Thursday, May 28, 2009

Toybox of FAIL: Farm




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

Little White Dragon has a very strange sense of place and history. The Pirate series started out with a Pirate...but ended up in the Wild West. City started out at a gas station...and ended up on Mars.

I'm a bit worried as to where today's journey will lead. We start out on a Farm.







*Whew*. It is a farm!



It says so on the box! And look at that Happy Farmer! Everything is going to be okay this time!



Oh, sure there are some very distinctive Non-LEGO parts in the kit. But we've seen so much of that in the past that we're almost immune. Maybe these are Playmobil molds. (If someone recognizes, them, be sure to post in the comments!)



And here's our happy farmer. SO happy is he, in fact, that he doesn't have any pants on. That's kind of awkward.

And he's wearing a black hat. That's never a good sign.

Maybe things are a little more sinister than I thought.



Here's the full playset. You have a leafy orange plant...that seems benign.

And a shovel. That fits the theme.

And a field of wheat or corn. Creepy, but still logical.

But...why does our Pantless Farmer have a hammer?

Looks like he wants to talk to us...



"The world is full of sinners. I will cleanse them all.
I will pound them clean. With my hammer. With my LOVE."


Um. I think it's best if we back away slowly from this bootleg.

And don't make eye contact with that farmer....

I mean...oh no. he's spotted us.

RUN!

RUN!!!!!!!!!



Oh. And, just for the record, I figured out what line LWD has been knocking off. It's not LEGO. It's not Playmobil. It's the knock-off...sorry...."Fully Compatible with Major Brands"... "Best Lock". Check out their Farm set.

Yep. That's the same parts as today's FAIL.

So LWD is cloning the clones.

A sad, pale Xerox of a Xerox.



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

17 comments:

Derek Whaley said...

I like the part on their website that says:

WARNING : By entering this webpage you risk damage to your believes regarding the history of toy bricks !

Enter only, if you can accept the TRUTH !

Whatever that means, it makes me laugh, in that "this-really-is-sad" way.

Brian Schlosser said...

I like those corn plants. The LEGO farm sets are neat, but that have nothing to, you know, HARVEST. The yellow 2x3 bricks are not much, you know? The packaging and catalogues suggest you use yellow or green antenae, but really, who has 500 yellow antenea lying around?

Joel Hook said...

I don't get the refrence lol, and the BrickConnect farm set looks decent.

Christopher Doyle said...

@escaper:

The quote is from a Sandman comic about serial killers - I didn't figure many people would recognize it.

ClawFTW said...

once i saw a clone of best lock called Sure-Lock! they had minifigures that look sort of like sure lock, and the colors were different.

Al459163 said...

I like how best lock's legal matters page is under construction.

Ben said...

i want to see what kind of history they conjured up to say that they are original. they aren't, are they?

Anonymous said...

I love those wheat pieces! For the rest, either this or the best lock form looks like crap.

erik
flickr.com/eti-eti

Gungnir Industries said...

@ Whaleyland & Al459163 :
Quite so. The page on the history of bricks is also not up.

Cathartidae said...

That shovel is a clone of the Fabuland Shovel

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=x120a

Monica said...

Minifig in a cornfield holding something that could be used as a weapon: immediately reminded me of "Children of the Corn."

MALACHI!

ILikePi said...

All of those pearl silver pieces (the shovel and hammer) are Best-Lock pieces.

Here is the sprue picture again:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3901615

Crazy Ray said...

i think he's a pot farmer
WV:smsid

The One Guy said...

According to the Best-Lock about page "Unlike any of their competitors, Best-Lock features a line of military and construction vehicles." Um, I don't know about other componies, but since when does LEGO not have construction sets?

Kevin Tiberius Almgren said...

Also, with the "Unlike any of their competitors, Best-Lock features a line of military and construction vehicles." quote (I know I risk excommunication for this) MEGA blocks has a military line.

Unknown said...

Actually it's cloning the clone cloners coz Best Lock is more of a MEGA bloks rip off that a lego one.

Ian said...

Is it bad that I get a slave vibe from this whole thing? I mean diversity is wonderful and something we should celebrate... But making the black figure the one out in the field just doesn't seem smart on the company's part.