Should people buy Fake Chinese PF motors?

[MAB]

1 hour ago, JaBaCaDaBra said:

I also buy PF motors from Ali

You are getting ripped off! Buy generic motors and glue on your own lego gear wheels. Even if you need a left / right balanced motor pair for robot cars or whatever, as long as you buy a pair they tend to work fine.

 

Mind you, I'm glad I bought a load of PF M-motors when it was clear PF was dead. They are selling for crazy prices now, 4.5x what I paid for them from lego.

[dr_spock]

13 hours ago, 9v system said:

@dr_spock heres the photos https://bricksafe.com/pages/gbcbuilder/fake-lego-pf-motors

Thank you for the photos.  Are there any marking showing who makes the can electrical motor inside? 

[9v system]

1 hour ago, dr_spock said:

Thank you for the photos.  Are there any marking showing who makes the can electrical motor inside? 

no worries, i couldnt see any markings but i didnt pay to much attention to that part when i was taking the photos, these are both the Mouldking M and L which are made by GOBRICKS, so far the motors have been running fine in my GBCs with no issues

[dtomsen]

Afaik, the internal components of the PF parts are not produced internally by LEGO but sourced and assembled from elsewhere, mostly China.

Yeah, that means Chinese rechargeable batteries, motors etc. And commercial shelves stuff too - definitely not top of the line specialized stuff.

12V was the last product line produced completely inhouse by LEGO.

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So far my own experience with PF-motors, battery boxes and controllers from other brands (clones and 3rd party) have been quite an eye-opener.

A few have been pure gash, most have been average but some have been quality on pair with those from LEGO or dare I say even better 

Take the PF M and L-motors from BlueBrixx (probably produced by Chinese brand CaDa) for example:

They both have noticable more rotations, slightly more torque but are more current hungry.
They are more fuzzy about overvoltage though.
Longlivity unknown but build quality seems exactly the same as genuine ones*.
I've driven them very hard and none have broken down so far.
The price from new is extremely favorable to genuine ones and more so now that they are not being sold by LEGO anymore and prices on BrickLink are skyrocketing.

*I hope Philo is going to test both more properly in the not so distanct future so we'll know what's what 

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For me as a train builder what LEGO doesn't or won't sell anymore is all fair game as long as any patents, copyrights and other laws haven't been broken.

My own brand loyalty doesn't extend to price-gouching second-hand markets like BrickLink 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by dtomsen

[Toastie]

16 minutes ago, dtomsen said:

For me as a train builder what LEGO doesn't or won't sell anymore is all fair game as long as any patents, copyrights and other laws haven't been broken.

My own brand loyalty doesn't extend to price-gouching second-hand markets like BrickLink

Here is to feeling good . Same here.

With one extension: For me as a brick builder what LEGO doesn't sell as set (it has to be something outstanding though) [ ... and then put the remaining text of the citation here].

Spoiler

 

Off topic: I can only repeat myself like an f'd up vinyl: The MK Flying Dutchman is a blast. Building wise and model wise. That - was - fun. And the model is impressive. It sits here next to the Silent Mary and the Black Pearl and both look like - well - they look different. But that is entirely clear: The FD is for display only whereas the BP may be good to play with. The SM I don't know - it is in between.
The problem is I can't find out about the original builder nor if any patents were compromised. And this is why I keep that very low profile. Otherwise I would have posted it all over EB, because it is a beauty. As simple as that.

 

Best
Thorsten

[Lord Insanity]

 

8 hours ago, dtomsen said:

... what LEGO doesn't or won't sell anymore is all fair game as long as any patents, copyrights and other laws haven't been broken.

My own brand loyalty doesn't extend to price-gouching second-hand markets like BrickLink 

 

This can not be emphasized enough.  If LEGO isn't selling it anymore and any applicable patents are expired there is absolutely no reason not to buy the third party stuff.  LEGO stopped selling PF components, that means we must switch to their new standard right?  Yeah, not happening with that mobile device dependent junk.

The days when Cobi, MegaBloks, and various Chinese brands were obviously lower quality are long gone.  (I wouldn't be surprised it that is part of why MegaBloks rebranded to MegaConstrux.)  The quality difference between LEGO and the competition is almost non-existent now.  LEGO really needs to start treating their rival brick companies as serious competition rather than treating them as mere pests.

[Tube Map Central]

3 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

This can not be emphasized enough.  If LEGO isn't selling it anymore and any applicable patents are expired there is absolutely no reason not to buy the third party stuff.  LEGO stopped selling PF components, that means we must switch to their new standard right?  Yeah, not happening with that mobile device dependent junk.

The days when Cobi, MegaBloks, and various Chinese brands were obviously lower quality are long gone.  (I wouldn't be surprised it that is part of why MegaBloks rebranded to MegaConstrux.)  The quality difference between LEGO and the competition is almost non-existent now.  LEGO really needs to start treating their rival brick companies as serious competition rather than treating them as mere pests.

This forum sooooooooo needs a like button

[9v system]

4 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

 

  LEGO stopped selling PF components, that means we must switch to their new standard right?  Yeah, not happening with that mobile device dependent junk.

 

this one one of the many reasons why i switched to the mouldking motors and the unbranded generic pf motors for my GBCs, i think lego have shot themselves in the foot with this new system

[P McCatty]

On 4/15/2021 at 3:28 PM, dtomsen said:

Take the PF M and L-motors from BlueBrixx (probably produced by Chinese brand CaDa) for example:

They both have noticable more rotations, slightly more torque but are more current hungry.
They are more fuzzy about overvoltage though.
Longlivity unknown but build quality seems exactly the same as genuine ones*.
I've driven them very hard and none have broken down so far.
The price from new is extremely favorable to genuine ones and more so now that they are not being sold by LEGO anymore and prices on BrickLink are skyrocketing.

*I hope Philo is going to test both more properly in the not so distanct future so we'll know what's what 

I'd be VERY interested in this. From the literature I've seen, the Bluebrixx motors are more powerful (slightly lower torque but MUCH higher rpm). With proper gearing, one can get a lot more out of them than the standard PF motors. I'm considering getting a few to pair with Buwizz 2.0. As of now I'm uncertain if they can handle ludicrous mode, but I'm tempted to give it a try.

[mic8per_]

No it's not so good idea. I have tried them:

XL motors work ok,

M motors are running at different speed and one of them has no friction at axle hole, so the axle doesn't holds there, and second one has extreme friction at axle hole, so its extremelly hard to insert axle there,

L motors seem ok, but they are faster than original ones (maybe it's even advantage),

SERVO is extremelly easy to disasemble, so I had to super glue it, because it was taking apart at every crash....

Edited September 17, 2021 by mic8per_

[CP5670]

If I needed a significant quantity of motors, I would consider the clone brand motors. I'm not a fan of the new system and don't want to invest in it, especially since I already have lots of PF and 9V. I looked into the clone RC motors but the Buwizz motor seems better all round, and I got some of those instead.