The fact that the most of the products turn out to be quite good makes me think we are getting scammed all the time with over priced products that are manufactured in Asia anyway many times.
The thing with AliExpress is that you have to read where and what you're buying. I've bought for years there and haven't gotten a single faulty product. Even original premium Bandai models.
Just avoid stuff that pretends to be from some major company regarding electronics or stuff too good to be true (like s24 or flagship phones for 100$). Other than that you can find so much stuff that here is marked up or not findable
When buying from aliexpress you're skipping a lot of middlemen, sometimes you're buying almost straight from the factories. A lot of sellers will sell in bulk or give reductions if you buy in bulk.
120 euro for a paint shaker - which is basically just a vibrating motor? You sure you're looking for scams in the right place, bro? I started buying from Alibaba back when Aliexpress was not around yet. That's because hobbyists were (and still are) absolutely ripped off by big companies. The "enough is enough" moment was when I realized that I pay just as much money for 1:8 scale RC tires, as for my real car tires. That's absolute madness. We are being totally ripped off and basically *scammed* but not by those Chinese sellers, but by domestic companies who convinced us we have to pay through our noses for stuff that's really cheap to make. Aliexpress is one of the blessings that makes various hobbies affordable to many people.
This. I build 1:1 sized Star wars Droids and get all my hardware and servos at ae. This projects would cost at least the double amount of my hard earned cash over here in europe.
yea, i got into rc and it was like 30 per set and a set was 2 tires. i was like wtf is this shit because i race them and you wear those out pretty quick.
The thing about about it is that often times the local ones are just made to be better looking or has more quality of life features while slapping a 300% markup on it. Take a design that someone already has, go to factory and say make please but with x y z changes and then resell on [insert country] for an absolute premium. One of the sneaky ways they get around this is by labeling it as Made in [insert country] with Global Materials. Like send the ships and the motors over but without any of the housing, make the plastic housing in the country and then resell it for massive markup while also saying that its made in your country so that you would be incentivized to by "local" versus Made in China. The most egregious were Andons, tiered lights you see in factories. The ones where its green or red or there might be a yellow to indicate that this machine needs to be looked at before it goes offline at red. The ones my work had were $700 USD per for the green and red one. Everything was made in china except for the bulbs and the housing. The housing had to be aluminum but that was the most expensive part. Found some one aliexpress for $15 per but with a white plastic housing
I was 1 minute into the video, when I went to scroll through the comments, saw yours and went "huh curious what thing this will be". I got to the paint mixer/shaker and I can approve your comment with all of my body parts. Now I'm at 3:00 and oh boi how many expensive mundane items does a minature painter use?! Painting Handle? 14 EUROS?! I mean you can use ANY type of handle you have, you could even take a ball-deodorant, take a goddamn two side tape (doesn't have to be 200kg of force proof xD) and voila, here's your painting handle XD I mean anything that lays good in your hand, and have one flat surface could be a painting handle xD Oh I think my poor ass gonna enjoy this one :D
@@golonqa23While I agree with the sentiment and agree some of these things the price has no justification at all there are still some nice features and conveniences in some of the more expensive hobby tools - the painting handles you buy for instance can be (emphasis on CAN BE not WILL BE) really quick to change minis, hold them very securely, be much harder to tip over the ones you have put down, possibly able to tilt the mini for better access to awkward parts, have more consistent feeling in the hand to help with repeatability etc, and the better paint brushes will hold their tip better, hold more paint, last longer etc. If you do a lot of hobby painting and want to really get good taking away variables and using the better stuff can be worth the money (in some cases anyway).
@@golonqa23 Yea, I'm all for random gadgets and crap to help with various tasks, but when purchasing things I take in to consideration what that thing is actually comprised of. If it's something I can whip together with a broken PS3 controller and a 50 cents worth of electronics, I'm sure as hell not going to spend over $100 on it. AliExpress is kinda cool though, cause it's just the same stuff that these companies slap their name on and charge a lot more for. It's just direct from manufacturer and takes a lot longer to get to you. Sometimes it's made a bit more cheaply, but if you know what you're getting in to beforehand you can find some absolute gold over there.
I like how they couldn't say anything about the Ali wet-palette because they realised its just as good as the ones they just promoted for a fraction of the cost lol
I actually bought that exact one a few weeks before i saw this video. And honestly, its great. The only downside i see to it is the potential for microbial growth, which more "premium" wet palletes avoid by using anti-microbial sponges...But that also increases cost in the long run for the end user as well.
You can offset that by washing them regularly, typically around once a week. Plus if you pop the teensiest pinhead of dish soap in with the water, not only does it help prevent the surface tension from forming in the water, it helps prevent the microbes forming just that bit longer.
Wanted to write that too. Just for context to Emil: It is definitely Chinese (there are many overlaps since Japan uses Hanzi/Kanji, Chinese characters, but this is Chinese words/grammar and no Japanese particles inbetween).
Aliexpress is my go-to place for regular plastic bases for years. Generally its a very reliable marketplace with good customer service (and free shipping to Germany in 99% of the cases)
The gamer base grass is identical to the stuff sold in hobby stores and on Amazon in the US. They even use the same marketing pics and you can tell they are just drop shipping it while charging a 300% markup. Same with the wargaming neoprene mats using the same designs but selling for $110 on Amazon but $8 on Aliexpress.
Aliexpress used to actually sell 40K models. Like.. ACTUAL Pirate 40k models from when there was production in China. No joke. You used to be able to find recasts of forgeworld stuff too. At great cheap costs and surprisingly high quality. Often better than forgeworlds unreliable QC and crap resin. If they are still there you have to use that classic, secret search methods. Not including 40k for instance.
You can still get Chinese Recasts and believe it or not, the quality of their resin has improved. Recently had the chance to compare a recast Chaos Reaver Titan to a Forgeworld Chaos Reaver Titan and could not tell the difference between the two
@@marcingowacki5174I think the "professionals" are searching in Chinese and using other keywords. The other day, I was complaining on a Reddit forum that the product they were showing was not being shipped to my country, and a few minutes later one of the users posted a link to "here you go". Same manufacturer, same product, just an extra trick that I don't know about, and it's ready to ship.
Fun fact: most of the stuff you get from Wish and Temu are actually being dropshipped from Ali. I've been shopping for miniatures, brushes, modelling kits and figures on Ali, and even my 3D printers were ordered from Ali. Never ever had any problems.
they are completely different companies and have there own production factories. most if it is made in Cambodia and India. because its cheaper dan china these days.
I’ve been in the hobby for quite awhile and during that time I’ve made a lot of purchases. I will never purchase from hobby stores because they are always more expensive. As soon as you put the word hobby near a product it automatically doubles in price. I always hunt for bargains and over the years I’ve found some great ones. I have that magnifier. I’ve tried all manner of magnifying glasses and visors because I have really bad eyesight. Most of them have a very short focal length meaning that you need to hold the mini right up next to your face to see the mini in focus. Not so with the desk magnifier. In fact the further away from the mini you are the larger it appears. I bought mine for $30 AU. Best thing I ever purchased for the hobby. I also purchased a digital microscope which is great for getting up very close for fine detail work. That was also a great buy. Has helped so much. I also have the exact same vortex mixer and it’s great. And I also have that wet palette.
I believe the orange hook on the holder is a type of hand guard so you can rest your brush hand against something to steady yourself as you paint - surprised y'all didn't like that
my guess is that the holder thingy maybe just didn't feel nice to use? I like the idea, but as a woman i have small hands and i certainly don't see myself being able to use that in any way, so spaced out it was haha, but i guess they are easy found and printed at home or you can prob buy better from Etsy or something :)
If it's sold as natural hair, and it's synthetic, shouldn't it be a 10/10 scam? If I sold you a warhammer kit and delivered a 3d printed proxy, it would be a scam.
It's the warhammer fanbase.. You order like a 500 dollar model, it arives warped and overall fucked, and it's considered part of the assembly difficulty.. I don't know any other fanbase that gives products more benefit of the doubt...
I have that magnifying lamp. The guys didn't notice, but the brightness and color temp are adjustable. I give it a negative number for the scam quotient. It's a perfectly fine desk lamp, and is reasonably well made. I like having a magnifier I can pull down whenever I need it.
Unrelated but the way Lucas speaks English like its Swedish is maybe my favourite part of the channel. I learnt Swedish just for fun and this makes me super happy for some reason. It's amazing
Kinda funny indeed. If you ever get the chance listen to some Swedes from the north speaking English. Mainly the older ones plus those from small villages, speak with such an heavy accent, it's really hard understanding them properly. Furthermore they speak english like they speak their Swedish, without any spaces in between the words, of course they mute letters too and not to forget using all kinds of slang and made up words. On a side note, learning Swedish in this region is probably the hardest there is, I speak from experience. :D
@@morkaili jag har vänner i norden ;) But I'm mainly being trained by Skåningar. Which causes frustration with my Stockholm friends because apparantly its noticeable i have learnt a lot in Skåne 😂 And for some reason hearing Lucas talk in English is really helpful to me for the intonation flow of the language. It's like a checklist "oh I do this too in Swedish, I might be doing something right"
@@amberalbertinia1286 Det är [w]underbar[t], förresten, vi har fortfarande över 1 m snö här. In Skane they've high influence by Danish. People from there I can't really understand. It sounds to me like the same gibberish that is called Danish. :P Stockholm I'd argue is the most easy and clear pronounced swedish. So they definitely can tell the difference. But even they have troubles fully understanding the people from up north, quite funny imho. And yeah I you can rly listen to how they pronounce English as if it were Swedish. I should try to copy this when I try to speak my German pronounced Swedish. :D Btw, it is rly funny how many swedish words are like the German one, but missing a letter, added a letter, are a different part, etc. (see above).
@@morkaili yeah i speak Dutch natively and also speak German and French (and Swedish, I'm just too lazy to write in Swedish :') the things people say differently in Skåne is mainly closer to how we (in Belgium) would pronounce it. Stronger R's. Other verbs (begripa vs förstå) which are closer to German/Dutch. If someone is being asked to marry, would you also just inhale to say yes up north? I once made this joke and I can't get it out of my head.
@@amberalbertinia1286 Ik heb een tijdje Nederlands geleerd omdat ik daar veel was, vooral in Bergen. Maar naarmate dit steeds minder werd, vergat ik bijna alles.
I got the same wet palette and I absolutely love it. I replaced my existing wet palette and use this exclusively. Seeing Squidmar give his stamp of approval fills me with a great sense of vindication
My mother bought me this exact same lamp for miniature painting in august of 2023. The glass was a little helpful at first but I've stopped using it. The arm is decently posable but I wish there was just a little motion near the head.
I’m really confused over how any of these things are Warhammer. Sees a paintbrush. That’s Warhammer. Sees paint pot. That’s Warhammer. Sees some putty. That’s Warhammer. Sees a twig. That’s Warhammer.
@@SquidmarMiniatures The exact same paint you use to paint all miniatures, all figurines, all models etc. There’s nothing “Warhammer” about a paintbrush. It’s just a paintbrush.
hey man i want to strip the paint off my dudes to i can repaint them, i dont care if the glue comes apart either, ive tried leaving them in turpentine for a few hours then scrubbing them with a toothbrush and washing off the remainder but it never works in the gaps or fully removes what i need to remove, got any tips or do i have to painstakingly rinse and repeat
it's not a "scam". most of the things you buy from people online that claimed "made in EU", or "made in USA", most of them are Aliexpress rebranded on the product. even the artist opus shaker one, it's one thing rebranded from a chinses model (and that one was obviously used a long time ago for nail polish). even GW product, you can clearly see in some of their label have "made in china" in there.
i got the cheap vortex mixer a year ago or so. you could only get the really expensive ones where im from, so i had the off center mounted woodblock on a drill for a long time (which was always scary cause if it would ever shot the bottle out it would explode and paint my room). the cheap vortex mixer suddenly appeared on amazon one day, and was like 26€. got it and still using it. idk how companys can sell you an off axis metal block on a motor with a rubber top for 100+, because this thing looks like it cost them 3€ to build, and it just works amazingly well.
I had the opposite experience with one of the same vortex mixer they got. It lasted just over a month and It was not used much. But one of my friends got one too and its still going. Luck of the draw it seems.
I have ordered about a half of a dozen times from Ali Express and everything was legit. I did get one shirt that was junk. The only thing that bugs me is that it's harder than it should be to find the reviews of the shop you are buying from.
Funny enough I recently ordered the same wet palette and paintbrush holder from AliExpress. I'm just as happy with both. The wet palette was a nice, affordable upgrade from the typical DIY palette (plastic container, paper towel, and parchment paper). Also purchased were small magnets, makeup brushes (for drybrushing), a silicone palette (for washes and varnishes), and a small hand drill with bits. Very happy with each item, for their price.
For painting holders I just bought 12 small hexagonal glass jars with metal tops (mini preserve jars), £8 from Hobbycraft . Bit of BluTack on top and jobs done. Cost about £10 (12$) for 12 jars incl. Blu Tack. Decent weight (glass) so difficult to tip over, heavy enough to put a lollipop stick/tongue depressor across to even have 4-5 models on without tipping over so no need to swap holders to paint 4-5 at a time.
It isn't a scam site, it's literally just Chinese Amazon. It's super old too. Even has a commercial big brother called AliBaba where you can buy shit in quantities of thousands.
AliExpress is basically you buying directly from the Chinese manufacturers who make big brand name shit but at cheap af prices, a lot of the stuff is going to be stuff that simply didn't pass the big brands QA checks but still good enough for market.
its not a scam its often just really cheap but 9/10 times its the exact same thing you buy from trusted sitesd but those are actually checked very well on issues and the cheap ons on aliexpress arent relly checked which si why theyre way cheaper its also cus most shops onlikne dropship the stuff they buy it from alibaba in bulk and then sell it for 5x asmuch
Yeah like most forms of the direct-from-manufacture-to-consumer businesses, you're given the dregs because the good stuff is relegated to the companies that have multi-million dollar contracts with the manufacturer..@@thedandy6765
I have that wet pallet. I love it because i have limited space on my hobby desk. That said, I dont like the foam in pallet.. After several uses the foam pad has squashed and sunk down almost flat. so now its like using a tupperware container again lmao. but i love the brush washing pot.
19:29 I ordered this exact lamp from Amazon for $20 and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I've been painting up some Necrons and this has been crucial for the detail work.
I bought a Sylvaneth arch revenant from Ali Express when they couldn't be bought on their own. I was damn impressed. Came with everything, and was really high detail. Slightly softer then Warhammer plastic, but great for the price.
The stuff at 17:45 is compatible with Lego clips and I use it for modern/futuristic scenes - they pair particularly nicely with all the military models from Cobi and Bluebrixx. I'm surprised you didn't get "Lego" space marine minifigs while you were at it.
16:07 I love how you said "Pennelli" (I don't want to offend, I know it's not a language you speak but when reading brushes (pennelli) you practically said another Italian word "pennarelli" which means markers)
i actually bought that same branded paint mixer about 3 years ago. its still good, but i think its got a loose wire because now its starting to need a little bump to get going. i recommend it.
I have the same magnifying lamp, except i got it on amazon. Ive become farsighted over the past few years, and i dont think i would be able to paint minis without it. My bare eyes just cant focus on the detials of the model up close anymore. Yes its not the brightest, but if you have an alternative light source its excellent.
I’ve found that as long as I pay attention to what I’m ordering in Ali Express I am happy 90% of the time. And the 10% of the time I am not happy they have always worked with me to a satisfactory conclusion, either with a refund or free return.
Putting Warhammer in the title and then not showing one single Warhammer product. The title could also be "I ordered 15 miniature scams on AliExpress".
I have ordered lots off stuff from Aliexpress and I have the same experience. List of things are actually great, even if prices are not considered. But with the prices it’s awesome, even though sometimes it’s shit! Great video guys. Takk
I have the same vortex mixer (but bought on amazon for approximatively the same price). Works perfectly fine for the moment, and, seeing the complexity of the tool, I'm pretty sure i'd be able to fix it if it gets broken.
That Epoxy Putty looks to only have Simplified Chinese on the packaging. Japanese products tend to have a combination of Kanji, Hiragana and/or Katakana on their packaging. I learned some Japanese years ago. So I can say that Kanji originates from China, but Hiragana and Katakana were completely developed in Japan and are a syllablic alphabet. Hiragana is used for native words and things and Katakana is for foreign words and things. Also Katakana is used for most signs and a lot of packaging because it is more simplified, easier to print and to read at a distance.
I guess we learned that if you're "hobbying" on a budget, you can totally get some products off AliExpress. Good to know, I'm totally getting that paint shaker.
The same Vortex Mixer was on Amazon and I got it for 16€. It broke 2 months in, but Amazon replaced it within 2 days. Apart from the sound, it's incredible for that price. Same with the brush holder. Bought the exact same one Amazon, was broken, got it replaced the next day. Does a very good job.
On aliexpress you can/could find people doing some serious good 3d printing though. These days they are nearly as expensive as the basic stuff however but i found one that i bought a truckload of minis from way back.
Thanks to your video I was finally able to decide which vortex mixer I was going to buy. Since it was my first AliExpress purchase the mixer you've shown in the video only cost me 12€ in Germany. What a steal!
I have to thank you guys for these "chinese shopping" videos. Usually, miniature painting items are quite inaccessible in Brazil, and it's so expensive to import these things from US and Europe(more than 100% on taxes). So it's good to see what's worth buying from China, thanks guys.
Thanks guys, never used Aliexpress. Bought a number of similar items from Temu, like the magnifying glass, grass tufts , makeup brushes for highlighting, a plastic fence and plastic sprue cutters. Cheap but each was much better than i expected and here in Australia postage is free. The best Temu buys were i think the sprue cutters and makeup brushes.
step 1: go outdoor grab sticks bring sticks indoor. step 2: grab a carboard box and add some humidity pads in the carboard box. cut a hole in the side bottom of the box and place a heater in front of that hole. dry the sticks for a good amount of time and during this step spray some 99% alcohol as a mist on the sticks so all decontaminations die. step 3: after a week or 2 you have dried nature ready for minature. step 4: transparant coating could increase lifespan of wood objects
I've had some FANTASTIC stuff from aliexpress, really good quality Death Korp of krieg, lots of discontinued older special characters, like imp guard characters, really happy with all of it, had some cheap finecast resin ultramarines specials I had to put a lot of work into the mold lines, but actual foreword has been almost as bad before - the takeover from polish custom minis is insane though, so much epic goodness coming from scandanavia
Don't get the 20 € one, get the 40 € one. Way more sturdy. The cheaper ones (tattoo ink )break easy. The mid priced (lab equipment ) one serve me several years now.
@@TheDarrellimpey my cheap one malfunctioned on the first day and that of a friend of mine in the first month. My mit priced one (intllab vm-370) is a workhorse
I actually own that lamp and it's actually really bright and its got buttons to adjust the brightness, I think they got one that had something wrong with the LEDs in it or the light wasn't turned up to the highest brightness setting.
A big thing people don't realize with these sites, is when the product is actually good, there is something else likely wrong, and usually it is safety hazards, stuff like unsafe materials, or safety features lacking.
I did a few weeks ago and i love it, the light in mine is all the light i need tbh. It is really bright and is dimmable with 3 color settings; Neutral, warm white and cold white.
the only reason why the prices are low is because the price of things in China aren't the much expensive, and the quality may not be as bad as most people would think. The price of warhammer used to be way cheaper, prehaps one of the cheapest area outside of England, but scalpers bought cheap models from China and sold them to other countries and it was against the interest of GW, sothe price of warhammer is now much higher in China.
New to your channel, I enjoyed your review! I’m hesitant to purchase stuff from the Wish, AliExpress and Temu after I got scammed on a lightsaber, but depending on what you’re looking for, seems you can get some good deals.
Out of all the ones you tested, I think the biggest scam you ever gotten was that Artis Opus mixer, wich is just a rebranded chinese mixer with a 500% margin. Not the first time Artis Opus does this dodgy shit.
The fact that the most of the products turn out to be quite good makes me think we are getting scammed all the time with over priced products that are manufactured in Asia anyway many times.
The thing with AliExpress is that you have to read where and what you're buying.
I've bought for years there and haven't gotten a single faulty product. Even original premium Bandai models.
Just avoid stuff that pretends to be from some major company regarding electronics or stuff too good to be true (like s24 or flagship phones for 100$). Other than that you can find so much stuff that here is marked up or not findable
When buying from aliexpress you're skipping a lot of middlemen, sometimes you're buying almost straight from the factories. A lot of sellers will sell in bulk or give reductions if you buy in bulk.
120 euro for a paint shaker - which is basically just a vibrating motor?
You sure you're looking for scams in the right place, bro?
I started buying from Alibaba back when Aliexpress was not around yet. That's because hobbyists were (and still are) absolutely ripped off by big companies. The "enough is enough" moment was when I realized that I pay just as much money for 1:8 scale RC tires, as for my real car tires. That's absolute madness.
We are being totally ripped off and basically *scammed* but not by those Chinese sellers, but by domestic companies who convinced us we have to pay through our noses for stuff that's really cheap to make. Aliexpress is one of the blessings that makes various hobbies affordable to many people.
I bought mine for less than $10. That's fair.
This. I build 1:1 sized Star wars Droids and get all my hardware and servos at ae. This projects would cost at least the double amount of my hard earned cash over here in europe.
Artis Opus is expensive.
yea, i got into rc and it was like 30 per set and a set was 2 tires. i was like wtf is this shit because i race them and you wear those out pretty quick.
The thing about about it is that often times the local ones are just made to be better looking or has more quality of life features while slapping a 300% markup on it. Take a design that someone already has, go to factory and say make please but with x y z changes and then resell on [insert country] for an absolute premium.
One of the sneaky ways they get around this is by labeling it as Made in [insert country] with Global Materials. Like send the ships and the motors over but without any of the housing, make the plastic housing in the country and then resell it for massive markup while also saying that its made in your country so that you would be incentivized to by "local" versus Made in China.
The most egregious were Andons, tiered lights you see in factories. The ones where its green or red or there might be a yellow to indicate that this machine needs to be looked at before it goes offline at red. The ones my work had were $700 USD per for the green and red one. Everything was made in china except for the bulbs and the housing. The housing had to be aluminum but that was the most expensive part. Found some one aliexpress for $15 per but with a white plastic housing
AliExpress is as old as the world, much older than temu
Ancient Chinese merchants founded Ali Express to deliver their cheap child-labour goods across the Silk Road.
Dinosaurs used to order all of their meteorite protection products on Ali Express.
AliExpress is...Alibaba. Asias biggest marketplace ^^.
Dinosaurs are way too young. It's actually magma giants sending the packages down the lava rivers of the molten earth!
So what about "light in the box"?
For a channel that seems to review potential scam sales you dont seem to understand the word scam
120 euros for an offset weight attached to a DC motor in a simple plastic housing is just wild to me.
for this price i bought a laboratorie one way more powerfull and heavy it's really work great corosive or solvent resistant too
I was 1 minute into the video, when I went to scroll through the comments, saw yours and went "huh curious what thing this will be". I got to the paint mixer/shaker and I can approve your comment with all of my body parts.
Now I'm at 3:00 and oh boi how many expensive mundane items does a minature painter use?! Painting Handle? 14 EUROS?! I mean you can use ANY type of handle you have, you could even take a ball-deodorant, take a goddamn two side tape (doesn't have to be 200kg of force proof xD) and voila, here's your painting handle XD I mean anything that lays good in your hand, and have one flat surface could be a painting handle xD
Oh I think my poor ass gonna enjoy this one :D
Did they give it a scam rating?
@@golonqa23While I agree with the sentiment and agree some of these things the price has no justification at all there are still some nice features and conveniences in some of the more expensive hobby tools - the painting handles you buy for instance can be (emphasis on CAN BE not WILL BE) really quick to change minis, hold them very securely, be much harder to tip over the ones you have put down, possibly able to tilt the mini for better access to awkward parts, have more consistent feeling in the hand to help with repeatability etc, and the better paint brushes will hold their tip better, hold more paint, last longer etc. If you do a lot of hobby painting and want to really get good taking away variables and using the better stuff can be worth the money (in some cases anyway).
@@golonqa23 Yea, I'm all for random gadgets and crap to help with various tasks, but when purchasing things I take in to consideration what that thing is actually comprised of.
If it's something I can whip together with a broken PS3 controller and a 50 cents worth of electronics, I'm sure as hell not going to spend over $100 on it.
AliExpress is kinda cool though, cause it's just the same stuff that these companies slap their name on and charge a lot more for. It's just direct from manufacturer and takes a lot longer to get to you. Sometimes it's made a bit more cheaply, but if you know what you're getting in to beforehand you can find some absolute gold over there.
I bought a figure off ali express and got sent 12 other random ones by accident i contacted the seller and he said just keep them 😂
Out of curiosity, what did you end up getting?
Did you get your money back at least?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think, he got his figure + 12 more by accident and seller let him to keep those too
@@davidvaho No, I understand that, I want to know which miniatures he got.
@@chaosgrunt9554 sorry, was responding to @megaham1552 just don't tag user.
I like how they couldn't say anything about the Ali wet-palette because they realised its just as good as the ones they just promoted for a fraction of the cost lol
lmao
its from moshi quite a popular brand among asian hobbyists, i own some of their products too
I actually bought that exact one a few weeks before i saw this video.
And honestly, its great.
The only downside i see to it is the potential for microbial growth, which more "premium" wet palletes avoid by using anti-microbial sponges...But that also increases cost in the long run for the end user as well.
You can offset that by washing them regularly, typically around once a week. Plus if you pop the teensiest pinhead of dish soap in with the water, not only does it help prevent the surface tension from forming in the water, it helps prevent the microbes forming just that bit longer.
@sammysusuu Do you know what other brands are popular over there?
14:45, because you asked, it is Chinese not Japanese
Agreed. I see no Japanese characters. Seems Chinese to me.
correct
Wanted to write that too. Just for context to Emil: It is definitely Chinese (there are many overlaps since Japan uses Hanzi/Kanji, Chinese characters, but this is Chinese words/grammar and no Japanese particles inbetween).
Yup. Clearly in simplified chinese.
chinese and japanese kanji is quite similar. Traditional being pretty much identical.
The split screen while yall run the promo is genius. I wish everyone could do that
i was thinking the same thing xD
surprised that more people arent doing it, this way i dont skip ads
-14 years old AliExpress
-Fresh app
just came across this video, was wondering what rock these two were living under Ali express is many years older than Temu 🤣
to be honest Artis Opus paint mixer is more of a scam than the chinese cheap ones xD 120 for a weight on a motor is daylight robbery
Aliexpress is my go-to place for regular plastic bases for years. Generally its a very reliable marketplace with good customer service (and free shipping to Germany in 99% of the cases)
The gamer base grass is identical to the stuff sold in hobby stores and on Amazon in the US. They even use the same marketing pics and you can tell they are just drop shipping it while charging a 300% markup. Same with the wargaming neoprene mats using the same designs but selling for $110 on Amazon but $8 on Aliexpress.
10:40 Take note: If a Swede says it's a little difficult to build and he's not even looking for the Allen key, the item is a bit wonky.
😂😂😂
Aliexpress used to actually sell 40K models. Like.. ACTUAL Pirate 40k models from when there was production in China. No joke. You used to be able to find recasts of forgeworld stuff too. At great cheap costs and surprisingly high quality. Often better than forgeworlds unreliable QC and crap resin. If they are still there you have to use that classic, secret search methods. Not including 40k for instance.
They still do, you just gotta know what to look for ;)
You can still get Chinese Recasts and believe it or not, the quality of their resin has improved. Recently had the chance to compare a recast Chaos Reaver Titan to a Forgeworld Chaos Reaver Titan and could not tell the difference between the two
I'm trying to find a Warlord, but have no luck. I don't know how to search :(
@@marcingowacki5174I think the "professionals" are searching in Chinese and using other keywords. The other day, I was complaining on a Reddit forum that the product they were showing was not being shipped to my country, and a few minutes later one of the users posted a link to "here you go". Same manufacturer, same product, just an extra trick that I don't know about, and it's ready to ship.
They also do metal recasts, recently got a few old chaos and dark elf bits, look quite good honestly@@roberttanguay8532
Fun fact: most of the stuff you get from Wish and Temu are actually being dropshipped from Ali. I've been shopping for miniatures, brushes, modelling kits and figures on Ali, and even my 3D printers were ordered from Ali. Never ever had any problems.
Completely false Temu use faster shipping in bulk. AliExpress use slow af sea shipping and send single items so shipping prices add up
@@garylangford6755 false. Depends on your location. Ali sends via air here in Japan from China.
they are completely different companies and have there own production factories. most if it is made in Cambodia and India. because its cheaper dan china these days.
How is this a fun fact. There's nothing fun about the glut of dropshippers currently polluting the world planet with their upsold aliexpress stuff
@@garylangford6755 WRONG, I get all my items from aliexpress within 1-2 weeks. it is shipped by AIR. not by sea
I’ve been in the hobby for quite awhile and during that time I’ve made a lot of purchases. I will never purchase from hobby stores because they are always more expensive. As soon as you put the word hobby near a product it automatically doubles in price. I always hunt for bargains and over the years I’ve found some great ones. I have that magnifier. I’ve tried all manner of magnifying glasses and visors because I have really bad eyesight. Most of them have a very short focal length meaning that you need to hold the mini right up next to your face to see the mini in focus. Not so with the desk magnifier. In fact the further away from the mini you are the larger it appears. I bought mine for $30 AU. Best thing I ever purchased for the hobby. I also purchased a digital microscope which is great for getting up very close for fine detail work. That was also a great buy. Has helped so much. I also have the exact same vortex mixer and it’s great. And I also have that wet palette.
do you by any chance remember where/from who you bought your magnifying lamp? I've been wanting to get one myself
I believe the orange hook on the holder is a type of hand guard so you can rest your brush hand against something to steady yourself as you paint - surprised y'all didn't like that
My 3d printed painting handle has one and I can barely paint without it now.
my guess is that the holder thingy maybe just didn't feel nice to use? I like the idea, but as a woman i have small hands and i certainly don't see myself being able to use that in any way, so spaced out it was haha, but i guess they are easy found and printed at home or you can prob buy better from Etsy or something :)
@@Gwenx Too bad etsy has just become flooded with chinese knock-offs pretending to be 'hand-made in the usa'
@@VitaKet Yep, Etsy has become a dropshipper's dream site to flog on.
If it's sold as natural hair, and it's synthetic, shouldn't it be a 10/10 scam? If I sold you a warhammer kit and delivered a 3d printed proxy, it would be a scam.
It's the warhammer fanbase.. You order like a 500 dollar model, it arives warped and overall fucked, and it's considered part of the assembly difficulty.. I don't know any other fanbase that gives products more benefit of the doubt...
@@prdprdprdprdprdel It's not a manufacturing error, it's "expert level"!
Well these guys called a working airbrush a 10/10 scam for no reason, so....yeah...don't take them too seriously. They're kinda silly....
If you paid $4 what do you expect?
Not all hair or synthetic brushes are equal
I have that magnifying lamp. The guys didn't notice, but the brightness and color temp are adjustable. I give it a negative number for the scam quotient. It's a perfectly fine desk lamp, and is reasonably well made. I like having a magnifier I can pull down whenever I need it.
I also got one for Christmas it's really handy, for the price it does the job
All my experience with Aliexpress has been pretty positive so far! Got a few figures and most of my bases from here
I’m pretty sure aliexpress is for buying almost directly from suppliers that’s why it is so cheap it’s not a scam
.... it's alot of junk lol and quality is rarely good
It's a way for chinese counterfeiters to steal IP
@@frbrbrgrblgrr7777same as on Amazon or ebay
The fact that something is junk and cheap doesn't make it scam
are you one of those people who can only afford 1 dollar items and then complain about quality? It seems so.@@frbrbrgrblgrr7777
Its more like a marketplace like ebay. Quality is generally good tho.
Unrelated but the way Lucas speaks English like its Swedish is maybe my favourite part of the channel.
I learnt Swedish just for fun and this makes me super happy for some reason. It's amazing
Kinda funny indeed. If you ever get the chance listen to some Swedes from the north speaking English. Mainly the older ones plus those from small villages, speak with such an heavy accent, it's really hard understanding them properly. Furthermore they speak english like they speak their Swedish, without any spaces in between the words, of course they mute letters too and not to forget using all kinds of slang and made up words. On a side note, learning Swedish in this region is probably the hardest there is, I speak from experience. :D
@@morkaili jag har vänner i norden ;)
But I'm mainly being trained by Skåningar. Which causes frustration with my Stockholm friends because apparantly its noticeable i have learnt a lot in Skåne 😂
And for some reason hearing Lucas talk in English is really helpful to me for the intonation flow of the language. It's like a checklist "oh I do this too in Swedish, I might be doing something right"
@@amberalbertinia1286 Det är [w]underbar[t], förresten, vi har fortfarande över 1 m snö här.
In Skane they've high influence by Danish. People from there I can't really understand. It sounds to me like the same gibberish that is called Danish. :P
Stockholm I'd argue is the most easy and clear pronounced swedish. So they definitely can tell the difference. But even they have troubles fully understanding the people from up north, quite funny imho.
And yeah I you can rly listen to how they pronounce English as if it were Swedish. I should try to copy this when I try to speak my German pronounced Swedish. :D
Btw, it is rly funny how many swedish words are like the German one, but missing a letter, added a letter, are a different part, etc. (see above).
@@morkaili yeah i speak Dutch natively and also speak German and French (and Swedish, I'm just too lazy to write in Swedish :') the things people say differently in Skåne is mainly closer to how we (in Belgium) would pronounce it. Stronger R's. Other verbs (begripa vs förstå) which are closer to German/Dutch.
If someone is being asked to marry, would you also just inhale to say yes up north? I once made this joke and I can't get it out of my head.
@@amberalbertinia1286 Ik heb een tijdje Nederlands geleerd omdat ik daar veel was, vooral in Bergen. Maar naarmate dit steeds minder werd, vergat ik bijna alles.
I got the same wet palette and I absolutely love it. I replaced my existing wet palette and use this exclusively. Seeing Squidmar give his stamp of approval fills me with a great sense of vindication
My mother bought me this exact same lamp for miniature painting in august of 2023. The glass was a little helpful at first but I've stopped using it. The arm is decently posable but I wish there was just a little motion near the head.
I got soo many good hobby tools, LCD screens for my 3D printer, magnets, static grass, basing materials and minis from AliExpress
Only place I could buy a replacement build plate for mine that wasn't an obvious scam
I’m really confused over how any of these things are Warhammer.
Sees a paintbrush. That’s Warhammer.
Sees paint pot. That’s Warhammer.
Sees some putty. That’s Warhammer.
Sees a twig. That’s Warhammer.
Just out of curiosity: what do you use to paint Warhammer with?
@@SquidmarMiniatures The exact same paint you use to paint all miniatures, all figurines, all models etc. There’s nothing “Warhammer” about a paintbrush. It’s just a paintbrush.
@@just_passing_through Sorry to hear about your loss. I wish you a great recovery.
A paintbrush a pot…some putty and a stick! lol you right
it's because theyre hobby materials - and warhammer is our hobby. good question.
I have that lamp and I recommend people buy the ones with a clamp base, because the flat base has no weight to it and it will topple over easily.
I ordered a few 'totally not krieg death corps, honest' squads the other week. 3D printed, they where actually rather good.
hey man i want to strip the paint off my dudes to i can repaint them, i dont care if the glue comes apart either, ive tried leaving them in turpentine for a few hours then scrubbing them with a toothbrush and washing off the remainder but it never works in the gaps or fully removes what i need to remove, got any tips or do i have to painstakingly rinse and repeat
it's not a "scam". most of the things you buy from people online that claimed "made in EU", or "made in USA", most of them are Aliexpress rebranded on the product. even the artist opus shaker one, it's one thing rebranded from a chinses model (and that one was obviously used a long time ago for nail polish). even GW product, you can clearly see in some of their label have "made in china" in there.
I was wondering that, cause those look so similar and their specs are the same. But i think, there are differences in quality between chinese ones.
@@ashhillmodels3801 even if you compare Chinese to Chinese, there are differences between it's quallity
i got the cheap vortex mixer a year ago or so. you could only get the really expensive ones where im from, so i had the off center mounted woodblock on a drill for a long time (which was always scary cause if it would ever shot the bottle out it would explode and paint my room). the cheap vortex mixer suddenly appeared on amazon one day, and was like 26€. got it and still using it. idk how companys can sell you an off axis metal block on a motor with a rubber top for 100+, because this thing looks like it cost them 3€ to build, and it just works amazingly well.
I had the opposite experience with one of the same vortex mixer they got. It lasted just over a month and It was not used much. But one of my friends got one too and its still going. Luck of the draw it seems.
@James-xb7qc I'm thinking I just get one of the $30 lab ones and don't risk Vortex Finger or it shitting out tbh
@@killdude26 i currently have Intllab vortex mixer vm-370, not had a problem yet
I have ordered about a half of a dozen times from Ali Express and everything was legit. I did get one shirt that was junk. The only thing that bugs me is that it's harder than it should be to find the reviews of the shop you are buying from.
The keyboard keycaps and switches are great!
Funny enough I recently ordered the same wet palette and paintbrush holder from AliExpress. I'm just as happy with both. The wet palette was a nice, affordable upgrade from the typical DIY palette (plastic container, paper towel, and parchment paper).
Also purchased were small magnets, makeup brushes (for drybrushing), a silicone palette (for washes and varnishes), and a small hand drill with bits. Very happy with each item, for their price.
Can you provide a link to the wet pallet?
@@sillylung I would love that as well. regardless of the link thanks for your time and all the best.
For painting holders I just bought 12 small hexagonal glass jars with metal tops (mini preserve jars), £8 from Hobbycraft . Bit of BluTack on top and jobs done. Cost about £10 (12$) for 12 jars incl. Blu Tack. Decent weight (glass) so difficult to tip over, heavy enough to put a lollipop stick/tongue depressor across to even have 4-5 models on without tipping over so no need to swap holders to paint 4-5 at a time.
I feel like they need to read the descriptions better regarding the sizes, etc. it's not fair to judge something if you are careless
It is a meme and an excuse to make a video. What you just said is like getting mad at a TV show for not being real.
I never figured AliExpress was a scam site, just cheap Chinese eBay
It isn't a scam site, it's literally just Chinese Amazon. It's super old too. Even has a commercial big brother called AliBaba where you can buy shit in quantities of thousands.
It isn’t, they have made a few of these and seem to call really cheap things “scams”.
AliExpress is basically you buying directly from the Chinese manufacturers who make big brand name shit but at cheap af prices, a lot of the stuff is going to be stuff that simply didn't pass the big brands QA checks but still good enough for market.
its not a scam its often just really cheap but 9/10 times its the exact same thing you buy from trusted sitesd but those are actually checked very well on issues and the cheap ons on aliexpress arent relly checked
which si why theyre way cheaper its also cus most shops onlikne dropship the stuff
they buy it from alibaba in bulk and then sell it for 5x asmuch
Yeah like most forms of the direct-from-manufacture-to-consumer businesses, you're given the dregs because the good stuff is relegated to the companies that have multi-million dollar contracts with the manufacturer..@@thedandy6765
I have that wet pallet. I love it because i have limited space on my hobby desk. That said, I dont like the foam in pallet.. After several uses the foam pad has squashed and sunk down almost flat. so now its like using a tupperware container again lmao. but i love the brush washing pot.
19:29 I ordered this exact lamp from Amazon for $20 and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I've been painting up some Necrons and this has been crucial for the detail work.
I bought a Sylvaneth arch revenant from Ali Express when they couldn't be bought on their own. I was damn impressed. Came with everything, and was really high detail. Slightly softer then Warhammer plastic, but great for the price.
The stuff at 17:45 is compatible with Lego clips and I use it for modern/futuristic scenes - they pair particularly nicely with all the military models from Cobi and Bluebrixx. I'm surprised you didn't get "Lego" space marine minifigs while you were at it.
16:07 I love how you said "Pennelli" (I don't want to offend, I know it's not a language you speak but when reading brushes (pennelli) you practically said another Italian word "pennarelli" which means markers)
i actually bought that same branded paint mixer about 3 years ago. its still good, but i think its got a loose wire because now its starting to need a little bump to get going. i recommend it.
I have the same magnifying lamp, except i got it on amazon. Ive become farsighted over the past few years, and i dont think i would be able to paint minis without it. My bare eyes just cant focus on the detials of the model up close anymore.
Yes its not the brightest, but if you have an alternative light source its excellent.
Aren't you supposed to pull the white paper off the MDF before you assemble the paint holder?
Bingo, I'm surprised they didn't notice that, they considered it a feature that it came in a choice of colours!
those crates look like the ones mega block (lego copy) used to put in with the call of duty brick sets my kid would play with
I’ve found that as long as I pay attention to what I’m ordering in Ali Express I am happy 90% of the time. And the 10% of the time I am not happy they have always worked with me to a satisfactory conclusion, either with a refund or free return.
Putting Warhammer in the title and then not showing one single Warhammer product. The title could also be "I ordered 15 miniature scams on AliExpress".
15 things we would use in our personal Warhammer hobby :)
@@SquidmarMiniaturesSounds better :)
You should make dioramas using the items you purchased off of each site to compare them, then combine the 3 into one overall scene
Funny thing is that small wet pallet would be great for my little painting i do cause of other responsibilities would fit nicely on my desk.
Companies like this are a big part of why adblockers exist
I have ordered lots off stuff from Aliexpress and I have the same experience. List of things are actually great, even if prices are not considered. But with the prices it’s awesome, even though sometimes it’s shit! Great video guys. Takk
I have the same vortex mixer (but bought on amazon for approximatively the same price). Works perfectly fine for the moment, and, seeing the complexity of the tool, I'm pretty sure i'd be able to fix it if it gets broken.
That Epoxy Putty looks to only have Simplified Chinese on the packaging. Japanese products tend to have a combination of Kanji, Hiragana and/or Katakana on their packaging.
I learned some Japanese years ago. So I can say that Kanji originates from China, but Hiragana and Katakana were completely developed in Japan and are a syllablic alphabet. Hiragana is used for native words and things and Katakana is for foreign words and things. Also Katakana is used for most signs and a lot of packaging because it is more simplified, easier to print and to read at a distance.
I guess we learned that if you're "hobbying" on a budget, you can totally get some products off AliExpress. Good to know, I'm totally getting that paint shaker.
The same Vortex Mixer was on Amazon and I got it for 16€. It broke 2 months in, but Amazon replaced it within 2 days. Apart from the sound, it's incredible for that price.
Same with the brush holder. Bought the exact same one Amazon, was broken, got it replaced the next day. Does a very good job.
"For all of you weird Americans, this brush is like 14 inches long" 😂😂😂
just wanted to mention the squarespace add. genuinely intelligent implementation that i didnt skip. 10/10
Thank you Lucas for the unit conversion. Love the videos, maybe a stealth painting in ikea video could be neat. Sincerely, a weird American
Oh hey, the “Amazon of china”, this should be interesting
But in reality, Amazon is "the Aliexpress of the US"
Ahhh, the online inner cities of europe
@@wtfiswiththosehandles amazon predates aliexpress lol.
@@JgHaverty no it doesn't. Alibaba was an open ecommerce platform long before amazon thought it was a good idea.
Yo Squidly your new wet pallet is FIRE! Definitely purchasing one!
As a Chinese, I can say for sure that those are Simplified Chinese on the epoxy putty.
On aliexpress you can/could find people doing some serious good 3d printing though. These days they are nearly as expensive as the basic stuff however but i found one that i bought a truckload of minis from way back.
You guys bought a handful of dried twigs online and shipped them half around the world, just let that sink in for a second.
hey guys whats the part number for those shipping containers. want to build a huge Necromunder map
Literally AliExpress has probably been round for 20 years+
I’ve used it on and off for at least 15
Thanks to your video I was finally able to decide which vortex mixer I was going to buy. Since it was my first AliExpress purchase the mixer you've shown in the video only cost me 12€ in Germany. What a steal!
I have to thank you guys for these "chinese shopping" videos. Usually, miniature painting items are quite inaccessible in Brazil, and it's so expensive to import these things from US and Europe(more than 100% on taxes). So it's good to see what's worth buying from China, thanks guys.
You didn't remove the white backing on the brush holder, hence why they didn't fit properly.
Thanks guys, never used Aliexpress. Bought a number of similar items from Temu, like the magnifying glass, grass tufts , makeup brushes for highlighting, a plastic fence and plastic sprue cutters. Cheap but each was much better than i expected and here in Australia postage is free. The best Temu buys were i think the sprue cutters and makeup brushes.
17:02 "I would bet my salary of cookies that it's not weasel hair!" XD
"Up with your hands, MFer" is the most Lukas thing ever.
I have that vortex mixer..... but it was only 15 quid...... it's amazing
"this one comes with the feature of sounding like a f'king motorcycle" had me in tears lol
step 1: go outdoor grab sticks bring sticks indoor. step 2: grab a carboard box and add some humidity pads in the carboard box. cut a hole in the side bottom of the box and place a heater in front of that hole. dry the sticks for a good amount of time and during this step spray some 99% alcohol as a mist on the sticks so all decontaminations die. step 3: after a week or 2 you have dried nature ready for minature. step 4: transparant coating could increase lifespan of wood objects
Glad to see Lukas is keeping Emil employed at Squidmar. Emil has so many kids to feed, it wouldn't be right otherwise. Lukas is no Hard ruler. 👑
I've had some FANTASTIC stuff from aliexpress, really good quality Death Korp of krieg, lots of discontinued older special characters, like imp guard characters, really happy with all of it, had some cheap finecast resin ultramarines specials I had to put a lot of work into the mold lines, but actual foreword has been almost as bad before - the takeover from polish custom minis is insane though, so much epic goodness coming from scandanavia
The Artis Opus Paint Shaker was a scam. They just ordered some cheap paint shakers from asia and printed their brand on it.
“If you didn’t like this video smash Lucas” 💀
The Squidmar -Wet-Palette looks sick, is there a release date? Will it be available only for the XL?
Damn an effective mixer at that price is quite tempting
Don't get the 20 € one, get the 40 € one. Way more sturdy. The cheaper ones (tattoo ink )break easy. The mid priced (lab equipment ) one serve me several years now.
@@xDasNiveaux 100% this.
How quickly does the motor give out though?
@@TheDarrellimpey my cheap one malfunctioned on the first day and that of a friend of mine in the first month. My mit priced one (intllab vm-370) is a workhorse
I bought one of those in the video from amazon. and it haven't given up on me yet (I've had it for a year+ I think). But then I don't paint regularly.
I'm an AliExpress fan - they have a great selection of off-brand Lego toys. My nieces love the sets I got them. Thumbs up! 👍
AliExpress actually has legit products on it.
I actually own that lamp and it's actually really bright and its got buttons to adjust the brightness, I think they got one that had something wrong with the LEDs in it or the light wasn't turned up to the highest brightness setting.
I have the paint shaker from Ali and it has been serving me flawlessly for quite some time now. Cannot recommend it enough.
The wet palette is useless if you want it to keep the paints wet overnight, it’s not sealed so everything dries up!
I swear the only folks keeping these scammers in business are TH-camrs buying their crap to make low effort content.
Toy collectors
@@tomalexander4327 I'd love for TH-camrs to actually take legit time off and not have to push stuff out like this to appease the "algorithm".
You're feeding into it yourself by clicking on the video and watching it. So, maybe it's actually interesting to watch, no?
But then this time it seems most things were not scams. So...
Ali express isn't a scammer. Lol.
A big thing people don't realize with these sites, is when the product is actually good, there is something else likely wrong, and usually it is safety hazards, stuff like unsafe materials, or safety features lacking.
I think what they should do next is try and make wonderful looking miniatures using these products
I did a few weeks ago and i love it, the light in mine is all the light i need tbh. It is really bright and is dimmable with 3 color settings; Neutral, warm white and cold white.
fyi that holdder for painting was not a layer line issue. looks like they had wet af filiment when they printed it
the only reason why the prices are low is because the price of things in China aren't the much expensive, and the quality may not be as bad as most people would think. The price of warhammer used to be way cheaper, prehaps one of the cheapest area outside of England, but scalpers bought cheap models from China and sold them to other countries and it was against the interest of GW, sothe price of warhammer is now much higher in China.
I bought that same wet pallette and like it. Two wweks later I found a 2 buck pencil case that used the exact same mould at a local big box store.
16:54 subtle raid shadow legends ad, 10/10 will download.
Zero out of scam sounds pretty good for a lot of those things! I'm really surprised!
yooooo! That's the best idea for talking about sponsors! Just continue the video... nice!
Tbh 100 bucks on some device that just vibrates feels like is the real scam
Right? You are paying at least 50% of the price just because it's "not Chinese" as if that's any guarantee of quality.
Ohhh do you have the link for those containers, i keed some for my tables :)
New to your channel, I enjoyed your review! I’m hesitant to purchase stuff from the Wish, AliExpress and Temu after I got scammed on a lightsaber, but depending on what you’re looking for, seems you can get some good deals.
Out of all the ones you tested, I think the biggest scam you ever gotten was that Artis Opus mixer, wich is just a rebranded chinese mixer with a 500% margin. Not the first time Artis Opus does this dodgy shit.