AIBU to give off brand building sets rather than Lego as birthday presents?

[SoManyQuestions52]

Would anyone be offended for their child to receive “fake” off brand ‘Lego’ for their birthday?

I’ve just picked up some really good priced sets in Lidl that I was planning to gift at some the soo many parties we’ve got coming up (mainly 5th birthdays), but then I wondered if that would be offensive or considered cheap?! Photo of one of the sets for reference (not my photo).

I obviously wouldn’t be offended if my little one was gifted something like this but would anyone else be?

Offended - absolutely not.
But my dc when younger were bought off brand Lego stuff and it was shite so it just sadly wouldn’t get used, therefore it was a bit of a waste.

I wouldn’t be offended to be given it but I wouldn’t give it as a present. These sets usually feel very cheap and just don’t fit together well.

Yes but there is a difference and there has been many a legal incident over actual "fake" sets.

Probably better to give £5 and some sweets.
Its not offensive, but I wouldn't want it mixed in with our lego. Experience says that its not great

Agree with majority - I’d test one out first as they’re often really bad.

My son would have been happy with this at 5 but not now at 9 - he has piles of Lego though and builds with it all together. A few offbrand bits have been mixed in and we throw it away when we find a piece as they don’t snap correctly.

It’s a waste of money and we’d smile and say thank you, and then I’d get rid of it as it’s never very good, falls apart and won’t mix properly with branded Lego which my house is full of (autistic kid). We wouldn’t want it mixed in with any real Lego. So, it would be a total waste. But I’d never look ungrateful and would make sure my kid said nothing but thank you with a smile.

We’ve had this lots of times. Wouldn’t bat an eyelid tbh. Lego is so expensive!

I mean an autistic person or a major Lego enthusiast want actual Lego. I can’t imagine most people giving a shit. I would though as a both love Lego and am autistic.

No one is telling her to buy Lego though. Just buy something else that won’t fall apart, or give £5 in a card or a £10 cinema voucher with a bag of popcorn or something.

Fake can mean both things - a counterfeit version (ie, a dodgy version) and an off-brand copy, which this is.

As others have said they are usually cheap for a reason. I wouldn’t be offended if I received it but I would be telling my child don’t be surprised if the bricks don’t stay together like Lego and/or the instructions are hard to follow. Buying these cheap alternatives makes you realise just how good and well designed lego is.

It's not offensive because it's a cheaper brand. It is if it's rubbish to build with. Have you tried sets from that brand? We grew out of the Lego phase a few years ago, but we had quite a few Asda sets. They were fine, especially mixed in with real Lego. Wilko did a brand called Blox, and they were truly horrid. Just badly cut, the "bumps" were always slightly small for the "holes" so nothing was ever strong, and a few layers up, everything would collapse! Even mixing it with real Lego didn't go that well. If it's a decent knock off, it's good, if you aren't sure you risk buying something cheap that doesn't really work which would be a shame.

Honestly in our house it would end up being regifted or going to the charity shop.

I don’t want non Lego getting mixed in with the Lego.

If you’ve purchased loads to give out though you’ll end up known of the mum who gives everyone cheap Lego. Rather than a gift that is for that actual child from your child knowing what they like.

Lulipo is fine. Shein building sets are shite on the other hand, steer clear.

If you know the specific alternative brand and know it builds ok, it's ok.
I might be a bit annoyed, as it means paying extra attention so it doesn't get mixed with real lego, but if it builds ok, it's valid.

If you haven't tried the specific brand, there's a chance it will be crap.

I wouldn’t be offended if someone gave this to my DC, especially at a class birthday party from someone who doesn’t know my DC well, but I wouldn’t be feeling enthusiastic about it either.

We have lots of Lego and the off brand sets are rarely as good. Although we’ve not tried this brand.

I wouldn't be offended and I would never be rude about it, but it would likely go straight to the charity shop unopened. As lots of pp have said, fake Lego is almost always poorer quality than 'real' Lego and it's really annoying when it makes it's way into the Lego collection so I'd not want it to mix in. I'm a Lego purist!

No, definitely not offensive…I would say a good gift if you have a lot of class parties to go to. Generic gifts when you don’t know the children well are fine.

On a side note, a PP asked how can a gift be offensive. It reminded me of when my 6yo DD was given the free tat from the front of a magazine for her birthday! I’ll admit to being slightly offended by that…I wouldn’t have been offended by no gift, but this was frankly bizarre! And they were not a hard-up family…the Mum was just someone who was quite rude generally and acted like she didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone!

Not at all offensive and should be gratefully received. However, as a die hard Lego fan (see name above) I have to say that you do get what you pay for and ‘flego’ sets aren’t quite as sturdy or good quality.
Absolutely fine for a birthday gift for a classmate though.

It's interesting as I prefer the Mega Brand Pokémon sets to the Lego ones.
I was so excited when I heard Lego had the licence to Pokémon but have been very disappointed with their sets.
I am overjoyed when I come across an old Mega Brand set in a shop.

Our massive lego collection is about 2/3 fake, and for our purposes it's fine. However, my kids mostly play in a chuck it all in a box and free build type of way. If you want to build the thing on the box, the off brand instructions are usually a bit tricky to follow, especially at 5.

If someone is a LEGO fan then this isn’t any good. If they are not, it’s probably fine.

As long as it's decent quality and compatible fully with the "real" Lego, then no problem. But what I always found annoying as a child, and did my utmost to avoid happening to our DS was getting crap quality stuff, i.e. building bricks that didn't "stick" together properly, or things that you couldn't mix with other things to make bigger/better models, etc. Eg, with our son, we found that "unbranded" wooden toy trains worked perfectly well with the branded Brio trains, so DS ended up with a huge layout of a mix of Brio and (mostly Tesco) supermarket stuff.

I'm surprised at all the posters saying the fake ones are crap - it must depend on the brand. We had some 'fake' sets from Tesco - a police station and fire station with several associated vehicles - and they were brilliant, wouldn't know the difference. And we've got loads of real Lego!

Id test a brand before I gifted it. Most of the ones I have tried have been really annoying - not compatible with Lego even when they say they are, poor instructions, bricks that don't click together cleanly, or just poorer design (fiddly or weird angles).