I know, I know, this isn't real LEGO, but hear me out: sometimes it's good to compare and contrast brands of construction toys. Is it as good as LEGO? If not, does it still have any merit? Is there still a reason to support LEGO above all else?
As I mentioned in a prior post, I received a late Christmas present when the family assembled for Easter. My sister and her husband gave me the Brickcraft Futurama Planet Express Ship. I'm a fan of the show, and own the first four seasons and the subsequent four films on DVD. This ship is as iconic as the U.S.S. Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, and Serenity in sci-fi fandom.
Brickcraft has a New York address on the box, but the set is made in China.
LEGO still makes most of their bricks in Europe and the USA, although they do also have factories in China and Vietnam. LEGO has very strict quality controls. Competing brands making "compatible with other name brands" interlocking blocks tend to struggle to meet those standards in fit, finish, design quality, instruction quality, and packaging.
Up front: the cardboard box feels sturdy. This is not the flimsy paperboard of Dollar Tree construction bricks. This is two layers of paperboard with corrugation in between. First impressions matter, and this is a good one.
Inside, the bricks are sorted into bags, and numbered in the order they should be opened. These are cellophane of some kind, and I should note that LEGO is transitioning from this kind of packaging to paper. The instructions are also printed on nice glossy paper in well-bound booklets. Again, this looks like a premium product.
Time for construction. The red bricks are similar to LEGO dark red, but the turquoise (seafoam? teal? what should I call this color?) is distinct from anything I have seen. There is also a glossy, almost metallic finish on some of the red bricks. This seems to be the Brickcraft edge: instead of the LEGO System of consistent, slowly-expanding color palette, I bet these upstarts cater to custom colors as part of their pitch for license agreements.
The instructions show a different shade for the glossy metallic bricks, so I had little trouble here. The Studs Not On Top design is also reveling itself early, effectively building "up" from the belt line for the bottom of the hull. LEGO tends to make better use of its parts library for these situations. Note also the lack of the front ramp and bottom hatch. 0/10, completely unacceptable, this set is trash!
For the next portion of the build, I separated all the parts from the next bags by color. Since I wasn't thinking about my watermark at the time, I had to move it to the bottom left corner here so you could see the odd parts in other colors besides red and turquoise.
And after some assembly required, the hull looks much more complete, yet it remains upside-down.
On to the 3rd set of parts! I forgot to take a picture of that,,, If you build, you know how it is. You get into the flow and don't think about little things like, "oh, yeah, I was planning to eventually make a blog post about this."
The three tailfin pieces are nice. Two are slightly smaller, and the large fin on top has studs for the printed dish logo bricks. I do like how it all came together at the end with ball-and-socket joints and cheese wedge slopes setting the angle on the bottom fins.
The last stage of this build is the stand, which uses Technic-style beams and pins to set a rakish angle. The clear bricks aren't quite to LEGO standards, but they are uniquely suited to this stand.
Is this as good as LEGO? No. The bricks feel just a bit off, as does the clutch power of assembly. They are better than the Dollar Tree knockoffs, though. The assembly felt disjointed compared to LEGO build flow, but the instructions weren't hard to follow. And the portholes don't line up along the side!
It's not all negative by any means, though. It's a good display piece even if it lacks the play features of most LEGO sets. The turquoise and gloss red colors outside LEGO's established palette are interesting. As noted before, I like the fins and some other unique elements in this set. I also appreciate the pre-printed elements instead of stickers. Despite my complaints, I appreciate the overall end result. And of course, it was a gift, and I appreciate that, too.
Should you buy Brickcraft instead of LEGO?
Probably not, since it's just not quite as good, although the color options are nice.
Should you buy Brickcraft if you like any of their licensed products?
Maybe, but I'm not about to shill any referral links.
Should you buy generic Chinese copies of LEGO?
That's between you and your conscience. Some have unique IP licenses, and some are straight-up counterfeits.
Anyway, that's my review. Make of it what you will. Chime in with a comment if you like.
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