Christmas 2014 greeted me with a coveted LEGO Ecto-1 from the LEGO Ideas catalog. For those unaware, ‘Ideas’ is a crowdsourcing campaign that LEGO set up many months ago. It essentially is a “built it and pitch it” program where anyone can show LEGO their creations, gain support and then have the marketing team over at Billund ‘productize’ it. The ECTO-1 from, a fanboy standpoint, is an instant win for such a campaign.
Got hold of a some flora and fauna from the Lego Certified Store in Bonifacio Global City and paired these up with bricks I got from BrickOwl. I needed to organize my work desk so instead of using a mug to stack pens, (MUGS ARE FOR DRINKING!) functional LEGO should suffice. This is actually a practice build for an ocean coast + cliffs that I intend to use with the Metalbeard Sea Cow set I got for my birthday back in 2013, but only had time to build about a year and a half later.
They go by many names:
Pirated LEGO.
Cheap LEGO knock offs.
China-made LEGO.
LEGO imitations.
The nomenclature will always change but there’s no doubt that they’re all referring to the same thing: the prolific rise of LEGO imitations in bazaars around the metro. Whether you found them in Toys R’ Us, Toy Kingdom, the NBC Tent Weekend Bazaar or the Zonta Filinvest Christmas bazaar a few weeks ago, one thing’s for sure: they’re here to stay. I had some free time before the holidays and actually compiled the latest and the greatest LEGO competitors in the market today from Japan, Canada, South Korea and China.
OK so I just found the dirt-cheapest place to buy knock off LEGO figures. I’ve seen a handful of knock off LEGO bricks — Wange, Sluban and now Star Diamond and I have to say that for PHP 35.00 a piece, they make the most practical Christmas gifts. Yes, they’re knock offs but after opening and assembling a number of them, I really have to say that you can’t go wrong with the price.
Star Diamond kits come in many sizes and the most affordable is a small box that will barely make a dent in your wallet. PHP 35.00 for the smallest kit gives you a “minifig” and a vehicle / accessory. Pictured here are the crane kit and the SCUBA diver with DPV kit. Compared to the real LEGO, the main difference lies in the minifig copies because they require more assembly versus the real deal which I honestly don’t mind doing.
Where can you find this? I found an accessible stall at the NBC Tent Weekend Bazaar. The unmarked stall is found towards the end of the tent hall and you can find several other brands from China as well as the real stuff.
(In the car)
Me: We need to gas up at Shell. They have a promo.
Wife: What promo?
Me: They have LEGO cars if you put gas.
Wife: Haynako.
Me: Would you rather I do drugs?
(driving after several minutes to Shell)
Wife: Ang tagal! mag drugs ka na lang!
I rarely give in to marketing promos. Caltex is my usual choice for gasoline, well, just because. But this move of Shell to allow you to buy one of six Ferrari LEGO cars (and a set of Minifigs) if you spend an accumulated amount of PHP 1,500 was too strong to resist.
So here’s how the promo goes:
– you need to spend an accumulated amount of PHP 1,500 to buy one Ferrari LEGO car. So if you spend, say PHP 3,000 on gas you can buy two. if you have two receipts worth PHP 750 each, you can buy one car.
– the receipts should only come from one Shell branch. You can’t combine receipts from different branches. This also means that you can only claim the LEGO Ferrari car / Minifigs from the same branch at the convenience store counter.
– the cars and Minifigs (it’s a set of 3) cost PHP 180.00. If you load up on V-Power, cost shoots down to PHP 140.00
There you go! Happy building!