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Well, when I say real, I mean "they already advertise it now, and will post it to you as soon as they have figured out how to actually produce it". That's usually a couple of weeks after the release of the actual Lego set.
Other less clear areas like Star Wars, Marvel, as mentioned here will have to depend on Disney and Marvel to do the suing, if there is intention to do so.
Being competitive is not just about dropping prices per se. Samsung is being competitive when they go against Apple, Microsoft is being competitive when they go against Sony in the video game business. These companies can set their products at certain pricing and at the same time be competitive and still make a profit.
Of course in a monopoly industry with no real threat to your product line, you can price it as high as you want.
Though once the product is released, I won't be surprised the Lepin version will be out almost just as quickly, like a few weeks after.
See how it goes?
You can defend a toy company till kingdom come and nothing will change, people will just go on living their life, and spending their hard-earned money however they want.
Peace out bro.
It is a presell item at the moment, but will turn into an "Actuals" once they have the instructions and knowledge of all the parts.
Interesting tidbit perhaps: Lepin has now also got a version of Anio's great MOC of the Venator Class Star Destroyer, set number 05077.
The funny part is, I bought the instructions from Anio a while ago and started sourcing the missing parts (which were more than I first thought, it has a total of about 5500 after all, and I "only" had about 75 percent of those) via BL and Lego B&P.
By now I have most of them, except for some of the most expensive ones. At that point I thought how great it would be if there had been a Lepin version of that MOC from the start. And boom, now there is.
But the interesting thing is, Lepin seems to have changed Anio's design quite a bit. Their version has almost 1000 more parts, and several areas of the ship are in fact very different from Anio's version. One change they seem to have made, judging by the pictures, is that the exchanged the very rare completely light bluish grey small antennas with base for the standard light bluish grey base with black antennas. When sourcing the parts for my project, I bought the standard antennas as well, but painted the black bits in light bluish grey with acrylic paint. The now look like the real thing. Thank god for that, as these are so hard to come by and expensive, and you need several dozens of them too. So even buying the Lepin version wouldn't have helped ;-)
I know, but the problem is that I need more than 80 of them, and even the light grey ones are only cheap when you need less than 10. Painting black ones was the far cheaper option. I know, purists might flinch, but I don't care, as long as it's Lego and the overall look is the same...
I also plan to modify Anio's instructions where he used the 4188676 tan plate for magnets, which only appeared in 10030 ISD and which cost more than 5 Euro apiece on BL currently, even in different colours. I'm sure I'm going to find a solution though. It's Lego after all ;-)
If an AFOL had posted the Lepin version as a MOC on Ideas, would you call it a rip-off of Anio's Venator? Or maybe it's a ripoff of one of the other MOCs of that ship, since there are many of them posted online. Building the different versions side-by-side would be interesting, to see how similar (and how different) the actual build process is. The end result is obviously similar, as they both depict the same ship.
They are also doing what quite a few people have wanted LEGO to do ... fleshie historic characters and parts.
The first head is a bit goofy, and they've ripped off brickwarriors spear, helmet, cloak and shield but these will probably sell quite well. If only lego could catch up.
They've got a nice roman 'skirt' with fleshie legs too.
And a different era, but ... LEGO why can't you do prints like this?
Isn't it equally likely that there is a group of folks that work for LEPIN that saw a dozen MOCs of the Venator posted on the net and made their own version by taking ideas from all of them? There are already AFOLs selling the rights to their MOCs to Chinese manufacturers, so it is not really a stretch to think that Lepin could have a few designers on the payroll, even if those designers would rather be working for Lego. Not everybody gets to work in there dream job, and designing sets for Lepin may be as close to being a Lego designer as some people will ever get. Sort of like a vegan working in a steakhouse - not the gig they wanted, but it beats being hungry.
The varying alternative parts needed to replace the magnets would also explain away some of the extra parts are required on the copy. It would be interesting just from a nosey point of view to see the two parts lists and the differences between the two.
Looks like Lepin is starting to copy other sets just based off an image. I hopped on AliExpress to check a couple things and i found something interesting. Lepin Set # 18030. "Minecraft Peak Cave Farm" for 41, available now. The set looks an awful lot like one of the builds for The Minecraft Lego Crafting box 2.0 set that's not supposed to be out until August.
That doesnt sum up to the big part count difference though since it was only a few axles, adapters and turntables each aka 10 or so parts per holder, there were 2 types and total was 8 to 10 holders.
I think they meant Leonidas, which should be inaccurately translated to 'Lemonade'.
And since I have a degree in Classical Civilization, I am offended by the wanton historical inaccuracy.
I'm Batman.
The inability to watch any Roman/ Gladiatorial/ Middle Ages based media without wincing at the wild innaccuracies always grinds my gears (and even more so the other poor bastards around me who have to listen to it)! It seems even when they go close to getting it right eg - correct armouring and military structure - they then go and get the socio-political stuff all wrong or vice versa.
My two REAL personal bugbears are represented right here. Firstly, the assumption that Spartacus was a Spartan from Sparta (Gotta be bro - THE PLACE IS EVEN IN HIS NAME) and secondly, the depiction of Gladiators as lithe, stacked and toned cross fit instructors (instead of goddam tanks)!
To drag the post back on topic - I'm constantly surprised the cloners haven't released large Star Wars, LOTR (or real life for that matter) battle packs - I think they're genuinely missing a trick. They could sell a veritable SHIPLOAD to those that don't care and quite probably tempt a few purists in the process.
I'm Brian...and so's my wife!
Ever since I can remember, I've always had a love of history, a part from sci-fi & non-fiction science books, our bookshelves have a somewhat eclectic selection of books on various elements of history. While I may not have a degree, I have many times over the years found myself curious about things that come up in conversations, this usually ends up with me spending weeks, even months researching, amongst other things, various time periods & cultures from previous historic eras (it's a good thing I can function on about four hours sleep a night). There are times that the historical inaccuracies that are perpetrated in books, tv shows & films drive me crazy, as does peoples' lack of knowledge at times about history, especially when they claim to love that historical culture/era.
Totally get where you're coming from @MAGNINOMINISUMBRA on the whole Spartacus/Sparta thing, what part of Spartacus was a Thracian, not a Spartan don't these people get. Another one that does my head in at times is the whole Herakles/Hercules thing, one of the kids in my high school used go on about how one of his ancestors was purportedly one of the Argonauts (apparently it was a family legend), yet he'd say Hercules, not Herakles. People with attitudes like "I'm blah & it's part of blah culture/history, so I think if anyone would know, it's me," can be seriously painful when dealing with lack of historical knowledge.
i do kind of feel sorry for people who have stories like this due to 'family legends'. For most People it's natural to believe the things their family and forebears before them tell them, and it's a base human desire to want to feel like part of the bigger picture.
Not so different to the fact that every second persons Grandad was a Commando during the War. A quick internet search later - Sorry mate, your Pop was a cook on Troop ship.
Oh, wait...
(Are we talking different Adams?)
I have a pretty mixed ancestry, but I wouldn't claim expert knowledge of any of my ancestral roots. For example, just a few years ago, I learnt that my dad's mother was actually Jewish & that her parents lived somewhere in Russia, before the rise of Communism & that like a number of other Russian Jews, her parents fled to England from Russia, for fear of persecution from the Communists. During the all lessons in year ten history about Communist Russia, we never touched on the fact that there was a Jewish exodus from Russia during the revolution...
(And I doubt anyone is going to appreciate a Don Ameche/Steve Guttenberg reference.)
Lepin has changed quite a lot more than just those holders, judging by the pictures of the actual set on AliExpress, for example here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Lepin-05077-Genuine-Star-War-Series-The-UCS-Rupblic-Star-Destroyer-Cruiser-ST04-Set-Building-Blocks/2658171_32798480412.html
Some interesting details even like opening cargo bay doors, and some quite different detailing around the rear end and the engines. I still much prefer the original though.
Otoh they also simplified certain things, like only using 4x4 trans-light-blue discs for the engines, instead if 4x4s AND 3x3s.
It is amazing how quick they get the knock-offs out these days. And more variants than lego would ever do.