Thursday, April 9, 2009

Daily Fail: Drill Car




First time here? Please take a moment and read the DAILY FAIL DISCLAIMER. Thanks!

--
Not all bootleg lines are created equal. There are always varying levels of suck - some lines are made of super brittle material, some are slathered in paint with the skill and care of your typical two year old. And some....some would be completely fine if they weren't stealing toy molds from other companies.

Today's FAIL is a failure of the later sort - out of the package it takes a careful eye to spot the problems with this bootleg. Luckily for the consumer, the box is enough to scare just about anyone away. Let's take a look at....Drill Car.





When my source sends me bootlegs 99% of the time their in fairly good condition. The toys inside might be cracked and broken, but the packages usually look quite nice. Today's set is the exception to that standard.



As you can see, the box is in pretty rough shape. Luckily(?) the contents were intact - and you could still read enough of the box for the lulz.



This is the first time we've seen the "Kazi" brand logo on a bootleg. I have two sets from assortment 63xx - the Drill Car and tomorrow's Fail. Both come in boxes just slightly smaller than the standard LEGO impulse set.

I'm not sure if there's some relation between the name and the strange pyramid type logo, but apparently they've trademarked it. I say "apparently" as I somehow doubt there's any paperwork out there with real information on it. If there were, I'm sure LEGO Legal would have had a word or two with these guys already.

The font choices in the logo are the first hint that we're in for something strange - the over sized "R" makes the toy name look like "D-Rill Car". It's for "5+ Ages" - no direct hint as to what those ages might be, though. I'm guessing Mesozoic and Jurassic for at least two of them.



The back of the package shows a couple of alternate builds for the Drill Car. They did a decent job with the product shots, at least.



The side of the package has an "action shot" of the Drill Car. Apparently the main job of this vehicle is to create potholes.



This side of the package has the Kazi mission statement presented in fractured English.

By developing intelligence, and inspiring potential.
To make children grow up with happiness.


That's fairly deceptive, considering the UN-happiness that bootleg toys bring to children.



The instructions sheet is two sided, and shows the build steps in good detail. Strangely, they show you how to put the minifigure together from component parts, yet the figure was packaged with the torso and legs assembled. (You did have to put the hands into the sleeves, though.)

The bricks are all fairly sturdy for a change - all of them are marked with "KAZI" on the studs.



Here's the assembled mini-figure. The torso's decoration is new, as is the figure's face. The parts themselves are duplicated from standard LEGO molds, though.



Here's a shot of the assembled Drill Car. Note that the rubber tires and yellow plastic hubs are separate pieces - an unusual find for a bootleg line. (More often wheels are re-cast as a single lump of fragile black plastic.) The yellow is a different shade from the LEGO version, and the studs all say "KAZI", but otherwise it's difficult to spot any differences in the parts.



The Drill Car is a dangerous bootleg in that without packaging it can easily be mistaken for an actual LEGO product. Luckily, bootlegs of this quality are fairly rare.

Still.....anyone want to take bets on if the paint on the figure is lead-based?

I didn't think so.

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

Labels: , ,

13 Comments:

Blogger Cat said...

Is..is it possible that the minifig looks like the one on the box....for once?

:-O

April 9, 2009 8:55 AM  
Blogger Christopher Doyle said...

@cat:

Not just the figure, but the *toy itself.*

I'm scared now.

April 9, 2009 9:02 AM  
OpenID cutelucca said...

No way, I hope the fail is here to stay! Love it!

The quality of this bootleg is freakishly good. I almost choked on my breakfast this morning when I saw the torso painted in TWO colors!

April 9, 2009 10:40 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

Wow... that is easily the "best" bootleg so far.. the parts might be mistakeable, but the design is not quite up to TLG quality... but still... a cut above... Which begs the question: does that make it worse? I'd say yes...

April 9, 2009 11:44 AM  
Blogger Danny said...

The bootleg matches the box! That's a sign of the apocalypse!!!!
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!

April 9, 2009 3:02 PM  
Blogger Great escaper said...

At the end of all the bootlegs, would it be possible to have a big table that sums up the crappiness, for example, number of bootlegs that matched part count:3, number of bootlegs that matched the colours on the box:1, etc, just to sum everything up?

April 9, 2009 3:16 PM  
Blogger Martijn said...

I don't like the grin on the driver's face... somehow he kinda looks smug with himself for hiding a FAIL so well that even Chris didn't spot it.

April 9, 2009 4:13 PM  
Blogger Ben said...

Whaaa?!?!? actually matching the colors on the box? how is this possible? A two color mini fig, oringinal designs? this is dare I say it.. almost quality. but of course there is the obvious questin, what is dRill cars use?

April 9, 2009 5:06 PM  
Blogger Mr.Acme said...

Are you sure that is a fail? Even a bootleg?

April 9, 2009 6:08 PM  
Blogger RJ of BlockTales said...

i agree with gregory(dont hate me) and dont get me wrong - i love reading daily fail but i love Brick House more - and if bringing brick house back gets rid of fails i would make that sacrifice and put fails as a end of the week treat. at least post more than 1 episode a week.

BTW could you actually do a table as Brian said or a Quikwars battle like at xmas. You could even test them to destruction like you did to Pat o butter.

April 10, 2009 3:29 AM  
Blogger Great escaper said...

Yea, I agree with having a Quickwars battle with the bootlegs at the end too.


*btw* It was me that suggested the table, not Brian

April 10, 2009 6:28 AM  
Anonymous sexy mike said...

why not make an brick house episode when whiskey destroys an army of bootlegs

May 16, 2009 3:38 PM  
Anonymous pokank said...

whats up with the bold "N" in UN-happyness?
any ways, i thin i,ve seen that set before. i have a relative with a ton of bootleg legos, i think they have that one.
vw: subiti
sounds african

May 17, 2009 11:23 AM  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home