LEGO Ideas creator calls out retailers for ‘stealing designs’
LEGO Ideas creator mexxbrixx has called out AliExpress and other retailers for stealing his designs and creating copies of his work to sell.
The creator of several 10K LEGO Ideas projects mexxbrixx, also known as dimexart on some platforms, has shared a video on YouTube, detailing allegations that AliExpress and an Amazon retailer have seemingly stolen his designs and sold them as real products. His main example, Antique Cash Register, gained 10,000 supporters in the first 2022 review back in April, 2022.
mexxbrixx outlined in his video how he created custom stickers for the design to help it stand out. Although it wasn’t ultimately selected, he then became aware that AliExpress was selling a very similar version of a brick-built cash register, done to the ‘coffee’ and ‘change’ stickers on the buttons.
Although the AliExpress set has around 1,000 fewer pieces than mexxbrixx’s design, there are some clear similarities between them. The LEGO Ideas creator goes on to say similar things happened with other designs he’s worked on, including the Popcorn Machine and Vintage Toaster.
Although there are more differences between the third-party sets in these two cases, like adding Garfield to the Popcorn Machine and changing the colour of the Vintage Toaster, mexxbrixx argues that the core concepts remain the same.
“As a designer, I put my heart and soul into every project,” he said. “These builds take days, sometimes weeks, of thinking, creating, problem-solving, and refining.”
Considering AliExpress has been seen before selling similar versions of actual LEGO sets, it perhaps won’t come as a surprise to see it and other retailers allegedly doing the same here. Others in the LEGO community on reddit have shared anecdotes that it’s a more widespread issue than just this one creator.
“This sucks,” wrote BrickAskew. “Did you manage to get any kind of resolution? This happened to a friend and he was devastated.”
mexxbrixx did manage to get Amazon listings taken down after reaching out to customer service but hasn’t had any similar luck with AliExpress, with the listing still live at the time of writing.
“Welcome to corporate espionage,” commented redditor 13E2724M. “We had some press during the pandemic about our LEGO pixel art and a bouquet of flowers and vase I designed. Started seeing our designs (not exact, but themes/ideas) being advertised a few months later.”
You can hear the full story from mexxbrixx by watching the embedded video below.
Brick Fanatics has reached out to AliExpress via the Alibaba Group for comment.
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this is not uncommon at all. I’m RabidFleaBuilds, I publish MOCs to Rebrickable often and several of my designs have been stolen. its almost a rite of passage in the MOC making space, and there’s almost nothing that small creators like myself can do about it. bootleg companies don’t use their real company name on places like Amazon and Ali Express, so as soon as you get a listing taken down, two more pop up in its place. and that isn’t even considering the numerous other marketplace websites these people use to sell stolen designs. many creators such as myself lose quite a bit of money and motivation when something we’ve spent weeks, months, and passion on is simply stolen and repackaged.
I’m sure the Chinese bootleg manufacturers & distributors will stop after a harshly worded letter.
it’s also messed up that submitting a design to LEGO IDEAS means you’re basically relinquishing rights to that design for a certain amount of time (even if it doesn’t get accepted or approved)
I know you’re being sarcastic, but as my dad says, “They’re Chinese. Economic espionage is a stated policy of the CCP.” They won’t stop; in fact, they might get a raise or a promotion.