Do you only buy lego?

[icm]

Yes, Lego is very proud of their 1958 stud and tube patent. Other companies couldn't make stud and tube bricks until the patent on that ran out in about 1988.

[Yperio_Bricks]

2 minutes ago, Horation said:

However, and do correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember Lego being the first to add tubes to their bricks, making it possible to make larger and much sturdier designs. 

That is correct. The Kiddicraft bricks were hollow.

[Black Falcon]

32 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I don't understand how people constantly ignore the fact that Lego is a fake brick producer themselves? Why the hell have Lego bricks the same dimensions as Kiddicraft bricks? Oh, and as you all know because it was written here before, Kiddicraft had bigger sized bricks too. The size Duplo uses... Buy your logic Lego had to choose a different size for their bricks, no?

I only buy Lego because my brain likes it this way but i don't have to constantly twist everything to make it fit a narrative.

Well I can only speak for myself but I have no problem with other companies using the same sizes or even the tubes (since the patent ran out everyone can use it). But there is a difference between companies like Cobi that while having the same system bricks as Lego uses create own brick designs, while others just copy lego´s. And with Brick design I don´t mean System bricks like normal plates or YxZ Stones but things like Animals, Plant parts, Minifigures and other special bricks - like masonary bricks for instance - for all of those there is just no reason that they have to look the same, they can just design their own which still would fit into the system.

 

Edited January 12, 2024 by Black Falcon

[SpacePolice89]

20 minutes ago, icm said:

There's great value in having the same brick dimensions as an industry standard. Imagine if all the connectors in your Dell computer were proprietary and none of your Dell peripherals could plug into your Toshiba. Fact is, Ford and Chevy and Toyota cars all share a lot of common industry standard connections, even though many of the parts are different. Likewise, almost all brick companies use the industry standard size, even though many of them have somewhat different parts libraries.

The standard parts you're talking about are bought from suppliers and follows standards and regulations and are therefore the same. Copying Lego Bricks is the same as copying a car design or the the design of a specific part like taillights.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, SpacePolice89 said:

Copying Lego Bricks is the same as copying a car design or the the design of a specific part like taillights.

No it isn't, copying a component is like copying a brick. Copying a whole car design is more like copying a set.

LEGO has either copied or produced similar bricks to other companies, depending on your viewpoint. The humble 1x5 plate for example, MB had it years before LEGO. LEGO have also either copied or alternatively came up with by themselves (again depending on your viewpoint) very similar minifigure accessories to small thrid party companies.

[DonQuixote]

Some people defend the Lego company to death.Even if the quality of Lego is declining. I don't understand that. A monopoly is bad. Don't you want competition? 

[SpacePolice89]

46 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

Some people defend the Lego company to death.Even if the quality of Lego is declining. I don't understand that. A monopoly is bad. Don't you want competition? 

"Give me Lego or give me death!" 

- SpacePolice89, 2024

[Horation]

3 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

Some people defend the Lego company to death. Even if the quality of Lego is declining. I don't understand that. A monopoly is bad. Don't you want competition? 

Well honestly, that's where I disagree, the quality hasn't declined, your expectations have simply gone up.

Modern day sets are often much more detailed and advanced than their ancient counterparts, arm, leg and back printing are far more common, there are far more facial expressions, etc...

But people's expectations have just kept growing ; sets are supposed to be MOC level detailed, have prints EVERYWHERE, and cost less money than before despite a period of strong inflation and rising oil prices

Competition is good, I agree with you, doesn't mean I have to buy from competitors...

 

 

Edited January 13, 2024 by Horation
added info

[Peppermint_M]

An issue I have noticed here are people mixing up Competitor brands with Bootleg brands. This was an issue a few years ago too, so I helped with the FAQ/Glossary. 

I think I will repeat:

A "Clone Brand" is a competitor brand produced by a legitimate business. Mega Block, Cobi, Block Tech, Best Lock etc. These brands produce compatible bricks and pieces with their own branding and figures. The figures are not exactly the same as LEGO, but accessories are often interchangeable. They have their own themes and play set designs. Some of them are IP (Halo from Mega, World of Tanks from Cobi etc) some are generic like Police cars and construction vehicles, maybe spaceships and Castles. However they all have their own branding. 

This includes some of the new brands that use generic bricks to produce designs by MOC designers who are partners or otherwise cooperating with the company. 

A Bootleg or copy "brand" is a rip-off of an actual legitimate product. The logos are made to match the brand they are copying, the figures are copied from LEGO, they are trying to fool consumers or are simply matching up to make a quick buck. These are also the "companies" that steal MOCs to sell as sets. They are not working with the AFOL who created the original, they don't have permission. 

So yes, the actual frauds are bad, but a real competitor is part of life. Matchbox cars exist in the same market as Hot Wheels cars. McFarlane toys action figures and Figuarts populate the action figures shelves in a Comic Shop. 

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Peppermint_M said:

Matchbox cars exist in the same market as Hot Wheels cars. 

They have the same parent company, both are Mattel.

[DonQuixote]

17 hours ago, Horation said:

Well honestly, that's where I disagree, the quality hasn't declined, your expectations have simply gone up.

Modern day sets are often much more detailed and advanced than their ancient counterparts, arm, leg and back printing are far more common, there are far more facial expressions, etc...

But people's expectations have just kept growing ; sets are supposed to be MOC level detailed, have prints EVERYWHERE, and cost less money than before despite a period of strong inflation and rising oil prices

Competition is good, I agree with you, doesn't mean I have to buy from competitors...

 

 

I am not talking about details or high expectations. I am talking about color deviations. Jangbricks mentions it a lot the last years. Other YouTube reviewers (mostly German) as well. 

Ofcourse you are free to buy only Lego. But I am sick of toxic people who get angry to people who buy other brands. 

I love Lego but I also love Bluebrixx, Mouldking, Mork and Megablocks construx. They offer more historical themes like more medieval sets, western... And also Game of thrones. 

The Orient Express from Mouldking is far superior then the one from Lego. But thats just my opinion and some independent reviewers who compare Lego's Orient Express with Mouldking's Orient Express. 

And to break Lego's monopoly,I am on a mission to make free advertising for other brick companies! Even on Lego's Instagram. Haha! 

Eat that to Lego purist scum! Arggh! 

[Peppermint_M]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

They have the same parent company, both are Mattel.

Okay then, Majorette is also in amongst all that. (I honestly thought Hasbro had Matchbox after Tyco...) which covers the "Offers a different option" part of the brand selection example I made. Majorette has a line of Rally livery diecast and being French is more Eurocentric in its products. Hot Wheels is more fantasy casting than Matchbox (So I guess the "action theme" to the City theme here) Oh, even more relevant to my using cars as an example: Teamsterz exist as a diecast brand that is not as expensive as the bigger brands but still has both realistic and fantasy casts for someone who can't afford a lot of the "premium" stuff but still wants to bulk out a collection for the kids or for a display. 

 

[Black Falcon]

45 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

Ofcourse you are free to buy only Lego. But I am sick of toxic people who get angry to people who buy other brands. 

Well you complain about people buying only Lego beeing toxic but here you are complaining about them because they only buy Lego. 

I´ve given my cents about differents brands a few posts ago, so I´ll leave that there. 

I think most of the time people that buy only Lego and those who buy both Lego and other brands are getting along quite well and in this forum especially I haven´t seen much writen that I would call toxic, however I´ve seen post where people felt like they where attacked by posts that seemed quite harmless to me. 

But when it comes to toxic posts, I also would call posts that always try to advertise other companies in places where they don´t belong, such as Lego´s instagram or the Lego Orient Express thread in this Forum (where even a moderator had to step in actually) toxic or spam which naturally can also lead to answers of the same kind. 

 

That beeing said, maybe you should just enjoy whatever products you are enjoying but on the other hand let other people do the same with whatever they enjoy ;)

 

57 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

Eat that to Lego purist scum! Arggh! 

So much about toxic post  ;).

[Horation]

3 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

The Orient Express from Mouldking is far superior then the one from Lego. But thats just my opinion and some independent reviewers who compare Lego's Orient Express with Mouldking's Orient Express. 

You are talking about a counterfeit product here, and I've generally heard bad things about mold king (previously known as Lepin, which was found guilty of counterfeiting, by the way)

 

3 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

 But I am sick of toxic people who get angry to people who buy other brands. 

Eat that to Lego purist scum! Arggh! 

Dictionary definition of hypocrisy.

[MAB]

3 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

Okay then, Majorette is also in amongst all that. (I honestly thought Hasbro had Matchbox after Tyco...) which covers the "Offers a different option" part of the brand selection example I made. Majorette has a line of Rally livery diecast and being French is more Eurocentric in its products. Hot Wheels is more fantasy casting than Matchbox (So I guess the "action theme" to the City theme here) Oh, even more relevant to my using cars as an example: Teamsterz exist as a diecast brand that is not as expensive as the bigger brands but still has both realistic and fantasy casts for someone who can't afford a lot of the "premium" stuff but still wants to bulk out a collection for the kids or for a display. 

 

I'm not sure, my last Matchbox car would have been a Lesney one!

But I agree there is plenty of room on the brick building shelves for legitimate clone brands. LEGO won't do so many subjects, other brands can take up the slack there. I still have all my Character Building Doctor Who figures, an example of a clone company doing a better job than LEGO when they had the licence. I also think Mega did a better (and more timely) job with Despicable Me / Minions.

[MAB]

4 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

. 

Ofcourse you are free to buy only Lego. But I am sick of toxic people who get angry to people who buy other brands. 

:

And to break Lego's monopoly,I am on a mission to make free advertising for other brick companies! Even on Lego's Instagram. Haha! 

Eat that to Lego purist scum! Arggh! 

Remember this is a LEGO fan site, and not a general brick building site. There are threads for discussing Mega, Bluebrixx,  etc in the  community section. 

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/forum/7-community/

So it is understandable why LEGO fans here sometimes get fed up with discussion of other brands.

The mods are pretty fair handed when it comes to dealing / moving the out of pace discussions. If it is a little and in context, I don't think most people mind. When it comes over as straight up advertising, they move them. When someone continually posts anti-LEGO and/or pro-other brand threads, they are also likely to get added to ignore lists.

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, Horation said:

You are talking about a counterfeit product here

Well, no, he is not. It is an original product, using non-patented ABS bricks from Gobricks. TLG failed to do this - they had the chance. But instead, they teamed up with the Accor group and made - something.

2 hours ago, Horation said:

I've generally heard bad things about mold king

Well, I can tell you good things about Mould King by experience - Gobricks bricks, the Flying Dutchman, their Orient Express, and so on and so forth. What are the generally bad things you heard? Did you actually "experience" some of their products?

Whatever, here is to feeling good:

Best regards,
Thorsten 

[Black Falcon]

5 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Well, no, he is not. It is an original product, using non-patented ABS bricks from Gobricks. TLG failed to do this - they had the chance. But instead, they teamed up with the Accor group and made - something.

Well I actually like the train Lego made - I am no train expert though, so I might not be as critically as some of the train fans are. Anyways I have no doubt there will be enough people liking it - same as there surely are plenty people liking the Mould King one. 

5 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Well, I can tell you good things about Mould King by experience - Gobricks bricks, the Flying Dutchman, their Orient Express, and so on and so forth. What are the generally bad things you heard? Did you actually "experience" some of their products? 

They are known for stealing Mocs and selling them as their product. Which would be reason enough for me to not give them any money.

[Horation]

14 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Well, no, he is not. It is an original product, using non-patented ABS bricks from Gobricks. TLG failed to do this - they had the chance. But instead, they teamed up with the Accor group and made - something.

Well, sorry I had merely assumed it was a fake, however if they haven't acquired the license for the build, it might still be illegal (except if the copyright has expired, but then why would Lego pay for the License from Accor?)

15 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Well, I can tell you good things about Mould King by experience - Gobricks bricks, the Flying Dutchman, their Orient Express, and so on and so forth. What are the generally bad things you heard? Did you actually "experience" some of their products?

They produce counterfeits-that's bad to me (does the German brick-building community not care about intellectual property as long as they get a few sets they like? I hope y'all do care)

Brickset did a review of a Lepin/Mould King set a few years back, and it was of poor quality : missing parts, deformed parts, etc... And even forums supporting Mould King (ex: r/Lepin) will remind people of the poor customer service, occasional missing parts, bent or broken parts, etc...

Yes, I did "experience" some of their products, I've said so before, the quality is p**s poor, albeit Cobi is just as good as Lego, I will admit (but case in point, it is another European company making their own bricks, so...).

 

[Murdoch17]

11 minutes ago, Horation said:

Well, sorry I had merely assumed it was a fake, however if they haven't acquired the license for the build, it might still be illegal (except if the copyright has expired, but then why would Lego pay for the License from Accor?)

The Orient Express is trademarked, and we know this as LEGO had to pay for the license. The other guy did not pay for it / ask permission, as I doubt LEGO would not have an exclusive contract with the OE's parent company. As for the Flying Dutchman @Toastie pointed out, if that's the one I'm thinking of, (if my memory is right!) it came from the LEGO PoTC game that was ripped out to make a MOC, which was then was stolen by Mould King.

Edited January 14, 2024 by Murdoch17

[Horation]

6 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said:

Exactly. They made the Orient Express. This is trademarked, and we know this as LEGO had to pay for the license. The other guy did not pay for it / ask permission, as I doubt LEGO would not have an exclusive contract with the OE's parent company. As for the Flying Dutchman @Toastie pointed out, if that's the one I'm thinking of, (if my memory is right!) it came from the LEGO PoTC game that was ripped out to make a MOC, which was then was stolen by Mould King / Lepin.

Well, the flying Dutchman and the Bluebrixx Black Pearl ARE illegal, PoTC is a disney license (and a fairly recent one at that, too), so while Lego has to pay millions of dollars to the License holder (and a fee on every sale)-which reduces the budget and profit margin, bluebrixx doesn't, but I never hear German youtubers complaining about that... So I am confident Bluebrixx had more money left over to improve the set...

Edited January 14, 2024 by Horation
forgot something

[Black Falcon]

19 minutes ago, Horation said:

They produce counterfeits-that's bad to me (does the German brick-building community not care about intellectual property as long as they get a few sets they like? I hope y'all do care)

What kind of comment is this please? Do you always infer from one person to whole nations? If you would have read the comment just above yours you would have realised it can´t be like that ;).

4 minutes ago, Horation said:

Well, the flying Dutchman and the Bluebrixx Black Pearl ARE illegal, PoTC is a disney license (and a fairly recent one at that, too), so while Lego has to pay millions of dollars to the License holder (and a fee on every sale)-which reduces the budget and profit margin, bluebrixx doesn't, but I never hear German youtubers complaining about that... So I am confident Bluebrixx had more money left over to improve the set...

Well youtubers that make reviews of Bluebrixx Sets usually are fans of Bluebrixx so they surely don´t care about it - at least when we are talking about the bigger, more famous ones. 

Anyways that Bluebrixx doesn´t care about licensing isn´t new either. They are also known for selling stolen moc (though I don´t think they do this anymore now) but they still are doing unlicensed products.

[Toastie]

52 minutes ago, Horation said:

does the German brick-building community not care about intellectual property as long as they get a few sets they like?

No comment other than: I think you seem to be getting out of your mind. What does the German brick-building community have to do with me, other than I am German? Address me, but please leave the country out of your reasoning. My goodness.

55 minutes ago, Horation said:

a few years back

Time goes by, apparently so slowly, as Madonna said - well, this may be a counterfeit text as well, who knows. Some things advance with time, some remain as is, some decline.

Regards,
Thorsten

[Horation]

5 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

What kind of comment is this please? Do you always infer from one person to whole nations? If you would have read the comment just above yours you would have realised it can´t be like that ;).

 

4 hours ago, Toastie said:

No comment other than: I think you seem to be getting out of your mind. What does the German brick-building community have to do with me, other than I am German? Address me, but please leave the country out of your reasoning. My goodness.

Jesus H Christ, I didn't think I was going to be taken so literally, sorry if I offended anyone, I didn't intend to. 

I wasn't talking about either of you, I was talking about German Youtubers in general, and I was a bit angry (counterfeiters once cost me a job, so....) and I made a hasty generalisation, I will therefore rephrase :

Why do so many in the German Youtube community seem to not care about intellectual property rights? 

@Black Falcon I hadn't even noticed you were German

 @Toastie, partly correct and partly wrong, you said I seem to be getting out of my mind, I was already out of it, so partly correct, but that means I am not getting out of it, I already am so partly wrong

5 hours ago, Toastie said:

Time goes by, apparently so slowly, as Madonna said - well, this may be a counterfeit text as well, who knows. Some things advance with time, some remain as is, some decline.

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 

[Peppermint_M]

Okay guys, I think we need some time to chill out a little. People are getting a little over the top about things, taking misplaced comments seriously and all that. 

Maybe step away for a bit, then come in with fresh heads.