Has anybody bought the knock off lego...

[guiltynetter]

From Wish? Im looking at lego friends sets for my daughter and the ones on there are so much cheaper (think £18 instead of £60) but are they absolutely awful? They have some good reviews but I can't help thinking they might be fake reviews . Here's an example of one I was looking at

dl.wish.com/326kj

Any comments would be appreciated!

I haven’t but I really, really wouldn’t. It won’t be the same.

There’s a reason Lego lasts for decades. It’s far better to have fewer sets but superior quality.

All knockoff lego is awful in my experience, it just doesn't click together in the same way. Don't waste your money.

Try AliExpress! We’ve had lots and lots of sets from them. Things you need to be prepared for - they may or may not come in numbered bags - can make builds more tricky for little ones as you can end up with all the bits “out” at once. They tend not to come in boxes but a big bag. The branding is slightly different. Saying that we’ve had loads of great sets and most of the time there’s no noticeable difference from real Lego bricks.

Personally, I've never found a decent cheap replica (including aliexpress).

I bought a minecraft knock off from Ali express and ds hasn’t complained whilst building it. But it’s blocky by design. I probably wouldn’t risk a Death Star or anything intricate/fiddly

I had a minecraft one that seemed ok to me. Dd didn’t comment on it not being real Lego!

Yes quite a lot, including the huge Hogwarts Castle and some of the large Ciry buildings (cinema, restaurant). They've all been great. But delivery costs can be quite high and they can take a while to arrive.

I bought ds fake Lego when he was too young to know the difference and it is the bane of his life now because the pieces are all mixed in with the real Lego.

It probably depends on whether you’re buying for a build-and-display-it type of builder or a creative builder who will eventually harvest pieces for a new creation.

Since Lego moved their manufacturing to China, the quality of flego has improved. I have a Christmas set that’s very good. One point to note is that it didn’t come in numbered bags so there was a lot more sorting than normal. It’s not a problem to an experienced and quick builder, but might be too frustrating for someone working more slowly.

They won't necessarily meet safety standards. There might be harmful levels of chemicals in the plastic. It is likely to break/snap more easily if stepped on or I've even had some of the Wilko stuff snap just from being built incorectly and then trying to separate stuck pieces

Second hand is better if you want to save money although it's not quite as cheap as the knock offs.

We bought one from AliExpress and I was really impressed with both the quality of the bricks and the design/set - not noticeably different from Lego. Compared to some of the crappy sets we’ve had before (Wilko bloc etc) it was so much better

I bought some and it doesn't "click" particularly well with genuine Lego so if you hope to upgrade to genuine Lego at any point then you won't be able to mix the bricks together.

I would either buy genuine Lego sets which are half price periodically in Argos and Amazon or buy sets off Ebay.

I bought 15kg of geniune Lego on Ebay for £150. I got bricks not sets with booklets (which were much more expensive) and just bought a Lego building book to go with it.

Thanks for the replies!

Differing opinions although mostly good I think. I've never used Ali express so I will have a look on there. We have real lego - quite a few of the lego friends sets. I found when she tried to play with them things fell off constantly! Shes after a 'big one' meaning a £60-£70 like a hospital or a big house. She builds, keeps it for a few months and then breaks it down to make into different things.

@roses2

I bought some and it doesn't "click" particularly well with genuine Lego so if you hope to upgrade to genuine Lego at any point then you won't be able to mix the bricks together.

I would either buy genuine Lego sets which are half price periodically in Argos and Amazon or buy sets off Ebay.

I bought 15kg of geniune Lego on Ebay for £150. I got bricks not sets with booklets (which were much more expensive) and just bought a Lego building book to go with it.

I've never managed to see lego sets half price does it happen often? Even at Christmas, big toy sales etc they always seem to be just about 15 to 20% off.

I would keep an eye out on this website which posts national bargains / sales etc. You can setup a search alter so anytime something with the Lego tag comes up you will get an alert:

www.hotukdeals.com/tag/lego

No, don't do it.

Second hand Lego instead and put it through the dishwasher in a wash bag. It'll be like new.

50% is a bit hopeful alright. I find brickset’s amazon tracker quite good as it colour codes the best deals. Pre-Brexit you could often pick up a bargain on the other European sites but it’s still good for monitoring Amazon uk.

bricklink is a good site for buying second hand

Lego holds value well, and as an investment (selling unopened boxes sets) has been comparable with gold over the last few years.

If you’re after a particular set second hand, look it up on the brickset website (search by the set number) and you’ll get an idea of its value second hand so you can judge if you’re getting a bargain or it’s over priced.

The main problem with fake lego apart from sharper edges, it being harder to click together and the colours being not quite so vibrant is the instructions. No-one does instructions like lego - those people are genius and nothing compares. Ours is mixed in and you can always tell the difference by feel. We don't mind it though.

I wouldn’t buy flego. Buy her the set she wants. It will last for decades.

But if you do want to buy some hair to see what it’s like then I recommend AliExpress. Filter by cheapest and free postage.

The Wilko blox sets aren't bad but they don't look as nice. Might be better to invest in normal lego - good news is some sets go down in the sales and black Fridays etc. Like I'm sure the lego friends camping set has gone down in price over certain events in argos, smyths etc x

Bought from Ali express and it was good. We got the Black Pearl and some Minecraft stuff

I got this for my almost 4yo dd. She loves playing with her older sisters Lego but looses bits. It was cheaper than the duplo set we bought her that only has a few pieces to it. She loves playing with it and I don’t care if she looses bits of it. I’ve not tried using it with real Lego. DH said the instructions weren’t the best he had to wing it a lot.

I lived in China for 12 years and bought many sets of Lepin (chinese Lego ) for dd. Never had problems with the quality or pieces fitting together and instructions were fine. The only negative was that pieces tended to come in huge bags and sorting took a long time, especially with the Death Star and 5000 pieces!

Wilko Lego is great!

There's a brand called Cobi, it's Polish I think and the quality of that was really good.