Lego to cut 1,400 jobs and 'reset company' after sales drop

papluh

Member
Lepin are far from shit. Argue the ethics of buying Lepin all you want, but the product is far from being garbage and often rivals Lego.

Depends what you mean by product ;)

As a molded pieces of plastic, there is no magic to it. I mean ... come on, LEGO was producing bricks on hand operated molding machines 60 years ago and those are compatible with today's, so how hard is to copy that ?
And today ? All the machines, materials and molds are made by 3rd parties, got the money and project? They will build the production line for you (I doubt LEPIN is even using original from Arberg and cloned those too).
As for personnel, we (as in Western based companies outsourcing production to China) have been 'leveling up' they workforce year after year. There is quite a few skilled people there, machine engineers, mold designers, quality control supervisors ... just waiting to get better pay.

There is just one difference the product as design. The basis of LEPIN production is clones, the major ones of LEGO. So how hard is not to rival them ? The rest is stolen from AFOLs. Now if somebody can rival LEGO it is those AFOLs. Not bound but some different limitations of LEGO, some of them reasonable but some just plain "bad marketing", they can produce sets that rival LEGO or sometimes even overshadow it.
But LEPIN ? LEPIN is just taking the credit from such AFOLs...
 

Risible

Member
There is just one difference the product as design. The basis of LEPIN production is clones, the major ones of LEGO. So how hard is not to rival them ? The rest is stolen from AFOLs. Now if somebody can rival LEGO it is those AFOLs. Not bound but some different limitations of LEGO, some of them reasonable but some just plain "bad marketing", they can produce sets that rival LEGO or sometimes even overshadow it.
But LEPIN ? LEPIN is just taking the credit from such AFOLs...

Actually, I could be wrong, but I believe they have partnered with a number of AFOLs to produce their sets.
 

Fou-Lu

Member
The reboot bombed so badly that LEGO decided year 2 would be its final year before the second wave of year 1 hit store shelves. The second wave of year 2 was exclusive to Toys R Us in the US and didn't release at all in some countries. Nothing has replaced it.

That's too bad. They were definitely my favourite kits when I was a kid. Let me get Lego and action figures at the same time. They also have some pretty clever mechanisms.

They should have never had bionicle in the first place 😈

Cruel and wrong.

Been dead for a year+, lol. AFAIK it didn't sell at all. They overcorrected the issue with the first gen's story bloat by paring back the story/media to almost nothing, so that probably played a part.

This is also too bad. I LOVED the story of the original, very unique and things got pretty crazy.
 

Syriel

Member
The Chinese sets are pretty high quality now. This is $50 compared to the $100* Lego one.

*mixed up sets earlier

Yes, it is very easy to produce something for cheaper, when you steal the IP and don't have to pay for it.

They work on commission?

Offensive? No better than game piracy?

I guess there really are stans for everything.

You're the one stanning for copyright infringement here in this very thread.

They only show you the Denmark factory in that one or something? Lego has factories in Eastern Europe and China dude.

It costs this company money to manufacture it and it costs me money to buy it. How is it close to piracy? It's just copyright infringement.

There were no questions in that post I responded to....

Piracy IS copyright infringement.

Dude, calm down.

Piracy is illegal. Buying knockoff Lego isn't.

Holy shit guys.

You the Tenga guy?

Selling any stolen IP is illegal. This includes LEPIN copies of LEGO sets.

"Knockoffs" implies compatible bricks of lower quality. That is clearly not illegal.

What you're defending is not just knockoffs. You are defending commercial copyright infringement, which is a point where both the courts and the law disagree with you.

Is buying knockoff Lego illegal?

No? Then stopped calling for me to get banned.

You need to calm yourself because you are having a meltdown over knockoff plastic bricks.

No one in this thread has called for you to get banned.

You're the one that's been going on a post storm, arguing in favor of IP theft.

You brought up designers not getting paid. I thought you meant designers employed by Lego and said they get a salary regardless. You brought up idea creators and yes, some do lose some money to knockoffs.

Lego uses wage slaves in China and Mexico. I'm a communist. Im not advocating that anyone buy anything. In fact, earlier in this thread I said there is no moral consumption here.

And this...

Been stewing on that one huh? Take a break bud. I'm not defending anyone. I'm saying knockoffs are a better value. That's all. You're the one who called for my banning because I insulted your favorite children's toy company.

I don't know what Lego pays its Chinese and Mexican workers. I don't know what Lepin pays its workers either.

So, which is it?

Are LEGO employees "wage slaves" or do they get paid a fair wage for their work?

Aren't lego designs protected under copyright or something?

Yes. Specific designs are copyrighted and reproducing them for sale is prohibited, just as reproducing a copyrighted piece of software for sale is prohibited.

Making a compatible brick line is 100% legal.

If Lepin simply made compatible bricks and designed its own sets, it would be a LEGO competitor. As-is, Lepin is nothing more than counterfeit goods.

These still seem all very expensive for such little sets. If I was a parent, I would buy a lego set once in a while at most, not a regular purchase. For the price of one small lego set you can buy a whole lot of other toys, bunch of action figures and vehicle sets for example of popular toy lines. While other toys have kept fairly standard pricing, LEGO prices just keep going up and have become way to inflated. Most families can't afford to be buying sets that often.

And the problem also is that once a kid has several sets, they have the blocks they need to be imaginative enough, why spend another 30-70$ on more small sets when the kid is going to mostly build random stuff with it instead of following directions? I've rarely seen a child build the actual sets as they are presented, they just build random stuff with the blocks. Because of this licensed sets loose worth for parents, as the people who really care about building the licensed sets are the adult collectors.

As this thread has shown, the price hasn't gone up. Sets are still produced along the full range of price points.

Building random things is still a huge draw for LEGO sets, as original creations are much more fun. Anyone who doesn't mix-match from sets, just because they are licensed sets is missing out.

I feel like a lot of people don't realize things like this exists anymore:

E990DD48.zoom.jpg


That's 1600 pieces for $60, or under 4 cents a piece. That's a lot of pieces for plenty of creativity at a reasonable price without any instruction booklets included.

What's sad is that people will always scalp the basic sets around the holidays. If you want to buy those for gifts (or for yourself) you need to do it in the summer months.

Keep moving those goal posts. The $300 city set/box/building exists. Deal with it.

The only goal post moving that's been done here has been by you, when you claimed that basic LEGO sets were too expensive, and then pointed to a high end set to "prove" your point.

That's like someone saying a typical car is too expensive, and then pointing to a Bentley to "prove" the point. "Well it goes from A to B, so it's a typical car."
 
I was on a bit of a Lego buying streak for a while, but I basically picked up all the sets I wanted. The sets since 2012/13 haven't really interested me at all. The Medieval Village, and then the LOTR and early Hobbit sets were sooooo good.

Gimme more detailed medieval stuff!


I love the castle sets! But they always get the short of it
 
I think it's hard to really tell how much lego spends on new molds, IP tax, paying employees, etc and how that compares to a company like Lepin. Lepin could be saving a lot of money that allows them to price their stuff 60% lower. or Lego could be price gouging due to high demand and low competition. or it could be a bit of both. They just don't release the information since they're a private company so we don't have hard details to make a conclusion.

Basically it comes down to if you're okay enough with companies stealing ideas or not. As a Lego collector, I'm not really okay with that. The rest isn't really worth thinking about without more info
 

papluh

Member
Actually, I could be wrong, but I believe they have partnered with a number of AFOLs to produce their sets.

yes, but with a twist

Xingbao as a Lepin subsidiary has few AFOLs on board with their MOCs.
Let's just ignore 3rd party IP as Alien, RR, Akira, Ford ...

But let's see the words of one of these guys taken from here
https://brickset.com/article/27554/lepin-subsidiary-now-licensing-afol-designs
"I was approached and asked if I would like to be a part of a new company that wanted to work directly with builders the right way and not only compensate them for their design, but also include their names with those designs to give them the proper credit.

"I thought long and hard about this and after seeing so many AFOL's MOCs starting to show up as sets with out their consent or knowledge, the fear of my work being stolen without my consent was growing.

"I felt like I could either get compensated for my work or decline or get nothing and possibly watch my models get stolen by someone else. But this was never about money, it was always about the theft of the designs and me not knowing about it.

To me it looks like mob tactics "you cooperate with us and we be friends or ..."

To prove it, at the same time they are playing the good guys here, they are just producing MOCs from Madoca1977 (Rebrickable link) who made clear he does not want to have anything with LEPIN, just compare his gallery on the link before and LEPIN 23008, 23011, 23012 ...
 

papluh

Member
I think it's hard to really tell how much lego spends on new molds, IP tax, paying employees, etc and how that compares to a company like Lepin. ...

LEGO shows the totals in their annual reports https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/annual-report
How much is production, wages, material, licenses, leases, ...

As for LEPIN, it is definitely less. Just based on the country of production, while LEGO already has factory in China, there is the high wage country of Denmark where most molding for Europe takes place (Duplo is in Hungary), Czechia with printing and completion lines is still more expensive than China, Hungary too. Not even talking about the environmental, work and social laws costs in European Union. I'm not sure about Mexiko if the wages are more or comparable to China. But sales and distribution is already in US and there the cost is definitely more than China (sales and distribution are on par with production in the costs section of report). So even ignoring design, licenses and such, production to production, LEPIN has to be cheaper than LEGO (until they cut all jobs in our side of world and fully move to China too).
 

Trike

Member
Wasn't this tied to the Batman line doing bad? Growing up I love the Star Wars sets or the aquatic sets because of the giant cool ships. All of these Marvel and DC sets seem kinda lame as they don't have as many recognizable vehicles or buildings/locations specific to them. I mean I feel like kids would want to play with action figures or costumes for superheroes than Legos.
 
What's sad is that people will always scalp the basic sets around the holidays. If you want to buy those for gifts (or for yourself) you need to do it in the summer months.

That kinda surprises me since I picked up that set in December as a gift and there was just a huge stack of them at Toys R Us and it was there every time I went between November and December. I'm sure it sold, as the stack would shrink and grow, but they always had plenty of stock.
 

Figboy79

Aftershock LA
If you are referring to the Mobile station, that thing rocked. It was one of the few "big" sets I had.

I don't actually remember what it was called, because it was so long ago, but I was around 9 or 10, so this was '88-'89. I loved it, but it paled in comparison to the collections my cousin had. He'd literally bring out the gigantic garbage bin filled with LEGOS when I'd visit.
 
Yes. Specific designs are copyrighted and reproducing them for sale is prohibited, just as reproducing a copyrighted piece of software for sale is prohibited.

Making a compatible brick line is 100% legal.

If Lepin simply made compatible bricks and designed its own sets, it would be a LEGO competitor. As-is, Lepin is nothing more than counterfeit goods.

Can you explain something to me? Lego provides the instructions to build the "10179, ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S MILLENNIUM FALCON™, LEGO STAR WARS" for free on its site, just as it does with every other set it produces.

So Lepin
A) provides 6000 plus knockoff blocks in a package that construct said UCS model.
B) they print off the instructions from above and add their name

Given that you state "Making a compatible brick line is 100% legal.", which part of the above should I be paying Lego for? Their ideas or their blocks? They provide the ideas for free? It's their blocks that are overpriced in comparison. And to be clear, yes I am a dirty evil person who owns the above Lepin set for 175 instead of the 800 original or 2000+ plus it goes for on ebay.
 

Just_one

Gold Member
I'm hoping the next Modular building go back to pricing like the Parisian Restaurant/Detective's Office.

Me too. Love the modulars line but i hope they go back to normal ones after last years assembly square . It was á 10 year anniversary no need to make that the norm now
 
Can you explain something to me? Lego provides the instructions to build the "10179, ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S MILLENNIUM FALCON™, LEGO STAR WARS" for free on its site, just as it does with every other set it produces.

So Lepin
A) provides 6000 plus knockoff blocks in a package that construct said UCS model.
B) they print off the instructions from above and add their name

Given that you state "Making a compatible brick line is 100% legal.", which part of the above should I be paying Lego for? Their ideas or their blocks? They provide the ideas for free? It's their blocks that are overpriced in comparison. And to be clear, yes I am a dirty evil person who owns the above Lepin set for 175 instead of the 800 original or 2000+ plus it goes for on ebay.

The only reason that works is because lego created the model. If Lepin created it properly and paid people to design them, test the design, market it, pay for licensing fees and made their own molds they could not produce it at that price. Maybe Lego could sell the falcon at 600 and still barely make a profit but its impossible for them to sell it at lepin prices and still be profitable.

Also, I think the one you bought was the $500 original UCS falcon. Lepin is usually 40% the price of lego. So the new one is probably around $300
 

Ryuuroden

Member
It honestly would not surprise me if lepin has financial ties to Chinese mob and sex traffickers, a lot of the counterfeit manufacturers do. You want to support that too on top of the fact they pay less to their workers. Last year every single employee received a full months pay as a bonus in addition to the regular bonus and exclusive company lego set that usually has a value of several hundred dollars. Lego employees also can buy all sets at 50% off and health benefits, paid sick days and matching 401k. Payrates for all positions in the company tend to be on the higher end of the competitive scale. Lego factories have also have achieved 100% carbon neutral and they are investing billions in research and development of non oil based environmental friendly plastics.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lego-renewable-energy-green-wind-farm-burbo-bank-extension-offshore-irish-sea-climate-change-a7746696.html
http://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/

But yeah, fuck lego its just another big company lets support a company called lepin which you know nothing about the standards they hold.

Lego also doesn't seem to hide their profits from taxation. They paid 3 billion dkk in taxes last year and their CEO made 115k after taxes last year. Store managers in the us start at 60k yet the CEO makes only 300k before tax. Also there are no stock options if you think they are paid that way. Lego is a private company.

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0724/039.html
 

Syriel

Member
Can you explain something to me? Lego provides the instructions to build the "10179, ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S MILLENNIUM FALCON™, LEGO STAR WARS" for free on its site, just as it does with every other set it produces.

So Lepin
A) provides 6000 plus knockoff blocks in a package that construct said UCS model.
B) they print off the instructions from above and add their name

Given that you state "Making a compatible brick line is 100% legal.", And to be clear, yes I am a dirty evil person who owns the above Lepin set for 175 instead of the 800 original or 2000+ plus it goes for on ebay.

"...which part of the above should I be paying Microsoft for? Their ideas or their bits? They provide the ideas for free? It's their bits that are overpriced in comparison."

Six of one, half-dozen of the other.

People who are cheap/entitled will always support counterfeit goods over the real thing. You do you. It's the same reason why people buy counterfeit pursues and sneakers and the like.

As an individual, you are unlikely to be prosecuted for purchasing an infringing item. If you buy an infringing item from a US merchant, you actually have a pretty good chance of getting a full refund.

It's typically sellers that get called out for infringement, because they're the ones raking in the $$$. Costco just lost a lawsuit over selling Tiffany knockoffs.

Lepin crosses the line from generic brick to infringing when it produces exact copies of minifigs and when it sells sets that are copies of LEGO sets.

Mega Bloks are legal because they make their own sets and their own figs.

The specific interlocking functionality of LEGO bricks is something that was covered under patent (and that is expired), so anyone can make a compatible brick product. The set and figure designs are copyrighted however, and those cannot be duplicated without permission.
 
Lepin crosses the line from generic brick to infringing when it produces exact copies of minifigs and when it sells sets that are copies of LEGO sets.

Mega Bloks are legal because they make their own sets and their own figs.

The specific interlocking functionality of LEGO bricks is something that was covered under patent (and that is expired), so anyone can make a compatible brick product. The set and figure designs are copyrighted however, and those cannot be duplicated without permission.

Basically what you described to me is that I am paying 600+ dollars more to Lego for the handful of minifigs and the instruction booklet(which is free online). So if Lepin just dropped those two components you'd be fine with it? Of course you wouldn't, that's rhetorical. I see no problem with buying cheaper knockoff blocks from Lepin, which are completely indistinguishable from Lego, (despite what the mega fans on this site would have you believe) and downloading the instructions for free. Lepin cut out a step for me, and I thank them for it. They could've kept the figs, I couldn't care less.
 

Syriel

Member
Basically what you described to me is that I am paying 600+ dollars more to Lego for the handful of minifigs and the instruction booklet(which is free online). So if Lepin just dropped those two components you'd be fine with it? Of course you wouldn't, that's rhetorical. I see no problem with buying cheaper knockoff blocks from Lepin, which are completely indistinguishable from Lego, (despite what the mega fans on this site would have you believe) and downloading the instructions for free. Lepin cut out a step for me, and I thank them for it. They could've kept the figs, I couldn't care less.

You either didn't understand what I said, or are trolling. Selling a set that infringes on IP is a violation of copyright law. This is an extremely basic tenant that is well established. If you read up on some of the things I mentioned, you'll have a better understanding of where the line is drawn.

Lepin selling copied sets = infringement.
Lepin selling original sets = non infringement.
Lepin selling individual blocks = not infringement.

To be free-and-clear, Lepin can't sell a bundled set. It could allow you to buy all the pieces individually, but it can't say "here's the UCS Falcon set."

As for buying counterfeit stuff, I personally don't care if you buy counterfeits or not. Like I said prior, you do you. But if you're already happy with counterfeits, you might as well purchase them from a US storefront like eBay or Amazon, report the counterfeit, and end up w/a refund.

Not like the IP owner is seeing a single cent from a counterfeit.
 

Future

Member
My kid got some knock off legos at some school event raffle thing. They were the worst. Barely stuck together. Extremely light in weight. Surely Lego isn't having problems because of shit like that
 

papluh

Member
Can you explain something to me? Lego provides the instructions to build the "10179, ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S MILLENNIUM FALCON™, LEGO STAR WARS" for free on its site, just as it does with every other set it produces.

They are free to download, but not with unlimited use.
Inside each instruction book you will find something like this
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the/sont des marques
de commerce de/son marcas registradas de LEGO Group.
©2014 The LEGO Group. 6092574
As a consumer you don't have to care, once you start making business or distributing it, you should care. And LEPIN is breaking the laws here.

Once LEPIN starts selling the bricks without any reference to the original set by LEGO we can talk how grey area is that. But so far they are selling that with LEGO pictures and instructions copied from LEGO. Without such references their sales would suffer

And there is one more thing ...
...

Lepin selling copied sets = infringement.
Lepin selling original sets = non infringement.
Lepin selling individual blocks = not infringement.
...

The last line needs to be split. There are certain brick that are new and are protected.
Probably it is a waste to protect all, so they pick some.
So it should be
Lepin selling individual blocks with expired protection or not protected = not infringement.
Lepin selling individual blocks still protected = infringement.
 

Metalgus

Banned
I own about 8,000 Lego bricks between about 10 sets. I buy about one set a year (usually a big one) because I can't justify spending more on this hobby. I'd probably buy twice more if there was a 30% decrease in prices. And about the knockoff products: in my opinion Lego bricks are a premium plastic product. They are sturdy and uniform, the prints don't vanish after wear and the bricks have no plastic spillover. It's a quality product no doubt about it and like many other quality products, its normal that they are a bit expensive. Nonetheless, price drops would help a lot im sure.
 

Korey

Member
One time I was in Barnes & Noble and saw this for $60.

0673419167246_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg


0673419167246_p2_v1_s550x406.jpg


I was like...who the fuck is buying this shit for $60?

Is it supposed to be for kids? Is it for adults with too much disposable income?

Lego has been enabled for far too long.
 

dh4niel

Member
It is super expensive for what it is but I've always thought the price was correlated to the high QA of the products. I haven't bought a Lego set in about 20 years but I've never heard of a missing peice or anything like that.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
The last time I brought a Lego set was 10 years ago when I brought a set for £20 because it was on sale.

I want to buy some Lego set but they are just so expensive, Lego need to lower the price and then folks will start buying them.
 

RMI

Banned
I haven't played with legos since i was a kid, but it's definitely one of those toys i'm looking forward to introducing to my own kid once he's old enough. Sad to see that they're having some troubles after their revival. The kits are expensive, but I agree that the value is there in the quality and continuity of the product. Also glad I stopped by this thread to see the basic block collections. Those seem like a great deal for the price.

Kid's stuff is expensive no matter what it is, and a lot of it doesn't have the type of longevity that legos have. Clearly, adults still use legos for a lot of cool projects, so if I can buy my kid something that he might use as a hobby for the rest of his life that's kind of awesome compared to a lot of the expensive age-specific toys that are available. He's still at an age where he would kill himself by trying to eat the blocks so gonna have to wait a little before I can start buying them for him.
 
You either didn't understand what I said, or are trolling. Selling a set that infringes on IP is a violation of copyright law. This is an extremely basic tenant that is well established. If you read up on some of the things I mentioned, you'll have a better understanding of where the line is drawn.

Lepin selling copied sets = infringement.
Lepin selling original sets = non infringement.
Lepin selling individual blocks = not infringement.

To be free-and-clear, Lepin can't sell a bundled set. It could allow you to buy all the pieces individually, but it can't say "here's the UCS Falcon set."

As for buying counterfeit stuff, I personally don't care if you buy counterfeits or not. Like I said prior, you do you. But if you're already happy with counterfeits, you might as well purchase them from a US storefront like eBay or Amazon, report the counterfeit, and end up w/a refund.

Not like the IP owner is seeing a single cent from a counterfeit.

I'm not trolling, and I do understand what you said. I totally understand that under the letter of the law, Lepin is illegal and I understand how. I am pointing out how, as a consumer, I don't see how I should have a problem with it. As you say, Lepin crosses several lines. But just because they bundle complicated sets together and print off instructions that are available for free doesn't ping my meter. The level of righteous indignation against them around here would still be the same even if I were buying all 6500 Lepin pieces separate and printing off the instructions myself.

And that's where I think there's a point to be made. Lepin may be technically illegal but what they are providing is minuscule(illegal minifigs or bundles) or available online for free. What they really provide is an extreme discount on bricks, and Lego could absolutely reduce their prices if they wanted to. If Lego was a 25 percent markup, I could justify the idea of paying for the originals. But they're not. Their quality is not better. I don't believe for a second their absurd markup is necessary.
 
I'm not trolling, and I do understand what you said. I totally understand that under the letter of the law, Lepin is illegal and I understand how. I am pointing out how, as a consumer, I don't see how I should have a problem with it. As you say, Lepin crosses several lines. But just because they bundle complicated sets together and print off instructions that are available for free doesn't ping my meter. The level of righteous indignation against them around here would still be the same even if I were buying all 6500 Lepin pieces separate and printing off the instructions myself.

And that's where I think there's a point to be made. Lepin may be technically illegal but what they are providing is minuscule(illegal minifigs or bundles) or available online for free. What they really provide is an extreme discount on bricks, and Lego could absolutely reduce their prices if they wanted to. If Lego was a 25 percent markup, I could justify the idea of paying for the originals. But they're not. Their quality is not better. I don't believe for a second their absurd markup is necessary.
So, if I am reading that correctly, you are saying that you have no issue rewarding illegal activity because it is cheaper for you?
What sources for films and games do you recommend for similar results then?
 

s_mirage

Member
I doubt I'm who they're primarily targeting, but I've got to say that the current line up of Lego sets doesn't really appeal to me much. No Lego Space or Castle, too many licensed sets, and maybe too many City sets.

Also, I'm of the opinion that in terms of stimulating kids imaginations, original sets are superior to licensed or real word based sets. That's just my $0.02 based on my own childhood though, YMMV.
 
So, if I am reading that correctly, you are saying that you have no issue rewarding illegal activity because it is cheaper for you?
What sources for films and games do you recommend for similar results then?

This is a physical product. I would not compare it to software or media. I would compare it to clothes or hardware or watches. I would hope(though I am not well versed in those products) that the difference between the knockoffs of a Rolex and a Louis Vuitton bag are in the quality of the materials and the craftsmanship. I also don't have a problem with someone buying a knockoff there if they know what they are getting. If the difference between a knockoff Rolex and a real one is as minuscule as the difference between Lepin and Lego, I also would be outraged.
 
So, again, you have no issue rewarding illegal activity because it is cheaper for you? That was the main question I was looking for clarification on.
 
So, again, you have no issue rewarding illegal activity because it is cheaper for you? That was the main question I was looking for clarification on.

That's not what I've said. Making a knockoff block is not illegal. Me buying 6500 separate knockoff blocks to build my own UCS falcon is not illegal, nor is Lepin providing them. Lepin providing a bundle of said blocks and instructions is illegal, and I think in this case, it's absurd to find fault with it as a consumer. I do not agree with your catch all statement, no.
 

Osahi

Member
One time I was in Barnes & Noble and saw this for $60.

0673419167246_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg


0673419167246_p2_v1_s550x406.jpg


I was like...who the fuck is buying this shit for $60?

Is it supposed to be for kids? Is it for adults with too much disposable income?

Lego has been enabled for far too long.

This set has 800 pieces. It's a pretty big toy and offers value for money. It also has light bricks, which push the price somewhat.

Yes, some sets seem expensive, but most offer great value. Especially the Creator line where this is from
 
That's not what I've said. Making a knockoff block is not illegal. Me buying 6500 separate knockoff blocks to build my own UCS falcon is not illegal, nor is Lepin providing them. Lepin providing a bundle of said blocks and instructions is illegal, and I think in this case, it's absurd to find fault with it as a consumer. I do not agree with your catch all statement, no.

You acknowledge that what they are doing is illegal, and that you have no problem with it, and mainly because it is less expensive. Maybe my wording was a bit off, but you have explicitly said that you are fine with the illegal activity, even if you think it is miniscule. What they do is still illegal, it doesn't matter if it is minor or not.

I totally understand that under the letter of the law, Lepin is illegal and I understand how. I am pointing out how, as a consumer, I don't see how I should have a problem with it. As you say, Lepin crosses several lines. But just because they bundle complicated sets together and print off instructions that are available for free doesn't ping my meter.
Lepin may be technically illegal but what they are providing is minuscule(illegal minifigs or bundles) or available online for free. What they really provide is an extreme discount on bricks.
 
You acknowledge that what they are doing is illegal, and that you have no problem with it, and mainly because it is less expensive. Maybe my wording was a bit off, but you have explicitly said that you are fine with the illegal activity, even if you think it is miniscule. What they do is still illegal, it doesn't matter if it is minor or not.

In this instance I do not have a problem with it. You have tried to bait me into conflating it with other forms of piracy or all illegal activity in general, which I have disagreed with. If this is the only point you have to make, I guess we are done here.
 
Every day I'm tempted to buy any Chinese branded version of this UCS:
31IvGD-hHzL.jpg


My father sold mine when I was gone for two years and didn't tell me so I've been wanting to get another one. I can't afford to pay the outrageous eBay or other seller prices for the official LEGO one.
 
In this instance I do not have a problem with it. You have tried to bait me into conflating it with other forms of piracy or all illegal activity in general, which I have disagreed with. If this is the only point you have to make, I guess we are done here.

So you are fine with illegal activity. That is all I wanted clarification on. Thank you.
It is just one form of illegal activity bothers you while another doesn't. I wasn't baiting, but I can see how it came across that way. I was asking for clarification, which you did.
 

DBT85

Member
Every day I'm tempted to buy any Chinese branded version of this UCS:
31IvGD-hHzL.jpg


My father sold mine when I was gone for two years and didn't tell me so I've been wanting to get another one. I can't afford to pay the outrageous eBay or other seller prices for the official LEGO one.

Don't be surprised if it's re released before long. Depends how well it sold in the first place.

Though I'd bricklink it instead of lepininging it.
 
My son plays with Legos a lot but he does not care about set. Just the loose Legos are soo expensive. 60 dollars for 750 parts is joke.
 
Don't be surprised if it's re released before long. Depends how well it sold in the first place.

Though I'd bricklink it instead of lepininging it.

One can only hope it gets released before long.

And yeah I check Bricklink. Cheapest is $450 used with some wear vs $100 something for a knock off. I know we just had a page all about the evils of the knock offs but that price range for a used official one is a little too high for me.
 
One can only hope it gets released before long.

And yeah I check Bricklink. Cheapest is $450 used with some wear vs $100 something for a knock off. I know we just had a page all about the evils of the knock offs but that price range for a used official one is a little too high for me.

If you color swap on of the gray corner slopes (it isn't visible on the outside), the landing feet (it looks better on the big black stand with wings down anyways), and the large white slopes for the top fin, it is rather common parts. The large white slopes are vital, but the others you can easily replace or skip and probably get many parts in bulk at pick a brick walls or from other sets you own.
It really is a magnificent set when it is done.
 
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