Honestly Lego NEEDS the competition with how insane their prices have gotten. If Lego were a small startup I’d feel bad but they’ve basically mastered the block market sooo… yeah 😅
@@kelvinsun5099 dafuq?! 30 for 5 minifigures?! I JUST WATCHED A VIDEO HOW THEY MAKE THEM! A machine is producing 8000/h... 8000 minifigures a hour! And they sell 6 figures for 45? They make 60 000 euro for hour???
It's exactly the same as the music industry about 20 years ago. People said the same thing: "The music industry needs the competition. They charge way too much." And they did. But in the end, the internet didn't redistribute the money to the artists. It just went from one monopoly to another, maybe in another sector. As far as I know, most musicians are not making more money for their work or compositions now on the internet. The same thing will happen with Lego, and everything else. Lego might even eventually go bust, or at least be forced to change their business model. But the profits will just move to a different company with a different type of monopoly.
@@mybrutalromance0411it's always the faces or hair that never works/looks good, so getting an official Lego alternative face and/or hairpiece makes it better
It's a double-edged sword. I personally have never purchased knock-off bricks and am strictly against this type of IP theft. However Lego prices have become insane in the last few years. Take the Lion's Knight Castle. I cannot point to any other toy of similar size and say "that's worth $400". My gf's daughter just found a used 2-foot-tall BB-8 that lights up and makes noise for $10. Lego has also been doing more business in China where these companies are allowed to thrive. Because Lego wants to make money. There was a big deal made a couple years back about a guy from Lepin getting arrested. But plenty of companies do this and are allowed to do this. In basic terms, it's free market competition. Could be that it causes Lego to lower their prices if people overwhelmingly switch to knock-offs. Could be that people quit posting instructions to Rebrickable. Those are just a couple future consequences that may, or more likely may not, happen
If people switch to knockoffs, that will eventually kill Lego, which consequently kills the knockoffs so there is no more Lego at all. Also, that 400 dollar Lion Knight's Castle is the best 400 dollar I've ever spent on a single thing. Yes, that is too much for a toy/display set and I would applaud them if they could create this much quality for a whole lot less money. The biggest issue is not that we're having these high price flagship sets, but it is the lack of cheap sets altogether. We all grew up with some form of affordable Lego, 5 to 10 dollar smaller sets that still have a decent amount of pieces and 1 or 2 minifigs. Those sets might be 20 dollars now, but that would still be affordable for most. The largest part of this is not on Lego though, people just have less disposable income than they used to. Prices have increased on just about everyting and wages have not. Blame your politicians, your bankers and your financial sector for this, but Lego did not create this issue on their own. Now they do have to create cheap alternatives. Small sets that are well designed and affordable. Until Lego has more of those, they can be criticized and it is on them for creating a whole aftermarket of fake products by keeping the artificial scarcity of certain items in place.
@pinobluevogel6458 I love my Lion Knights Castle too, but it would've been between $300-350 before Lego raised their prices a couple years ago. That wasn't a politician's decision, it was made in a boardroom by a company that holds a near monopoly on plastic building bricks, and as a result, they made an extra $50-100 off each one sold. 100 pieces per $10 and 5$ per minifig are arbitrary and are used to inflate the price of what would be more affordable sets. I grew up in the era of paying a few dollars for 5 castle or space minifigs, which are now $25 battle packs and $5 CMFs. It's not going destroy Lego to be cheaper. Other companies, much smaller companies, do it cheaper. Knock-offs might cut into business that Lego would've done. It could be one day, Lepin is sold in every Walmart in America, right next to Lego boxes at a fraction of the price. The whole thing might disrupt the wave of popularity that Lego has been experiencing the last few years, but so might high prices
@@JesusCheeseburger I think we're somewhere in the same ballpark with our ideas and solutions. Lego just needs to make cheaper, affordable products. I think a part of the issue with Lego is that they are doing too much, trying too hard to be their ideal self. If they'd focus on just making amazing products for a reasonable price, they could have much cheaper products, but if you take a look at their company and how they operate, the stuff they are trying to do is expensive. They are very high up on providing good toys for kids, but in my opinion they are completely neglecting these generations by barely having anything affordable on shelves and what is there doesn't exactly invite the young ones creativity by a lot. And the reason I brought up politicians and bankers was that they are 100% responsible for creating massive inflation over the last few years. The Dollar and Euro have been printed into the ground, almost literally as it is worth so much less. If the wages do not scale with this massive inflation (which they didn't for nearly everyone), people are simply not able to spend as much on luxury goods like Lego. 5 years ago I could probably buy a Lion Knights Castle every month if I was a bit frugal with other stuff, currently I have to save up for several months to be able to do so and I still would need to be frugal over all those months. The difference is stark and I'm actually working more and harder than I was 5 years ago. Sadly, this is a reality for many, if not most people in the western world. I know Lego has increased their prices, which is somewhat unjustifiable given the global economic climate, but if you haven't noticed, everything has increased in price, even the necessary things like food, housing, water and energy. It is just basic economics and Lego is just as much bound by these things as anyone. I wouldn't be surprised there were few alternatives they had, except massive layoffs and cutting costs all over the place. I don't like the increased prices anymore than you do. But given the economic and political system we are in is extremely corrupt, with wrong incentives, massive inequality and a very unreasonable growth mindset, I can at least understand the choices they made, being unwilling to give up their very expensive corporate culture and their employees jobs.
@pinobluevogel6458 oh absolutely about being in the same ballpark. I wasn't trying to argue or disagree. This is one of the most engaging topics I've enjoyed discussing. Hats off to @goldfyre for posting this video and starting this conversation
Not saying TEMU and Ali Express are right, but LEGO isn’t exactly innocent from stealing from our wallets with the insane price gouges. Although I’ve never bought from these companies nor do I plan to. Also, I agree with your opinion on partnering with the original MOC builder.
That is correct. They've on several occasions stolen people's ideas without paying them, or even mentioning them as a creator. Honestly it is on LEGO as a company for the most part that all these counterfit Lego companies even exist. They can just produce more of the desired pieces, release more and better sets, (or at least affordable sets) to go to war with them. It is a war they can easily win, as they have the consumer backing them. But they are failing on every front with reducing their rare plastic pieces, which is baffling to me, as they would make more money from both the primary and the secondary market by doing so.
Also don't forget elgo also steals peopels moc's ni their lego ideas page they even keep those that they "denied" but somehow alter they make a suspiciously simialr set with a few block difference.....
Thanks for sharing and spreading awareness of this in a concise way. I’m asked frequently about stuff like this and most people are totally unaware. We just work to keep educating! Buying 3rd party bricks at a discount is totally ok, but make sure you know where they are getting those designs!
When it comes to full sets, I will support the artists and moc builders on that. But I have to admit on individual parts for armybuilding stuff, when a cross brick barding goes for nearly $30, and are nearly never in stock, a stolen design is my only option.
I understand where you're coming from but there's a reason that original designers have their stuff priced like that. They've gotta cover costs that the thieves on temu & ali dont. The next best option when it comes to the raven bardings are cloth ones that you can find people making. Though that's obviously not quite the same as a plastic ones in the "lego" style
What I think these Lego die hard fans forget is that Lego to most people is a luxury most can only dream of owning. For example, the Lego titanic, a £600 set from Lego is unattainable for most. However for an exact 1:1 replica from Aliexpress for £120 makes it obtainable for as far wider amount of people. Sorry to hurt you guys but Lego the company doesn’t care for you. They care for profits. I understand they could never reduce prices to match Aliexpress but there’s no doubt they could reduce them a whole lot more and still be a multi billion pound company. Lego are hurting themselves through greed. It’s really this simple for the average person… sometimes you just have to let the price decide.
"Noooooooo would anyone think of the billion dollar corporation". No lmao they are toys and I'll pay the appropriate price for them. Lego and even Bricklink are getting too cocky with their prices. Shit feels the exact same when you put them together anw, with the exception of Technic sets maybe
It all goes to some rich blokes yacht so why should I care who's yacht I'm paying towards? I work 46 hours a week and earn about as much as the guy claiming benefits on my street... life isn't fair.
Fun fact: Temu lego quality is the same, even better than lego. I brought the green Technic Lamborghini that is supposed to be $400 for the lego one, and Temu's was only ~$70, no pieces was missing, packaging was great, the joints and connections feels smooth, and the quality of the bricks feels very nice. I prefer going to Temu for lego of you dont have enough money for the original.
I buy Napoleonic & WW2 minifigures from Aliexpress for three reasons. 1. LEGO don't make these. 2. They are very cheap. 3. The quality of the ones I buy is actually better than LEGO.
The problem with things like buying the original barding you mentioned or with buying custom figures is also availability. Even if people are willing to pay 20x the price for customs they are produced in such small amounts it's impossible to get them. Take ktownbricks and cultbricks for example. New drops take months to wait for and are sold out in hours or even minutes. At the end of the day until custom companies and TLG themselves can become more competitive in price and availability they will continue to lose out to the cheaper alternatives. I do agree with buyer awareness being the key issue here. Lego is far from the only IP being stolen and mass produced by China these days.
That's why i think the sellers on temu and aliexpress are so insidious. They are able to sell this stuff for pennies while the original designers are trying to cover cost of labor, time, and production.
@Goldfyre I agree with that. For a lot of people making customs, it is just a hobby and a passion. They aren't going to open a sweat shop and pay slave wages to be competitive. What is to stop Lego from seeing this demand and picking up some of the burden, though? What's to stop them from partnering with popular customs designers or making something like the raven knights official and adding them to PAB? The demand is there, I mean Mountain Fortress made like 11 million dollars in three hours.
@JesusCheeseburger $5.57 for barding and $5.08 for the horse from PAB. It is expensive but not as bad as the raven custom he mentions in this video, which are over $30 each and never in stock. Which also aren't printed on Lego parts. Temu and aliexpress also have red and green dragon barding for $4 each, which are around $40 to $50 on bricklink each.
I am a true fan of Titanic. So look up for the Lego Titanic and the price goes around 650€. Almost a month's salary here in Portugal. Then I look up on Aliexpress and I saw a eplica of the Lego Titanic at 5,24€... To be fair, the quality and detail is nothing compared to the original. But between 650€ and 5,25€, I know what to choose. LEGO are super expensive and not everyone can afford to buy it (I'm definitely not giving 650€ for a ship made of Lego and my bills won't pay themselves). If they want us to buy the original product, put them available at decent prices. I would buy the Titanic at around 250€ tops.
I've everybody does that, there are no more designers who get payed by us the costumers to make these amazing sets. Yes lego is really expensive and the plastic parts are not worth that much. But the designers and designing teams are.
@billyskoda6839I agree, I have good experience with Cobi sets because they don’t straight up copy other brands’ designs and do have official licenses from companies like Boeing. Their Titanic sets are much smaller than the LEGO one though.
@@TheGoodyGamer depends which Titanic set you are referring to.... they have some large back catalogue titanic models, but agree the recent one is too small... I'm a 1:28 WW2 collector, so size matters.. 😂
There is way to make both sides happy. When i buy a stolen moc from (for example) mould king, I simply look up the original designer instructions, buy them, and everyone is happy. Why would the designer care where we are getting the bricks from? As long as we pay for the instructions, they are getting their piece of the cake
I agree, that's a good way to still support the original designers. However i still have other problems with temu & ali as companies that keeps me from purchasing from them, that's just me tho.
@Goldfyre yea i dont Like temu or Ali Express either. Never bought a Set from them. Up until now i only bought Star wars Sets from Mould King that are replicas of moc Designers. The only issue is that the companies that Steal Mocs still make Money Off of them. But many Models are still too expensive to build With bricklink
Not buying knockoffs because they steal designs? Funny. Lego did exactly that with the snow white cottage. Designer of the set got turned down twice on lego ideas after having enough votes, and lego stole his design to release it as a no ideas set. Designer asked lego why they stole his design but he got no message back from them. So, lego doesnt have the cleanest sheet here also.
The tournament knight is probably my favorite because it's realistic for an example that's why I don't like the lion knights or black falcons because they have they're flag on their torso you wouldn't see that in medieval times the point is temu has the flag on the torso for the tournament knights
@@BrayPage-c3k yeah, i know this cool thing about the knights, but wait, if Temu stole the design, then they didn't ruin the idea of the flag on the raven's torso🤔
If i can find the instructions from a creator i typically by them and then buy the set from temu or ali. It's still cheaper then buying lego brand bricks and the quality can be on par in some instances. Lego has factories in china and is benefitting from the lower cost of labor but still killing us on their obscene price hikes.
If original creators had some sort of limit on amount of purchases for their designs or could make availability better for everyone, it would make sense to only support them. Unfortunately, they can’t so I will continue to use these sites if I really want something and am not willing to wait for a drop I may miss out on.
If i buy plans from the designer then why does it matter to the designer where i get the bricks from? He's not losing money. If anything, since the cost for bricks is so much less, he's getting customers who would otherwise be priced out of the market.
I pretty much have no problem with this. I still dislike the fact that the ali/temu sellers are making a buck but it's much better that the original designer gets paid. I'm sure most rebrickable designers would agree aswell
I put instructions on Rebrickable for one of my MOCs and, as you said, it was misappropriated and sold on AliExpress etc. As much as I wanted to get my design out there, I have been cheated. I'm working on a MOC now that might be popular enough that I'd be tempted to make instructions, but if it's going to get ripped off why would I bother?
It's really frustrating but there's nothing we can do about it other than spread awareness of the original designers work & hope that people will buy the instructions.
Unlike LEGO itself the creators of MOCs are at the most risk. At least for MOCs that are instructions only, i think its best practice to buy the instructions and then buy the copy. Because sourcing parts for MOCs is not something the average person can do.
Paying so much for molded plastic bricks is not good. I have bought numerous sets that aren't official sets. I will continue to do so until prices become realistic for plastic bricks.
I watched this video and then went to Ali Baba and bought the Chinese set of Hogwarts lego 71043. Lego has it for $470, I paid $98. What a great deal! I love Lego, I just don’t wanna spend almost $500 to build something I love.
Thanks for the videos but LEGO also steal designs or alter designs for their profits. I feel bad for the small creator but if I can by a retire LEGO set off aliexpress or temu I will.
Stop buying lego instead lmao, I'll continue paying 1/5th the price for often BETTER quality on aliexpress thanks. Ordered hundreds of figs (a few sets too) with minimal issues, two or three out of maybe 500 figs didn't make it (didn't even bother asking for a replacement/refund cause so cheap) and a couple missing arms or hands breaking, I'll take that for getting unique designs lego doesn't even offer and being able to buy every lego I'd ever wanted without having to be a millionaire. And if I was a millionaire I'd still buy from ali instead. I'll continue doing the same for music/movies/shows and never spending a dime, couldn't care less about IP, your property is what you can physically touch and claim, if it's a design, something digital or a concept then it's mine.
I also design medieval MOCs (like a modular castle) and Minifigures, but I never sell the instructions seperatly. I order only new and original LEGO-pieces from various sources and sort them by hand and sell the pieces and the instructions together. Its a ton of work but I think its worth it, since the customer always gets consistent qualitity and the design cant be stolen that easily. But I get that not every MOC-digner wants to go that route to sell their MOCs of course.
So bootleg LEGO system brick designs okay, but bootleg LEGO instructions/graphics not okay? Feels like a weird distinction to make. That's like saying making bootleg Transformers is okay, but bootleg 3rd party Transformers isn't.
While i have nothing against alternative products, I would never buy stolen designs of Lego Sets or MOCs... A German Company named "Bluebrixx" for example sells the "Lion Rock Castle" which was one of the Bricklink AFOL Designer Program a few years back. They made an agreement with the MOC designer
I would say that it is better to buy real Lego (this includes custom made parts that use real Lego pieces). I remember a while back that I bought a fake Lego set by accident and building it will not leave you satisfied. It makes you feel something is missing and that is probably the quality.
I remember a while back that i bought a fake Lego castle for cheap and the building experience was awesome. Threw away the knockoff minifigures and animals though, because i have enough old classic knights to populate the walls...and village...and forests...and the enemy territory anyways. :D
The first reason is the price of the original Lego set. My first shop on Temu was the Lamborghini Sian set, the original costs like $400, and in Temu cost $50, its insane. Today, i have the original set, and guess what?. Are almost the same thing. Yes, the original bricks are more easy to build, but the final result is almost the same, Same size, Same color (Original It's a little brighter), Same pieces, all, even the Temu set have the real Lamborghini's brands. Not every fan can spend +$100 in just plastic. And today, any lego is expensive, just look at the Speed Champions Serie. There are sets that cost more than $40 for one or two cars 💀💀
the average price per piece in Brazil is around 1 real and the minimum wage is 1,300 reais... do the math. It is unfeasible to have original Legos in my country. Unfortunately the closest thing to having Lego here is to buy knock-offs from Aliexpress, which are generally 1/3 cheaper even with the heavy taxes we have.
@@Goldfyre I agree the artist should get paid for the custom they make but they should understand that theyre work is not entirely legal or original. I think that they can definitely help their cause by partnering with a distributor and making their product cheaper. But in the current state of the US economy I can't blame anyone who gets stuff of of Temu, Aliexppress or bonanza
I just bought lego Saturn V Lego clone off of AliExpress no regrets for what I spent a mere $50 I can now afford to regularly buy fun challenging sets without sacrificing a limb to Lego
I don't actually care that much about the property rights of big brands like star wars. I bought some star wars sets a few years ago but it just doesn't feel right. You always have the feeling of having something cheap. Even that the quality isn't actually that bad it just annoys me to know that it is distinguishable from original lego and does not have so much value. It just doesn't feel right. I build with legos my whole life and the quality and haptic of those aftermarket parts or figs just don't feel right.
Honestly, i enjoy the difficulty of the knockoffs more than lego. Those chinese blocks are more fun, as they're smaller and harder to put together, making me feel more proud about it
People will choose Lego if Lego chooses them. Unfortunately Lego's current target market is those with hundreds of euros to spare for their luxury product.
They are not stealing. They are buying and then sharing and earning some money from it. Its like i would buy a set from lego and then sell the instruction. Nothing here is stealing. As of copied fig designs and helmets, shields etc. I have absolutely no problem with it as I know 80% of people who want those figs and can't get them because lego doesn't listen to the fanbase and either doesn't release them or has a very small amount released in expensive sets. So yes I am both hands up for buying fright nights for example or ww2 figures or crusaders in a bulk of 20-30 figs and having ×10 more fun and joy then buying 4 times less figures for triple the price. I understand Goldfyre's concern, but he can do nothing about it because he himself is a 3rd party company. I am also a Lego contentmaker and do understand everything in this video. But since imo lego sucks, small as sets worth of nothing cost so much i would rather buy cool figures and sets from temu or ali were sellers do research what people want and they make it. This should be legos attitude, but its not, cuz it's a capitalistic company which just sells you overpriced plastic. I love lego with all my heart, but i will not tolerate them to cheat their fans for money
I definitely agree about the stolen designs and personally will only buy official lego minifigure parts, but i find places like AliExpress are the best option for buying cloth accessories. I've been able to kit out full units of my medieval armies with cloth capes, cloaks and banners that have insane detail like "fur" linings and printed coats of arms, all of fairly high quality and extremely cheap, maybe $3.00 for a pack of 10. It's a much better option than official lego options from somewhere like pick a brick where a plain black cape can be upwards upwards of $4.00 EACH... for quality that is often poorer than the "knockoffs." I've done the same for finding cloth StarWars accessories like pauldrons and waist capes for clone troopers that lego refuses to produce anymore.
Okay but you could just buy the aliexpress set and the instructions on rebrickable? Buying from Bricklink or gutting Lego sets does nothing for creators and is sometimes very expensive… Also BlueBrixx in Germany does collaborate with MoCers and sells at reasonable prices. Iirc Cada and some other Chinese brands do that as well, and I do like Cadas brick quality a lot. Lego on the other hand just gets „Ideas“ from creators for free and sells a worse version for 100-400€…
I’d rather work 1 Job and buy 5 Non- Lego, then work 5 Jobs and buy 1 Non-Lego. Lego has brought this situation upon itself with corporate greed spanning 30+ years.
I will continue to do this as most of the time i find quality of figures is on par with lego and or better occasionally, especially with printing designs, i cant afford to pay official prices, i buy some lego sets but only if there reasonably priced
I got 1100 worth of LEGO sets for 200, so I'm good, as long as you're buying official/retired sets and not fanmade MOCs I really could care less about taking money from a mega corporation.
------------------- Yeah I agree….but there is also another problem. A lot of these sellers that make custom Lego are either in US or UK and the shipping is just getting ridiculously expensive, second thing is that many times their stuff is sold out. I found this store, Cult Bricks in EU, but almost all his stuff is sold out and he never restocks it. I sent an email but never got an response…. So after these frustrating circumstances don’t be surprised if people don’t care and just buy stuff from aliexpress due to availability and price.
It's sad that this kind of thing is so common. Lego is F-ing expensive these days and I have to cut back what I buy drastically, but to be desperate enough to trust a too-good-to-be-true Chinese site is pretty bad. China is well known for these kinds of knockoff products and has been doing this for decades. You are guaranteeing 2 things by using these sites: that an IP is being stolen, and their quality will be poor in comparison. Example: I bought a tub of Legos from a vendor at the Antique Mall near me and I saw what looked like the Ewok Village set through the sides of the clear plastic tub it was in. I, a 33 y/o dad, was giddy. Got home, tore it open, turns out it was the $65 Aliexpress version. The figs are GARBAGE and the pieces sometimes fit together with Lego but for the most part, I keep them in a separate shame-bucket for emergencies.
I don't blame someone for buying from these sites as lego is an insanely overpriced hobby to get into. The thing with chinese/3rd party lego is that it's actually gotten really close to lego in terms of quality. Comparing the 3rd party bricks today to the ones from just 10 years ago is night and day. But with that being said there's some companies that are better than others when it comes to ethics.
I collect most of the city skylines by Lego, but the older ones do cost a fortune on 2nd hand market. No way I’m paying 260 euros for the Shanghai skyline if I can find a good copy for around 12 euros.
Hey, I'd be interested in a video of your experiences with LEGO-adjacent products, like that one site that created awesome custom printing on official LEGO. Maybe even an unsponsored endorsement of your favorite sitrs to go to for LEGO MOCs, like rebrickable.
Lego is doing the whole 500% profit margin. Not all of us care about intellectual property because the concept and other obtuse and useless rules aren't worth acknowledging
I use to buy from Ali express, but I eventually gave up because the quality of the bricks/figures vary wildly between sellers and even products. Some are indistinguishable from Lego, a small few were even better than Lego, but on average the pieces and figures were far below acceptable quality. With most of them being sloppily designed, from them not having correct placement on the faces, to the parts not even being measured right and not coming together at all.
If Lego wants to make bricks in China, then I'll buy the knockoff. I'm not going to pay insane prices because i believe Lego has become greedy and I'm not a charity.
Id gladly stop buying bootleg if lego would make their prices anywhere near reasonable. These days, evern a super small lego set will cost you like $70.
And what about the good quality historical minifigs? With good 4 side printing? Qnd many many good equitments and weapons? I buy one moc set when this is cheap and easyJet to get the parts! I dont want half year lost for hunt the parts! When the moc makers have Braun get collaborated one store and can make Money like boeing mocmaker, and godbricks store collaboration.....
I can't say for certain that every design is stolen but it's worth trying to find the original source by reverse image searching any listing you find on these sites
And underpaid workers close to su her in Hungary the Nyíregyháza lego plant where most if not all the european pyramid of giza sets are made they get now less money than an unskilled laborer inb a sawmill wheri worked no more free lego sets you cna get a 20% discount that's all. Yeah f@ck lego
Great video really well broken down! I tried to make a similar video about 3 years ago about aliexpress bootleg lego. I got a bit lost in the weeds however as it’s such a iceberg of issues. From the copycat fake lego companies, to stealing the moc designs, to the quality, to the humanity of their production practices. That being said if you design a good moc it feels like when you design a good moc having it stolen is an inevitability. However, I do like some of newer alt brick companies that have unique designs. I’m glad we’re now seeing alternative brick companies that are doing it right. Stealing is never okay. I could say much more on the subject but I’ll save my ted talk as this is very long already 😂
Ohh booohoo could someone think about the billion dollar company that also steals peoples moc-s that are send via the lego ideas page lego suddenly "deny" them so peopels can't do anything later in the year they make the same set....
How about NO, actually though I use TEMU and AliExpress for mini figures Lego has never produced like all those amazing Napoleonic figures. Farm animals too and big bulk purchases like round 1x2 in brown for spiked wood walls and stuff.
How reliable is Aliexpress? Just stumbled across it today and did some research n ordered two bulks of figs for $20. Mostly good reviews but idk who’s a bought or paid review and who’s not yk
They (specifically the manufacturer from Guangdong, China) want to make money and don't give a damn about copyrights. Black Falcon, Lion Knight, Raven Knight-every faction that Lego or MOC designers create, they use it.
Why does it suck? Adults collecting kids toys for investments sucks !! Its good you can get affordable stuff again without the premiums because adults collect it to.
I agree with you. Artists should be compensated fairly and having their designs stolen is just wrong. It comes down to greed and money which is what these Chinese sellers want.
@@JesusCheeseburger yes that’s true but do you think it’s fair to just call it a business strategy or something when Chinese companies and people are stealing designs with little to no consequences? That sounds fair to you?
@@legomanifester Life isn't fair, and neither is free market competition. Is it fair for Lego to continue to come out with themes like Monkie Kid or Chinese New Year or whatever theme the Family Reunion is that caters to the country that Lego knows is stealing these designs from their fans? No, but Lego does it because they want money too. China is the biggest market in the world and Lego wants their money. Just like when movies are written to appease Chinese censors so they aren't banned in China.
It might seem harmless, but having their profits cut by the chinese sellers is actually making Lego less money, which over time increases their prices as well. If someone buys these products, they are actually increasing the problem with Lego being less affordable.
You're not going to convince people to make these MOCs out of real Lego when the alternative is way cheaper and more convenient. I think more realistically, you should use your platform to encourage people to pay for the instructions on rebrickable if they decide to buy from Aliexpress. I've had instructions stolen and I'm fine with people using alternative bricks in general. I have a few Bluebrixx sets myself. If Aliexpress forced buyers to also purchase instructions, then you'd probably sell enough volume that you could charge just a couple dollars for them. Right now, instructions cost too much relative to the price of alternative bricks. People know it's the right thing to do, but it's too expensive to voluntarily pay for people who could only afford the cheaper option to begin with.
I agree for the most part. And i've heard some people say that they buy the instructions from the original designer after buying from ali/temu. The thing is i do not think most people would be willing to do that.
Brother 500 dlls for a set that can be bought for 50 on temu likee maybe in the us is not that much but thats like a month and a half salary for most people so i wont ever blame no one for getting cheap toys like that
Yo this is a big issue but I’m give you one point of view and that is majority of these custom stuff go for sale and either get discontinued or never restock not saying I support this but I have friends tired of waiting for a product to come out of restock or it just being a forgot project
Temu is reported to sell items from factories were workers have slave labor conditions. Over all, with everything on Temu, I think people should ask themself what the workers are paid when the product is unbelievably cheep. I've admittedly bought a few things from there (not Lego), but I can't really enjoy them, knowing these things about Temu, and have replaced a few of them with stuff that's less cheap and more ethical, so in the long run it never made a difference. They also steal designs frequently, and copy designs from small business owners.
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Thanks for this video and discussion of this issue! Many of my MOCs have fallen victim to this practice
Your mocs are amazing!!
Are you okay with us buying your instructions AND the copies from TEMU ?
@@panboi7490 yes
@@EdgeofBricks nice :) thanks
Just found your channel from this thread and subscribed. Amazing work!
Honestly Lego NEEDS the competition with how insane their prices have gotten. If Lego were a small startup I’d feel bad but they’ve basically mastered the block market sooo… yeah 😅
The new battle pack with 3 Rebels, 3 stormtrooper and an astro mech droid for 45€...
That should cost 30€...
@@meisteryoda4263 battlepacks should not be more than 30 dollars tbh
@@kelvinsun5099 dafuq?! 30 for 5 minifigures?! I JUST WATCHED A VIDEO HOW THEY MAKE THEM! A machine is producing 8000/h... 8000 minifigures a hour! And they sell 6 figures for 45? They make 60 000 euro for hour???
@@filipfilipov8716 Subtract packaging, sorting, materials, the rest of the bricks, shipping and so on
But yeah fucked up
It's exactly the same as the music industry about 20 years ago. People said the same thing: "The music industry needs the competition. They charge way too much." And they did. But in the end, the internet didn't redistribute the money to the artists. It just went from one monopoly to another, maybe in another sector. As far as I know, most musicians are not making more money for their work or compositions now on the internet. The same thing will happen with Lego, and everything else. Lego might even eventually go bust, or at least be forced to change their business model. But the profits will just move to a different company with a different type of monopoly.
If lego bring their prices down ill stop buying knockoffs. Sarumans tower is nearly £1000 on ebay or £80 on ali- express. Its a no brainer for me.
That set is retired anyway, I don't think there's any issues in this particular occasion
Yeah but is it the exact same Lego brand set or a mock on temu?
..Lego doesn't determine the prices on the secondhand market..
Sorry but i guess i literally dont care about the stolen designs. Maybe lego should lower their price down to realistic pricing.
So what? Lego is making me broke, aliexpress is saving me
No, ill continue ro buy the sets from them because i can
YEAH! let people hear that we can't afford the stupid shipping in bricklink and the price of customs
Hear hear!
Agreed
B-b-but the multibillion dollar company won't m-m-make more money from unreasonable margins!
Damn right!
I buy all my blocks from Aliexpress. Just picked up Rivendall for $75. Result.
Do you have the link bro? Or the seller
@@rampardos707 I got it from Gogogo Building Blocks Store but all there items bar a few are gone.
How were the minifigures? Were the prints alright?
They are! @@mybrutalromance0411
@@mybrutalromance0411it's always the faces or hair that never works/looks good, so getting an official Lego alternative face and/or hairpiece makes it better
It's a double-edged sword. I personally have never purchased knock-off bricks and am strictly against this type of IP theft. However Lego prices have become insane in the last few years. Take the Lion's Knight Castle. I cannot point to any other toy of similar size and say "that's worth $400". My gf's daughter just found a used 2-foot-tall BB-8 that lights up and makes noise for $10.
Lego has also been doing more business in China where these companies are allowed to thrive. Because Lego wants to make money. There was a big deal made a couple years back about a guy from Lepin getting arrested. But plenty of companies do this and are allowed to do this.
In basic terms, it's free market competition. Could be that it causes Lego to lower their prices if people overwhelmingly switch to knock-offs. Could be that people quit posting instructions to Rebrickable. Those are just a couple future consequences that may, or more likely may not, happen
That's why I'm really not that mad at the average person buying from temu & ali. Like i get it, LEGO is obscenely expensive.
If people switch to knockoffs, that will eventually kill Lego, which consequently kills the knockoffs so there is no more Lego at all. Also, that 400 dollar Lion Knight's Castle is the best 400 dollar I've ever spent on a single thing. Yes, that is too much for a toy/display set and I would applaud them if they could create this much quality for a whole lot less money.
The biggest issue is not that we're having these high price flagship sets, but it is the lack of cheap sets altogether. We all grew up with some form of affordable Lego, 5 to 10 dollar smaller sets that still have a decent amount of pieces and 1 or 2 minifigs. Those sets might be 20 dollars now, but that would still be affordable for most.
The largest part of this is not on Lego though, people just have less disposable income than they used to. Prices have increased on just about everyting and wages have not. Blame your politicians, your bankers and your financial sector for this, but Lego did not create this issue on their own.
Now they do have to create cheap alternatives. Small sets that are well designed and affordable. Until Lego has more of those, they can be criticized and it is on them for creating a whole aftermarket of fake products by keeping the artificial scarcity of certain items in place.
@pinobluevogel6458 I love my Lion Knights Castle too, but it would've been between $300-350 before Lego raised their prices a couple years ago. That wasn't a politician's decision, it was made in a boardroom by a company that holds a near monopoly on plastic building bricks, and as a result, they made an extra $50-100 off each one sold. 100 pieces per $10 and 5$ per minifig are arbitrary and are used to inflate the price of what would be more affordable sets. I grew up in the era of paying a few dollars for 5 castle or space minifigs, which are now $25 battle packs and $5 CMFs.
It's not going destroy Lego to be cheaper. Other companies, much smaller companies, do it cheaper. Knock-offs might cut into business that Lego would've done. It could be one day, Lepin is sold in every Walmart in America, right next to Lego boxes at a fraction of the price. The whole thing might disrupt the wave of popularity that Lego has been experiencing the last few years, but so might high prices
@@JesusCheeseburger I think we're somewhere in the same ballpark with our ideas and solutions. Lego just needs to make cheaper, affordable products. I think a part of the issue with Lego is that they are doing too much, trying too hard to be their ideal self. If they'd focus on just making amazing products for a reasonable price, they could have much cheaper products, but if you take a look at their company and how they operate, the stuff they are trying to do is expensive.
They are very high up on providing good toys for kids, but in my opinion they are completely neglecting these generations by barely having anything affordable on shelves and what is there doesn't exactly invite the young ones creativity by a lot.
And the reason I brought up politicians and bankers was that they are 100% responsible for creating massive inflation over the last few years. The Dollar and Euro have been printed into the ground, almost literally as it is worth so much less. If the wages do not scale with this massive inflation (which they didn't for nearly everyone), people are simply not able to spend as much on luxury goods like Lego.
5 years ago I could probably buy a Lion Knights Castle every month if I was a bit frugal with other stuff, currently I have to save up for several months to be able to do so and I still would need to be frugal over all those months. The difference is stark and I'm actually working more and harder than I was 5 years ago. Sadly, this is a reality for many, if not most people in the western world.
I know Lego has increased their prices, which is somewhat unjustifiable given the global economic climate, but if you haven't noticed, everything has increased in price, even the necessary things like food, housing, water and energy. It is just basic economics and Lego is just as much bound by these things as anyone. I wouldn't be surprised there were few alternatives they had, except massive layoffs and cutting costs all over the place.
I don't like the increased prices anymore than you do. But given the economic and political system we are in is extremely corrupt, with wrong incentives, massive inequality and a very unreasonable growth mindset, I can at least understand the choices they made, being unwilling to give up their very expensive corporate culture and their employees jobs.
@pinobluevogel6458 oh absolutely about being in the same ballpark. I wasn't trying to argue or disagree. This is one of the most engaging topics I've enjoyed discussing. Hats off to @goldfyre for posting this video and starting this conversation
Not saying TEMU and Ali Express are right, but LEGO isn’t exactly innocent from stealing from our wallets with the insane price gouges. Although I’ve never bought from these companies nor do I plan to.
Also, I agree with your opinion on partnering with the original MOC builder.
That is correct. They've on several occasions stolen people's ideas without paying them, or even mentioning them as a creator.
Honestly it is on LEGO as a company for the most part that all these counterfit Lego companies even exist. They can just produce more of the desired pieces, release more and better sets, (or at least affordable sets) to go to war with them. It is a war they can easily win, as they have the consumer backing them.
But they are failing on every front with reducing their rare plastic pieces, which is baffling to me, as they would make more money from both the primary and the secondary market by doing so.
Also don't forget elgo also steals peopels moc's ni their lego ideas page they even keep those that they "denied" but somehow alter they make a suspiciously simialr set with a few block difference.....
If Lego didn't sell them for a arm and a leg temu and AliExpress wouldn't have clients
Thanks for sharing and spreading awareness of this in a concise way. I’m asked frequently about stuff like this and most people are totally unaware. We just work to keep educating! Buying 3rd party bricks at a discount is totally ok, but make sure you know where they are getting those designs!
100%
@@Goldfyre cry me a river
@@Cortesevasivefr
The real crime are the prices for lego. It's all made the same way.
When it comes to full sets, I will support the artists and moc builders on that. But I have to admit on individual parts for armybuilding stuff, when a cross brick barding goes for nearly $30, and are nearly never in stock, a stolen design is my only option.
I understand where you're coming from but there's a reason that original designers have their stuff priced like that. They've gotta cover costs that the thieves on temu & ali dont. The next best option when it comes to the raven bardings are cloth ones that you can find people making. Though that's obviously not quite the same as a plastic ones in the "lego" style
What I think these Lego die hard fans forget is that Lego to most people is a luxury most can only dream of owning. For example, the Lego titanic, a £600 set from Lego is unattainable for most. However for an exact 1:1 replica from Aliexpress for £120 makes it obtainable for as far wider amount of people. Sorry to hurt you guys but Lego the company doesn’t care for you. They care for profits. I understand they could never reduce prices to match Aliexpress but there’s no doubt they could reduce them a whole lot more and still be a multi billion pound company. Lego are hurting themselves through greed. It’s really this simple for the average person… sometimes you just have to let the price decide.
"Noooooooo would anyone think of the billion dollar corporation". No lmao they are toys and I'll pay the appropriate price for them. Lego and even Bricklink are getting too cocky with their prices. Shit feels the exact same when you put them together anw, with the exception of Technic sets maybe
It all goes to some rich blokes yacht so why should I care who's yacht I'm paying towards? I work 46 hours a week and earn about as much as the guy claiming benefits on my street... life isn't fair.
Temu advert just before the video started 😂
Fun fact: Temu lego quality is the same, even better than lego. I brought the green Technic Lamborghini that is supposed to be $400 for the lego one, and Temu's was only ~$70, no pieces was missing, packaging was great, the joints and connections feels smooth, and the quality of the bricks feels very nice. I prefer going to Temu for lego of you dont have enough money for the original.
I've heard Temu's questionable security is a hindering factor. Any thoughts?
@@Red-Check-Mark I don't think so really
Why should i stop? Lego is overpriced as hell. Ali and Temu r showing the real prices.
I buy Napoleonic & WW2 minifigures from Aliexpress for three reasons. 1. LEGO don't make these. 2. They are very cheap. 3. The quality of the ones I buy is actually better than LEGO.
The problem with things like buying the original barding you mentioned or with buying custom figures is also availability. Even if people are willing to pay 20x the price for customs they are produced in such small amounts it's impossible to get them. Take ktownbricks and cultbricks for example. New drops take months to wait for and are sold out in hours or even minutes.
At the end of the day until custom companies and TLG themselves can become more competitive in price and availability they will continue to lose out to the cheaper alternatives.
I do agree with buyer awareness being the key issue here. Lego is far from the only IP being stolen and mass produced by China these days.
That's why i think the sellers on temu and aliexpress are so insidious. They are able to sell this stuff for pennies while the original designers are trying to cover cost of labor, time, and production.
@Goldfyre I agree with that. For a lot of people making customs, it is just a hobby and a passion. They aren't going to open a sweat shop and pay slave wages to be competitive.
What is to stop Lego from seeing this demand and picking up some of the burden, though? What's to stop them from partnering with popular customs designers or making something like the raven knights official and adding them to PAB? The demand is there, I mean Mountain Fortress made like 11 million dollars in three hours.
@@VonDilling have you seen how much bardings cost on PAB? It definitely adds to the problem. A horse and boarding are somewhere around $20
@JesusCheeseburger $5.57 for barding and $5.08 for the horse from PAB. It is expensive but not as bad as the raven custom he mentions in this video, which are over $30 each and never in stock. Which also aren't printed on Lego parts.
Temu and aliexpress also have red and green dragon barding for $4 each, which are around $40 to $50 on bricklink each.
@@VonDilling my mistake, I thought I saw them for $11-13 when I checked a few weeks ago. I must've mixed it up with something else
I am a true fan of Titanic. So look up for the Lego Titanic and the price goes around 650€. Almost a month's salary here in Portugal. Then I look up on Aliexpress and I saw a eplica of the Lego Titanic at 5,24€... To be fair, the quality and detail is nothing compared to the original. But between 650€ and 5,25€, I know what to choose. LEGO are super expensive and not everyone can afford to buy it (I'm definitely not giving 650€ for a ship made of Lego and my bills won't pay themselves). If they want us to buy the original product, put them available at decent prices. I would buy the Titanic at around 250€ tops.
I've everybody does that, there are no more designers who get payed by us the costumers to make these amazing sets. Yes lego is really expensive and the plastic parts are not worth that much. But the designers and designing teams are.
Try the cobi alternatives... officially licensed and made in Poland
@billyskoda6839I agree, I have good experience with Cobi sets because they don’t straight up copy other brands’ designs and do have official licenses from companies like Boeing. Their Titanic sets are much smaller than the LEGO one though.
@@TheGoodyGamer depends which Titanic set you are referring to.... they have some large back catalogue titanic models, but agree the recent one is too small... I'm a 1:28 WW2 collector, so size matters.. 😂
i buy sets from alliexpress because i can not afford buying all the bricks i am aware of most of the stuff being stolen
What’s so bad about getting stuff for cheap??
Doesn’t mega blocks pretty much do the same thing with themes that Lego doesn’t use?
There is way to make both sides happy. When i buy a stolen moc from (for example) mould king, I simply look up the original designer instructions, buy them, and everyone is happy. Why would the designer care where we are getting the bricks from? As long as we pay for the instructions, they are getting their piece of the cake
I agree, that's a good way to still support the original designers. However i still have other problems with temu & ali as companies that keeps me from purchasing from them, that's just me tho.
@Goldfyre yea i dont Like temu or Ali Express either. Never bought a Set from them. Up until now i only bought Star wars Sets from Mould King that are replicas of moc Designers. The only issue is that the companies that Steal Mocs still make Money Off of them. But many Models are still too expensive to build With bricklink
Not buying knockoffs because they steal designs? Funny. Lego did exactly that with the snow white cottage. Designer of the set got turned down twice on lego ideas after having enough votes, and lego stole his design to release it as a no ideas set. Designer asked lego why they stole his design but he got no message back from them. So, lego doesnt have the cleanest sheet here also.
Exxacctly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how is that noone tlaks about this the same was with the trash collector car with the claw lift mechanism...
The tournament knight is probably my favorite because it's realistic for an example that's why I don't like the lion knights or black falcons because they have they're flag on their torso you wouldn't see that in medieval times the point is temu has the flag on the torso for the tournament knights
Temu just sells the product, stop hate them
@@Agda-o1x I'm not hating I'm just putting my opinion about it
@@Agda-o1x I know I was just giving my thoughts about it because I prefer realistic Lego medieval
@@BrayPage-c3k yeah, i know this cool thing about the knights, but wait, if Temu stole the design, then they didn't ruin the idea of the flag on the raven's torso🤔
@@Agda-o1x the only sign I really want to know the tournament knight is a part of the ravens is the shield
If i can find the instructions from a creator i typically by them and then buy the set from temu or ali. It's still cheaper then buying lego brand bricks and the quality can be on par in some instances. Lego has factories in china and is benefitting from the lower cost of labor but still killing us on their obscene price hikes.
If original creators had some sort of limit on amount of purchases for their designs or could make availability better for everyone, it would make sense to only support them. Unfortunately, they can’t so I will continue to use these sites if I really want something and am not willing to wait for a drop I may miss out on.
I'm about to buy a 360 dollar lego set for 70 bucks on alliexspres, any advice?
Have fun building! I just bought a giant dragon 1880 pieces from temu for only 44 euro
I was recently talking to my Mom that someone copied edge of bricks’ design for the ship.
I really hope your Mom is going to do something about it, as this shit doesn't fly.
Bro I got an AliExpress ad watching this video
If i buy plans from the designer then why does it matter to the designer where i get the bricks from? He's not losing money. If anything, since the cost for bricks is so much less, he's getting customers who would otherwise be priced out of the market.
I pretty much have no problem with this. I still dislike the fact that the ali/temu sellers are making a buck but it's much better that the original designer gets paid. I'm sure most rebrickable designers would agree aswell
I put instructions on Rebrickable for one of my MOCs and, as you said, it was misappropriated and sold on AliExpress etc. As much as I wanted to get my design out there, I have been cheated. I'm working on a MOC now that might be popular enough that I'd be tempted to make instructions, but if it's going to get ripped off why would I bother?
It's really frustrating but there's nothing we can do about it other than spread awareness of the original designers work & hope that people will buy the instructions.
Unlike LEGO itself the creators of MOCs are at the most risk.
At least for MOCs that are instructions only, i think its best practice to buy the instructions and then buy the copy. Because sourcing parts for MOCs is not something the average person can do.
That is 100% best practice if you're gonna buy from temu/ali.
Paying so much for molded plastic bricks is not good. I have bought numerous sets that aren't official sets. I will continue to do so until prices become realistic for plastic bricks.
I watched this video and then went to Ali Baba and bought the Chinese set of Hogwarts lego 71043. Lego has it for $470, I paid $98. What a great deal! I love Lego, I just don’t wanna spend almost $500 to build something I love.
Thanks for the videos but LEGO also steal designs or alter designs for their profits. I feel bad for the small creator but if I can by a retire LEGO set off aliexpress or temu I will.
If some other seller can do it for 8% of the originals' price, lego is scamming us all
Stop buying lego instead lmao, I'll continue paying 1/5th the price for often BETTER quality on aliexpress thanks. Ordered hundreds of figs (a few sets too) with minimal issues, two or three out of maybe 500 figs didn't make it (didn't even bother asking for a replacement/refund cause so cheap) and a couple missing arms or hands breaking, I'll take that for getting unique designs lego doesn't even offer and being able to buy every lego I'd ever wanted without having to be a millionaire. And if I was a millionaire I'd still buy from ali instead. I'll continue doing the same for music/movies/shows and never spending a dime, couldn't care less about IP, your property is what you can physically touch and claim, if it's a design, something digital or a concept then it's mine.
what happens if i buy the set from aliexpress and i also buy the instructions from the original creator?
That's definitely alot better than just getting the set from ali/temu alone.
I'll stop when the price on the lego store will be as affordable as aliexpress
I also design medieval MOCs (like a modular castle) and Minifigures, but I never sell the instructions seperatly. I order only new and original LEGO-pieces from various sources and sort them by hand and sell the pieces and the instructions together. Its a ton of work but I think its worth it, since the customer always gets consistent qualitity and the design cant be stolen that easily.
But I get that not every MOC-digner wants to go that route to sell their MOCs of course.
So bootleg LEGO system brick designs okay, but bootleg LEGO instructions/graphics not okay? Feels like a weird distinction to make.
That's like saying making bootleg Transformers is okay, but bootleg 3rd party Transformers isn't.
the system bricks are not under copyright protection anymore
While i have nothing against alternative products, I would never buy stolen designs of Lego Sets or MOCs...
A German Company named "Bluebrixx" for example sells the "Lion Rock Castle" which was one of the Bricklink AFOL Designer Program a few years back.
They made an agreement with the MOC designer
idc. if available i'll buy
Ugh if you got money to piss away, you do you. I’ll buy the exact thing for 80% off from AE 😂
I would, because I’m not spending 300 dollars for a 40 piece moc
I have no issue buying knockoff *discontinued* Lego sets
Idc if its stealing, these mock companies proof that you can build something for much cheaper. Even some mock starwars minifigures are 1 to 1 quality.
I found a 100$ lion knight’s castle I don’t know if I should get it or not
🤣...if you struggeling spending 100 Dingdongs for your entertainment, it will surely work out better spending 3 or 4 times more.
I would say that it is better to buy real Lego (this includes custom made parts that use real Lego pieces).
I remember a while back that I bought a fake Lego set by accident and building it will not leave you satisfied. It makes you feel something is missing and that is probably the quality.
@@timmyg7919 okay I’ll keep that in mind
My rule is to only buy a third party set if it's partnered with a designer and isn't a set sold by LEGO
I remember a while back that i bought a fake Lego castle for cheap and the building experience was awesome. Threw away the knockoff minifigures and animals though, because i have enough old classic knights to populate the walls...and village...and forests...and the enemy territory anyways. :D
The first reason is the price of the original Lego set. My first shop on Temu was the Lamborghini Sian set, the original costs like $400, and in Temu cost $50, its insane. Today, i have the original set, and guess what?. Are almost the same thing. Yes, the original bricks are more easy to build, but the final result is almost the same, Same size, Same color (Original It's a little brighter), Same pieces, all, even the Temu set have the real Lamborghini's brands. Not every fan can spend +$100 in just plastic. And today, any lego is expensive, just look at the Speed Champions Serie. There are sets that cost more than $40 for one or two cars 💀💀
The common person cannot afford Lego anymore. I will continue to buy knock offs until Lego prices come down.
40 dollars for a really good republic gun ship vs 700 for an official one I think I’ll stick with Ali express
why should i care if someone steal from a company thats not mine
im just a happy customer
the average price per piece in Brazil is around 1 real and the minimum wage is 1,300 reais... do the math. It is unfeasible to have original Legos in my country. Unfortunately the closest thing to having Lego here is to buy knock-offs from Aliexpress, which are generally 1/3 cheaper even with the heavy taxes we have.
But aren't custom designs stesling from lego anyways?
That's an interesting question. The castle faction insignias are absolutely LEGO's IP. I've always looked at it through the lens of fan art.
in the case of the Raven barding I'd agree, both the barding mold and raven design are the property of Lego.
@@Goldfyre I agree the artist should get paid for the custom they make but they should understand that theyre work is not entirely legal or original. I think that they can definitely help their cause by partnering with a distributor and making their product cheaper. But in the current state of the US economy I can't blame anyone who gets stuff of of Temu, Aliexppress or bonanza
I just bought lego Saturn V Lego clone off of AliExpress no regrets for what I spent a mere $50 I can now afford to regularly buy fun challenging sets without sacrificing a limb to Lego
I don't actually care that much about the property rights of big brands like star wars. I bought some star wars sets a few years ago but it just doesn't feel right. You always have the feeling of having something cheap. Even that the quality isn't actually that bad it just annoys me to know that it is distinguishable from original lego and does not have so much value. It just doesn't feel right. I build with legos my whole life and the quality and haptic of those aftermarket parts or figs just don't feel right.
Nobody wants to pay scalper prices for sets that are over hyped. AliExpress is awesome and the quality isn’t that bad
Honestly, i enjoy the difficulty of the knockoffs more than lego. Those chinese blocks are more fun, as they're smaller and harder to put together, making me feel more proud about it
People will choose Lego if Lego chooses them. Unfortunately Lego's current target market is those with hundreds of euros to spare for their luxury product.
They are not stealing. They are buying and then sharing and earning some money from it. Its like i would buy a set from lego and then sell the instruction. Nothing here is stealing. As of copied fig designs and helmets, shields etc. I have absolutely no problem with it as I know 80% of people who want those figs and can't get them because lego doesn't listen to the fanbase and either doesn't release them or has a very small amount released in expensive sets. So yes I am both hands up for buying fright nights for example or ww2 figures or crusaders in a bulk of 20-30 figs and having ×10 more fun and joy then buying 4 times less figures for triple the price.
I understand Goldfyre's concern, but he can do nothing about it because he himself is a 3rd party company. I am also a Lego contentmaker and do understand everything in this video. But since imo lego sucks, small as sets worth of nothing cost so much i would rather buy cool figures and sets from temu or ali were sellers do research what people want and they make it. This should be legos attitude, but its not, cuz it's a capitalistic company which just sells you overpriced plastic. I love lego with all my heart, but i will not tolerate them to cheat their fans for money
Can you link the site you referenced that we can use instead of Temu or AliExpress?
Here's the links. The first one is unaffliated and the second is my affliate link :)
www.lesdiy.com/
www.lesdiy.com/?ref=Goldfyre
I definitely agree about the stolen designs and personally will only buy official lego minifigure parts, but i find places like AliExpress are the best option for buying cloth accessories. I've been able to kit out full units of my medieval armies with cloth capes, cloaks and banners that have insane detail like "fur" linings and printed coats of arms, all of fairly high quality and extremely cheap, maybe $3.00 for a pack of 10. It's a much better option than official lego options from somewhere like pick a brick where a plain black cape can be upwards upwards of $4.00 EACH... for quality that is often poorer than the "knockoffs." I've done the same for finding cloth StarWars accessories like pauldrons and waist capes for clone troopers that lego refuses to produce anymore.
Okay but you could just buy the aliexpress set and the instructions on rebrickable? Buying from Bricklink or gutting Lego sets does nothing for creators and is sometimes very expensive…
Also BlueBrixx in Germany does collaborate with MoCers and sells at reasonable prices. Iirc Cada and some other Chinese brands do that as well, and I do like Cadas brick quality a lot.
Lego on the other hand just gets „Ideas“ from creators for free and sells a worse version for 100-400€…
I’d rather work 1 Job and buy 5 Non- Lego, then work 5 Jobs and buy 1 Non-Lego.
Lego has brought this situation upon itself with corporate greed spanning 30+ years.
I will continue to do this as most of the time i find quality of figures is on par with lego and or better occasionally, especially with printing designs, i cant afford to pay official prices, i buy some lego sets but only if there reasonably priced
I got 1100 worth of LEGO sets for 200, so I'm good, as long as you're buying official/retired sets and not fanmade MOCs I really could care less about taking money from a mega corporation.
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Yeah I agree….but there is also another problem. A lot of these sellers that make custom Lego are either in US or UK and the shipping is just getting ridiculously expensive, second thing is that many times their stuff is sold out.
I found this store, Cult Bricks in EU, but almost all his stuff is sold out and he never restocks it. I sent an email but never got an response….
So after these frustrating circumstances don’t be surprised if people don’t care and just buy stuff from aliexpress due to availability and price.
It's sad that this kind of thing is so common. Lego is F-ing expensive these days and I have to cut back what I buy drastically, but to be desperate enough to trust a too-good-to-be-true Chinese site is pretty bad. China is well known for these kinds of knockoff products and has been doing this for decades. You are guaranteeing 2 things by using these sites: that an IP is being stolen, and their quality will be poor in comparison.
Example: I bought a tub of Legos from a vendor at the Antique Mall near me and I saw what looked like the Ewok Village set through the sides of the clear plastic tub it was in. I, a 33 y/o dad, was giddy. Got home, tore it open, turns out it was the $65 Aliexpress version. The figs are GARBAGE and the pieces sometimes fit together with Lego but for the most part, I keep them in a separate shame-bucket for emergencies.
I don't blame someone for buying from these sites as lego is an insanely overpriced hobby to get into. The thing with chinese/3rd party lego is that it's actually gotten really close to lego in terms of quality. Comparing the 3rd party bricks today to the ones from just 10 years ago is night and day. But with that being said there's some companies that are better than others when it comes to ethics.
@@Goldfyre to me, the chances of running across the low quality stuff is too great for me too use them. I have seen those comparison videos
If Lego lowers their prices, then maybe I’ll stop, but until then, no, I will not stop.
Am keep buying because if they can reduce this things for 1/3 the price and sell were getting scammed from the original lego company
I collect most of the city skylines by Lego, but the older ones do cost a fortune on 2nd hand market. No way I’m paying 260 euros for the Shanghai skyline if I can find a good copy for around 12 euros.
Hey, I'd be interested in a video of your experiences with LEGO-adjacent products, like that one site that created awesome custom printing on official LEGO. Maybe even an unsponsored endorsement of your favorite sitrs to go to for LEGO MOCs, like rebrickable.
Legos so expensive so I buy fake Lego mini figures, but maybe I’ll not buy those MOCS without seeing the creator website
Guess who doesn’t care, most people who don’t have the money
Lego is doing the whole 500% profit margin. Not all of us care about intellectual property because the concept and other obtuse and useless rules aren't worth acknowledging
hahaha try 800% or even more that would be more accurate
I use to buy from Ali express, but I eventually gave up because the quality of the bricks/figures vary wildly between sellers and even products.
Some are indistinguishable from Lego, a small few were even better than Lego, but on average the pieces and figures were far below acceptable quality. With most of them being sloppily designed, from them not having correct placement on the faces, to the parts not even being measured right and not coming together at all.
Lol... Rivendell for 80 bucks was 1:1 same.
So
Why pay lego for absurd prices that are the same quality half the time 😢
If Lego wants to make bricks in China, then I'll buy the knockoff. I'm not going to pay insane prices because i believe Lego has become greedy and I'm not a charity.
I will be vigilant about companies stealing MOCs though.
I'm still hoping for lego to bring out more fan favourites pick and build mini figures parts, that lego builders like myself can buy !
Id gladly stop buying bootleg if lego would make their prices anywhere near reasonable. These days, evern a super small lego set will cost you like $70.
Ali sells the horsebarding for $1. Crossbricks sells it for $30. Guess who I'm buying from.
And what about the good quality historical minifigs? With good 4 side printing? Qnd many many good equitments and weapons? I buy one moc set when this is cheap and easyJet to get the parts! I dont want half year lost for hunt the parts! When the moc makers have Braun get collaborated one store and can make Money like boeing mocmaker, and godbricks store collaboration.....
are the minifig designs for game of thrones, LotR and star wars also stolen?
I can't say for certain that every design is stolen but it's worth trying to find the original source by reverse image searching any listing you find on these sites
@@Goldfyre hm ok bc me and my dad bought some 2/3 years ago and i they exist on the page since at least 5/6
You can be sure there are knockoff copies of every expensive minifigure, accessory or rare piece available somewhere.
@@pinobluevogel6458 i don’t mean the knockoffs from lego
@@wildertacklehdkek3309 Then I'm sorry, I don't know what you meant.
Lego really needs to lower their prices. Its colored plastic produced by fully automated machines.
And underpaid workers close to su her in Hungary the Nyíregyháza lego plant where most if not all the european pyramid of giza sets are made they get now less money than an unskilled laborer inb a sawmill wheri worked no more free lego sets you cna get a 20% discount that's all. Yeah f@ck lego
Great video really well broken down! I tried to make a similar video about 3 years ago about aliexpress bootleg lego. I got a bit lost in the weeds however as it’s such a iceberg of issues. From the copycat fake lego companies, to stealing the moc designs, to the quality, to the humanity of their production practices.
That being said if you design a good moc it feels like when you design a good moc having it stolen is an inevitability.
However, I do like some of newer alt brick companies that have unique designs. I’m glad we’re now seeing alternative brick companies that are doing it right.
Stealing is never okay. I could say much more on the subject but I’ll save my ted talk as this is very long already 😂
Good video. We must cultivate a better environment for the community
Yes, finally someone stands up against Temu!
Ohh booohoo could someone think about the billion dollar company that also steals peoples moc-s that are send via the lego ideas page lego suddenly "deny" them so peopels can't do anything later in the year they make the same set....
How about NO, actually though I use TEMU and AliExpress for mini figures Lego has never produced like all those amazing Napoleonic figures. Farm animals too and big bulk purchases like round 1x2 in brown for spiked wood walls and stuff.
How reliable is Aliexpress? Just stumbled across it today and did some research n ordered two bulks of figs for $20. Mostly good reviews but idk who’s a bought or paid review and who’s not yk
I have Napoleonic figures (fake ones) as well
They (specifically the manufacturer from Guangdong, China) want to make money and don't give a damn about copyrights. Black Falcon, Lion Knight, Raven Knight-every faction that Lego or MOC designers create, they use it.
Why does it suck? Adults collecting kids toys for investments sucks !! Its good you can get affordable stuff again without the premiums because adults collect it to.
I never said anything about the lego "investors" the vast majority of this video was talking about the sellers on temu & ali stealing fan designs.
In America the biggest consumer for "toys" is young adults 20-30
I agree with you. Artists should be compensated fairly and having their designs stolen is just wrong. It comes down to greed and money which is what these Chinese sellers want.
Money is also what Lego wants, and the designers who post the instructions
@@JesusCheeseburger yes that’s true but do you think it’s fair to just call it a business strategy or something when Chinese companies and people are stealing designs with little to no consequences? That sounds fair to you?
@@legomanifester Life isn't fair, and neither is free market competition. Is it fair for Lego to continue to come out with themes like Monkie Kid or Chinese New Year or whatever theme the Family Reunion is that caters to the country that Lego knows is stealing these designs from their fans? No, but Lego does it because they want money too. China is the biggest market in the world and Lego wants their money. Just like when movies are written to appease Chinese censors so they aren't banned in China.
It might seem harmless, but having their profits cut by the chinese sellers is actually making Lego less money, which over time increases their prices as well. If someone buys these products, they are actually increasing the problem with Lego being less affordable.
I dont see any reason to stop doing that because Lego has stupid high prices and they are terrible with customers
You're not going to convince people to make these MOCs out of real Lego when the alternative is way cheaper and more convenient.
I think more realistically, you should use your platform to encourage people to pay for the instructions on rebrickable if they decide to buy from Aliexpress.
I've had instructions stolen and I'm fine with people using alternative bricks in general. I have a few Bluebrixx sets myself.
If Aliexpress forced buyers to also purchase instructions, then you'd probably sell enough volume that you could charge just a couple dollars for them. Right now, instructions cost too much relative to the price of alternative bricks. People know it's the right thing to do, but it's too expensive to voluntarily pay for people who could only afford the cheaper option to begin with.
I agree for the most part. And i've heard some people say that they buy the instructions from the original designer after buying from ali/temu. The thing is i do not think most people would be willing to do that.
Brother 500 dlls for a set that can be bought for 50 on temu likee maybe in the us is not that much but thats like a month and a half salary for most people so i wont ever blame no one for getting cheap toys like that
I've noticed the bricklink mocs on there as wel, but just can't beat the prices
Yo this is a big issue but I’m give you one point of view and that is majority of these custom stuff go for sale and either get discontinued or never restock not saying I support this but I have friends tired of waiting for a product to come out of restock or it just being a forgot project
Also I’m only talking about custom pieces not moc builds
Thank you for spreading this. I totally agree with you.
I wish I wouldn’t have to, but I don’t want to pay $100 for legos
Temu is reported to sell items from factories were workers have slave labor conditions. Over all, with everything on Temu, I think people should ask themself what the workers are paid when the product is unbelievably cheep. I've admittedly bought a few things from there (not Lego), but I can't really enjoy them, knowing these things about Temu, and have replaced a few of them with stuff that's less cheap and more ethical, so in the long run it never made a difference. They also steal designs frequently, and copy designs from small business owners.