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it would be IMPOSSIBLE for the Worlds most popular single toy brand to be counterfeited. It's not like their strongly guarded designs, moulds and manufacturing processes are being pumped out of a factory in somewhere like China or something!
Oh...
(I am exaggerating of course)
It makes me feel better that even though I don't get to regularly go to a LEGO store I have frequent access to healthy clearance prices on a number of desirable sets. It makes the hobby $ go further. I realize the clearance prices are also a luxury in their own right.
I live 20 minutes from a Lego Store. I have to be very careful as to how often I go there, otherwise I'd have very little money left!
Not because I'd spend it on Lego - I'm very disciplined that way, but it's too close to Pandora, Lindt, Fossil, Swarovski and SuperDry!
It does say on the website (I didn't put the link on here on purpose as I didn't want to encourage purchases) that an extra 30 days should be added for delivery due to being a "presell" item.
Photoshopped or not, the images look like they been taken straight off the LEGO images.
As far as the Behind the scenes theory there's people on the "Every Brick Group" on facebook, including me, who strongly believe that there's no such thing as a separate company called "Lepin" but instead Lepin is nothing but a secret/hidden branch to the Lego company.
As far as the box, that's part of what's driving me nuts. I can find results for Lepin mountain cave boxes but no official info so i don't know if its a real deal or not. Hope it is b/c i REALLY want that set
https://brickset.com/article/23648/the-lego-group-takes-action-against-clone-brand-lepin
to date, the only fake legos buying I've been doing is some figures and a set of knock off dino's i got while at comic con last year.
Honestly i'd rather buy the real deal from lego since they bags tend to be numbered but the problem is that I did the math plus checked though the site. After tax, it would be 276.36 for the set which is a bit steep for my wallet.
Utterly and completely insane theories, but it would help explain why there has been no report at all that Disney, who defend their IP against mom-and-pop bakers, has taken legal action against LEPIN for copyright infringement.
I doubt Lego is in danger. There's way to many people out there Loyal to Lego branded stuff.
After seeing this new Ninjago set hit the Lepin market, I thought I'd take a peek to see what things were selling for now, seven months later.
I can confirm that, in all but one modular set, prices for Lepin sets have increased on average by 18% (a low of 10% and a high of 30%). Assembly Square came onto the scene at the $150 range. Obviously the market is appreciating for these sets, despite what several comments in this thread would suggest.
I'm not really saying all this for or against Lepin. Just an interesting observation I made. To be honest, if the quality is as good as most say it is, then I can see it quite easy for them to start to justify the price increases. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until another "Lepin" comes in and undercuts their profits, but the cycle will only continue.
Even Lego is, as far as I'm aware, still in the process of preparing its case against Lepin, and their products are the ones being more directly infringed. I think it's a little premature to assume that Disney's lack of publicly visible action is an indication of complacency or permissiveness.
I still think one of the main reasons the Star Wars sale went through was that Disney was the only real life company evil enough to embody the Dark lords interests.
Take it what you will.
For US$16 more, you can even opt for the B version with lighting. AFAIK, the lighting set is not sold separately.
Lepin is slowly introducing B versions of their Modular Buildings with lighting, correct parts and numbered bags.
It will be interesting when they redo Cafe Corner.
TLG is fighting back by shutting down pro-Lepin discussion sites. :-) If people don't find out about it, they won't be able to buy it.
After seeing a L*pin rip-off of #4000007 Ole Kirk's House, nothing surprises me anymore. You care enough about Lego that you want to build the house of TLG's founder, but by paying a Chinese rip-off company?!
New prices. I'm pretty darn sure prices on some stuff over on AliExpress is starting to show up at slightly higher prices then b4. Aftermarket? I really have no clue since I've heard people on facebook selling stuff but i don't know what they sold it for
LEPIN photo apparently stolen from brickfanatics article
http://www.brickfanatics.co.uk/the-lego-group-unveil-lego-ideas-21310-old-fishing-store/
Why bother? Everyone and their mother knows at this point that Lepin copies Lego sets. It would seem an exercise in futility to waste your finite time on earth emailing Lego about something they already know.
On a different avenue, I never really considered conspiracy theories regarding Lepin. As some others have pointed out, the speed at which Lepin produces sets, as well as the breadth of current and retired copied sets that are offered, is pretty astounding. It seems hard to believe that any company could do this without some fairly deep pockets funding their operation. To think that there is a chance this funding originates from a familiar source is intriguing!
Based on what I've seen, it seems like the molding points (or whatever those are called) on individual Lepin pieces are different than those on Lego pieces, which leads me to believe that they are not likely produced at a facility that also makes Lego pieces. Also, the clutch power and overall quality seems to be very slightly less than Lego.
You can setup a big industrial region in China and then overnight they will duplicate an exact version of the whole region right next to yours producing the same products.
Given how fast Lepin is able to produce all the Lego sets I'm not surprised the government may have a hand in it.
Suing Lepin is useless, they can just drop the brand name and change it to Lepon or something and with the exact same manufacturing plants start producing the sets again.
What TLG CAN do is to be more competitive in terms of price and, as what they're doing now, produce more sets that use new patent protected part designs. This way they have the legal rights to sue whoever uses the new parts. This is the main reason why we're seeing new sets deviating further and further away from using standard bricks. The upcoming Ninjago City set is a good example.
Sets build with legal bricks (i.e. expired patents) are technically legal to manufacture by any company.
I absolutely agree with the first paragraph above, and I've stated pretty much the same thing a couple of times previously.
The second part of your post sort of contradicts the first, though. If a Chinese company can and does copy any part, what good does it do to have it patent-protected? It will still be copied without consequence!
So you are suggesting that they drop prices to combat the fakes? What about the costs of product design, advertising, national and international regulations and so on?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Lepin-16050-Old-Fishing-Store-building-bricks-blocks-Toys-for-children-boys-Game-Model-Gift-Compatible/32818188947.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.1.xNYjXg&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10152_10065_10151_10130_10068_10192_10190_10301_10136_10137_10303_10060_10155_5220020_10062_437_10154_10056_5210020_10055_10054_10059_303_5290020_9914_100031_10099_10103_10102_10096_10052_10053_10050_10107_10142_10051_5340020_5280011_10084_10083_10119_10080_10082_10081_5260020_5270020_5320020_10110_10111_519_10112_10113_10114_10179_10182_10184_10078_10079_5350020_5240020_5230020_10073_10123_10120_5250020_10189_142-9914,searchweb201603_9,ppcSwitch_5&btsid=73795568-8f1b-4c86-8646-44a6af623d8e&algo_expid=5dd0429f-325b-4711-9ff0-97c69a42af6b-0&algo_pvid=5dd0429f-325b-4711-9ff0-97c69a42af6b