For years there is a saying in China, “there is no fake LEGO as long as it came with LEGO logo.” Many advertisement were run in educating consumers in China in identifying products with “LEGO” trademark as genuine ones. However, one incident in Hong Kong might shatter the saying of “No Fake LEGO”.

The allegation was reported in Tieba, a reddit type of forum in China. A netizen in China traveled to Hong Kong and bought LEGO Ideas 21311 Voltron set on Jan 29th 2019. Upon returning to China he opened the set and found the bricks were without “LEGO” logo.

Obviously the box had been tampered with. The set he bought had the box, manual and sticker sheet all printed with LEGO signs. Based on the quality of the printing, the box, manual and sticker were of original instead of counterfeit.

The parts came in numbering bags different to LEGO ones. The bags had serial number “16057” printed on them. This is the same serial numbers used by LEPIN in the counterfeit Voltron set. You could find LEPIN 16057 Voltron on Aliexpress.

Taking a look at the box, it had the sealing tape at the bottom of the box. The tape had serial 37g8 and a black strip on it. The “g” here indicated the origin of the set, which is Jiaxing, the LEGO factory in China.

After the incident was reported, there were more reports of tampering, in which “LEGO box with LEPIN parts” were bought at In’s Point in Hong Kong. In’s Point is a well known toy’s heaven, a place for Lego’s collectors. In 2018, there were postings on Facebook about “fake LEGO” being bought at the place. The sets involved were Saturn V rocket. There were reports of UCS Hulkbuster that came with LEPIN parts as well.

Frequently the shops in In’s Point sold the goods without issuing invoice, which complicated the claims. Below are photos of In’s Point and the typical look of the toy shop that sell LEGO.

At the same time, netizen found online seller of LEGO Voltron boxes in bulk in China. Some netizen concluded the printer that supplied LEGO boxes had sold the boxes illegally and provide opportunity for unscrupulous sellers to swap out the parts with LEPIN.

The reported incident shocked AFOL in China, as their LEGO collection might end up be “LEGO box with LEPIN bricks”. Many bought LEGO not for building but rather as “investment” so the boxes were never opened and examined. Because of the Chinese New Year, the victim would travel to Hong Kong to confront the shop owner in later date.

At this point, it’s very hard to verify the news with little evidence presented. In short, there could be few possibilities:

1. The set was swapped by the shop with LEPIN parts while retaining the genuine box, manual and sticker. The genuine manual and sticker will convince the less inform LEGO buyers that they bought the real goods.

2. The 3rd party suppliers sold the sets with the parts swapped. The shop owner and the buyers both were victims.

3. The buyer made false claim to tarnish the reputation of the seller in In’s Point.

The alleged incident had AFOL in China worried about purchasing LEGO sets from unofficial channels. There are huge difference between LEGO prices in China and Hong Kong. On Taobao, there are many sellers who sourced LEGO sets from oversea and resell in China. To avoid doubt, it’s best to buy LEGO sets from official channels in China. No one would be happy to pay LEGO price and end up getting LEPIN.



One way to safeguard your interests while buying from non LEGO certified shop is to open the set on the spot after the purchase. Still, this is unacceptable to those who wanted to keep the box in pristine condition. Alternatively, you could weight the box to settle the doubt. LEGO is very precise in their bagging of the parts and all boxes of the same serial number would weight exactly same. For example LEGO Voltron was 2.7 KG in weight.



Still, LEGO could do more in preventing tampering. A few strips of tapes won’t stop people from tampering with the LEGO boxes. Also the company need to be more careful with its suppliers to reduce chance of unauthorized sale of boxes and manual. The campaign of “No Fake LEGO” could go down the drain in China if there were more sightings of “LEGO Box with LEPIN Inside”.