Answers.Body: <p>There are vendors that sell LEGO compatible blocks. One place to look for these is on <a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/" rel="noreferrer">AliExpress</a>, which is an online marketplace affiliated with Alibaba, the world's largest retailer (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group#AliExpress" rel="noreferrer">wikipedia</a>).</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/n56GC.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/n56GC.png" alt="vendor screenshot"></a></p>
  
  <p>You can search around for what you want, but here are two sellers that I found as an example (<a href="https://summertoys.aliexpress.com/store/group/LEGO-Blocks/1702338_500425372.html" rel="noreferrer">1</a>, <a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/Lego-Compatible-Parts/1815400_501050179.html" rel="noreferrer">2</a>).</p>
  
  <p>Note that these don't appear to be significantly better prices than what you might find on a secondary LEGO market such as <a href="http://bricklink.com" rel="noreferrer">Bricklink</a>, 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.</p>
  
  <p>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.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-21T08:02:35.143Z
Answers.Text: +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.
Answers.UserDisplayName: jayarjo
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-12-26T16:15:29.093Z
Answers.Text: 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.
Answers.UserDisplayName: John Slegers
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-06-18T11:08:50.127Z
Answers.Text: @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.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Henrique de Sousa
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-19T16:36:40.643Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-05-19T16:36:40.643Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: jncraton
Answers.Body: <p>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.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-06-15T18:00:48.927Z
Answers.Text: Hi Cynthia, and welcome to Bricks :) When posting recommendations for companies, we ask that [you declare any affiliation (or lack of) with the post](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/help/promotion) 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.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Zhaph - Ben Duguid
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-06-15T08:36:48.513Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-06-18T17:45:45.593Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2021-06-18T17:45:45.593Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cynthia
Body: <p>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.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-05-19T16:26:20.053Z
Comments.Text: Welcome 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).
Comments.UserDisplayName: jncraton
Tags: <compatibility><clone-brands>
Title: Are there factories in China that produce raw LEGO-compatible blocks?
UserDisplayName: jayarjo
ThreadText: # Are there factories in China that produce raw LEGO-compatible blocks?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-19)
  
  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.
  
  **Tags:** compatibility, clone-brands
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Welcome 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).  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-19. Score: 8
  
  There are vendors that sell LEGO compatible blocks. One place to look for these is on [AliExpress](https://www.aliexpress.com/), which is an online marketplace affiliated with Alibaba, the world's largest retailer ([wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group#AliExpress)).
  
  [![vendor screenshot](https://i.sstatic.net/n56GC.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/n56GC.png)
  
  You can search around for what you want, but here are two sellers that I found as an example ([1](https://summertoys.aliexpress.com/store/group/LEGO-Blocks/1702338_500425372.html), [2](https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/Lego-Compatible-Parts/1815400_501050179.html)).
  
  Note that these don't appear to be significantly better prices than what you might find on a secondary LEGO market such as [Bricklink](http://bricklink.com), 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.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: +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.  
  > **username_2**: 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.  
  > **username_3**: @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.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2021-06-15. Score: -2
  
  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.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_5**: Hi Cynthia, and welcome to Bricks :) When posting recommendations for companies, we ask that [you declare any affiliation (or lack of) with the post](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/help/promotion) 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.  
  
  ---
  
  