent of the fun at 20 percent of the price of lego with ko sets. Lego has become way too expensive to enjoy anymore. Got the porsche 911 technic at less than 20 euros when the lego one is 200. Just saying.
This is indeed illegal, but I disagree that it is bad for the market. Lego is severly overpricing their sets, and prices go up way more than inflation. It's hard for me to feel sympathetic to megacorp that is putting predatory business practices into kids toys and keeps disrespecting adult collectors with things like multiple sought after sets being reduced to being GWP
Out of all the LEGO knockoff brands, there used to be one called Lantu. They mostly made small vehicle mini sets, but they were "original" designs, not LEGO set copies. When I found them in a local chinese department store, me and my friend found the brand so funny that we bought up all their Lantu stock in the matter of a few weeks. Then the restocking of them stopped and I never found Lantu since. I wonder what has happened to them, because this was like 5 years ago, if not more.
They can survive if they do something unique and creative. Enlighten is a good example of that but sadly not many people bought there cool pirate line or knights 😢
I really like the brick-built sets made by COBI. Just like LEGO sets, COBI sets are of really great quality and are highly detailed and amazing. I also really like that COBI has done a ton of military-themed sets of tanks, planes, warships, etc. LEGO, for some reason, has a policy about not doing military-themed sets at all, which is incredibly hypocritical (back in 2013, LEGO made a set of the Sopwith Camel, which was a World War 1 fighter plane, and one of the most iconic aircraft ever).
Cobi's prices have risen to Lego levels for many sets in the US, but that's the only negative thing I can say about them. Otherwise, they make super sets with top-quality bricks, all prints (unlike Lego with its insulting stickers even in $500 sets), and cool military themes that Lego won't touch (even though they make Star Wars and medieval sets all about weapons and death).
@@SO-ym3zs they only have orinted pieces, their quality is just as good as lego and offers much more specialized parts which is more expensive to produce. Also Cobi is producing in poland only while lego has factories everywhere and also in china and mexico. Two of the most cheap labour countries in the world. I bet lego would be even more expensive, if these factories in china and mexico wouldnt exist.
I fully support the shutdown of companies that make knockoff sets. When I worked for LEGO there were many parents and grandparents who would come in trying to get help after being scammed. Oftentimes they were in tears and it was really sad to see. I wish there were more companies making their own original construction sets.
That's sad to hear. Sometimes even Amazon isn't very diligent in taking down knockoffs, and AliExpress is literally the Wild West (Wild East?). There are lots of companies making original sets though! CaDA is probably the closest to LEGO, Cobi is huge in Europe, and Pantasy is expanding very aggressively worldwide. It's a great time for brick fans (unless you only buy knockoffs lol).
I didn't know Lego was the biggest toy company in the world. For the premium price they definitely should stay away from using stickers. I don't buy any Lego set with stickers. Yes, more competition is great outside of outright copyright infringement. I still love my MegaBlocks Star Trek TOS Enterprise, over 3K pieces and $125 on sale at the time. Such a deal. Besides cheaper prices, some nice innovation can be had. I bought an off brand A-10 Warthog set and found the minifigs had a ball joint at the shoulder, allowing the arms to be raised in any direction! Neat!
Personally I'm a big fan of Bluebrixx, they're fairly priced, good quality and they also got some officially licensed stuff like StarGate, Star Trek, Peanuts etc.
I like the "Knockoff" sets like what Mould King does which are very different to LEGO. That said, as a lifetime LEGO fan, I don't want to have to remortgage my entire house and sell a kidney in order to build a plastic brick set. LEGO have lost their minds a bit with their prices. I bought a proper LEGO Titanic for however many hundreds it cost. They were about £90 on Aliexpress. LEGO really are nuts with their prices
Things like Cada however feel like a far superior kit compared to Lego, with unique parts that are not found in Lego and has stickers that actually go edge to edge AND over multiple pieces
Bro LEGO is losing the fight when it comes to motors. They have no consistency and it’s impossible to find the right pieces, plus the prices are ridiculous. There are some off brand motors and controllers that are game changers and take some builds to another level
I've been a fan of the original Chinese minifigs for years. They are figs that Lego has refused to produce or are different enough to classify as a completely different figure. With that, I wholeheartedly support them. I don't typically ever buy a direct copy of an already established fig, though.
Cobi sets are great, especially for tanks and other military equipment that Lego won’t sell themselves, with decent quality too. I’m a big fan of their modern aircraft and tank models
I don't know, when I go to Amazon and look up Lego, most of the first listed sets are knock offs. It gets annoying when I'm trying to find the real Legos.
I think cloning is about as good/bad as charging ridicolus overprices for bricks and IPs. I feel no obligation to be loyal with Lego or Disney or whoever is the IP holder that is making enourmous profits for their super-rich owners.
With that being said what I like most with the clone-brand-market is when they produce sets from their own design. I just built the Reobrix set "Medieval Tavern 66018" and I think it was great. Not the level of Legos "Medieval Blacksmith 21325", even if it is very much the same scale and style, because it is slightly wonky in some aspects (I used few of the included stickers for this reason, and made some modifications. However, I made some mods to the blacksmith as well). But still it is superior to Legos classic Medieval Market Village from 2009. However, I think these kind of clone-brand designs would never have happened if there was not a 1:1 clone set market in the first place. That industry needed that kind of base as the jump of point for going into these kind of designs.
Not only is Lego the largest brick/toy maker in the world, they're also the largest tire manufacturer as well. There should always be room for competitors though, for example Lego refuses to license certain IP like Star Trek, so I ended up getting a large Mega Bloks Enterprise model which I really like.
lego should just... rerelease old sets AS THEY WERE (none of that "legacy ninjago" or that eldorado set which added a bunch of things to increase the price)
Sick build. Here's the original designer's page if you want to support him (and build with a clear conscience). rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-23556/onecase/isd-monarch/#details
For many years, I have always had a die hard hate for any non LEGO blocks (always called them fakies growing up). Tyco was okay, mega blocks sucked, and worse were the brands that had higher then normal studs... NLG though, the past 5 or so years, these clones and alt brands have raised my eyebrow. Mould King 13082 I have seriously considered buying, just to get a real hands on experience to see just how good or not they really are. Goofy they call a lowered trick with street tyres an off road truck, but I really like those wheels. I do think supporting non LEGO block companies is a good thing, keeps a monopoly from getting fat
They've come so far in the past 10 years. Even MEGA has upped its game, although the prices are pretty much on par with LEGO. Definitely give that Mould King set a chance!
I usually collect the legit lego sets for collectible purposes but I'd be happy to display some knockoff sets as the prices won't go up and are very fun to mess with. Especially those strange prints the knock off mini figs have.
Interesting, didn't even think about those 1:1 knockoffs anymore after seeing Megabloks and others on Amazon with legitimate new sets (I'd just love to get some of their bigger motorized sets, like the Liebherr cranes, but let's be real, a 500 bucks dust catcher, yeah, no, sadly lacking that space…). However, your video was also missing one important puzzle piece in all of this, which should be mentioned: If you still order some of those knockoffs (let's assume they reappear) and you happen to buy from a dropshipper (i.e. right off the factory), you are considered the one importing the goods, so you're also solely liable in case customs/Lego stop your shipment. Wouldn't really want to risk that just for some plastic bricks.
Problem is that they don't know anything other than Lego. And Lego is a massive company. So they would more likely buy whatever the cheapest. Don't hate the game. Hate the player. Lego did this to themselves
Knockoffs aren't going anywhere. I got a set with 1,800 pieces for $70. That's upwards of $500 in LEGO money. There could be missing or warped pieces but there will definitely be a savings of $430. For those wondering, it's the nifeliz BIG BOY locomotive. LEGO has not made this set.
The Big Boy Locomotive from Nifeliz is a great set, but it's not a knockoff! It's based on an original set from JieStar (with permission), with an added base and a few other tweaks. Let's not go crazy though. A 1800 piece LEGO set is more like $150-200 depending on IP partners and minifigs. That doesn't really change your point that it's more than twice as much, and the most similar trains from LEGO run $300+. LEGO really does train fans dirty.
I've been buying alot of JMBricklayer Medieval village sets. Fit very well with Lego official sets. I try to stay away from sets that are too close to official sets or have blurred out minifigures in the pics. I made the minifig mistake early on in my building hobby, and know better now.
it's good that Lego only struck knockoff sets. stuff like cobi who make pretty good semi realistic military sets or just any other brands who make original sets instead of copying real ones
I have several CADA sets and a BUNCH of COBY military sets and they are all really nice. In my opinion the COBY instructions are better than Lego and the big ship models are awesome (and a GREAT deal for the price). That being said- I would NEVER buy a direct knock off of a Lego set... Lego did the hard work to get it out there- I,ll give them my hard earned cash.
2 months later still can get knockoffs over at ali and places like Yumoku still selling. These knockoff are great to get discontinued sets usually gatekept by scalpers and sets for displaying.
lego should realise that high price is the reason for people to go for the knockoff version of the set..if they lower the price, they will get more customers than usual
I think so too. LEGO has leaned way too heavily into enormous, expensive sets, especially for popular IP. If you want a LOTR set your options are Brickheadz or $500 sets...
@@madeofbricks But the issue is they don't even have to be that price, maybe I'm wrong I'm sure they have done their numbers, but I would think they could still make marginable profits if they lowered the price.
@@sublimeden They could, but why would they? Sales have exploded in the past 4 years. If people are willing to pay (or don't know there's an alternative), why not milk the market for all its worth?
I have a rule when i buy Lego. I always buy when there is 30% discount or more.
its a bit outrageous for me because i live in mexico (where the biggest lego factory of the world is) and yet the sets are as expensive as if they were imported
Personally a huge fan of COBI. Excellent customer service, unique elements, and really high quality kits.
Lego vs Cobi memes
Me personally i think knockoff brand lego mocs like MouldKing are fine but the offbrand lego sets that are copying exact sets made by the offical lego group should be shutdown
I think them copying sets isn't even the worst part of it. It's copying the Lego official image and portraying it as if it's an official Lego set which causes concern when trying to buy actual Lego products.
While I still don't think copying the sets is ideal, it does keep Lego prices in check I feel which isn't all bad. Imagine a world with no Lego competition whatsoever. I can imagine they'd happily increase the price with their monopoly. So while in concept I don't agree with copying sets, Legos constant desire to rise prices makes it a good thing to keep them in check is how I see it. If they were more affordable, these copycat sets would never have took off to begin with.
When Lego itself is already a clone brand I don’t even give a care at this point I’m more impressed if knockoffs quality reaches closer to Lego so we can use the recolored parts Lego will never make.
@@sublimeden Cloning sets will only make Lego's legal team work harder, not Lego designers. (And legal teams cost a lot of money, which also affects the price of sets.) Lego isn't trying to uphold a monopoly, they're trying to get rid of criminals. Illegal copies will NEVER make the copyright holder make cheaper products. Louis Vuitton hasn't lowered their prices just because criminals copy their designs.
Don't forget that Lego does all the marketing and research, which costs money. (Not to mention brand deals, where Marvel/Disney etc wants a few millions.) Copycats ONLY have to spend money on manufacturing, so of course they can be cheaper.
I have no problem with COBI, Sluban or Mould King making their own sets or buying MOC designs from fans. That's actually healthy competition, and THAT will drive Lego to make better/cheaper sets. And Lego isn't going after their legit competition who make their own sets.
We all want cheaper Lego of course, but rising oil prices have affected Lego a lot. That's why they're looking at alternative materials for bricks. Lego isn't just raising prices for the fun of it.
But. I want a cheap $100 lepin titanic😢
Its to much for real lego😮.
I ve heard mouldking is stealing instructions from original designers though.
I think it’s bad that lego doesn’t have any *real* competition in their market.
As a lego fan, I’ve seen prices rise up to 15% on their best year. Ive seen them gut unlicensed themes. I’ve heard people act like the company is benevolent.
Only competition keeps a good product good and affordable.
Lego lost my support years ago with their insane pricing and elitist Lego adults who hoard and scalp older sets. For years the Lego trains crowd were some of the absolute worst when it came to using unofficial bricks. Why would I buy a real Emerald Night set for 800 dollars when I can buy a ko for 50 bucks, same goes for other discontinued train sets.
I concur, Lego scalpers are aholes.
While it's not entirely LEGO's fault that scalpers are making retired sets unaffordable, it's still a pretty bad look. I think there's a much better case for buying knockoffs for those sets than, for example, the Barad Dur. That set had clones available before it even officially launched.
@@madeofbricks I do agree for the most part that clone sets should be somewhat restricted to retired sets but my main gripe has become the insane pricing on Lego sets. I understand the licensing fees are really high for the Disney properties and a lot of the auto sets but the prices across the board have risen to a crazy level. Individual piece prices have well more than doubled. If anything the ko sellers really show just how cheap the raw material and mould productions can be, I understand that the bulk of a new sets price is going to be the license and design which the ko companies do not worry about.
@@olahf8490 The last I checked LEGO prices actually hadn't changed much per piece in the past few decades when adjusted for inflation, but considering there's more competition now you'd expect it to go down. I haven't looked too far into it though, so I may do a video deep dive in the future.
And you're right that other companies are proving that it can be done cheaper. Not just KO companies, either.
Design/licensing costs are one thing, but the argument that LEGO's manufacturing costs are higher just doesn't hold water now that the company has factories in Mexico and China. The quality has been slipping, too!
Very true I have noticed the decline of quality as well. From the formulation of brown pieces causing them to be more brittle over time is an older quality issue but for myself I have had sets that come with missing pieces and missing sticker sets. One of my brand new city train sets was missing an entire bag and this was a sealed set I ordered direct from the LEGO website. My sets from Mould king for example have been getting a lot better and instead of missing pieces I end up having some extras left over.
When Lego made the Zelda set 300 bucks it made me kind of sad. Give me a 50 dollar Zelda set and we wont have to buy bootlegs. lol
100%. It's also a 2 in 1 set, so you can't display both builds unless you buy 2. It's ridiculous.
Nintendo needs to lower their prices on their own stuff too, 70 dollars for a game that barely runs and looks terrible, no thanks
Isn't a Nintendo switch 300 dollars 💀
Especially if pricing is retarded af
@@madeofbricksfar too expensive anyways for what u get
Im all for competition but stealing and then reselling IP is just wrong so im not upset or surprised by this
I feel the same
As a diehard Lego loyalist, I would agree.
Agreed. I buy almost solely Lego (and my shelves are covered in them), but I do buy CaDA for things that they offer which Lego doesn't, namely Japanese style modern architecture. The even have these roof tile bricks that Lego doesn't and they're just perfect.
@@ocularzombie6679Imagine being loyal to any corpo-brand xD
Not just IPs. Some of the china brick brands literally sell sets based on mocs with the original creator never knowing of it and not seeing any royalty.
I love and heartily promote some of the Lego competitors like Cobi, Pantasy, Cada, etc. They're often as good as or better than Lego and often cheaper, and they're creating original and licensed designs that are often more interesting than what Lego churns out. But the Lego rip-off copycats, like Lepin, who steal Lego's set and packaging designs, deserve whatever nasty legal fate they get. They're just thieves.
absolutely agree! I'm a huge fan of Cobi quality
I am hesitant to trying out Cobi and Pantasy but I hear from many AFOLs that their plastic quality is top notch, good clutch power and they contain good building techniques and play functions...even lights...and cheaper too. Just waiting until something off bran peaks my interest....the new Cobi/Cada Shell Service Station looks fantastic and reminds me of when LEGO used to have the Shell IP. Maybe I will take a plunge into the off-brand soon
Cobi isn't afraid to dip into military themes, which allows them to carve out a unique market share.
U should look up bluebrixx they are great!
@@Carboxylated I can't speak for Pantasy but Cobi plastic feels as good as or better than LEGO and the clutch power is almost too good. If i could find a good way to acquire their bricks in bulk i may try for a castle MOC
I like it when there's competition but flat out stealing or just cloning a product is scummy and makes me more in favor of this kind of news.
sets like Rivendell and Lion Knights' Castle are totally inaccessible for so many people, me included
why not have the real deal, for the high prices, and the knockoff for us? how is it hurting you?
@@zibberebbiz There's obviously the fact of bad products tricking uninformed customers, but I don't think that's what you're asking about.
When it comes to the people who buy legit, the existence of knockoffs can feel underhanded. There's the sense that the Lego company has earned their place while the copycats are just profiting off of their work. Especially when it comes to copyright and design. Even if the knockoff profits are miniscule in comparison, a business like Lego is ultimately dependent on exclusivity, so both the company and the customers feel like there's something to lose if copycats go unpunished.
Ultimately it's a very similar conversation to pirating, and a matter where I can't claim to have a concrete right answer.
I honestly think that there should be more competitors with Lego with the market because it force them to lower their prices to compete with the competitions
Why don't they copy the lego products from the 90s and 80s. I would literally just buy the entire stock of space, castle, western and pirate sets. I actually have KO islanders set forbidden cove from way back in 2007.
That's my thoughts exactly. I'd buy clones from the now ultra expensive castle sets
In all honesty, the only thing worth directly ripping off of The LEGO Company is it's minifigs, and maybe its older themes. Modern Lego is clearly more designed around adults and fine detail sets, which makes it no wonder kids are losing interest.
That’s the entire point though. Legos minis and brands are carrying a company that is gaining luxury status with more 400-500€\$ sets making the rounds especially in themes that are usually killers in the toy market like castles, western and pirates.
It’s obvious that Lego doesn’t care about these customers. Hack, half of the images of their sets show them in these large flats as simply room decor.
Now, no hate for people who mainly want to display a cool build but Lego used to be more than that at its pricing policies ( 100$/€ sets which are so thin you almost can’t play with them for example ) or the colour dumping on the inside of even the biggest sets is slowly destroying the foundations of the company.
In a few decades, there won’t be too many normal kids remaining whose parents once bought them Lego and are therefore interested in the minis and the brand as a whole.
Lego yet needs to learn that their greed is not healthy.
Hope the other brands will be able to take a huge portion of the cake because Lego really isn't worth it anymore.
I dislike Lego's prices and some of their policies and design decisions, but to be fair, they're a company, not a charity, and making money is what a company exists for.
I’m honestly surprised that direct clones of sets managed to survive as long as they have. I have no issue with clones of sets that are old and retired as there is no loss on Lego’s part, but clones of sets that Lego just released is kind of egregious.
That said, alternative brands have come a long way and have developed many amazing sets that not only not violate Lego IP, but are also of comparable quality on themes that Lego won’t touch. Competition is always good and Lego has been getting complacent with their dip in quality and rise in price. Personally I’m a huge fan of Cobi and Sluban.
Amen, brother.
I bought the new “Old Corner Antique Store from FunWhole (wish they would change their name) the other day. It has almost the same number of bricks as Lego’s “Jazz Club”, but was less than half the price with an introductory offer. Plus most of the FunWhole sets come with complete lighting kits. If Lego produces another $5-600 Modular this year, I won’t be buying it. I just can’t continue to afford their prices, especially not in this economy.☠️
If you haven't seen it, LEGO also recently made moves to shut down modular buildings for the bricklink designer program and Ideas submission process. Clearly they want those prices to stay high.
@@madeofbricks unfortunately, Lego as a company, has almost become nonexistent a couple of times in the past and it may be heading for that fate again. Even the small sets from $15-25 in 2022, are now selling for $40-65 in Canada. A $450 (US) Modular will be between $600-650 Canada, between the exchange rate and the Canadian taxes. I am retired now and that is a major expense, especially these days.
It always suprised me, that while Lego's quality was roughly the same, only slighty going down, the quality of the so-called "knock-off" brands often went up. The bricks were less often smelly, incompatible or broken during production. For instance, Cobi brand really suprised me by making its quality better and better as years passed, up to the point where it is today. Bearing in mind, that knock-offs were of course cheaper.
The thing which often suprised me because of its irony, are all the creative sets actually designed by those chinese brands, which were soon pretty much copied by Lego itself. An instance of this is when I bought a camera model from some brick brand from aliexpress. It was only 3 years later that lego introduced, you guessed it, almost an identical model of a camera to its stores. It noticed it happen very often, that those knock-off brands which decided not to blindly follow Lego, often came up with very suprising ideas, often making their own new bricks, that Lego adapted, or should I say copied for their own use.
In conclusion, summarising all I said, I think Lego's stopped being the revolutionary brand thar paves the way for the market to develop, just as it happened to Apple. Once a leader of advancement, now a giant fighting smaller and cheaper brands, basing only on its old prestigeous status.
Of course you could say, that Lego just doesn't want their ideas to be stolen. But why does Lego copy ideas of those brands then? If it was as prestigeous as it wants to be viewed, it wouldn't even be compared to other brands and wouldn't need to even copy anything from other brands. Protecting your rights is very alright, but why do just the same thing as the companies you're agaist? I know, simmilarities might be an accident, but I won't believe that when some lego sets look almost as identical as their knock-off predecessors...
Didn’t LEGO steal their brick design to begin with?
Könnte man so meinen. Von H. Page und dessen Kiddicraft Blocks.
This is a LEGO issue, you gotta ask WHY so many people are looking for cheaper alternatives. It's an availability issue, a price issue, a profiteering after Covid towards adults issue.
No it is not. People that buy knock offs and fake products, want to be owners of branded products like LEGO, LV and/or Gucci and Rolex, but cannot afford and thus buy fake. It only shows how strong and appealing the real deal is. Just admit being a cheapskate and a wannabee. That’s the truth.
@@EGO0808 you seem braindead.
You can buy a functionnal $20 handbag. You can buy a functionnal $20 watch.
If you want to buy these things, you don't have to buy knock off LV or Rolex.
People turn to cheaper alternatives to Lego because Lego costs too much, and brands like CaDa or Cobi prove it. Lego is price gouging and it's obvious. CaDa and Cobi aren't "fake" like lepin is. They have their own pieces and their own sets that are designed in-house.
Also, Lego isn't a luxury brand. You aren't showing off by brandishing a lego set when you're at the club, and you won't be mocked if your toys are "fake".
The reason you would buy a fake Rolex or LV, is the same reason you would buy real ones : you want to show off. The fake ones just allow you to lie about what you're showing off.
The reason you buy Lego is to build or display it. There's nothing to show off, except your own engineering skills, if you go into moccing. You can get those same things from cheaper brands like Cada or Cobi.
Also, there are things that Lego will simply NEVER make a set of, like any real tank or jet fighter, leaving a huge gap in the market for Cobi
@@EGO0808Na mate your tripping. Lego doesn’t have that big of a brand appeal, it’s sets are desired due to the nostalgia for its minifigures and because it used to (!) produce the best sets and to this day still gets some of the better licensing sets but it’s nowhere in the same league as a fashion brand which gets a 500% boost in profits based on a name.
A Gucci back is no longer desirable if it’s a knock off because people want to pay the high price to show of that they are doing well. Almost nobody shows of their Lego like that. Most of it sits at home. Its simply not a status symbol to buy real Lego.
@@Arcaryon like I said: the fake buyers desire status and think by buying fake they hold that status. Which you / they don’t.
@@EGO0808 You have no argument, do you? You can’t just repeat a false statement and hope that it just doesn’t get called out as such.
Not blaming anyone who went for knock-off.
Whenever Lego shut one down, two will rise.
Thw only way to win is by making sets that are cheaper than competitor
Mould King scraped one of my designs from Rebrickable and had the balls to put my name on the product page as if I had endorsed them.
Shocking tbh.
Have you reached out to them?
Yea Mould King is known for doing this.
@@CathrineMacNiel No point. 1. They don't care. 2. They're located in a country where this sort of thing isnt persecuted.
Hate to disapoint you, but Pantasy, Panlos, Mould King or even Cobi or MEGA are not totally legal with their sets. They often infringing LEGOS Design-Protected Part (like for exapmle by using the 1x2 curved slope, the 2x2 jumper tile or the 1x1 round plate with a hole in the middle) Kiddcraft and Funwhole are the only Brands (as i know) that are totaly save by avoiding the protected parts or using their own designed work-around parts. Kiddicraft even invented the Kiddiz figurine to avoid infinging LEGO brand rights) Pantasy also infringes LEGOS 3D Brand by having minifig pics in their manuals to show other sets. Cause the GoBricks FIgures they use in some sets infringing LEGO Minifig protection cause their overall apperance is to close to the LEGO minifigs and customers can be mislead. Further QUestions to that topic? Feel free to contact me *g* I had gone to several courtcases with LEGO and learned a lot from that *g*
Hey @JohnnysWorld! I've watched many of your videos about your court cases and reviews. I just wish they were in English, hahaha.
That's news to me about those brands infringing on active patents. Is there a place to see which pieces are still protected?
I'll reach out later since you're the expert on this stuff (I guess you can thank LEGO for that... hahaha).
Just found your video from 2019, great stuff. After looking into the listings though, it seems like the 2x2 jumper tile and the 1x1 round plate with hole are currently listed as "Invalidity procedure pending", which I assume means that someone has challenged the design patent in court.
This is a fascinating topic so thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Link to video for the curious (German): ua-cam.com/video/Lu8dN28FjIM/v-deo.html
@@madeofbricks yes, there is a lot of movement in this topics but it takes a lot of time. If you want, we can make a call so I can tell you about it
@@JohnnysWorld That would be great! I'll reach out privately.
great to see you here too
Small correction, Xingbao was always a sister company of Lepin and was not affected by the shutdown of Lepin back in the day. Back then, Xingbao was known for making a lot of military sets like tanks and fighter jets, they also produced their own modulars that were Chinese themed. The other owners simply cut out the guy that was arrested and pinned Lepin on him and kept selling legit sets through Xingbao. Then, once the dust settled, they opened up King and Queen which began to sell KO sets again.
Also, the producers of the KO sets are usually not the manufacturers of the bricks themselves. There are several huge factories that produce bricks in China for all sorts of brands (usually legit sets). If you ever seen a Chinese brick convention you will see the incredible variety of sets that these manufacturers produce (nearly all of them legit). A lot of military sets, Asian themed sets, or sets based on Chinese IPs or western IPs that Lego doesn't have, and now an insane amount of botanical sets that are not copies of Lego. No joke, some of these botanicals are insane and are really showing Lego up.
Now that being said, the actual manufacturers of the bricks also often produced bricks for the "manufacturers" of the KO sets as well. But, they would just ship them a bunch of bricks without manuals, figures, or box art. Those KO manufacturers would then assemble the sets and package them. Then, those KO sets would be purchased by the middle men like physical shops in China, but also places like Yuomko or random aliexpress shops to be sold to people outside China. It seems like what got shut down were several of the "manufacturers" that assembled the bricks into KO sets, not the actual producers of the bricks themselves (which are massive factories that are primarily for producing legit products).
Regarding one of your other comments, alt-bricks and not going to drop in quality, in fact they will likely continue to increase in quality as time goes on. Some of the actual manufacturers are incredibly advanced and use high tech manufacturing. I watched a video that toured the GoBricks factory and it looked just like a Lego factory with advanced robotics and high tech modern machinery. And if you've ever had a set with GoBricks, you will see the quality difference compared to what people normally think of Chinese bricks. They are near indistinguishable from Lego other than not having the Lego logo on the stud. The plastic feels very similar, the colors are impressive, and the clutch is just like Lego. Now, that doesn't mean all the factories are that good. But, there are alt-brick manufacturers in China that are producing high quality stuff and as time goes on, the other manufacturers will eventually upgrade their set up too. I mean let's be honest, injection molding is not exactly rocket science.
But, I would venture to guess that what happened back when Lepin was shut down will occur again. There will be a lull for a few months, maybe a year, and then new KO shops will be set up and begin producing KO sets. The demand for Lego sets is just too high for there not to be a "black market", especially with how expensive Lego is.
Thanks for the correction! Xingbao is a strange one since it straddles the line between legit sets and knockoffs... iirc they make their own bricks, too, which might explain it. To be honest I haven't built any Xingbao sets even though they've been around forever.
The reason why I think the quality will go down is that the more reputable manufacturers of bricks will want to avoid KO makers, at least in the short term. Most of the truly "generic" bricks I've tested have been pretty middling in quality when compared to real brands like Gobricks, Enlighten (Keeppley), Cobi, etc.
I'm a big fan of Gobricks, and I'm actually working on a video comparison of the quality/price/etc right now, so hopefully I can get that out soon. They really are right up there with LEGO, even creating some original concepts like the magnetic tracks. I can't wait for the international shop to open.
I'll stop buying knockoff sets as soon as lego stop being so extremely greedy.
and if they actually sell us premium products when they ask for a premium price
i love minifigures from koruit, insane detailed, own designs, decent quaility, better than some lego designs definitly
Koruit is great.
Auch schon die Figuren von ARZD ausprobiert?
Ich finde die sogar noch besser als jene von KORUIT.
i just discovered your channel and this is the first video i've seen from it. i hope i'm not the only one who likes this type of content also other than reviews and speed builds as it has a very good quality of information, presentation and sense of humour... keep on going, cheers!
If Lego would stop price gouging and making sets that are discontinued after a year and then charging prices that only the rich can afford, there would be no knockoffs. Lego sucks and they are money thieves.
I completely agree that Lego is overpriced and doesn't even deliver for what they charge in many cases. However, the prices on the aftermarket are out of their hands. Scalpers and greedy traders define the prices in that case. Doesn't make Lego's pricing any better, though
Big companies love the free market and competition when they are winning, but as soon as a new competitor shows up all of a sudden they like to invoke the rules theyd love to ignore themselves.
ZERO sympathy for a giant corporation.
Agreed, although technically, The LEGO Group is a "family-owned private company" and not a corporation. Not sure if that actually makes it worse...
Competitors are fine. Chinese copycats are not.
@@GabeNsApostle Then why is lego trying to do that? There are several instances of lego doing that. Not only to knockoffs
I’d be willing to bet money these knock offs are going nowhere, especially in Asia where I live. Things that were banned from sale because of copyrights in the US (probably EU too) are readily and easily available here.
The thing is that the "adult sets" for example are way too overpriced for actually hard working adults who see it as an display piece why pay 220 euro's for a lego globe when you can buy the exact same set for 60 on aliexpress if you are going to build it once and set in on a shelf forever, theres a reason the knockoff market is that big there should be a really good competitor to lego but the problem is lego has the money to buy the trademark themes (minecraft, star wars, etc)
What bothers me even more is: Why pay 220€ for a crusty looking brickbuilt globe if you can get actual nice regular globes for the money? Its like how the polaroid model costs 4x of a real polaroid.
Only fakes I like are custom figures that have custom molds like the venom figures that have been going around
Reason why there are so many knock offs is because of the pricing,
I regularly travel to China for vacation, one time I went to a store and look at some Lego out of curiosity. They cost so much, to give you context, a death star(the newer smaller version, not the og big one) it cost about 899 RMB ( about 125USD) their average salary is about 6000-8000 RMB per month (800-1100 USD) for most normal job like waiters, kitchen staff etc, imagine using 1/10 of your salary just to buy a set of Lego.
The median where I live in Spain is something like 1700 EUR. No matter where you live, LEGO is for rich people.
@@madeofbricks yes, I think why they make it this expensive is because its high quality(at least back then, idk about now as i havent purchased any since like 10-15 years ago), and they have no competitor, thus no competition for the pricing
@@Youkai_graphics more like no real competitor.
Lego's quality is declining for years now
@@xSoulhunterDKx I see, I haven’t buy any Lego set for a long time, it’s sad to see the quality decline
"You got Lego Star Wars?"
"No, we got Lepin Space Wars."
"Oh... okay, do you have the Super Heroes sets?"
"No, but we got the Supreme Hero lineup."
The issue is that I often want some of the older sets that were released, not the garbage that they often produce today. Many of the lego sets I want today aren't made anymore and I'm not paying north of $300 USD for a kit released in the early to mid 2000s. Then you have the pricing model. The price of a legit lego kits are starting to go through the roof. Like many hobbies and companies, they realized that the majority of their consumer base are adults high on nostalgia, people with money as kids are becoming a smaller and smaller demographic of the (nicer) toy consumer base. Most people aren't exactly willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a what is essentially a build it your self display item, not in this economy at least. The consumer base is there but when there is an alternative to get it for more than 60% off, why would you NOT go 3rd party? I'd like to buy lego sets but when a single set is third or more of my rent, then you're really pushing it. The expenses the average person has has gone through the roof since Covid and with it, the price of hobby items like Legos. Its easier to justify a knock-off or 3rd party kit when its $40 USD vs the brand named Lego kit thats $150 USD. And thats for the more "affordable sets"
100% agreed. And to your point, $150 is actually VERY cheap for a black box 18+ LEGO set these days, which is absolutely ridiculous. You'd also think the value and PPP would be better for larger sets, but the opposite seems to be true. Price gouging at its finest.
Exactly this!
@@madeofbricks Another thing that people often times don't think about is that as you get older, you collect what are essentially display items, whether they be from work, your other hobbies, souvenirs of trips, or as gifts you have collected over the years, space on the shelf is becoming more limited and at a premium. You will be hard pressed to be able to find the space to accommodate some of the medium sized lego kits on your shelf, never mind the large or super large sets. And I don't think you're going to sacrifice a an entire table to display it. Maybe if you're not using it already but the chances are that you're going to have to spend more money just to accommodate the large kits
@@BenderRodríguez-p3e Absolutely. I addressed this in my review of the COBI Titanic set, which easily fits on a shelf (unlike the LEGO Titanic). Don't even get me started on the Eiffel Tower.
Apart from IP sets from Star Wars or Marvel, the only reasonably-sized "adult" sets are botanicals and a few Icons sets. Unsurprisingly, those are my two favorite themes these days.
I would try bricklink or creephybrid, bricklink usually has decent prices for old sets while the other still has old knockoffs available like the mars mission armoured drill for $100 (which is still similar to ebay or bricklink)
I really hate the knock off lego that try to replicate 1:1. Sometimes I want to buy lots off eBay or other resell sites but I’m scared the seller is being dishonest and may throw a couple fake ones in the bunch. However I’m totally for alternative brick builds like COBI as they are unique builds with fine quality and are really cool to display. Especially since LEGO stays away from military themes.
you can tell when someone is selling ko on ebay. I know, cause I love ko figs and sets. I always hate it when ppl try to sell them on sites like ebay as the real deal. I would never sell my ko figs as lego myself. I buy them purely for my own MoCs and fun
@@xSoulhunterDKx For sure, if you got a keen eye you can tell when it’s real or not. However I’ve seen lots mixed with real and fake, which is my biggest concern.
Knockoff Lego is so mid. I have gotten a few in the past and they all suck. If you can’t afford all the big expensive Lego sets, then just buy smaller cheaper sets.
I never accept straight up copycats but I've seen and used Cobi and other third-party pieces and many of the bigger brands are really good, definitely on par with Lego. As long as those brands make their own models instead of stealing Lego designs, I'm totally okay with third-party plastic bricks.
I've built sets from LEGO, Alt brands and knock offs a lot over the last couple of years. I feel a lot of the time, it can be agreed that the general quality that comes from LEGO tends to be much better, but there is a horrible elitist attitude from a lot of people in the AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO) space that if it isn't LEGO it's rubbish. Terms like FLEGO (Fake LEGO) get thrown around a lot, which I think is unfair.
I've had official LEGO sets that have been disappointing. I've had Fake clones that have been really enjoyable. I think a lot of the time, it's another scenario of "Sega is better than Nintendo", "Naa aah, Nintendo is better than SEGA". Or, the Apple vs. Android battle. Only this time with building bricks.
As you've said, some alternative brands have kits that are as good if not better than LEGO, if only for the pricing value. My USS Voyager set is easily one of my top 3 favourite builds and that isn't official LEGO stuff.
I can understand LEGO wanting to go hard after the companies that are stealing their designs and packaging materials, but if they start to try hitting the more legitimate alternatives, I think it'll be a very bad time for not only AFOLs but all fans of all brick building, young or old. It can also be the only way for some folks to get the experience of building larger sets, like the premium Technic cars, (the £400 ones), which is a shame.
P.S. They're a little on the pricey side, but I'd recommend checking out BlueBrixx. They're a Germany based alternative brand that have licences for some pretty big Sci-Fi IPs.
Thanks for your comment, great perspective!
Bluebrixx is great. I hope to see more brands expand their IP partnerships, especially outside of China. LEGO has a nasty habit of snagging great IP and releasing just one or two VERY expensive sets.
I've built Lego, CaDA, and a number of brandless bootlego clone sets over the past year. CaDA brick quality, at least on their more recent releases, are really quite good, and IMO near identical to Lego quality. Their Ruf Yellowbird is one of the best looking (and value!) kits I've ever built. At some point I will order their flagship 1:8 AMG ONE, and I expect it will more than hold its own against the Big L's 1:8 Supercar kits.
I've literally just ordered some of the bigger BlueBrixx Star Trek sets since they are on sale, and I'm looking forward to see how their quality compared to Lego and CaDA. Also have some Rastar, Guly, and Panlos kits on the way too. I also took a risk and ordered the BlueBrixx Blaustein Castle base set as well. That is one of BlueBrixx's flagship products and highly detailed, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it builds.
But really what I've really been surprised is how good some of the no brand bootleg kits are. I think some of them actually sourced their bricks from Gobricks, because a few of those kits are almost as good as Lego too! I just built a custom yellow SP3 knockoff and my God it not only looks perfect but the build quality is excellent too. Other than a few slipping gears in the differential that I replaced, the entire drivetrain, including the transmission, all works pretty smoothly, which really was a pleasant surprise. The SP3 looks INCREDIBLE in yellow, and you can only get it in yellow by going with one of these knockoff sets.
THEY HAVE FUCKING STARGATE SETS?? Shut up and take my money
@@mysteriousstranger5873 BlueBrixx does have officially licensed Stargate sets, although most of them don't look as big or detailed as some of their high end Star Trek sets, which look more impressive.
@@mysteriousstranger5873 They do, and Robocop. They're regularly expanding their catalogue of sets too, so there's potential for them to get some really nice stuff out there.
I am glad I can get my cheap lego from Aliexpress, Alibaba, Temu, Wish and others. Lego prices are ridiculous today
Honestly putting factories in an country and hiring massive amounts of people to work for you in a place where knockoff of your product is rampant so you have leverage and essentially a share in the country to fight over in a ingenious tactic.
I discovered Cobi around 10 years ago. And as a fan of military history i've never looked back. Although the quality may not have been there in the past, it is now as good as regular lego, with more printed bricks instead of stickers.
star wieners from LEPIN will go down in Meme history as the best knock off name ever! STAR WNRS! 🤣
bruh I had a set a couple of years ago that said "Lube Skywalker" on the box
Star Wart
SPACE WAR
I don’t like copycats who release the same set the minute it goes into production but Lego has only itself to blame in a lot of ways. If you take a look at pick a brick and try to recreate old battle sets from castle for example, you quickly notice how much more expensive everything has gotten. Arguably, part of the reason is that Lego pays a lot for brand themes and tries to make its product even more profitable via increasing the non brand prices too.
The problem is that we are no longer talking about a company that is untouchable in key markets because the economy can’t keep up with legos greed in most of the world.
As a result, Lego has to pay more and more for legal battles in order to weaken a competition that only exists because Lego doesn’t care about its customers.
In the end, at the core of this is the Lego monopoly on minifigures and of course licensing fees.
The problem is that this has directly contributed to a situation where Lego is itself constantly pushing out weak sets and damaging its reputation and as a result, many former die hard Lego fans have started to engage with offbrand stuff. Doesn’t even have to be copies, a lot of designs are entirely original too but every time they buy stuff and get quality Lego looses out because more and more people wake up to the fact that the legal monopoly is actually fairly shaky.
Prices are higher for everything because LEGO keeps buying licenses. There is no licensing for “castles” and things like that, but you still pay more to compensate for things like “Star Wars.”
@@rumblehat4357 Exactly.
As someone who only purchases Lego branded sets and bricks for MOC's, I would like to see other manufacturers selling instructions for builds (Similar to Rebrickable). There are some really great stand alone designs which are only obtainable if you buy the set but I'd like to buy the instructions and source Lego bricks for the build. This would also create another revenue stream and appeal to a wider audience.
I'd actually like to see this too! I know Gobricks has an active forum in China, but afaik there isn't an equivalent of Rebrickable.
btw you can download instruction manuals from most manufacturers' websites, although it can be hard to navigate in Chinese. Here's CaDA's for example: cn.doubleeagle-group.com/list.php?pid=6&ty=25&tty=19.
@@madeofbricksi think among the LEGO enthusiasts who like to build with LEGO onoy there's probably a pretty big crossover with people who'd pay for high quality printed instructions.
LEGO has proposed digital only instructions quite a few times and it's always met with a lot of pushback from fans. People like having the instructions in their hands, and I reckon people would pay decently for it.
@@SineN0mine3yeah because then you’re counting on your customers to have Internet. That’s pretty arrogant. Not everyone has it.
i will still buy them. I got my hold on some Bela sets in 2020. Both were Star Wars Rebels sets ko. The quality was great, the cost of both sets were good and I dont "collect" to trick ppl. I just dont get paying hundreds for something lego has complete control of. 1st and secondary market. Same with figs. There are figs Lego NEVER did or didnt make in almost 20 years. I wont pay 200 dollars or more for a single figure.
Why would I spend $1200 on a set when i can get basically same set for $50-70 lmao
Because the $1200 set will be worth $2400 in a couple years while the $50 will be worth exactly zero.
@@michaelnurse9089 NERD
@@michaelnurse9089 Mhm yes Lego as an investment, get the eff out of here.
@CathrineMacNiel investing in lego can actually get you greater returns than investing in gold, as long as you keep it in the box
@@michaelnurse9089 No, the 50$ set will be worth exactly the same to the buyer - being a nice display piece. And for that, 50$ is a very reasonable price, while 1200$ is completely ludicrous.
Online you can see they copy everything from the Lego ideas page and sell as Lego sets. When people obviously copy others work, I think it’s right to shut them down.
The problem is that Lego gets worse every year with rising prices. I mean they can make good stuff but chose not to.
If they dropped their licensed brands most of their sets would be fairly affordable if they cam also control their resellers price.
Its the Disney tax causing these sets to be 50%+ more than they should be. Dropping their licensed sets, even for half a year would send a message that price gouging from their licensed brands is not ok.
The problem with piracy market is that it exist because of the expensive price tag.
So the Clone Wars comes to an end.. the Empire has won. lol
Now i know the reason why some lego knockoff brand like keepley and sembo decided to make their own original set
Today they even have official licensed product from japanese ip like pokemon, digimon, doraemon & detective conan (case closed in US)
I also "vote" for cobi here. Not even a lego knockoff for many years now. They have many original brick designs (some were even copied by lego), specialise in realistic sets in specific scales, mostly military and cars, don't use stickers, quality is absolutely on par with lego, and everything is produced in factories in Poland, EU
Maybe if they stopped retiring sets and raising prices this would not be happening
While they can not exactly produce sets forever, the rising prices and focus on icon sets is simply driving away people who for example mainly want to build and also the entire regular kids market.
@@Arcaryon Funny thing is for the recent years i don't see kids playing lego no more its only the adults. If this continues lego is just going to lose its entire customer base as all the adult ages away and kids just don't even know what a lego is because their parent simply couldn't afford it during their primary years.
@@waihenenterprise It is as you wrote, Lego is arguably going down the road of many cooperations that make the mistake of over-emphasising a single aspect of their business model with predicable harmful longterm consequences.
What started with licensing has drifted towards an adult oriented system which can also not provide cheaper sets due to licensing being an increasingly big part of the Lego company, coupled with the expectation to make more and more money every year.
Lego will soon connect with most kids from regular households via games alone, except of course that the connection to legofied games or actual Lego games is simply weakening since the physical product is dying.
In a world where’s good gaming PC or consoles both are fairly expensive, the comparison with a 500$ set and advanced modern technology isn’t exactly promising for Legos bottom line.
Additionally, Lego so focused on defined sets that even their character as a brand built on creativity is suffering.
The Lego movie is ironically turning into a prophesy. Instead selling more creative focused sets, the shelves are stacked with themed products that are meant to collect dust.
Ironically, with all this in mind, Lego is creating its own worst enemy itself, a flourishing off brand market driven only by so many of Legos own choices occurring to the detriment of non branded IPs ( kids and even a lot of old school fans )decisions.
I always mention Castle or Pirates because it’s such a simple thing to get right yet Lego doesn’t even produce it because the margin per set is lower. It’s a golden goose of brand building identity that’s STILL profitable and they aren’t even doing anything outside of nostalgia monuments…
@@waihenenterprise It’s arguably even worse for the company from a longterm POV since the off brand market they are creating is better than modern Lego at being classic Lego.
Couple big issues; too many static collector sets, too few basic brand building line ups like castle or original themes beyond a show driven one, often downright ridiculous prices partially as a result branding driving up the price of non branded bricks and partially due to greed.
They are not just loosing customers now, they are effectively destroying their own monopoly for good since they fumble so much money into their rivals pockets which is partially being invested into competing R&D.
The whole company is already mainly being held together by the minifigure copy right.
@@waihenenterprise It’s arguably even worse for the company from a longterm POV since the off brand market they are creating is better than modern L3G0 at being classic L3G0.
Couple big issues; too many static collector sets, too few basic brand building line ups like castle or original themes beyond a show driven one, often downright ridiculous prices partially as a result branding driving up the price of non branded bricks and partially due to greed.
They are not just loosing customers now, they are effectively destroying their own monopoly for good since they fumble so much money into their rivals pockets which is partially being invested into competing R&D.
The whole company is already mainly being held together by the minifigure copy right.
i just bought a knock off zane ice dragon creature lego set for 15 bucks because i'm 100% sure i'm not spending 100 bucks on the real thing. 100 bucks is the equivalent of 50 meals in my country, i only buy real lego on outlet sales
8:04 Metal Slug set!!!
Yep! Speed build:
ua-cam.com/video/mfxj4g7dcOc/v-deo.html
Funfact: lego was originally a knockoff
I've mostly seen LEGO knock-offs at a now debunked book store known as Birchells, which we used to visit quite often, before they closed down well in the 2010s. Considering it was a place that sold certain toys nobody wanted, I can understand why. For example: I could of sworn there was a whole bin of Hungry Pumpkin plushies nobody cared about.
Ko sets will be there for sure. There is simply too much money involved. Meanwhile im having a blast with 90 percent of the fun at 20 percent of the price of lego with ko sets. Lego has become way too expensive to enjoy anymore. Got the porsche 911 technic at less than 20 euros when the lego one is 200. Just saying.
This is indeed illegal, but I disagree that it is bad for the market. Lego is severly overpricing their sets, and prices go up way more than inflation.
It's hard for me to feel sympathetic to megacorp that is putting predatory business practices into kids toys and keeps disrespecting adult collectors with things like multiple sought after sets being reduced to being GWP
Fun Whole.
This is what I've learned today. Thank you algorithm gods.
Great sets, terrible name.
@@madeofbricksuse code “Funwhole69” for a permanent 10% discount
2:18 sounds like a Soldier Boy quote
If Lego wasn’t so expensive the knock off brands go out of business
Out of all the LEGO knockoff brands, there used to be one called Lantu. They mostly made small vehicle mini sets, but they were "original" designs, not LEGO set copies. When I found them in a local chinese department store, me and my friend found the brand so funny that we bought up all their Lantu stock in the matter of a few weeks. Then the restocking of them stopped and I never found Lantu since. I wonder what has happened to them, because this was like 5 years ago, if not more.
They can survive if they do something unique and creative. Enlighten is a good example of that but sadly not many people bought there cool pirate line or knights 😢
I hope that knockoffs like WM Blocks will stay alive
Yeah, WorldMinifgures is pretty decent, along with Xinh and Koruit.
Ich finde die Minifigs von ARZD noch besser. 🤗
New brick companies have gotten very, very good, but I never buy copies of lego designs.
I have just stopped buying Lego due to the price. We need to eat. I don’t support the knock offs, but I do understand people who do.
yeah my last "real" set was Lion Knights' Castle and it cost me about a third of my monthly salary & more than my rent
come on now
I really like the brick-built sets made by COBI. Just like LEGO sets, COBI sets are of really great quality and are highly detailed and amazing. I also really like that COBI has done a ton of military-themed sets of tanks, planes, warships, etc. LEGO, for some reason, has a policy about not doing military-themed sets at all, which is incredibly hypocritical (back in 2013, LEGO made a set of the Sopwith Camel, which was a World War 1 fighter plane, and one of the most iconic aircraft ever).
I love Cobi! They also do exclusively pad-printed pieces, so no more stickers anywhere. (Take notes, LEGO.)
I agree! I think honestly love if the Lego "knockoff" acutally does something different like focusing on a different audience like COBI.
@@John-rl9ue Cobi also only produces in Poland
Cobi's prices have risen to Lego levels for many sets in the US, but that's the only negative thing I can say about them. Otherwise, they make super sets with top-quality bricks, all prints (unlike Lego with its insulting stickers even in $500 sets), and cool military themes that Lego won't touch (even though they make Star Wars and medieval sets all about weapons and death).
@@SO-ym3zs they only have orinted pieces, their quality is just as good as lego and offers much more specialized parts which is more expensive to produce. Also Cobi is producing in poland only while lego has factories everywhere and also in china and mexico. Two of the most cheap labour countries in the world. I bet lego would be even more expensive, if these factories in china and mexico wouldnt exist.
original brand lego sets is just so EXPENSIVE
Cobi still stands
LoL thinking of stopping knockoffs is like thinking of stopping crime. You can’t. Specially with rising prices.
Oh I'm sure the knockoffs will be back, but they'll probably be worse quality (at least at first).
The bigger loss is the retailers themselves.
didnt think i would see an english speaking influencer who is aware of all the great alternatives
I fully support the shutdown of companies that make knockoff sets. When I worked for LEGO there were many parents and grandparents who would come in trying to get help after being scammed. Oftentimes they were in tears and it was really sad to see. I wish there were more companies making their own original construction sets.
That's sad to hear. Sometimes even Amazon isn't very diligent in taking down knockoffs, and AliExpress is literally the Wild West (Wild East?).
There are lots of companies making original sets though! CaDA is probably the closest to LEGO, Cobi is huge in Europe, and Pantasy is expanding very aggressively worldwide. It's a great time for brick fans (unless you only buy knockoffs lol).
I didn't know Lego was the biggest toy company in the world. For the premium price they definitely should stay away from using stickers. I don't buy any Lego set with stickers.
Yes, more competition is great outside of outright copyright infringement. I still love my MegaBlocks Star Trek TOS Enterprise, over 3K pieces and $125 on sale at the time. Such a deal. Besides cheaper prices, some nice innovation can be had. I bought an off brand A-10 Warthog set and found the minifigs had a ball joint at the shoulder, allowing the arms to be raised in any direction! Neat!
I didn't even know there were knockoff sets.
Now I feel like I missed out on an awesome set or two that could have been within my budget.
Personally I'm a big fan of Bluebrixx, they're fairly priced, good quality and they also got some officially licensed stuff like StarGate, Star Trek, Peanuts etc.
Lego IS a bootleg company itself. They started their business by copying Kiddycraft sets and dirty manipulating with patents.
I like the "Knockoff" sets like what Mould King does which are very different to LEGO.
That said, as a lifetime LEGO fan, I don't want to have to remortgage my entire house and sell a kidney in order to build a plastic brick set. LEGO have lost their minds a bit with their prices.
I bought a proper LEGO Titanic for however many hundreds it cost. They were about £90 on Aliexpress. LEGO really are nuts with their prices
Things like Cada however feel like a far superior kit compared to Lego, with unique parts that are not found in Lego and has stickers that actually go edge to edge AND over multiple pieces
Bigger issue is probably copying well known IPs that Lego has permissions to make sets out of like Star Wars, Marvel and Disney sets in general.
Bro LEGO is losing the fight when it comes to motors. They have no consistency and it’s impossible to find the right pieces, plus the prices are ridiculous. There are some off brand motors and controllers that are game changers and take some builds to another level
Its also weird how much the motor quality declined. The 90s ones literally were higher quality than the ones now.
I've been a fan of the original Chinese minifigs for years. They are figs that Lego has refused to produce or are different enough to classify as a completely different figure. With that, I wholeheartedly support them. I don't typically ever buy a direct copy of an already established fig, though.
Cobi sets are great, especially for tanks and other military equipment that Lego won’t sell themselves, with decent quality too. I’m a big fan of their modern aircraft and tank models
Cada technic sets are just soo good (just compare LEGO space planetary system with that of Cadas).
Absolutely. CaDA's Solar System set was actually designed by legendary MOCer JK Brickworks and came out well before LEGO's design.
I don't know, when I go to Amazon and look up Lego, most of the first listed sets are knock offs. It gets annoying when I'm trying to find the real Legos.
I think cloning is about as good/bad as charging ridicolus overprices for bricks and IPs. I feel no obligation to be loyal with Lego or Disney or whoever is the IP holder that is making enourmous profits for their super-rich owners.
With that being said what I like most with the clone-brand-market is when they produce sets from their own design. I just built the Reobrix set "Medieval Tavern 66018" and I think it was great. Not the level of Legos "Medieval Blacksmith 21325", even if it is very much the same scale and style, because it is slightly wonky in some aspects (I used few of the included stickers for this reason, and made some modifications. However, I made some mods to the blacksmith as well). But still it is superior to Legos classic Medieval Market Village from 2009.
However, I think these kind of clone-brand designs would never have happened if there was not a 1:1 clone set market in the first place. That industry needed that kind of base as the jump of point for going into these kind of designs.
Not only is Lego the largest brick/toy maker in the world, they're also the largest tire manufacturer as well. There should always be room for competitors though, for example Lego refuses to license certain IP like Star Trek, so I ended up getting a large Mega Bloks Enterprise model which I really like.
Bluebrixx has the license now
lego should just... rerelease old sets AS THEY WERE (none of that "legacy ninjago" or that eldorado set which added a bunch of things to increase the price)
Building the Monarch from Mould King myself right now. Too bad they don't support the creators of the Moc because it is insane in detail
Sick build. Here's the original designer's page if you want to support him (and build with a clear conscience).
rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-23556/onecase/isd-monarch/#details
@@madeofbricks Thanks! Will do
For many years, I have always had a die hard hate for any non LEGO blocks (always called them fakies growing up). Tyco was okay, mega blocks sucked, and worse were the brands that had higher then normal studs... NLG though, the past 5 or so years, these clones and alt brands have raised my eyebrow. Mould King 13082 I have seriously considered buying, just to get a real hands on experience to see just how good or not they really are. Goofy they call a lowered trick with street tyres an off road truck, but I really like those wheels. I do think supporting non LEGO block companies is a good thing, keeps a monopoly from getting fat
They've come so far in the past 10 years. Even MEGA has upped its game, although the prices are pretty much on par with LEGO. Definitely give that Mould King set a chance!
I usually collect the legit lego sets for collectible purposes but I'd be happy to display some knockoff sets as the prices won't go up and are very fun to mess with. Especially those strange prints the knock off mini figs have.
Interesting, didn't even think about those 1:1 knockoffs anymore after seeing Megabloks and others on Amazon with legitimate new sets (I'd just love to get some of their bigger motorized sets, like the Liebherr cranes, but let's be real, a 500 bucks dust catcher, yeah, no, sadly lacking that space…). However, your video was also missing one important puzzle piece in all of this, which should be mentioned: If you still order some of those knockoffs (let's assume they reappear) and you happen to buy from a dropshipper (i.e. right off the factory), you are considered the one importing the goods, so you're also solely liable in case customs/Lego stop your shipment. Wouldn't really want to risk that just for some plastic bricks.
Good, hate the clone fake rip off sets. People need to trust some of these other companies, I build a lot of Cobi and love it
Problem is that they don't know anything other than Lego. And Lego is a massive company. So they would more likely buy whatever the cheapest. Don't hate the game. Hate the player. Lego did this to themselves
Knockoffs aren't going anywhere. I got a set with 1,800 pieces for $70. That's upwards of $500 in LEGO money. There could be missing or warped pieces but there will definitely be a savings of $430. For those wondering, it's the nifeliz BIG BOY locomotive. LEGO has not made this set.
The Big Boy Locomotive from Nifeliz is a great set, but it's not a knockoff! It's based on an original set from JieStar (with permission), with an added base and a few other tweaks.
Let's not go crazy though. A 1800 piece LEGO set is more like $150-200 depending on IP partners and minifigs. That doesn't really change your point that it's more than twice as much, and the most similar trains from LEGO run $300+. LEGO really does train fans dirty.
I've been buying alot of JMBricklayer Medieval village sets. Fit very well with Lego official sets. I try to stay away from sets that are too close to official sets or have blurred out minifigures in the pics. I made the minifig mistake early on in my building hobby, and know better now.
it's good that Lego only struck knockoff sets. stuff like cobi who make pretty good semi realistic military sets or just any other brands who make original sets instead of copying real ones
well they totally would if they could, it's not like some good samaritan move by lego
"We have LEGO at home"
yeah except I'm actually able to have a sizeable Lego collection because of knockoffs
I have several CADA sets and a BUNCH of COBY military sets and they are all really nice. In my opinion the COBY instructions are better than Lego and the big ship models are awesome (and a GREAT deal for the price). That being said- I would NEVER buy a direct knock off of a Lego set... Lego did the hard work to get it out there- I,ll give them my hard earned cash.
2 months later still can get knockoffs over at ali and places like Yumoku still selling. These knockoff are great to get discontinued sets usually gatekept by scalpers and sets for displaying.