Once Halo and Call of Duty were associated with the brand, the increased profits could be fed back into the product itself. This is possible, at least in part, due to the licensing deals that Mega Bloks got in the early 2000s. Modern Mega Bloks and Construx are made of a better plastic, and the quality control has improved by leaps and bounds. Overall, if you got Mega Bloks for a birthday or at Christmas, there’s no way you wouldn’t feel done in. Mega Bloks sets were also much simpler and consisted of fewer parts, which limited how much free building you could do. The fit between blocks was pretty unpredictable compared to LEGO, and the plastic itself had a substandard formula that led to breakage and brittleness. When Mega Bloks first came out they were absolutely terrible. If you spend time reading the accounts of long-time LEGO fans, you’ll hear a similar refrain. The further back you go, the more noticeable the quality difference becomes. That’s never been the case with their Mega rivals, who have been happy to let some slightly iffy blocks slip through the cracks. LEGO has very stringent quality control when it comes to rejecting bricks. One of the most glaring differences between Mega Construx and LEGO is in the build quality. Often I’ll go for a Mega Bloks set simply because I like the figures but, of course, that won’t appeal to everyone. Yes, they don’t attach to the actual bricks, but they do look much better and are to scale with the brick sets to which they belong. These unique figures are actually one area in which Mega Construx is better than LEGO, in my opinion. It makes sense that Mega Brands wouldn’t want to copy something so intrinsically LEGO. Unlike the tube and stud attachment method, the LEGO minifig design will always be their own unique property. Mega Construx figures are realistic and articulated. One of the areas where they differ the most is in the figures they make. They’ve also been keeping their licensing game sharp and have the rights to the likes of Call of Duty, Halo, and Warcraft.Īlthough the actual bricks are compatible with LEGO and DUPLO bricks, that doesn’t mean Mega Construx products are carbon copies of LEGO. It’s been featured in TV shows through product placement and advertisements, normalizing the product. The Canadian toymaker has been smart about building associations with other trusted brands. While LEGO has a huge head start in that department, I think that the perception of Mega Construx and Bloks has been steadily improving. So now it’s down to who manages to capture the hearts and minds of the public. There have been no less than fourteen lawsuits against Mega Bloks by LEGO, and LEGO has lost every single one. Mega Bloks is now the more kid-focused division and Mega Construx is the new name to look out for if you want the adult-oriented fare. In February of 2017, Mattel split the brand. Mega Bloks/Mega Construxīy far the most serious contender for LEGO’s crown has to be Mattel’s Mega Bloks brand, which has been around since (surprisingly) 1967. Even if you never buy any LEGO-compatible brands, the legal presence of these products on the market means that LEGO has to provide better products for us in order to stay in business. It’s good for LEGO and it’s good for fans of LEGO. That may seem like bad news for Lego, but it’s good news for Lego fans who have a hard time stomaching the high price LEGO bricks can sometimes demand.īelieve it or not, competition is good for everyone. This means that Lego no longer has any legal recourse when another toy maker decides to make bricks that are compatible with Lego bricks. This patent expired in 2011 and many other Lego patents have expired before and since then. If you read my piece on the story of Lego, you may recall that the (finally) successful Lego brick design was patented in 1958.
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