2

I just finished the second floor of XingBao's 5052 piece Maritime Museum.

And while I'm pretty impressed with the overall quality of the building, I thusfar am missing 4 parts.

Is there a way I can obtain substitutes from XingBao for the missing parts?

Note

The set I'm refering to is NOT a clone of a Lego product or fan-built MOC but an original MOC created by XingBao's YiyiToys design team. Unlike Lepin, which is infamous in the Lego community for blatantly cloning Lego sets, XingBao's sets are all original designs and not Lego clones.

John Slegers
  • 1,105
  • 1
  • 11
  • 26

2 Answers2

4

Xingbao reproduces standard LEGO elements for their models, so it should be much easier to replace the missing parts with LEGO pieces, then trying to contact Xingbao. If you are not familiar with the LEGO equivalent of the missing parts, you can post a picture here, and the community here should be able to identify them for you.

TheBrickBlogger
  • 10,236
  • 1
  • 25
  • 34
  • Thanks for the helpful response. I expected as much. And I don't think it should be that hard to find the missing pieces on BrickLink or Bricks&Pieces, except I'm not sure how to find the right color. Do you happen to know how the light yellow, the dark yellow (beige) and the dark grey @ https://i.imgur.com/c9bdrVI.jpg are called at BrickLink or Bricks&Pieces? Those are the three colors of the 4 pieces that are thusfar missing. – John Slegers Jan 25 '18 at 18:13
  • 2
    John, the pieces on the image appear to be tan (the light buttery color), dark-tan (the darker sandy/clay color), reddish-brown, light-bluish-gray, and dark-bluish-gray. Those are the names they are listed as on BrickLink. – TheBrickBlogger Jan 25 '18 at 18:27
  • Awesome! Thanks again!! Since I think I now know all I need to know to find the right pieces on BrickLink, I'll "accept" your answer. – John Slegers Jan 25 '18 at 18:42
  • I'm glad I was able to help. If you run into any issues identifying the parts, just come back and someone can help you find them. – TheBrickBlogger Jan 25 '18 at 20:35
-1

Apart from the fact that with this purchase you sponsored an IP-violating product and made yourself complicit to illegal activities, one of the other downsides of buying unauthorized clone copies is that customer service is non existing. You can buy the missing pieces on BrickLink or from LEGO’s Bricks&Pieces service, provided these are just clone copies of proper, existing LEGO bricks.

I doubt you will find much support on this site for your purchase, however, and many will perceive the omission of pieces as a rightful punishment for supporting these companies.

Phil B.
  • 16,900
  • 1
  • 38
  • 74
  • 7
    You must be confusing XingBao with Lepin. It is Lepin that blatantly copies official Lego sets and fan-built MOCs. XIngBao only sells original designs that in no way violate Lego's or anyone else's IP. – John Slegers Jan 25 '18 at 16:52
  • 2
    (continued) And if the set in question was in fact a clone of a Lego set, I would just buy LEGO equivalents of the missing pieces from Lego's Bricks&Pieces. It is precisely XingBao selling ONLY ORIGINAL DESIGNS that are NOT CLONES OF ANY LEGO PRODUCTS OR FAN-BUILT MOCS that makes it less obvious where to find substitutes for the missing pieces. Hence my asking for help here. – John Slegers Jan 25 '18 at 16:57
  • (continued) I added a disclaimer to my question to clarify that the set I'm refering to is NOT a clone of a Lego set. I thought I wouldn't need a disclaimer like this in a place like this, because I thought people here would be sufficiently familiar with the brand to not confuse it with Lepin. I guess I was wrong. – John Slegers Jan 25 '18 at 17:05
  • 8
    Just for your information, Xingbao (星堡) is owned by Meizi Model (美致模型), which is the same company that owns LEPIN. According to numerous reports, if a LEGO fan agrees to have their model made, they get produced under Xingbao. If they don't agree, they get stolen and produced under Lepin. Every branch of this company is super shady and have no shame stealing from both LEGO and LEGO fans. – TheBrickBlogger Jan 25 '18 at 17:58
  • 1
    What @TheBrickBlogger said .... – Phil B. Jan 25 '18 at 18:12
  • @TheBrickBlogger : Thanks for the info. I - obviously - wasn't aware of that. The Chinese sure have an... euhm... interesting approach to tackling Western IP legislation. – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 00:04
  • 2
    @TheBrickBlogger : (continued) Nevertheless, I think it's kind of hypocritical the way people like Phil feel like missing pieces are "rightful punishment" for "supporting companies like Meizi Model" when you consider that they themselves invest fortunes in Lego, which itself started out by ripping off Kiddicraft. Why is Meizi Model supposed to be evil for ripping off Lego but not Lego for building an empire upon the theft of another company's patented design? – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 00:08
  • 1
    @TheBrickBlogger : (continued) And yes, Lego copies Kiddicraft's designs just as blatantly as Meizi Model is now copying Lego's designs, as illustrated nicely by this video on "bricks before Lego". But I guess it's OK when European companies steal from others? Or is it OK because that was decades ago? Can someone please explain when stealing another company's designs is evil and illegal and when it's totally fine? Because all I see is hypocricy and inconsistency in the different way people treat Lego & Meizi Model! – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 00:47
  • 1
    @JohnSlegers It's probably more to do with timing and globalisation - Looking into some of the LEGO/Kiddicraft aspects, it's likely that the Kiddicraft patents didn't cover Denmark/Europe (The EU and EEA didn't exist then, so patent's wouldn't have been cross-border), and so there was nothing stopping LEGO making and selling in Denmark - they wouldn't have been able to sell in the UK though. The issue now is the so-called "grey" imports of patent/trade mark infringing products into these markets... – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Jan 26 '18 at 09:37
  • 1
    @JohnSlegers (continued) ...obviously Meizi Model can do whatever's acceptable within China, but as has been pointed out by TheBrickBlogger some of these practices are clearly not something that in general we approve of. It's also acknowledged that TLG can still get this wrong (see the uproar around the Ghostbusters Firehouse as a recent example - and how they've handled the more recent Cloud City Idea)... – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Jan 26 '18 at 09:44
  • 1
    @JohnSlegers (continued) ...finally, Trade Mark law usually requires that the holder defends their IP otherwise they can lose their right to it (trade mark abandonment) - so TLG will have to be seen to pursue infringers to maintain the strength of their IP. None of this is meant to endorse or condone either path or set of actions, but hopefully provide some context. – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Jan 26 '18 at 09:50
  • 1
    @Zhaph-BenDuguid : Thanks for the detailed response. I very much appreciate the nuanced, balanced and unbiased perspective, which is in my experience is pretty rare. – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 09:54
  • @Zhaph-BenDuguid : (continued) When I compare companies like Lego & Meizi Model, I look at the actual impact their practices have. For example, I consider that Hilary Page, who designed and patented the bricks Lego ripped off, ended up killing himself due to money problems. He might not have have to kill himself if he'd been properly compensated by Lego for using his ideas. Meanwhile, I don't think anyone will be able to feed fewer mouths because of Lepin cloning Lego. – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 09:59
  • 1
    @Zhaph-BenDuguid : (continued) Not just that, but one might also argue that Lego is increasingly following the Apple strategy of marketing itself as a high end luxury product, using various questionable tactics to maintain its quasi-monopoly status in the West, to keep its prices artificially high and to appeal to a niche audience of wealthy adult male collectors, consequently making their products unavailable to most people. By providing more or less the same products at a much more affordable price range (especially in Asia), one might argue that Meizi Model has become a modern Robin Hood. – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 11:29
  • @Zhaph-BenDuguid : (continued) And then there's the fact that Lego continues to refuse to make much requested themes like modern warfare even though they never had issues with armed knights or pirates... a demand Chinese companies are happy to meet! At least the Chinese seem to care about what customers actually want! – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 11:37
  • @Zhaph-BenDuguid : (continued) There's so many ways of looking at it, really... And the more I think about it, actually, the more I feel repulsed by the overpriced Lego brand and the more I welcome Chinese competitors taking over the market and making Lego a thing of the past the same way Lego once did with Kiddicraft. – John Slegers Jan 26 '18 at 11:37
  • @JohnSlegers Cheers, we're probably better off taking this into chat, however on your points around warfare etc, see my answer on why taken from their reports on "realism vs play". I agree that TLG are in a difficult place WRT who they are selling to: UCS, the 80s/90s Dimensions packs, The Big Bang Theory ideas etc. are clearly aimed at the "adult" fans, however they rejected a Shawn of the Dead idea as it wasn't appropriate for their core audience of kids. – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Jan 26 '18 at 11:58
  • 1
    Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Jan 26 '18 at 12:04