Not LEGO

To me, MOCing is a form of art with rules, and one of these rules is that it has to be made using parts in colors that LEGO has produced. But I'm not married with LEGO, it doesn't matter to me if the actual part is a genuine one.

 

If the parts cost the price of a house on the black market, I'm not buying them. LEGO won't produce them anymore, and if they ever do, you pretty much have to beg them & wait - Bricks&Pieces looking more like a service they generously offer, without being any interested in AFOL's pocket money (which is understandable).

 

So here come the Chinese clones. Many brands, some bad ones, some good ones, I wanted to give it a try. I already knew they could be of a good quality, the unknown was the colors.

Well:

-The quality is perfect, so these are probably of the Xingbao/Lepin family.

-DBG is spot on, a perfect match. LBG is 99% the same, but I own genuine parts that are way way more discolored.

-One more point for the open studs on the double hinge. I want open studs on every part. If not, a plain stud has more beauty to it anyway (when it doesn't have a nasty mold mark, but all brands are guilty of that).

-I was hoping for a fully flat gold ingot since that's how it was advertised. Sadly not the case.

 

Am I gonna use these in my MOCs? For the colors that LEGO has produced, totally! For the new ones, honestly I don't know.

 

Note: it looks like most of the parts sold on Ali are from Kazi or Enlighten - I haven't tried those and I believe I've heard the color compatibility wasn't that great (but if you can comment on that, I'd like to hear opinions!). Mine seem to be Lepin ones or alike, but they seem rare on Ali.

Done