I'm a newbie, help

Valgirl

What is the difference between Best-Lock and Legos, they seem the same? Is it the maker only? I recently purchased a Cobi Best-Lock pirate ship at a garage sale, but I need instructions. Any ideas. thanks for helping grandma here ;)

Matthew

Hi, and Welcome to the forum! I've moved this to Everything Else LEGO .You might like to write an introduction in the Introduce yourself category. In regards to your question, they are basically the same product, but the quality of LEGO is much higher, and as such the price is higher. You'll find here that the members are generally loyal followers of LEGO products.

Matthew

rocao

^ I wouldn't say they're "basically the same product" :P

They are in the same category of toy product: construction sets. LEGO invented their system which became popular, and since success spawns imitation, other companies have entered the market of plastic interlocking bricks. Of course, it behooves them to be compatible with LEGO bricks, meaning the products can be connected together.

There are differences, though. LEGO bricks are built of a higher quality plastic and sets that are 35+ years old are still holding up well. The fit and finish of the bricks are the highest in the industry and it's conventional wisdom that LEGO spends more time and money on set design and play-testing than it's competitors. LEGO also has a highly regarded customer service department that will replace parts and manuals (subject to their availability). These reasons are typically cited when comparing the high cost of LEGO sets against the competitors.

Some competitors measure up ok in some of these categories, but none do it across the board.

As for finding the instructions for that particular Cobi set, you can try their corporate website, although I just looked and the only phone number I found was a Polish one.

Valgirl

Thank you so much. I did notice the quality difference. I recently purchased some totes of misc. legos. Some pieces are from 8877, 7657, 6210, 8778, 7656, 7260, 7706, 7661 and I am just getting started with sorting. How do you identify a piece if it doesn't have or you can not see the item number? Some seem to have only a number like 1-01. Is that the year of issue? I'm not sure how many sets I can complete, my grandson wants it all but he's only 7 and I'm not sure he's old enough to keep everything organized for the future. I love puzzles so this is a challenge I am welcoming. Thanks for any info on identifying parts.