Lego...or not.

Quite recently, I have been (re)introduced to the LEGO superhero figures while I was in Tagaytay on vacation last December celebrating my 1st year wedding anniversary. Now these figures normally come inside LEGO playsets which are, in my opinion, bastardly expensive here in the Philippines. 

For the most part, I have not collected much American superhero based toys since I let go of my Hasbro Iron Man 7" movie series last 2008 (except for the SH Figuarts Iron Man and War Machine and the new Hasbro TMNT figures). As my wife and I were roaming around People's Park, I just chanced on some knock off boxes depicting LEGO figures of Superman, Batman, Spider-man and most of the movie Avengers. Just out of sheer curiosity, I decided to buy a couple at a then reasonable price of 100 pesos each. (Lo and behold, I would discover that they were only 50 pesos a figure back in Manila...LMAO). 

I was impressed by how accurate these knock offs were to the originals so I decided to buy a couple more when I got back in Manila: 

By "a couple," I ended up buying several of these figures for both the Superman and Batman lines. There are basically two brands that I have been getting: Sheng Yuan and Decool. 

Both versions come with the essential head, torso and leg parts. They all come with its designated helmet or hairpiece; depending on the figure, cloth cape, stand, and a few accessories. 

Now, the Sheng Yuan versions have larger stands with their logo on them and their figures have the back of the feet where the calves should be sliced off; probably so can just slide them easily through your usual block pegs. While it does make easier in attaching the figures to other blocks, it's a pretty loose fit and doesn't really help keep the figure attached to the block. Lastly, i found the accessories included for the Batman figures, a gun, so inappropriate for the figure. They could've at least put in a Batarang instead since c'mon, everyone knows Batman doesn't use guns! I did like the Kryptonite accessories for Supes and the long rifle for Joker. The spiked club doesn't work for me as well as they could've given Joker a mallet instead which would be more appropriate for me. 

The Decool version is the more LEGO accurate sculpt with no calf cut like the Sheng Yuan version. The stands that they come with is just a black block with no markings. They do come with two expressions for each face so you have a gritty Batman on one side and a smirking one in the next. The Man of Steel Supes and Zod have your stoic face and angry, heat vision faces and so on which I think is a big plus for this brand. Also, accessories here are much more accurate for the Bats figs with a Batarang for Batman, handcuffs for Robin and green thingies for movie Green Lantern. No accessories though for Superman which is a bit of a bummer. 

While I do not encourage people to buy knock offs, I have to say that these ones are a good alternative to buying overly expensive LEGO playsets/figures that you have on sale in malls. Since I just want the characters and not the cars and buildings and what-not on it, this works for me plus since I am working on a smaller budget now for toys, these little guys fit the bill to satisfy my LEGO/hero fix. ;)