these figures are original?

[legolatra]

I've been seeing for a long time in ebay, instagram, facebook, forums, this type of translucent and monochromatic figures of Vader, C3po, Obi Wan, ... that "supposedly" are made by night shifters in a lego factory.... someone knows 100% sure what their origin is? 

 

[JintaiZ]

They are probably painted figures.

[Fuppylodders]

I doubt they're painted, given the transparent ones, but also they just have the appearance of coloured plastic than paint. Couldn't tell if fake or real, but I'd be suspicious and be looking for solid evidence one way or the other. 

[Jack Sassy]

Possibly fake chinese figures, they love to make transparent ones.

[Mr Ogel]

There are some people on BL selling them and mentioning "genuine" Lego parts. So "night shifters" can be a correct guess. They also did it once even with the 9V micromotor.

 

[Tusserte]

I've bought some of these and I'm pretty sure they're from the real LEGO molds.  The shape and color exactly match the official LEGO shape/color.  They also have the LEGO imprint on the plastic in the correct places.  They're definitely not painted.

[Mandalorianknight]

14 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

They are probably painted figures.

You can't paint something to make it translucent if it was opaque to begin with.

 

There are probably tons of fakes floating around, but there are some genuine lego ones as well. If you want to buy some, ask for better images from the seller to see if you can find the little lego logos on the top of the neck pin, stuff like that.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Mandalorianknight

[JintaiZ]

7 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

You can't paint something to make it translucent if it was opaque to begin with.

 

There are probably tons of fakes floating around, but there are some genuine lego ones as well. If you want to buy some, ask for better images from the seller to see if you can find the little lego logos on the top of the neck pin, stuff like that.

Not sure if it's real LEGO but I came across this one:

https://www.ebay.com/c/1031365469

[Kit Figsto]

I think some of the weird colored figures that pop up on eBay or wherever else are prototypes, but I've never seen a full rainbow like this.  Interesting.

[Fuppylodders]

There suddenly seems to be a big rise of these 'prototypes'. Yeah, they have the lego stamp on them. But they all seem to be mostly darth vader. Seems strange they're all just mostly darth vader (OK, torso unprinted is basic torso, but still, the 2 piece helmet mould). I'm cynical, and my mind is wandering towards these being Chinese copies upping their game including the lego logo on them. Given the increase in quality of Chinese knockoffs as of recent, it'd be no surprise to see them being able to clone them-lego stamp logo included. I find it hard to believe that someone has managed to set up a machine to run so many variations of colours during the night (obviously likely over many nights-not just one), when the colours themselves would likely take a fair bit of processing to set up. That so many of these prototypes are suddenly coming to light seems too much for my mind to believe to be authentic. 

 

I have to admit though, the transparent ones are damned sweet though! Especially the trans red clone trooper currently on ebay... 

Edited February 23, 2021 by Fuppylodders

[1974]

Pretty sure those factories run 24/7. The pay for the people needed to run the moulding machines at night is miniscule compared to the profit

It used to be a rule of thumb that fake LEGO didn't have the "LEGO" embossed on the parts but that never made any sense to me

Lastly, TLG is well aware what goes on on social media (they have people employeed just for that) and late night freestylin' at Kladno would be investigated asap

Not saying the figs aren't proper LEGO but that story is bullcrap

Might be true regarding the micromotors but those were made decades ago

Cheers,

Ole

[biggiet17]

These are genuine figures made by the night crew of Lego.

 

There are several Monochrome Figure groups on Facebook. You'll see these all the time if you're a member of said group.

[macaron35]

22 hours ago, legolatra said:

I've been seeing for a long time in ebay, instagram, facebook, forums, this type of translucent and monochromatic figures of Vader, C3po, Obi Wan, ... that "supposedly" are made by night shifters in a lego factory.... someone knows 100% sure what their origin is? 

 

Mate, seriously, even Stevie Wonder could see the difference with real LEGO minifigs 

Edited February 23, 2021 by macaron35

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I've seen convincing arguments for and against the authenticity of these. I am yet to be swayed one way or another. They sure look cool, though.

[Stuartn]

I am not going to pretend that I am an expert in injection moulding, but I believe that the machinery, at TLG's scale, would need to make huge batches, which would also be required to sell these products.

I think that Lego would keep track of the levels of its ABS vats, and it would recognise that large amounts keep disappearing.

Also, I would anticipate that production lines run 24/7, so it would be an impossibility.

Furthermore, the opaque green one doesn't appear to be a Lego colour, to me at least, it looks too light.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Stuartn

[Tusserte]

The sellers who have many of these parts sometimes sell LEGO minifigs months before the sets release if you know where to look.  They definitely have some sort of factory connection.

No point speculating how an employee could or couldn't do this.

[Sammael]

Unless something changed, recallibrating an official molding machine to use different colors is not a task that can be easily accomplished multiple times per day. Also, some of those colors are not colors that would be officially produced. For example, a few years back at the Fan Weekend, one of the designers stated that a translucent torso and translucent arms are a no-go since they have to be different types of plastic so the arms can be popped off without breakage.

My guess is that these are simple knock-offs.

[Tusserte]

4 minutes ago, Sammael said:

Also, some of those colors are not colors that would be officially produced. For example, a few years back at the Fan Weekend, one of the designers stated that a translucent torso and translucent arms are a no-go since they have to be different types of plastic so the arms can be popped off without breakage.

That does describe these minifigs though.  The joints on the translucent minifigs are very stiff.  They probably would risk breaking if you popped them out a couple times.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Tusserte

[legolatra]

I think these are ABS minifigs and real prototypes are PC ones, these is the difference between booth. PC is mre delicate, only focused to made prototypes and not to play with.

From my point of view there are 4 options:

1st. These minifig are made in China. But... why all these pieces are only being sold from one country (not china)? If are made in China, some sellers would be found arround the world...

2nd. These are made inside a factory with Oompa Loompas during night shift.

3rd. Are made with autentics molds out of a factory. But... how can be this possible?

4th. Someone have duplicate the minifigs and is injecting abs in the house garage.

.... Too many questions without reliable answers, I think never will know the truth...
 

 

 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

57 minutes ago, legolatra said:

I think these are ABS minifigs and real prototypes are PC ones, these is the difference between booth. PC is mre delicate, only focused to made prototypes and not to play with.

This is correct. They are even less transparent. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember Lego has been switching to ABS instead of PC, to the dismay of those who prefer the clearer PC.

[blackman88]

I have some of those.  They are all printed with lego wording.  

If they are from China 3rd party, the quantity would have much much more than what is available now.  If someone can easily print lego wording on parts, well known knock off brands would have done so for their products since day 1. 

My guess is done by night shift worker, just like some BL sellers can sell specific minifig from official lego set in bulk quantity and you are sure they wont part out that quantity of the set. 

[TeddytheSpoon]

14 hours ago, BrickHat said:

This is correct. They are even less transparent. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember Lego has been switching to ABS instead of PC, to the dismay of those who prefer the clearer PC.

I thought they'd made the switch a while ago, but don't quote me on that.

The idea that these are prototypes is... somewhat believable, although they do seem to be popping up at quite the rate for supposed prototypes, which by their nature are low-volume. Equally... Why prototype a Vader figure in red (or any other colour, or figure, for that matter)? That colour has been in LEGO's armoury from the start. On the assumption that they are prototypes, the only thing I can think of would be a test of the sugar-cane based plastic that plants are now made of, to see if minifigures are up to standard. Although again, why Vader and not, say, a minifigure with a similarly complicated but unlicensed hairpiece, I have no idea.

As for the night-shift theory... I highly doubt it. LEGO's production process is almost entirely automated, even down to the transport of bricks. So not only would you need to fill the bins with a different colour of plastic, you would need to purge the previous colour from the injectors (which are huge, by the way), prevent the printing from happening, and cut off the production line at the point where the pieces are thrown into bags and boxes, before doing it another 23 times and THEN putting it all back to how it was before. The actual production time would be fairly quick given how many of these are produced at once, but the machine down time would be colossal, and would definitely not go un-noticed. That's a hell of a lot for one person to do for the sake of a quick buck.

The theory that these are prototypes for a new plastic mix is semi-plausible notwithstanding the fact that they seem to be popping up everywhere. I won't buy the night-shift theory unless an employee can explain how they did it. They look cool, but I do think these are probably knock-offs.

[blackman88]

42 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

I thought they'd made the switch a while ago, but don't quote me on that.

The idea that these are prototypes is... somewhat believable, although they do seem to be popping up at quite the rate for supposed prototypes, which by their nature are low-volume. Equally... Why prototype a Vader figure in red (or any other colour, or figure, for that matter)? That colour has been in LEGO's armoury from the start. On the assumption that they are prototypes, the only thing I can think of would be a test of the sugar-cane based plastic that plants are now made of, to see if minifigures are up to standard. Although again, why Vader and not, say, a minifigure with a similarly complicated but unlicensed hairpiece, I have no idea.

As for the night-shift theory... I highly doubt it. LEGO's production process is almost entirely automated, even down to the transport of bricks. So not only would you need to fill the bins with a different colour of plastic, you would need to purge the previous colour from the injectors (which are huge, by the way), prevent the printing from happening, and cut off the production line at the point where the pieces are thrown into bags and boxes, before doing it another 23 times and THEN putting it all back to how it was before. The actual production time would be fairly quick given how many of these are produced at once, but the machine down time would be colossal, and would definitely not go un-noticed. That's a hell of a lot for one person to do for the sake of a quick buck.

The theory that these are prototypes for a new plastic mix is semi-plausible notwithstanding the fact that they seem to be popping up everywhere. I won't buy the night-shift theory unless an employee can explain how they did it. They look cool, but I do think these are probably knock-offs.

Production line can be automated, but definitely there are manual machines for engineering prototyping / tests or small quantity build, before it can be transferred into fully automated.

[Alexandrina]

1 hour ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Equally... Why prototype a Vader figure in red

I can't remember where it was, but I'm certain I read somewhere on EB that red is used all the time for tests/prototypes, because red shows stress marks better than other colours.

Why Lego would make the gamut of colours for a prototype is another matter, entirely.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

As things stand, I think that if one is to spend money on these figures, one must accept the fact that they are not guaranteed to be genuine, by the facts outlined above by several users. In the worst case, you are buying a high-quality custom that looks (I'd say exactly) like a Lego figure would look like in those colors. If you would not be willing to pay the prices these go for for such a custom, then I'd recommend against buying them.