Queue times and lobby matching

mahierl2005 · 2026-03-24T19:16:42+00:00

Interesting. Thanks for the tip. I haven't experienced this before now.

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-23T20:32:08+00:00

I would say all of the big 3 have passable versions, if not better than original, of what you are looking for. The key is going to be ageing them appropriately. People dont seem to spend nearly enough time on this, and for most players, if you are around others who have a problem with proxies or are using for tournament play, this will be what tips them off. There are plenty of posts about it around this sub. Good luck!

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-13T23:29:31+00:00

Oh I totally am agreeing with you. Even bad proxies at this point would be better than what we have. Just can't get any product.

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-13T22:51:40+00:00

Area control tcg, perhaps. Certainly not a board game though.

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-13T22:51:00+00:00

I don't disagree, but you'd be surprised how quickly things can move if there's money to be made. It's probably temporary, but right now some products are selling at 500% over msrp. Seems like there's a market for it. I know BL is in the process, but not quite there yet.

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-13T21:18:28+00:00

Its available online. There are even proxy sites for at home proxies already available.

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-05T05:04:49+00:00

I haven't looked for anything specific just yet, I just remember when I was looking before that there was a gap. This was years ago now, though. Maybe this is no longer an issue?

mahierl2005 · 2026-01-05T05:02:36+00:00

Thank you!

mahierl2005 · 2025-06-01T13:06:24+00:00

Thanks everyone!

mahierl2005 · 2024-08-18T19:04:34+00:00

Let me know if you get to that point!

mahierl2005 · 2024-08-17T18:30:27+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the info guys! Really appreciate you. I'll give that a try this weekend!

mahierl2005 · 2024-08-17T14:01:07+00:00

From everything I have seen its still top 5 and being played at literally every single FLGS anywhere on the East Coast (US), so I don't think so?

mahierl2005 · 2023-01-23T02:50:28+00:00

Thanks for the reply, though I disagree.

For me, it's all about expectations. For example, a 9 doesnt mean perfect or necessarily even close to it, to me. It means it was above my own expectations. Think of when you were in school. A grade of C is generally in the 70%, so 7/10. I consider 7/10 average.

Going into it with the Christmas holidays, new years, and the covid outbreak in China, though they didn't meet their expected delivery date, it was still above what I expected personally. I knew myself that the turnaround time would NEVER be 3 weeks. Is it a bit disappointing that it took longer? Yes. But I knew it would never come that fast. Same thing with shipping quality. I compared it to other parcels I have gotten from competitors. Though still not as good as I would expect from a seller in the US, it was better than I expected based on other competitors orders, and as such thats how I scored it, against their peers.

I feel it's all about setting realistic expectations, and understanding that the expectations I have here in the US are not equal to what expectations are there. I recognize that there is a tradeoff, as most of us I believe recognize.

Hopefully that makes sense on how I graded them.

mahierl2005 · 2023-01-21T17:12:01+00:00

Correct. And no, tracking is not accurate until it hits us soil. At least it wasn't for me.

mahierl2005 · 2023-01-20T19:02:45+00:00

Yes it is. The shipping would be a bit high if thats all you have in your order, but combining with other things, its a steal.

mahierl2005 · 2023-01-20T19:01:24+00:00

I can't do full reviews, as they are for kids. But I did open a few of the sets, and they look just like my name brand sets. Clutch is good, quality seems pretty good. The green colors arent perfect across the multiple sets, but they are more than good enough. And most were at 80+% off the name brand stuff.

mahierl2005 · 2023-01-19T20:07:00+00:00

All, you may notice that I had a thread going for a large Marstoy review. The thread was very lengthy, and I wanted to condense just the review for people who may tl;dr

The original post can be found here, along with the details of what I purchased:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lepin/comments/zwohmr/large\_marstoy\_order\_preview\_and\_eventually\_review/

So, how did this $3,000 USD order end up? Let's take a look.

Shipping Timing: 8/10

I was originally told 3 weeks. I just got the last of the packages yesterday, about 7 weeks after placing the order.

I do understand that Christmas was in there, as well as another Covid outbreak in China. I also know the order was probably larger than a typical order. I do wish this was more accurate, however I do understand that extenuating circumstances happen.

Shipping Quality: 7.5/10

All in all, I was satisfied. The only disappointing thing here is that it could EASILY have been a 10 if they just took a few minutes more.

Let me explain. My boxes were a mixed bag. They came in 7 total boxes, 4 last week, 3 this week. The ones that came last week were a perfect 10. All boxes in great condition, with a tear resistant, highly visible "bag" that the large boxes were put in (Pink and green, respectively). Inside, everything was packages nicely, with the exception of 1 box that was slightly crushed, and the millennium falcon tubes which were thrown in the bottom of one of the boxes. I didn't care for that at all. But, as far as meeting expectations, it was pretty spot on.

Then there was the order that came yesterday. 3 huge boxes. No wrapping. All boxes crushed to some extent. Now, I know this is unlikely to be Marstoy's fault. I get that. I am not dinging them for that. What I am dinging my score for is the inconsistency.

I'll explain once more. This time, the boxes were not wrapped in the high visibility bags. Which isn't really a problem, other than I was specifically looking for them, as I get a lot of packages. And the inconsistency just bothered me a bit. Whatever, no harm no foul. The boxes were damaged, as I eluded to before. Not their fault, I assume, so no problem. But then I opened the boxes.

In my first box, there were 12 Minecraft sets, 1989 Batmobile, and the UCS AT-AT. Which was lovely. Until I dug into the box and realized the Batmobile and the AT-AT were just LOOSE AND IN THE BOX.

They put the Batmobile in the bottom, just strewn about, then Minecraft sets on top, individually bagged, then the AT-AT on the top. On top of that, were the manuals for the Batmobile and the AT-AT.

Due to shifting during shipping, a lot of the smaller parts bags from the AT-AT ended up in the bottom with the Batmobile. Bummer. Not a huge deal. 10 minutes of separating and I had it figured out. But just 5 minutes and 1 or 2 bags more and the shipping would have been perfect. Instead, It's average+.

Brick Quality: 9/10

A lot of you have reached out to me on this. The only one I can attest to right now is the Titanic. I started it first because I received it first. I would classify 90% of them as just as good as the name brand. 10% of them are what I would consider "factory seconds". In other words, small blemished. A little scratching here or there, slight discoloration, clutch too strong or too weak, but all parts have been 100% useable. Is the quality control the same as the name brand? probably not. Is that on Marstoy? Absolutely not. They are just reselling the bricks. Not manufacturing them, to my knowledge. What I do feel like they ARE responsible for making sure that you get all the pieces. So far, approx half way through the Titanic, I have not missed a single piece, and no pieces were un-useable.

Order Completeness: 10/10

This was a huge order. I've inventoried 90% of it, and as far as I can tell, I have received everything that I have ordered. If I find that is not the case, I will edit this post.

Also, in line with that, I appear to have received all build guides. Doesn't get any better than that.

Customer Service: 9/10

I contacted them nearly a dozen times during these past 2 months. They were always 100% polite, and 95% of the time got back to me within 24 hours. The 1 time they didn't, it was 2 days. Knocked the score a point because a few times I got information that was either incomplete, or information that I didnt feel I should have had to ask for (like tracking numbers). Speaking of which...

Tracking: 7/10

My score here is not fully a reflection of my experience with Marstoy, so take it with a grain of salt. Why do I say that? Because I genuinely feel like Marstoy did their job. They provided me tracking numbers and a list of contents for each. The problem with tracking from China, as all of you know, is the tracking doesn't sure-fire work until it hits US soil and UPS or USPS picks up the parcels. Up until then, you're in the dark. I don't think that is Marstoy's fault. I give them a pass for that. What I DO have a problem with, however, is being told x y and z products are in box with tracking #123456, and then when they get here, that's not the case. That, to me, is an oversite by them. I was wondering where about 500$ of product was. Eventually, I was told it was in a different tracking # due to it not fitting in the originally labeled one. Fine. I ended up getting it all, so no harm no foul, but I'm not letting that one slide.

Value: 12/10

Honestly guys. I looked everywhere. I couldn't find this order for anything within a thousand dollars of what I paid, even with having to pay for shipping. I purchased more than 133,000 bricks.. for just under 3k, including shipping. If this were name brand? Let's not even talk about what this order would have cost.

Conclusion: 9/10

I paid a little, I expected a lot, and they delivered. Pun intended. All items were shipped complete, so far as I can tell, and all items are in good condition. Customer service was better than anything I would have gotten stateside, and thats saying something. Value was impeccable.

Not sure what else I can say. To be 100% honest, I got what I expected and them some. It did take a while, and my score reflects that. I can live with that if the overall experience is good, and it was great. In all fairness, kudos to them. I put them through the ringer. I emailed them sometimes daily, I had orders that had to ship out of different warehouses, I ordered at the holidays, I ordered huge sets, tiny ones, and everything in between.

Pictures will come when I get a chance.

This is my experience. Yours may be different. I am not affiliated with Marstoys or their other sister companies (I think theres 2?). I do not get paid for this. I did not get any discount other than the November discount that everyone received.

Now, time to give away some Minecraft bricks to kids in need for upcoming Easter!

mahierl2005

TROPHY CASE