Clone brands, perceived quality, and LEGO loyalty

[sadowsk1]

I think it's interesting for the group that actual post in forum are usually in support and agree that the quality of Lego is higher than any other company out there even though at time I've heard Lego skimps on some of their products like the minifigures...I can't tell the difference personally. We speak for a minority of the population though, and if the other clone brands didn't enjoy some portion of the market they would have gone out of business. I think Tyco stopped making Lego like products...but I can't be for certain, lol, I just look at the Lego shelves.

[Mantisking]

I'm all for healthy competition - I don't think there should be ANY monopolies. LEGO has profited off their IP for a LONG time and, especially with their brand loyalty, the profits won't be going away any time soon. The Star Wars license alone will keep them afloat for a LONG time to come. Frankly, I welcome MegaBloks to increase their quality, improve and augment their themes, and give LEGO a run for their money.

Hmmnn. It'd be interesting if Lego tried to buy Mega Bloks to get their IP and licensed themes.

[sadowsk1]

I'm all for healthy competition - I don't think there should be ANY monopolies. LEGO has profited off their IP for a LONG time and, especially with their brand loyalty, the profits won't be going away any time soon. The Star Wars license alone will keep them afloat for a LONG time to come. Frankly, I welcome MegaBloks to increase their quality, improve and augment their themes, and give LEGO a run for their money.

I agree with this comment. I would like the clone brands to get closer in the quality of Lego and start to pass the savings onto the consumers with healthy competition.

[NIGELTTF]

I'm all for healthy competition - I don't think there should be ANY monopolies. LEGO has profited off their IP for a LONG time and, especially with their brand loyalty, the profits won't be going away any time soon. The Star Wars license alone will keep them afloat for a LONG time to come. Frankly, I welcome MegaBloks to increase their quality, improve and augment their themes, and give LEGO a run for their money.

I agree with this comment. I would like the clone brands to get closer in the quality of Lego and start to pass the savings onto the consumers with healthy competition.

Of course, there is the opposite market pull, as we have seen already, for Lego to not be quite as high of quality in order to compete on price.

[vynsane]

Of course, there is the opposite market pull, as we have seen already, for Lego to not be quite as high of quality in order to compete on price.

I don't know if they've lowered their quality to compete on price as much as just maximize profits. There's not been a marked decrease in the cost of sets. That is not to say I've noticed a decrease in quality, though admittedly before this past year the last LEGO set I received in earnest was 1992 or thereabouts (I got a Bionicle or small Creator set here or there for Christmas, but nothing like the way it was in the 80's).

[NIGELTTF]

I don't know if they've lowered their quality to compete on price as much as just maximize profits. There's not been a marked decrease in the cost of sets. That is not to say I've noticed a decrease in quality, though admittedly before this past year the last LEGO set I received in earnest was 1992 or thereabouts (I got a Bionicle or small Creator set here or there for Christmas, but nothing like the way it was in the 80's).

They were creeping upwards on prices to about 15 cents a piece, and suddenly dropped back to 10 when they went to China(except for liscenced sets). Meanwhile color problems and more missing or warped pieces started to show up. Not many missing or warped; certainly less than 1 part per 1000, maybe one in 5000. It went from a nearly unheard of experience just a moderately rare one.

[BobaFett2]

I don't know if they've lowered their quality to compete on price as much as just maximize profits. There's not been a marked decrease in the cost of sets. That is not to say I've noticed a decrease in quality, though admittedly before this past year the last LEGO set I received in earnest was 1992 or thereabouts (I got a Bionicle or small Creator set here or there for Christmas, but nothing like the way it was in the 80's).

They were creeping upwards on prices to about 15 cents a piece, and suddenly dropped back to 10 when they went to China(except for liscenced sets). Meanwhile color problems and more missing or warped pieces started to show up. Not many missing or warped; certainly less than 1 part per 1000, maybe one in 5000. It went from a nearly unheard of experience just a moderately rare one.

I don't think I've had any missing or color problems. I have, however, had an issue with parts-many have. It's more an issue of weak plastic-the fact that bows have very bad-quality handles and certain other parts as well-in a way, it's like the old chrome parts-they were cool, but the more you used them the more that they became bad.

[legitimatealex]

I don't think I've had any missing or color problems. I have, however, had an issue with parts-many have. It's more an issue of weak plastic-the fact that bows have very bad-quality handles and certain other parts as well-in a way, it's like the old chrome parts-they were cool, but the more you used them the more that they became bad.

This. The plastic they use for most of the minifigure accessories are easily scraped. I don't think any of my bows, crossbows, spears or swords don't have places where the minifigure hands have scraped pieces off.

[BobaFett2]

I don't think I've had any missing or color problems. I have, however, had an issue with parts-many have. It's more an issue of weak plastic-the fact that bows have very bad-quality handles and certain other parts as well-in a way, it's like the old chrome parts-they were cool, but the more you used them the more that they became bad.

This. The plastic they use for most of the minifigure accessories are easily scraped. I don't think any of my bows, crossbows, spears or swords don't have places where the minifigure hands have scraped pieces off.

The older swords had tougher handles. The Ninja swords (old) did have tougher (although I don't think it was as tough as normal parts) handles. The Crossbows have always been like this, to my knowledge. Same with longbows-although I don't know about the elf's. I have also had this problem with the new knife pieces and the tooth/sword pieces. I'm not sure about other pieces, though-I have not had this problem with spears. Tridents also have this problem, although it is not as bad. Non-combat accessories don't (usually), although radios usually have a weaker handle.

[legitimatealex]

Anything with a perceived gel like feel or softer looking plastic has these same problems, yeah. Trident and teeth are about the limit for me.

[BrickWild]

There is also another clone brand, known as 'Bela', which makes blatent copies of Lego Technic sets too!
Take a look at this set for example:





No stickers! And if you look closely in the 1st pic, the LEGO Logo has been blanked out, but the word 'Technic' has been left out!

[sadowsk1]

That's pretty wild. Thanks for the post with the pictures, I've never seen this brand before.

[StanTheLegoMan]

Greeting.
I have found throught many of my years of lego collecting that I do have quite a few MegaBlocks pieces. The Really MegaBlocks pieces I use are the big rocks or whole walls. They make for easy building if you can get the Pieces to fit right. The other MegaBlock Pieces are only used if I am running low on pieces when I am Building a Creation.