Lego took the jump-Friends lending a hand to others?

[legogod]

I was at Target today and saw the new clone brand type sets from "Lite Brix." I had seen some incompatible light setups before and was about to write this off-but on closer inspection they looked just like Friends sets. The boxes are darker-adding an imperceptible amount of tension-for the multicolored lights only hold the night back so far. With a lot of the brick elements being clear and colored the darkness seems to add "Friends: NIGHTS" sort of mentality. What really happens after all the horses have been stabled? Why did Ava crash her Lamborghini into the school bake sale? Find out tonight.

Once the Friends line took off for Lego how are all those other companies going to profit from it? Well, whoever Cra-Z-Art is has made a good attempt. I also saw the Barbie line from Mega Bloks sitting nearby and their own eerily similar campaign has started. I think it boils down to the fact that there were not many "push-in" type accessories before Friends. (Bows, bugs and flowers being some examples.) With the addition of these new, tiny ("arrgghhh! where did that go?") pieces the two companies are admitting thievery while Lego did all the hard work.

I was amused when I saw these and still am. Instead of producing original stuff these companies would rather churn out copies that will be heavily discounted later. They make enough on the unsuspecting to get by. Would the phrase "Riding anothers coattails..." work here?

Maybe someone who has purchased one can chime in on how similar these sets are. There's a Mansion, Runway, Salon and Sweet Shop.

If you're not a purist, these new bricks/details might liven your scenes. What do you think of them?

Jared

[yeti79]

I seen some Friends knock offs recently. They looked fine considering they were off brand except for the minifigures. The princess looked like Hitler to me lol

[zztoy]

And I thought lego theived all of poly pockets hard work, just imagine. Gee my daughter's poly pocket stuff from years ago resembles the lego friends now. Hmmmmm