Monday, December 21, 2009

Toybox of FAIL: Thunder Charger




Please take a moment and read the Toybox of FAIL Disclaimer. Thanks!
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Thunder Charger - Jing Zhiwei Bootleg of LEGO - Box
Thunder Charger

Jing Zhiwei toys continues their run of LEGO knock-offs with a small helicopter model. A very familiar helicopter.

In fact, everything about this bootleg should be familiar to long-time FAIL readers. Why? Because other than a company name-change from BRICK, this set is identical to the one I reviewed back in March of 2009.

Take a look at the packaging:


The same part count. The same graphics. The same fonts. The same goofy log cabin in the background shot...

And remember the badly translated slogans?



Well, check out the top the new box...

Thunder Charger - Jing Zhiwei Bootleg of LEGO - Box top

"But what about the toy?" I hear you ask. "Surely it's a bit different!"

First the BRICK version:


and the latest:

Thunder Charger - Jing Zhiwei Bootleg of LEGO - toy

Thunder Charger - Jing Zhiwei Bootleg of LEGO - toy b Thunder Charger - Jing Zhiwei Bootleg of LEGO - toy a

Oh. Wait. They are different. And the Jing Zhiwei version is even crappier looking.

I would have passed up this review all together, but my photographer would have been mightily irked to have suffered through building and documenting this piece of crap for nothing. So now her suffering becomes yours.

You're welcome.

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

Photos of the Jing Zhiwei Thunder Charger are © 2009 Alyska Bailey Peterson /
PointyKitty Studios

11 comments:

CorneliusMurdock said...

Do you think they're actually made by the same people who change their company name or that the bootleggers steal even from themselves?
Why would anyone want to bootleg a bootleg?

Anonymous said...

A rip-off of a rip-off! I just laughed so much at this. At first I though you were re-uploading things when I saw it. :P

Anonymous said...

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that you're doing the FAILS again, but the new ones are so short. You used to spend so much time making fun of every aspect of the bootlegs.

The One Guy said...

When I first saw this, my first thought was 'Did you forget that you did this one already,' but I was soon to learn the horrible truth. (By the way, I have to agree with the second Anonymous' comment.)

alyska said...

I could follow up with a list of all of the creative verbage that came out of my mouth in the process of shooting all of these...

Some of the later ones don't even look like the plastic was tempered properly - it looks like fondant, not abs plastic!

Ben said...

so... shiny... so greasy... so... crappy.

Ranger said...

I like how the connections are so weak the tail droops.

X said...

they sunk so low that even stole form other crappy bootlegs

WV:restnes LOL

Flamero Burns said...

A bootleg of a bootleg. That is the crappiest kind.

Anonymous said...

Think I'll try to make something like this with real LEGO parts. Wish me luck.

Anonymous said...

If you step on a real LEGO set like this on bare tile, it'll fall apart, maybe. Some pieces might even stay attached. If you step on a bootleg, the pieces themselves will fall apart. I swear, I'd rather have fucking Mega Blocks than this shit.