Recently, Chi and I visited T&T Supermarket – the largest Asian store in our area, that opened recently. In there, I spotted a series of knock-off LEGO sets themed after various lucky creatures from Chinese folklore: Koi, Lion, Dragon, and the one I decided to get: A three-legged lucky toad by JAKI (JK-5135). A $8.99 discount price it was small enough of a gamble to give it a try.

I was immediately taken by the richness of the design. It was definitely going for more – quite lavish and extravagant, compared to original LEGO designs, which are usually more reserved and simplified.

This thing looked crazy, and I just had to give it a try.

As should be no surprise to anyone – the finished model looks close to, but significantly different from the packaging picture. The promo materials are 3D renders of the idealized version of the model. In reality, the colors, plastics and fit are not quite as good (although better than I expected).

It is obvious that JAKI cloned original LEGO brick designs 1:1. The only design difference is the absence of LEGO logotype on the pegs. Whether they reverse engineered it or stole the injection molds – I do not know. The end result is compatible with the originals – same scale, same bricks.

Fit and Clutching Power

I was positively surprised at the fact the bricks held together pretty well. I was fully prepared for an experience akin to the building block toys from my childhood in communist Poland. You know, blocks that don’t necessarily help develop child’s imagination, but certainly develop their muscles.

Well, JAKI blocks actually hold together almost as well as original LEGO do.

Injection Molding and Quality

Overall, the blocks have much poorer finish, compared to the originals. I have encountered a few sharp edges although it was not a common occurrence. What was really common were the discolored injection marks. Pretty much every single piece would have a discolored dot on it – a leftover of the spot where the plastic was injected.

On the topic of plastic – once again, the quality is good, but not great like that of LEGO. There is a certain feeling rubbery softness to LEGO bricks that’s absent here. There is an overwhelming feeling of imprecision in the finish. Flats are not quite as flat, corners are not quite as defined.

Colors don’t pop and shine like LEGO does. Gold in particular was really messy – you could clearly see the veins in the paint due to uneven mixing of metallic pigments. You could also see internal marks, as the plastic would cool at different times throughout the piece – resulting in internal edges manifesting inside the piece.

Instructions and Bagging

My biggest problem with the set was the way the pieces were packaged and the instructions. JAKI attempted to improve on the tried-and-true LEGO manual format by introducing different coloring to the parts built in previous steps. It made it much harder to read, however.

Oftentimes, the model would ask to connect two larger sub-assemblies in an unexpected way. These were usually tricky to perform and required quite careful deciphering to perform correctly.

All in all – when I build LEGO I can listen to a podcast, switch off and enjoy half-automated process. With JAKI I had to pay attention all the way – and I did pay the price the couple of times I did not.

The bags were a whole other story. First of all – bags are not numbered. I thought it was due to the patent LEGO has on packaging toy elements – but apparently that expired in 2018. Without numbers, I had to empty contents of all of the bags into a single pile – making the process of finding pieces really laborious. It has gotten better towards the end – as there were fewer remaining pieces, but boy, in the beginning stages I’d sometimes spend 6+ minutes hunting for a single piece.

Interestingly enough, the printed instructions show the bags as being numbered on the intro page – but never use the numbering anywhere further down the line.

Also, bags were very difficult to open. LEGO bags can be easily pulled open by a child. The JAKI ones required tearing with significant force to get to the continents.

The Build

The build was quite disappointing. It felt very chaotic and disorganized. It was like following somebody’s stream of consciousness, rather than a story divided into chapters and paragraphs.

In terms of structural engineering, several major connections in the model hinge on a single peg holding the whole thing together. It made the model very fragile and hard to move. It also caused trouble during the assembly, as getting to some weirder connections would often have me dislocate entire sections of already built model.

Finally, I spotted some parts of the model that are plainly wrong – with pieces that physically overlap. One in particular was a cheese wedge piece that in part needed to occupy the same space as another 1×1×1 brick. I managed to force the sub-assemblies to stick together, but was left with a weird gap and feeling of instability in the final piece.

I guess that’s the only way to sum up this little adventure in bootleg land. LEGO model of similar complexity would likely cost 40-50 USD. I got this one for under 10 bucks.

What I gained from the experience is a much greater appreciation for LEGO quality, design process, manufacturing and user experience. Some corners are just not worth cutting.

From what I can tell, majority of the Chinese bootleg LEGO makers don’t run their own sites, and exist purely through third party storefronts and social media. I was able to find one website that lists sets from multiple makers: JAKI, LOZ, DK Blöcks (gotta love the commitment to fake-Nordic branding), GUDI, XINGBAO and many more.

It can be checked at not-at-all weird and shady sounding URL of xinchen721.com

It is a fascinating rabbit-hole. Chinese designers seem to typically start their process with a base original idea/set from LEGO and then follow the mantra of more, more, more. More pieces, more decorations, more colors. Manufacturing the illusion of added value while lowering the price.

I won’t lie – some of the product renders have me tempted. They often look super cute (かわいい!!!) and appear to be more imaginative than the original LEGO designs. Having experienced one build, however, I think I’m good.

It’s no different from the mouth-watering photo (illustration, really) of a hamburger that leads you to eat a quickly slapped together microwave meal.

I’ll stick to LEGO for now. I will get fewer sets, but each will be worth the price.

One day after I wrote this, YouTube/Nebula channel Half as Interesting released a video that’s right on the topic: The Unspoken Rules of LEGO Sets. It’s just about 7 minutes without ads, and definitely a worthy follow-up.