Counterfeit Toys 1: Fake Lego
I love Lego, I love counterfeit/bootleg toys and I certainly
love this.
I got this last year in some gicky Euro-World. It's called
I got this last year in some gicky Euro-World. It's called
'Happy kingdom-Blue Sheild attack'. And in the finest
tradition of knock-off toys, the packaging is just
as important as the product. This fake Lego, made by
Wange Toys , is billing itself as an educational toy and
comes with following statement:
'Various change is beneficial to increase intelligence
illimitable originality to build happy childhood'
Indeed. For a while I'd pick up ANY bootleg toy
I'd see regardless of size and price until they
started to add up space-wise, so now I have to be
very discerning. During my binge I came across
every conceivable knock-off and cash-in from
Pokemon to Spawn. But this is the first fake Lego
I've seen. Maybe it's a sharp toy manufacturer who's
been keeping up with the continuing Lego patents
thing; Lego has been gradually losing it's patent
rights throughout the world and last year the
Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Mega Bloks
'has the commercial freedom to market their
construction bricks' which are compatable with
honest to goodness Lego blocks. Long winded pdf
It's something I've always wondered about; how could
Mega Bloks and Kubricks operate legally if their product
obviously infringed on the Big L? Seems like it was a
mixture of copyright expiration and the fact that Lego
has evolved into something way more than a kid's toy
and passed into world consciousness.
Here's a story of how 10 tons of counterfeit lego was
seized and burned to heat homes in Finland
My views on the current state of lego are known.
Expect more Lego postings here in the run up to
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4 Comments:
I keep finding rogue pieces of Tente in mine...
Bob sez: Jaysis! Tente, what the fuck was that all about? Lego's poor cousin for ages, either a space ship or an ocean liner.I'm off to google it
Being here in Norwich, I'm quite Great Yarmouth, what is it about seaside towns and bootleg toys, Portrush was the same, I have soem of the monstrosities documented on this great bootleg toy site. I love Robert Cop 3 and the mysterious Silverbat!, it makes about as much sense as some of the Elseworld stuff.
Bob sez: yeah thats a great site. I'm going to put a whole new section here for bootleg toys and
some of the funnier mistakes made
by manufacturers working from my designs for tourist products
http://clamnuts.com/rants/2006/01/waterball-product-design.html
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