Toybox of FAIL: Pirate

First time here? Please take a moment and read the Toybox of FAIL Disclaimer. Thanks!
-=-

Okay. Let's cover the background first. Go look at LEGO set 1713: Shipwrecked Pirate. It's a classic set from 1994 featuring a Pirate floating along on a makeshift raft.

Next, go look at the fist FAIL reviewed here: BRICK's Pirate Raider.

Same set, right? Oh sure, one is a crappy bootleg and the other is glorious LEGO brick, but there's no denying they're basically the same thing. The bootleg is just one step into the darkness.

Today we return to the Pirate theme with a new bootleg. Except that it's not "new". Not really.

Yep. This is another copy of 1713...but with some bizarre twists. The big one requires us to step away from the comfortable LEGO-centric universe we've been exploring and take a look at another major brand: Playmobil.

Here's a sample of Playmobil's very distinctive packaging. In particular, note the font used for the logo and the product identifier down in the corner. Take a look at the font used for "Pirate"....yep, that a clear duplication of Playmobil's branding. Now take a look at the "product identifier" from today's FAIL....

Yep - pretty much the same style as Playmobil's. Hmmm. Do you think that's accidental?

This isn't the first bootleg we've seen from LWDRAGON - take a moment and check out RACING CAR if you haven't already. Somewhere between stock number 19131-02 and today's 19131-20 they switched styles from "Almost LEGO" to "Let's dupe a whole new demographic."

The instructions for PIRATE have a few minor changes from the 1713 base, but not enough to make me question the attribution. Note that there's no mini-figure shown in the LWD instructions - this is a common trait for them.

Another common trait is the inclusion of this "inspected by" slip. At least, I assume that's what it means. Maybe it's a "collect them all" scheme.

The mini-figure that comes with the set is the same strange mix of duplicated LEGO parts and non-standard elements that was saw in Racing Car. The hat is pure LEGO - but the figure itself...is not. For once, the Bootleggers did something I approve of - they added some ethnic diversity to their mini-figure set. Neither LEGO-yellow nor some shade of pink, this pirate is appropriately swarthy. In a perfect world more licensed sets would have "figures of color."

Although I don't know if I would have picked this particular face for mass production...

Here's the toy - decent colors, printed flag in the plus column. In the minus, the bricks are all slightly warped and made of thin, fragile plastic. The studs don't have any markings on them, and they're fairly shallow and uneven - making connections iffy at best.

Overall, this is a better quality knock-off than the BRICK effort, but still a sad second when compared to the real LEGO product.

Mr. Bootleg Pirate salutes you! Now go buy a real LEGO set and forget about this nightmare!

----======-----

As always, many thanks to Joe from The Undiscovered Playthings for sending me this set to review.