Nowadays Chinese are getting really good at making LEGO-compatible blocks. Some sets are really unique and of very good quality. But still - we got our own ideas. I wonder does anyone here know any source in China, that produces blocks (not sets)? So blocks of requested shape and color. I would like to contact them somehow. They should exist, since set producing companies do not seem to produce blocks themselves, but rather taking them from somewhere else.
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4Welcome to Brick.SE! That's a nice question. As a reminder to answerers: clone blocks are fine, but anything that infringes on LEGO copyright is not (e.g. clone sets, minifigs, etc).– jncraton ♦May 19, 2017 at 16:26
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2 Answers
There are vendors that sell LEGO compatible blocks. One place to look for these is on AliExpress, which is an online marketplace affiliated with Alibaba, the world's largest retailer (wikipedia).
You can search around for what you want, but here are two sellers that I found as an example (1, 2).
Note that these don't appear to be significantly better prices than what you might find on a secondary LEGO market such as Bricklink, and quality varies a lot between brands, so I'd recommend sticking with Bricklink unless you are looking for massive quantities and quality isn't as important to you.
High quality LEGO compatible brick manufacturing requires very high mold tolerance and tight tolerances on the entire injection molding process. It isn't easy to do cheaply, and LEGO's scale allows them to be fairly price competitive on bulk parts among manufactures with similar quality.
answered May 19, 2017 at 16:36
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3+1 for Bricklink. However what I'm looking for is to give a printout of parts constituting my custom designed set to manufacturer, who could then mass produce it for me.– jayarjoMay 21, 2017 at 8:02
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Note that shipping from China is ridiculously cheap and typically included in the prices found on AliExpress. So if you need just a handful of parts, it's actually a lot cheaper to buy from AliExpress than buying from LEGO or on Bricklink, beause of the high shipping cost when buying in Europe or the US. Also, the quality of Chinese bricks has improved so much they're barely distinguishable from LEGO. Dec 26, 2018 at 16:15
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@JohnSlegers that is about to change, at least for Europe, where the EU has abolished the VAT except for imports below 22 €. Now every package will have to pay customs, no matter the cost. Jun 18, 2021 at 11:08
If you are looking for a product in China, but do not know where to find a manufacturer, I suggest you consider using a sourcing agent. These companies can help people in European and American countries find suitable factories. They are locals and have more experience in doing such things.
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2Hi Cynthia, and welcome to Bricks :) When posting recommendations for companies, we ask that you declare any affiliation (or lack of) with the post so that it's not considered spam. Having seen a number of other projects use Chinese manufacturers, I can agree that having a local sourcing agent seemed to help them. Jun 15, 2021 at 18:00