BRICK SOLDIER BIONICLE KNOCK-OFF

My childhood just wouldn't have been the same without Legos. Those colorful bricks unleash creativity unlike any other toy, and I spent many hours constructing robots and whatnot during memorable summers.

Well, this toy isn't Lego, but it wishes it was. The Lego-style logo says "BRICK", but at a glance anyone could be fooled. And to delve deeper into the world of knock-offs, the toy is a very blatant Bionicle rip-off... with Darth Vader's helmet!

The head is like a three dimensional version of the art used for much of the Episode III era merchandise.

Here's a comparison of the Brick/Soldier logos with the Lego/Bionicle ones (which I got from a Bionicle comic book).

This is only one of the several building sets that have the Brick logo. While many don't have anything to do with space or sci-fi, there's a set with an alien riding a vehicle that's based off of the Life on Mars Lego sets, but the box reads "STAR WARS SUPER BRICKS SERIES"!

Here's the back of the Soldier box. It displays the instructions for building the toy.

Each side of the box shows three of the six figures from this set, all of them donning Vader helmets.

Here's a close up of the one of the figures, Kualus.

The toys and character names are all taken from the Rahaga Bionicle series. In fact, the figure on the front of the box is the same image as the one found on the Rahaga version, only with a Vader head pasted over it. Just to the right of its head you can actually see a bit of blue from the old Bionicle head, and to the left there's a chunk of arm missing from where part of the original helmet was cropped out.

Aw, man, there's some good 'ol fashion knock-off-style writing on the top of the box. It lists, "Modern design. Superior performance. High standard in quality and hygiene. Skilful manufacture. Perfect in workmanship." Notice the typo "Skilful" and the overall silliness.

The bottom isn't as funny, though.

The box has a sticker on it that says the production date was "08-2011" and states it was made in Shantou, China. There's also an explanation about battery use... not that this toy even uses batteries. The statement "This bag is not a toy" seems odd considering the sticker is on a cardboard box.

Sometimes it's easy to look on the bright side, and this is one of those cases. I found this toy at a garage sale and was warned that it may be missing pieces, but they were asking only fifty cents for the toy and I figured I'd pay that much for the box alone. Well, as luck would have it, the set was missing the most crucial piece, the Vader head! But I'm thankful to have found what I did.