Fakes? IMPORTANT!

[Front]

Small companies that produces bricks to be used together with Lego parts, may not comply with safety standards. If some kid get hurt by such products, they may think it's the fault of Lego.

Edited February 12, 2010 by Front

[Blondie-Wan]

Probably nothing stopping people doing so, but I would imagine the match wouldn't be that exact.

As regards old sets - there is already the problem that the set may not have genuine parts, in the sense that though all parts may be Lego, they may not be the correct vintage (many Lego parts have subtly changed over the years - even normal bricks have changed, as well as almost all parts being produced in softer/shinier/slightly translucent plastic in recent years).

I'm not particularly worried about that; to me, LEGO is LEGO, and if I buy or trade for a used set from someone, it's pretty much as if I got a bunch of loose parts anyway. Once they go into my collection, all my red 1x2 bricks (for example) are red 1x2 bricks, and I'll treat them accordingly, even if I can tell what era they're from; they're all fair game for my MOCs. For the purposes of inventorying my collection on Peeron, if I acquire a used set and it's clear to me that the elements aren't all the exact same ones that would have come in the original set box but instead are equivalent pieces from other eras, I'll list it in my collection as individual loose bricks rather than as the set.

What I'm worried about is people making counterfeit copies of parts and passing them off as actual LEGO. If a set or part is particularly rare and valuable, how can I be sure it's the genuine article? Surely, old sets and parts like cypress trees and monorail elements must be valuable enough that someone with access to the same sort of equipment as BrickForge or BrickArms might be able to turn a profit turning out exact replicas on the sly, and passing them off into the market as real cypress trees and monorail track. Perhaps someone can even print out copies of vintage boxes and seal baggies and whatnot and recreate entire sets of, say, '70s vintage. If I decide to go after something commanding a high price (not likely in the near future, given my finances, but someday), how can I know I'm getting the genuine article and not a high-quality knockoff?

[angel1802]

Your english is hurting, this doesn't make sense.

Be indulgent it's not his native tongue . Saying that because it's the same for me. Already in France people think like this and it's really frustrating when someone is making a coment but doesn't really help. Bref, i didn't really undernstand (n)either

But if you can help, i will personally be happy to learn more

[JayDuck]

Do you comply them with your pieces?

Your english is hurting, this doesn't make sense.

I don't want to turn this into a 'pile on Big Cam' discussion, because I doubt he meant to pick on Dr. Kilroy, but I don't think the the good Doctor was really that far off. If you change 'do' to 'did' and replace 'comply' with 'compare' to make it read "Did you compare them with your pieces?", the question is just fine. It's just a little problem with verbs, which aren't exactly the easiest part of the English language to work with.

Now, with that sorted out, back to discussing the potential hazards of unmarked Lego.

[oxidonis2008]

Hm...

[Shroud]

I have seen some people paint their lego to cover symbols...