Aliexpress: LOJO AX1001 Creative Brick Baseplates

A few months ago I saw an Aliexpress seller that had lots of different colour baseplates, which are the lego pieces typically used for modular building.  Anyways, they had quite an assortment and the price was reasonable, so I placed an order for a couple just to see if they were any good or not.

The Details

In the past, baseplates that I have ordered were flimsy and came without any packaging.  These new ones were different.  Each baseplate comes in it's own packaging and the quality is excellent, exact Lego quality.   The brand is called LOJO and the item number is AX1001.  Anyways, I swapped out the crappy baseplate that came with my Lepin Cafe Corner and used the LOJO one.  Wow, what a difference.  They are very sturdy and don't bend much despite not being that thick.   Here's my latest order.

The size is 32 studs by 32 studs and will support your fullsize modulars.
As you can see, the baseplates are on sale for only $3.39 USD and come with free shipping.

Where to Get it

If you are interested in getting some decent and cheap baseplates for your modular town,  get these LOJO brand ones from here.

Generic Lego Compatible Santa Minifigures

Recently, I talked about how it is now taking many, many months for items to get delivered from Aliexpress.  I ordered some generic Lego compatible Santa mini-figures towards the end of December, 2016 and  I finally got them the last week of April, 2017.  Yup, that's four months later.  I was pretty sure that these were lost or not delivered.   I expected to get them around the end of January to feature them in some pics around my Its-Not-Lego town.   I guess I will have to wait until next year before I can display them again.

Before I put them away, I decided to customise them a bit.  The Santa above is original, except that I switched his yellow hands with black ones to make them resemble gloves.  I might paint the bottom half of his legs black to simulate boots.

I had some extra mini-figure heads, so I figured I'd mess around some more.  Here's two more Santas, maybe they will work in my Lepin Grand Emporium (acquired, but still waiting to be built), next year.

Hey, wait a minute, we don't have that many openings for department store Santas.

I recognise those kids.  They usually take pictures of the scared and crying kids sitting on Santa's lap and then you charge you an outrageous amount for the crappy pics.

Equal opportunity says that we can have a few female Santas as well.

Well, that's it, thanks for checking out my Santa gang.  Methinks they are all heading down to the Caribbean or Mexico for their summer vacation.

 If you want to get your own little Santa minifigures, you can still get them on Aliexpress.  You can get 5 of them for only $1.65 USD.  That works out to only $0.33 cents each.

If you order them now, you might even actually get them before this coming Christmas!!  heh.

Lepin Bricks Are Dangerous!

The website bogusbricks.com has nailed it.   Lepin Bricks are dangerous!  They are dangerous to Lego's entry into the Chinese marketplace.   If I were Lego, I'd be worried too.

http://cphpost.dk/news/business/fierce-copyright-battle-mars-legos-push-in-china.html

Lepin bricks are also dangerous,  because they must have baked in some addiction chemical into the bricks.  After I buy one cheap set, I can't stop, and then I buy another, and another.

It's not just Lepin bricks that are dangerous, there are other bootleg brick brands you need to stay away from:

Bela
Enlighten
Lele
Kazi
Sluban
Wange
Hsanhe
Gudi
Decool
Sheng Yuan

So remember, don't be an idiot, pay a lot more for Lego bricks, because the Ole Kirk Kristiansen family that owns Lego aren't rich enough.  They only have a few billion dollars of net worth.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-13/lego-builds-new-billionaires-as-toymaker-topples-mattel.

My Aliexpress Account Got Suspended!

It all started with this message I got from Aliexpress.  I tried to raise a dispute on an item I had not received.  I ordered the item back in January or February but it still had not arrived.  Most times, items take a long time to ship or they are not shipped at all.  It seems to be happening more and more these days.    

In past years, you could open a dispute knowing that your purchase was protected by the Aliexpress Seller Guarantee that said you would be refunded if the item you purchased wasn't received.  At first it was 30 days, now it is 60 days.

I think the problem I am encountering is that because the shipping is so slow, several months to be exact, I have had to open a number of disputes for non receipt of items.  Because after 60 days, you just don't know if you will ever get the stuff you ordered from Aliexpress.  

So now they have blocked me from making any further disputes, despite the seller guarantee that they offer.   I tried to contact Aliexpress support below but they were no help.  I contacted them twice to no avail.  Here's my recent chat log with them.

View Message History

Invo_18:35

Hello,I am a service consultant Invo_

Invo_18:35

Thank you for contacting AliExpress. My name is Invo. How may I help you?

me18:36

hello, i contacted aliexpress support last week about inability to raise dispute. i was told it would be resolved by tuesday. it is now thursday and i am still not able to raise a dispute. please help.

Invo_18:37

I see.

Invo_18:37

May I know your name and order number please?

me18:38

order number is xxxxxxxx.   name is me.

Invo_18:38

Thank you for the information you have provided me

Invo_18:38

May I know why do you want to open a dispute?

me18:39

because i ordered this on feb 27 and it is now 60 days, and i still have not received the item.

Invo_18:39

I am sorry to hear that you still have not receive your order. Rest assured that I will help you with this. 

Invo_18:39

May I know if have you tried to contact the seller about this issue?

me18:40

yes, initially he offered to refund, but i said i could wait but now i'm thinking it will be another two months will be too long, so i would like to get the refund.

me18:41

unfortunately the system will not let me raise dispute and i don't know why

Invo_18:41

Thank you for confirming this to me.

Invo_18:41

I am sorry to know that you were unable to leave a feedback or open a dispute. Rest assured that I will help you with this.

Invo_18:41

May I know what was the error when you tried to open a dispute?

me18:42

some message about my account is disabled

me18:42

but i don't know why

Invo_18:42

Can I have a screenshot of this error messages please?

me18:44

me18:44

what is the security concern regarding my account?

Invo_18:45

Thank you for the screenshot.

Invo_18:45

Please be informed that your account was still enable in our system, however our system disabled this action since many of our buyers do open a dispute and abusing the protection of Aliexpress.

Invo_18:46

However this concern is common since you are not the only affected many buyers in Aliexpress was affected to so don't worry.

me18:47

so i need to legitimately raise dispute for items that are not received and taking over 60 days, how can i do it?

Invo_18:48

To fix this may I know your email address please?

me18:48

 my email address is xxx@xxx.com

Invo_18:49

Thank you very much.

Invo_18:50

Sorry for the inconvenience, I just checked our system and there's no existing report in our system.

Invo_18:51

In this case  I will send a reactivation request for your account to be enabled again, would that be great for you?

me18:51

thats what the last person said but nothing happened.

Invo_18:52

Exactly since there's no report, don't worry rest assured that I will talk to that agent for you.

Invo_18:52

Do not worry, I have already submitted a request to our system to activate your account in the site.

Invo_18:52

Kindly wait for our Higher Department to follow up to you within 48 hours through email for the confirmation. 

me18:52

please reactivate my dispute function, i will take screen shot of this conversation in case this issue is not resolved in 48 hours.

Invo_18:53

Yes of course, you have the rights for this and don't worry I already sent it for you.

Invo_18:53

Our system says: 

me18:54

is there a way i can check the status of my account?   how can i check it?

Invo_18:55

Yes you can only check it by trying to open a dispute, however it will be done after 2 working days.

me18:56

but by then my orders will have already passed the dispute period, and i have not received those items.

me18:57

so what can you do to help me with this problem?

Invo_18:58

Oh don't worry about that because once the protection time is over, Aliexpress will be given you an extra 15 days of protection time, meaning you still have lots time to open a dispute.

me18:58

can you not raise the dispute on my behalf?

Invo_18:59

Oh I am sorry but it was impossible since we need to open a dispute using your account.

Invo_18:59

Don't worry because I already did what's best for you.

me19:00

if my account issue is not resolved in 48 hours, how can i escalate this issue?  do you have a supervisor for me to deal with?

Invo_19:01

Oh take note it was 48 business hours.

Invo_19:01

Meaning Saturdays and Sundays are not included.

Invo_19:01

Yes of course we have

me19:02

please advise what the procedure will be, should this issue not be resolved to my satisfaction?

me19:03

i need to know how to proceed if i don't get any results in the next few days.

Invo_19:03

Yes.

Invo_19:04

Please don't worry because I never had an issue that was not resolved, also I already provided your information to our higher department once it was done you will be able to open a dispute again.

Invo_19:04

Because I never encountered a issue that was not solved by requesting to our higher department.

me19:05

what is the higher department?  you must understand i dont want to keep doing this.

me19:05

can you tell me what the higher department is and what it does?

ca105334501319:06

and how they can resolve my problem?

Invo_19:06

Higher department is the one who approves the request from lower department.

Invo_19:06

We are only from lower department.

Invo_19:07

Yes because they have the power to enable or disabled, also we are requesting to higher department for the refund as well.

Invo_19:09

So it means they are the one who handle this issue and our job is to forward the issue, also take note that I sent it urgently for you, because I know how important this for you.

I am sorry to know that, but I hope you understand that I already did my part and my best for you, I hope you can appreciate it as well since, I am only from lower department.

Invo_19:11

Also please don't worry because this chat has been documented already.

Invo_19:12

The reference number is the order number you provided which is : xxxxxxxxx

The following morning, I received the following email from Aliexpress ...

Dear custom:

AliExpress is committed to the principle of good faith and the protection of the interests of both buyers and suppliers. To maintain a safe and fair trading environment, our duties and responsibilities require the investigation into areas of clear dishonest trading activities, such as consumer fraud and counterfeiting operating to the detriment of consumers and reputable traders.

After we review your account activity in the Aliexpress Buyer Protection program, we regret to inform you that your account has been suspended considered to be at high risk of Abusing the Buyer Protection Programs. This is because your associated accounts were found continue to violate the Buyer Protection Program rules.

We do not allow:

·         Claiming that an item is ‘not as described’ when the item condition is consistent with the description in the listing.

·         Claiming an item hasn't been received when it has arrived. 

·         Opening a case when you have already received a refund from the seller or reimbursement from your payment provider.

·         Opening a case against a seller to retaliate following previous disputes.

·         Threatening to open a case against a seller in order to get a discount or additional goods and services, when the item arrived in the described condition.

·         A pattern of excessively opening Buyer Protection cases.

To learn more visit: Rules about Abusing the Buyer Protection Program

If you have any concerns or questions, you may go to the Customer Service and Connect to our agent.

Best Regards,

AliExpress.com Online Trade Security Department

Once you have received this notification, you are in a no win situation with Aliexpress as there is no apparent re-instatement of your account.  Customer Service will not be able to help you either.

In fact, it seems to be happening to a lot of people who open a dispute and then have their account disabled.  You can see more evidence of this here:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.aliexpress.com

For now, it seems I can still buy items off Aliexpress but just can't dispute anything anymore.  So be very careful when opening disputes on Aliexpress, or you will have your account suspended like mine was.

Aliexpress: Lepin 05054 Star Wars U-Wing Fighter

Today, I'm going to talk about the Lepin 05054 Star Wars U-Wing Fighter bootleg Lego building set.  Well, it's mostly going to be me ranting about why the price of this Lepin set has to cost so much.

First let's look at the ship.  The U-Wing fighter is that cool troop transport vehicle from the Rogue One Star Wars franchise.  It's a quad engine gunship that has wings that pivot outwards.  In the underbelly of the ship, it can carry a number of minifigures.  The Lego and Lepin versions of the ship has a cockpit for one pilot whereas the movie version has a dual pilot cockpit.  This set has 679 pieces and comes with 5 minifigures: a U-wing Pilot, Bistan, Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor and a Rebel Trooper.

The amount of bricks in this U-Wing set is almost as many as in the Lego/Lepin X-wing fighter sets.  In my table below, I've compared the latest three Star Wars fighter sets that Lepin has copied from Lego.  Take a look.

Fighter	Lepin Model	Number of Bricks	Release Date
Poe's X-wing Fighter	05004	748 pieces	March/April 2016
Resistance X-Wing Fighter	05029	740 pieces	September 2016
Rogue One U-Wing Fighter	05054	679 pieces	December 2016

So I remember that when the Lepin Poe's 05004 X-wing Fighter first started showing up on AliExpress, it cost about $23 to $25 USD.   And when the Lepin 05029 Resistance Fighter appeared, it was priced at around $25 to $27 USD.

And I was ok with this price point because the Lego versions were and are much more.   Here's a snapshot of how much the Lego 10466 Poe's X-Wing Fighter costs on the Lego.com.   It's $79.99 USD.

I went on to Aliexpress and took this fairly current screen grab of the Lego knockoff Lepin 05004 X-Wing.  You can see it's $22.30 USD.   So the Lepin X-Wing version is about one-third the cost of the real Lego model.

The newer Lego 75149 Resistance X-Wing Fighter set is similarly priced at $79.99 USD.

The Lepin 05029 Resistance X-Wing Fighter is slightly more at $24.35 USD, again it's about one-third the cost of the real deal on Aliexpress.

So, now we are looking at Lego's 75155 U-Wing Fighter.  It is priced at $79.99 like the other previous X-Wing fighters.  But there's less pieces in this set, almost 10% less at 679.  Ok, it's 2017 Lego pricing, I get it.

So when I check Aliexpress, I expect that the new Rogue One Lepin version of the U-Wing fighter to only cost say $27 to $29 USD.  I was willing to pay that price.   But guess what, the lowest price on Aliexpress right now for the Lepin U-Wing is $40 USD!  That's right $40 USD.   That's 25% more than the other models that have more pieces.  I think that's just way too expensive for a bootleg Lego model.  It's not like Lepin has to pay any royalties to Disney or Star Wars.

As much as I want to buy the Lepin version, I'm going to hold off until the price drops to the price I'm willing to pay, which is under $30 USD.   What do you think?  Is $40 USD too much to pay for the Lepin knockoff version of the Lego Star Wars U-Wing?     Let me know, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Sorry for the rant, I just had to get that off my chest.

My List of Top 5 AliExpress Stores that Sell Bootleg Lego - November 2016

I get asked a lot about the Lego clone sellers/stores with whom I have had success with on Aliexpress, so this post will address that question.

In November 2016, I placed 9 purchase orders for bootleg and knockoff brick sets and minifigures. At the time of this writing, I have successfully received 8 of those orders, with 1 orders still outstanding.

The criteria is pretty simple to make my Top 5 Stores list:

1.  offer a wide selection of bricksets and/or minifigures at decent prices
2.  be responsive to messages
3.  ship within a reasonable timeframe (for my country, that's one to two months)
4.  don't lie and say item shipped when it hasn't
5.  don't give me a bogus tracking number


So, for the month of November 2016, my top 5 sellers/stores (in no particular order) on Aliexpress were:

1.  Big Cabbage
2. I Love Building Blocks
3. TopKingdom
4. Great Wall Technology
5. Blocks World 

If you click on the store name, it will take you to their Aliexpress store.

Wange 34052 Creation Villa Building Set

So here's a set that I actually own, it's the Wange 34052 Villa building block set.  I bought mine back in April 2015 and I paid around $27 USD for it, so this is selling for quite a good price at just under $22 USD.  The quality of this set is good and brick clutch is decent.  I think this set might be a copy of an older Lego set but I'm not entirely sure.  This is a fairly decent size set with 755 pieces and it comes with a giant baseplate and 2 minifigures.  But just a heads up, the minifigures are not Lego compatible and look awful.

Aliexpress: Gudi 8911 Passenger Airplane

Hello, it's time to look at another bootleg brick building set deal I found on Aliexpress.com.  This one is the Gudi 8911 Passenger Airplane.  This set comes with three Lego compatible minifigures, a car and some kind of antenna tower.  There are 334 pieces to this set.  I've recently built the Gudi 9213 Fire Rescue Boat and was pleasantly surprised by the brick quality of that set, so hopefully this airplane set will also be a good set too.   The Aliexpress store selling this set is Biscuit's Toyland and I have personally bought other brick sets from this seller without any issue.


Please remember that I cannot verify whether the seller or the item featured is good or not. Use your own judgement and research before making any purchases.  I have no affiliation to Aliexpress or the sellers found there.

My List Of Top 5 Stores on AliExpress That Sell Fake Lego - October 2016

It's probably the number one question I get asked on my Facebook page (It's Not Lego) and on my blogs, "Who are the best Aliexpress sellers?".   Well, I can't say definitively who are the best sellers or stores on Aliexpress, but I can tell you which ones I personally have had positive experiences with.

I make anywhere between 5 to 10 purchases a month from AliExpress, and for the most part it takes about a month to two months for my orders to arrive in my country.   Hence, the reason why my blog post title lists the month of October 2016, these are the purchases I try to reconcile at this time which is the beginning of January 2017.

Typically if I haven't received my order after 5 or 6 weeks, I will contact the seller to inquire on the item shipment status.  At which point the seller will usually agree to extend Purchase Protection.   At the six to seven week interval mark, if I still haven't received my item, I will start the Dispute process.

The AliExpress Dispute process gives about one week between Buyer and Seller to sort out any issues.   If the item arrives before or during this period, I cancel the dispute and the money is released to the seller from the custody of Aliexpress.

Aliexpress will then take another week to review the disputed case and provide judgement if nothing has been resolved after one week.   At this point, a period of 2 months will have passed by the time AliExpress passes judgement.

If the item has not arrived and the tracking number is invalid or has not been updated since leaving China, usually Aliexpress will side with the buyer and the purchase cost plus shipping will be refunded to the buyer.  If Aliexpress can prove that the item was tracked to the receiving country, then you would not get your refund, because the seller fulfilled his obligations to send your item.

I will review my list of Aliexpress purchases at the end of each month and give you some idea which sellers show up consistently on my Top 5 Best Sellers list.  Maybe at the end of 2017, I will be able to create a Top Ten Best Sellers/Stores on AliExpress List.

In October 2016, I placed 10 purchase orders for bootleg and knockoff brick sets and minifigures.  At the time of this writing, I have successfully received 7 of those orders, with 3 orders still outstanding.
I have not yet raised any disputes for any October 2016 purchases yet, but if I don't get the remaining 3 orders next week, I will initiate my dispute process.

The criteria is pretty simple to make my Top 5 Stores list:

1.  offer a wide selection of bricksets and/or minifigures at decent prices
2.  be responsive to messages
3.  ship within a reasonable timeframe (for my country, that's one to two months)
4.  don't lie and say item shipped when it hasn't
5.  don't give me a bogus tracking number


So, for the month of October 2016, my top 5 sellers/stores (in no particular order) on Aliexpress were:

1.  Biscuit's ToyLand Store
2.  Toy World Store
3.  Big Cabbage
4. WAN MU XING Trading Co., Ltd Store
5. Hamtoys


Please note that my AliExpress experience may or may not differ from your own purchase experience.  I have no affiliation to Aliexpress nor the sellers or stores listed there.   Please do your own research and due diligence before making any purchases on AliExpress.

Aliexpress: Dargo 899 Super Heroes Minifigures Set

Happy New Year to one and all!  This is my first deal find in 2017.

This is a mixed Marvel and DC Super Heroes set of minifigures.  It is Dargo set 899 and comes with 12 assorted minifigures.  There are actually 6 sets of two minifigures each. The sets are 899A thru 899F.

Dargo 899A Batman vs. Killer Moth

Dargo 899B Spiderman vs Blue Beetle

Dargo 899C Batman vs. Scarecrow

Dargo 899D Katana vs. Captain Boomerang

Dargo 899E Doctor Strange vs. White Panther

Dargo 899F Ghost Rider vs. Hobgoblin

There's a few Aliexpress stores selling this item for roughly the same price, which is $4.99 USD. That works out to about $0.42 per minifigure.

Here's the link to one of the shops on Aliexpress where you can find the set:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Dargo-899-Super-Heroes-Scarecrow-Superman-Killer-Moth-Batman-Ghost-Rider-12pcs-lot-Building-Blocks-Minifigures/32768615387.html


Please remember that I cannot verify whether the seller is good or not. Use your own judgement and research before making any purchases.  I have no affiliation to Aliexpress or the sellers found there.