Decool figures review, The trial of the enemy!

[BigPoppaBrick]

Some good posts on this thread and I appreciated the comparison at the start.

People are free to do what they wish to obtain the collection of their choice, be that bootlegs, customs or SDCC exclusives.

I actually think some of the SY ones are better print quality than the lego equivalents.

[hollisbrick]

I have the Winter Soldier Deecool figure and it's actually not too bad.

Could someone tell me where to get the SY ones? I can't seem to find them when I search.

[BigPoppaBrick]

I have the Winter Soldier Deecool figure and it's actually not too bad.

Could someone tell me where to get the SY ones? I can't seem to find them when I search.

eBay and search superhero miniatures then scroll through and see what takes your fancy. If you order from someone in UK you will pay more.

I usually order direct from a seller in China, takes longer but it's a lot cheaper. Got all the recent avenger figures for £4.50.

[dirk]

if you're a lego purist, you won't like any of these.

http://lotsoflegos.blogspot.ca/2014/09/sheng-yuan-young-justice-superheroes.html

[legofreak86]

I'm just going to say, I went to London Film And Comic Con this weekend and saw these first hand for sale. A selection of the fakes weren't half bad but a lot of them weren't of satisfactory quality. I did however see a couple of big figs, custom or fake I could not determine but I did out of curiosity buy a big fig The Thing, and to be quite honest on quality comparison with my Lego Hulk big Fig, it is surprisingly pretty much identical, joint wise, moulding of the body parts was pretty much identical to Lego and the moulding of rocky texture was quite impressive, its pretty sturdy like Lego, facial printing was very crisp and Lego like and it meshes well with my other big figs. The minifigures I wasn't keen on upon seeing them so I didn't get any of those cause they didn't look like Lego enough convincingly, the big fig I got however of the thing is pretty much identical. It hasn't got the Lego mark on the underside of the foot but its literally identical, the plastic feels the same and looks the same as the stuff Lego uses. I mean I'm not endorsing the bootleggers, but I am saying if this was a bootleg Thing big fig then it was pretty much Lego standard. The normal figures aren't anywhere near but the big figs are almost 100 percent. I did change out the connectors holding the arms in with Lego and this made them a tad less loose but that was an easy fix and it moves just as well as my official Lego big figs. I'm not planning to buy anymore but it actually fits in really well with my collection surprisingly.

[crossmr]

The licenses are held by Lego on release from Marvel or DC and as such the right to replicate those characters either in hard plastic form or digitally in a game belongs to Lego.

That may or may not be true. Have you seen the actual license? The legal version of it? Marvel got into a lot of issues with their existing IPs (think spiderman) because of some old bad deals they made and they can't get out of now. Now that they are kicking butt in the movies, they want to do the same with spiderman but fought over it for years because they made a stupid deal long ago.

Perhaps now they made a better deal with Lego. Perhaps Lego has a very limited license and maybe it's not on Lego to actually go after the Chinese company in this case. Lego's patents are expired, so I don't believe they can go after them just for making a minifigure with the same dimensions as theirs. So the only infringing part is the marvel part and perhaps lego's license to make these figures doesn't give them permission to go after people who infringe. Perhaps that right belongs to Marvel and Marvel doesn't feel like doing it for whatever reason. Any super heroes that were not on Lego's roster would be outside an agreement that did let them go after an infringer as they'd only have license to the ones they actual use.

I would say it's more likely that whoever is in charge has decided that these are to be tolerated. I would guess it's not Lego's call and Marvel is behind it and they know that Asia and other countries where these are popular are big money markets for their movies. Americans generally have to pay more to import them, in other countries they're just sold on the street.

[fred67]

Last month TLG won (in the EU, anyway) trademark status on minifigures, so they could go after anybody importing in the EU if they wanted to.

Edit: I would add that, perhaps (like Microsoft), allowing clones/copies/IP infringement might be beneficial to certain companies, especially in largely low-income countries, by helping to keep their IP in people's minds, so that when movies and other official products pass by people might be more inclined to buy them.

Edited July 23, 2015 by fred67

[crossmr]

Last month TLG won (in the EU, anyway) trademark status on minifigures, so they could go after anybody importing in the EU if they wanted to.

Edit: I would add that, perhaps (like Microsoft), allowing clones/copies/IP infringement might be beneficial to certain companies, especially in largely low-income countries, by helping to keep their IP in people's minds, so that when movies and other official products pass by people might be more inclined to buy them.

I just read that now. Best-lock is planning an appeal, and they do have trademark, not a patent on it. They could go after importers, but that would involve going after individual fans who also buy Lego products. This will be interesting.It's also my understanding that under trademark law you must defend it for it to be considered valid or else it becomes useless. It seems like Best-lock is the one who initiated this, and not the other way around. If Lego wasn't actively suing Best-lock and others who used that exact minifigure shape in their towns in the EU since being granted the trademark, it might come back to bite them. This probably explains why Oxford's minifigures are slightly different. They have rounded feet, slightly recessed legs, and a different torso connector. They might have more luck arguing the trademark has been diluted by common usage, then to argue that it's just the same as a 2x4 block. Oxford's minifigures prove that argument wrong,

That aside, that ruling only helps them in the EU and not in China which wouldn't help them go after decool and the like. Which would leave any suing back on Marvel's doorstep and not Lego's. The best lego could do is get an injunction that would prevent them being imported into the EU.

[JDL1967]

I am not into lego minifigs, city, heroes and so on, but in to technic. The decool bricks look perfecly the same as Lego. But..... it isint lego. If you look good, youll see that all the colors are a little bit more glossy than lego. The reason for that is "cheap plastics" lego buys his pallats from the Sabic company. The produce in strikt protocalls on helth, envoirment ans so on. I now for a fact that the plastics from China are not produced that way. What i like to no is, contains the plastic from "decool" no toxic componants? I work in the heavy chemical industrie, and have a vieuw collegs ho has worked in China in the plants ho produce plastics, and it issend what we are used to. So maybe we must think about that before we buy a set for are kids. I woudend be the first time that there are dangerous products from China in ower stores ho are later taken away. I will stick with lego, for the brand, te quilaty and ofcors the reminder to my youth. And as i look on marktplaats ( the Dutch Ebay) there are other brands ho sell bricks for sale. But the are vieuwt minor and also low in offerring.

[Sven F]

I am very sorry any topics glorifying or justifying illegal copying of licensed merchandise is allowed here.

It's just drawing in more people who support this market... and to choose my words carefully, it's not the most "mature" sort of crowd if I may share my observations.

[Robianco]

I am very sorry any topics glorifying or justifying illegal copying of licensed merchandise is allowed here.

It's just drawing in more people who support this market... and to choose my words carefully, it's not the most "mature" sort of crowd if I may share my observations.

Whether or not there should be discussions of bootleg material allowed on the forum I'd say that you should spend some time around the Licensed and Star Wars forums around the times of leaks if you want to see some real immaturity. I've visited the bootleg discussion thread regularly since it started and there's far less of the 'entitled five year old' behaviour there than at various times throughout the year in the yearly rumour threads.

Some people may choose to only visit those threads and as such the community posts don't count towards your total EB post count but as long as the threads remain then people who are interested will visit them.

[dirk]

Regarding the toxicity of non Lego bricks, does anyone work in the testing field whereby they could test the plastics that are being used? I'm sure there must be a reason why they are so cheap and I wonder if it comes at the expense of our health. I'd like some peace of mind or assurance that the plastic is ok.

Edited January 16, 2016 by dirk

[Robianco]

I know there are videos posted on YouTube of someone testing some bricks for traces of things like lead and they came up clear.