Aliexpress Find: Unbranded Utapau Clone Troopers (212th Battalion), Not quite a copy of Lego 75036

Today's post is in response to some questions on Reddit about where I found the 212th Airborne troopers.

Last month, I was searching Aliexpress for some clone troopers using the search terms of 212th and Utapau and happened to come across a single store that actually had a clone set of the Lego Star Wars 75036, the Utapau troopers battle pack.  

This was a really cool find because as far as I knew there had been no alt Lego copies of that particular set.  I immediately checked brick4.com and this was the only entry, ie only Lego and no other knock off sets  have been made.

I immediately put in an order and within a couple of weeks I had this set in my mailbox.  The alt Lego set consists of the tri-droid as depicted in the first picture above along with the four 212th battalion clone trooper mini figures.  In my excitement I tore into the little cellophane packages of mini figures and forgot to take pictures of them in their packaging.  Here's some more pics of the tri droid instead, lol.

I'm guessing that the number of pieces is approximate to those of the OG Lego set which is 83 pieces.  The instructions to build the droid come on this single sheet of paper.

It should be noted that the droid legs use slightly different pieces than the Lego version, and the colours of the droid head and legs is also different, which is why my blog title says, it's not quite an exact duplicate of Lego 75036 set.

Here's a closer look at the 212th Battalion clone troopers.

How do they look?  Are they comparable to the Lego versions or are there any glaring differences?  The airborne figures might be by the brand Duo Le Pin under the set number DLP9018 with a manufacturer date of 2016, according to Herobloks.com

Included are 2 212th Battalion clone troopers ...

... and 2 212th Airborne clone troopers.

Front and back side.  You can really see the details of the helmets. 

I had two other 212th battalion clone troopers, I think they might be World Minifigure brand, but I could be wrong.  Please let me know in the comments if you know which brand the other two minifigures are.

Anyways, here is the Aliexpress store where I found this exclusive set.  The store is called Block Model store and there are two options to buy.  In the first option, you only get the tri droid, whereas in the second option you get the tri droid plus the 4 212th battalion mini figures.  If the store had the option of only buying the minifigures without the droid, I would have been up for that.

The price of the droid set and the 4 clone troopers now almost equals the $15.99 retail price (CDN) of the Lego 75036 when it first released back in 2014.  As a knock-off set this is super rare and I didn't mind paying the price to get the 212th Battalion figures, especially the Airborne clone troopers.

If you just want to build your 212th Attack Battalion, you could just get multiples on Aliexpress as well.  

What do you think, did I pay too much for this set just to get the clone troopers or was it a deal?  Let me know in the comments below!  See ya!

Here's all the not Lego sets and minifigures I bought in the first half of 2022.

 

Hi brick fans!  It's time for an update on my new not Lego purchases for 2022, from January through to June.  Most of my purchases were from Aliexpress.

In January, I bought a couple of World Minifigure Spiderman-Noir WM6052 minifigs, mainly to get the capes to enhance my Blade Runner custom minifigures. I paid three bucks CDN for the pair of them, which is the going price at the moment.  Not much of a deal.

In March, I wanted to get a small new stand for my not Lego modular city, so I found this Sembo 601111 set on Aliexpress.  This one came in at a whopping $10 CDN.  I think I paid too much for this small set.

I have most of the not Lego Batmobiles, except for the classic 1960's version so, in March I ordered this MOC set from Aliexpress: Product - MOC-24651 1966 Batmobile.  Paid about $15 CDN for it, but I haven't built it yet though.  For an approx 300 piece set, the price is OK.

I'm still trying to complete my collection of Lego style modular buildings, so I finally picked up the nearly 2500 piece Downtown Diner from Aliexpress for around $90 CDN.  It's on my backlog of sets to build at the moment.

To round out my March purchases, I ordered this Imperial Troop Transporter for my not Lego Star Wars collection.  Product:  MOC 38045 on Aliexpress.  Price was mid 30-ish CDN.  Still need to build this one as well.

My lone purchase for the month of April was the Boutique Hotel Lego clone. I think this one is by Leji.  Also from Aliexpress.  Price was on the steeper side at around $130 CDN from Marstoy store.  Bought but not built yet.

For the month of May, I decided to get a few more random minifigures for my not Lego city.  It was only $5 CDN for the entire set of 8 minifigs (works out to about 63 cents per minifig). I think that they are from the theme set PUBG (Players Unknown Battle Ground) game.  These minifigures are pretty limited on Aliexpress.

Also in May, I couldn't resist buying this cool retro style TV set from the Top Toys Aliexpress store. With discount coupon, this cost me around $20 CDN.  Building this soon!

In June, I made my first purchase of some Star Wars and other minifigures through Marstoy.net.  A few but not all from the Xinh series XH0323.  Price per minifigure ended up being about $2 CDN, after shipping costs, and paypal currency exchange fees.  I don't think they are up on Aliexpress yet.

Back on Aliexpress, I bought one lone goat.  Why? Just because.  In my Funwhole wood cabin set, there is a gated area off the side of the building, so I figured this would be a good place to keep a goat.

To round off the month of June, I bought a clone version of Lego's new 12 Grimauld Place.  I really only want it for the front facade so that I can convert it into a full modular style building.  It's around $65 CDN.  Not cheap for only under 1100 pieces, but I expect the pricing to increase in step with Lego's anticipated price increases.

Happy building and see you next time!