Started out with lego but i find myself gravutating to mega. Mega take its lines seriously such as cod whereas lego is more cutesy. Too bad the the adult collectors dont follow suit instead of being so anti evrything elese. Surely plenty of playing room for all brands and we the cosumers are the lucky ones withbmore than one choice.
Cod line rules! I trew the mega blok figure in the trash as soon as i saw a dumpster. I just hate mega blocks. I would suggest not to through them away though — you can trade them. I know a lot of kids who prefer MB figures because of the amount of detail and articulation, so they may have a LEGO figure you want,and they will be happy with your MB figure. Also, consider that there are children who are not so fortunate and would be lucky to get any kind of tosy.
There is no need to ever throw away anything new and just clog landfills. Give them to someone who would appreciate them and use them. My sons and I have kilos and kilos of Lego.
Until recently I would weed the non Lego bricks and figures out of second hand purchases. Although I draw the line at super cheap unbranded garbage. Scott, I can appreciate that. The Call of Duty sets are particularly nice. I also have a couple. What is the MegaBlok equivalent to Lego Duplo?
Most other MegaBlok sets have pieces that are same size and Legos. They are actually pretty nice. And for a change, they also come with genuinely cute figures. Well written article comparing differences in these two brands. This is a little technical, but it allows blocks to connect on all sides, plus slide and rotate for very creative omni-directional building. SNAPO is non-magnetic and non toxic. And perhaps most important, compatible with these other brands for tremendous play value.
Thanks, again. Playmobil would be a good topic of interest, too btw. And yes, Playmobil is a wonderful and very high quality brand. It is a very different scale compared to LEGO, but at some point I might write an article about them as they have been around for a very long time and they cover similar themes as LEGO. Thanks for the idea! I too own both Legos and Mega Bloks. I guess it really depends on the style you like.
I found this very helpful! I think testing the waters with Mega Bloks first is the way to go! If it keeps his interest, I will grow his collection, now knowing that they can be used together! Something to take into consideration. I would also add that if I would have gotten MB as my first sets, I would have never stayed around the hobby.
Also, schools and libraries often have afterschool programs with LEGO. You might want to check out if there is any in your area. This way your son has a chance to check out how he likes the hobby before having to invest money into it. They went from molding bricks which obviously they still do to molding more customized parts like full panels, tubes for the mars set in and so on.
This turned them more into toys than buildable puzzles. The sets are getting easier and easier to build. Where as mega bloks has a challenge to it. Granted when you get the Halo pelican mega bloks offers you get a whole pre-assembled cockpit, but you build around it in not-so-easy steps. One tungsten rod carrier has 43 pieces in it, and was quite a challenge to build. I now buy my assembly kits as models and collector items and not as toys.
Right there could be what helps people decide what they get for their children, friends, co workers, etc for christmas if looking into such a thing. Hello, this article very informational. Quick question, thinking about building our son a Lego table with the Lego tiles you can buy from Amazon. You think the Lego tile table would work for all of his Mega Blox sets? I have some Call of Duty sets as well and they fit just fine.
The only issue would be those large, pre-moulded MB elements that are not really meant to connect to anything. But if you are just trying to create a play-surface, covering a table with LEGO baseplates is a great idea. You can also buy pre-made playtables with generic studs on the surface that fits both LEGO and Megablocks. Hope this helps! Great article! My son is 18m and loves playing with his Mega Bloks first builders set the really big blocks. I want to cover a table with base plates for him, and the Lego base plates are much less expensive than the Mega Bloks and Duplos plates.
Do you know if the MB first builders blocks are compatible with the regular Lego plates? I want the table to be able to grow with him as he moves on to the smaller pieces. So I know the regular Megabloks and Legos are compatible, but what about Duplos. Is there a type of Megabloks that is compatible with Duplos? Well from the looks Lego is a much friendlier Toy that is target for Toys then the cheaper made in China Megabloks that is more Military orient.
Which is not so friendly. Believe it or not, mega bloks parts are made in France, the USA and Canada, whereas Lego have parts made in many different countries, including china. The more you know! As for mega bloks being more military influenced, the halo and call of duty lines are both advertised as collector series rather than toys.
Normally I find myself buying mega bloks as display pieces, and Lego as a building toy. To me, each company has their merits. But for me, the bane of Mega Bloks is missing pieces. Ive actually never encountered this problem- I recently invested in a handful of the COD collectors sets, and in each one I actually had a handful of pieces left over. Not from shoddy instruction following on my part, but merely duplicates of things like connectors or single studs.
My son is 8 and has always found Lego instructions clear and easy to follow and the assembly works flawlessly. Sandra, I had the same experience. We own lots of Lego and the large first builders mega blocs and was passed recently some Duplo. I was surprised to discover the dupolo can connect on top of a normal Lego studs. I have to admit she prefers the Lego instead.
She says the Lego instructions are easier to follow and she has more room for imagination and construction with Lego in both the Friends and City collections. I am a 56 year old grandmom and currently really excited about brictek.
I grew up building with legos and they were a totally free-form toy at that time. Then my children had Duplos and Legos and the Legos were kits that made things like helicopters and cars. I loved Lego, but I have complaints with the current direction. I thinknk brictek really have what I loved about Lego as a child, I love that their boy and girl lines are compatible, I love their prices. Despite my username, I prefer Megabloks brands, too be honest.
Lately their bricks have become higher quality, their packaging is more correct, as well. My question is, can i use lego bricks or mega bricks interchangeably?
I mean. Can i match their bricks? I to own both Lego and Megablocks sets. Megablocks figures are harder to put together, with the joints, and the instructions are hard to read, taking much longer than Lego.
And these are actually different parts from the instructions, which is a second point…. The instructions are crap. Brick colors like pink are discernible. I had to look at the overall photo at least five times to confirm where things went. Since the go-along instructions were wrong. Colors are airbrushed i. Parts are harder to get together, some support pieces are in oddball spots, and some things are poorly architected.
LEGO provides a ton of extras — especially of the small, custom, easy-to-lose variety. See above that Mega Bloks does not. In summary, LEGO has continued its realm of quality. Yes, it is expensive. But the instructions, numbered bags — correlating to the order of assembly — and reputation justify the cost. Our organization teaches kids engineering using LEGO. I would say prior to Lego was the far superior building sets maker.
However since then and more notably since I feel Mega Bloks has not only caught up to Lego but far surpassed them. Mega Bloks listens to their customer base and really takes their feedback into consideration. This is reflected in their minifigures which are basically the classic small GI JOE figures just smaller and the fact that their parts quality is on par with Lego now.
You will still get the occasional missing piece here and there but Mega Bloks will send you the replacement parts free of charge within about days in North America. Mega Bloks are designed to be models and displayed. Legos are designed to be taken apart and used elsewhere. Legos offer more customizable builds in the long term while Mega Bloks focus more on realistically depicting what they are trying to emulate. If you look at some of the recent Legos models like Lord of the Rings and their superhero lines you notice that the scale is really off.
Things just look too small or the dimensions are really off. Mega Bloks sets are to scale to their minifigures most notably in their Halo and Call of Duty lines. Also, something to take into consideration with Mega Bloks is the sets tend to be in scale to each other as a result. So when you have multiple sets next to each other you still get a sense of the things belonging together.
I would also say that the subject matter of some of the Mega Bloks sets are geared for older children as well. Mega Bloks offer realistic models that accurately depict their subject matter and are more for older children. But the expense of keeping up is suddenly worse than comic books.
Many Lego themes follow a kind of serial product model which is only effective if players can reasonably complete the serial.
Even in themes with one-offs, like Super Heros, sure some sets will be duds but others are real gems — but are retired regardless of ongoing value. Visit the Lego Shop site, and there are many interesting, useful and fun sets that are simply retired. Or you get smart and drop the hobby like a scam run as if Lego corp. The plastic may be more real than pixels, but the feeling just as ephemeral the longer that plastic starts to remind you of how you got ripped off.
Buy a set of Mega Blocks, and you understand its a one-off toy with limited interchangeability. This gives Mega Blocks the edge in long-term enjoyability and playability.
Lego will always have that chic, but really, if you can avoid the bug, good for you. But their marketing department surely keeps track of what sets are hits by sales and critical reviews, and which flop.
Instead of standing by winners and keeping them on store shelves — very easy to do in an age of online shipping — they retire everything and pump out new products. What is the value in a toy that can be played for generations — but with no continuity even within a generation?
Lego discontinuity is effective for spurring panic buying before something goes out of style, but that only goes so far. While it is not something people like to talk about, the toy market is one of the most cut-throat businesses to be in.
To stay in business and in line with the competition they do have to remain fresh and relevant to the market. Having said that, even with LEGO refreshing themes, most sets stay around for at least a couple of years, and those that are most popular are kept around even longer.
In addition, many of the themes are not entirety new, but rehashes of older sets. If you have the older one there is absolutely no need to buy the new one. They both have their own themes, licensed sets, and collections.
Keep in mind though that LEGO is mainly a building toy. There is absolutely no need to collect every single set. Medium to large size sets have everything you need to build and rebuild over and over again. Growing up, myself and my siblings had no more than 10 large LEGO sets and we spent our entire childhood playing with them.
I have never felt that they were somehow incomplete. If someone is fixated on collecting every single LEGO set, or every set in a theme, they yeah, that can get out of hand pretty quickly. It is not their fault if someone takes this to mean that they have to collect every single thing.
LEGO is just a hobby, and just like with any other hobby, it comes down to the individual how they approach that hobby. While the very next person can enjoy the same hobby with complete bliss and abandon. Personally I feel absolutely no pressure to buy every LEGO set in a theme, or feel that a set without all the other ones is somehow incomplete. It can be a joyful, free-spirited and creative hobby, a dreadful chore, or even addiction.
This is a LEGO fan blog. All of us here are LEGO fans. Gears, Pistons, Pulleys, Levers Actually working bulldozers, cranes, and amazing machines with usable moving parts..
Thanks for this write-up! One thing love about mb is their big building blocks. I used to have bags of the huge blocks and the where fun. Yes, the big pieces are great to build up something quickly.
While MB used to be a Canadian owned company, their pieces have been made in China. Now Mattel owns MB, and they continue making their sets in China. For LEGO only specialty pieces like headgear and accessories, as well as keychains, magnets, and the Collectible Minifigures are made in China. Almost everything we use on a daily basis — including expensive brands and high quality items — are made in China.
The instructions are super difficult as well. If your son is really into Mega Bloks, try the Collectors Series sets. They are much better quality. I grew on Lego, but my kids have a mix of both and they play with both types without issue.
Both sets have been great and no real issues on either end. What I buy for them mostly depends on what they are into at the time i. Nick, thanks for sharing your experience. And yeah, for many people it is a license-based decision which brand they end up getting. Megabloks are shite. Always have been and always will be. They dont have the tolerances of lego and so half the parts are too tight other half are too loose. It doesnt matter about shite like figurines or designs or licenses, Megabloks are garbage.
I own some of the bigger ones from Halo, Star Trek, World of Warcraft, but they just sit on the shelf. If you want to play with them, they just fall apart. My problem has always been that they are too tight and difficult to disassemble. Looks like you have quite a nice collection from the higher end sets. Star Trek — in particular — was released after the sale of the company to Mattel, so the quality should be better. I only collect the figures and some of the accessories though, and stick with LEGO when it comes to sets.
Unbiased non-collector comparison. The other was a Matchbox sized unbranded Jeep also 3 in 1 set. Then I got a Mega Bloks officially licensed Jeep set. Two Jeeps, a trailer and an off-road obstacle course diorama. About pieces….. Large, Full color, high contrast, 3D diagrams. I watched TV while building. And in about a half hour, and a nice smooth build. I had a new sorta-Jeep-ish model for my shelf.
The Mega Blok set was a different story. The instructions have too many procedures on each page, making the diagrams very small. And the diagrams involving black on black bricks were impossible to read. ZERO contrast!! Absolutely no rhyme or reason. This way you could build the set in stages, and not have pieces in front of you. Other than those two issues, I think the brands are pretty much the same. The single-use parts in Mega Bloks. Minifigures, again preference. I personally like the vague cuteness of Lego people.
Good points. Mega Blocks do better toys than Lego. I had always been a fan and collector of Pyrates and POTC of Megablocks because the well builded scenarios and figures are well done. Well detailed faces and accesories, while Lego lacks quality and its hard to find inmagination at the playing time with their toys. I have a Mega Blok tank and P51 Mustang fighter plane set. I use the parts with my Lego but the mega blok seems not to always be able to fit right in with the Lego parts.
I use some of the mega blok with my Lego builds bit not often. TL;DR Legos are basic and colorful, and let you be creative and you can use all of the pieces to do different things. The one to go with is the traits you value more. Lego is to life what Minecraft is to art, and Lego will always be a household name. However, they are quite basic and miniature. When you look at a lego set or a minifigure, the lack of realism and sense of imitation is always there, like looking at a doll, or a wooden train.
They are ultra-customizable, but they are toys. This is where Mega-Bloks Mega Construx as of now come in. In terms of creativity, Legos are better at this, as they tend to reuse the same types of pieces for different sets. The pieces are made as basic as they are to allow you and the company to use them for other purposes.
Lastly, due to this lack of repurposing and the upgrade to most other features, Mega-Bloks are more likely to be enjoyed by the teenage demographic, of which I am a member. In the end, it all depends on your tastes, and what the definition of fun is to you. Megaboloks failed and continue to fail having the Star Trek rights, it should be passed on to a more dedicated and quality controlled company for example … LEGO?
Leave this field empty. Delivered by FeedBurner. When you make a purchase through our links, we may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support! Copyright of theBrickBlogger. All Rights Reserved. LEGO vs. NinjagoNerd36 January 16, , AM. Reply Link. Beardless Dwarf January 16, , AM. Chi-bacca January 16, , PM. Richard Belcourt June 25, , PM. Karen Gillespie December 25, , PM. Noir Renard July 4, , PM. Sergio March 25, , AM.
Evan Brus January 16, , PM. Speedy Ninja January 16, , PM. Chi-bacca January 17, , AM. Ahh ok it must be a world of warcraft one. Oh and what ninja did you want in the your gravatar instead? Andy at www. Saxifraga January 16, , PM. Just my thoughts. Will January 16, , PM. Soundgirl January 16, , PM.
Although one brick got smashed to bits, and another seemed to get dented, but yeah. Timpani January 17, , AM. Fikko January 17, , AM. The Barbie sets largely seem a cheap re-hash of Friends with large facade pieces and garish, clashing colors, though… I actually prefer Hello Kitty.
Ray January 17, , AM. NoahNace10 January 17, , AM. The enventor of LEGO actually got permission to use kiddicrafts block idea from kiddicraft. Angie July 14, , AM. Capn Quirk December 18, , PM. John Brikky January 18, , AM. Brian Briggs January 20, , AM. Larry Morgan February 11, , AM. Liam Rue April 17, , PM. You problably work for megabloks,you rat!
Tara July 2, , PM. Gene July 3, , AM. Heather Tatzer July 7, , AM. Junbesu October 20, , PM. Wolf July 14, , PM. Caleb July 29, , PM. Chuck Norris August 3, , AM. Jacob August 19, , PM. The real argument is whether it is Lego or Legos. Of course it is lego. Only stupid Americans would say Legos. Hatfield August 26, , PM. Clumsybumsy October 6, , AM.
Austin October 7, , PM. Scott October 28, , PM. They both hurt the feet all the same! You are right about that! Jon November 4, , AM. The next sets I got were from the Hot Wheels line. Three little vehicles with a driver for each. They looked good on the boxes, but what I found inside was just terrible. The parts had ugly colors and not at all what was displayed on the boxes, and the pieces had such bad clutch-power that they were constantly falling off.
The figures were ugly too. My budding faith in the Mega Bloks brand was shaken, and I stopped even looking at them. I learned that Mega Bloks actually have what they call the Collectors line, with much higher quality than their standard sets.
That made sense! I also found out that Mega Bloks has a separate dedicated website for their Collectors line, and the first products they carried for collectors was from Halo back in And this year Destiny and Star Trek was also added. At the same time, I was definitely interested in the high quality and highly detailed figures, as I always liked small action figures.
Mega Bloks calls them Micro Action Figures. Then, I got all six of the Halo Heroes Series 1 figures that were recently released.
As I mentioned previously, the Halo franchise is the oldest in the Mega Bloks Collectors line, so there are a huge amount of sets and characters. I already had the four I got previously, but Mega Bloks refined the articulation of the shoulders since then, and I wanted to get some of the newer figures as well. Halo Heroes Series 1 and later this year Series 2 will be released as well make a nice collection and are good examples of the entire line.
While very nicely detailed, the Halo figures are not so heavily accessorized as in Call of Duty. While the armor pieces can be exchanged, the only external accessories are one-piece weapons. Much more favorable for play. But I really liked these astronauts, and in this case only the weapons are made up of small parts. The only two that I picked up are these two gorgeous looking knights in beautifully detailed medieval armor! These are my most favorite Mega Bloks figures. The designers really outdid themselves!
Now that I know the difference between the Collectors line and regular Mega Bloks sets, I have been consistently happy with my purchases. Having said that, there are some standard Mega Bloks sets that I think are worth checking out. Particularly the Smurfs and Minions. The sets are inferior quality, but the figures are very cute. And you can incorporate both the figures and accessories into your LEGO creations. So far I only bought boyish Mega Bloks sets.
So do they have anything nice for girls? I do remember seeing some Mega Bloks Barbie sets, but the figures looked dreadful. However the recently released Monster High characters are pretty cute — if you are into teenage girls in ghoulish outfits.
The collection that really caught my attention in the girly department is the new Mega Bloks American Girl sets. They are not within the Collectors line, but it is clear that Mega Bloks put serious effort into making these sets as nice as possible.
The figures are fully articulated tiny versions of the classic American Girl dolls. They can be completely taken apart and all parts can be exchanged, so you can basically mix and match all their clothing. The hair pieces can be exchanged as well. The skirts and hats are made of a rubbery element that is quite nice. However their handheld accessories can be used by LEGO minifigures and vice versa.
Mega Bloks is sort of a mix between traditional toy soldiers and miniature dolls displayed on terrain pieces, and construction toys like LEGO. Because Mega Bloks is not a systemized construction toy like LEGO, their building elements are not always compatible with each other, nor can they be easily mixed to build your custom creations.
They do have some basic building blocks that are copied from LEGO that can be used for free-building, but they also have a lot of specialized large pieces that only serve one purpose. In addition, their colors are not standardized, and can be all over the place, which further makes Mega Bloks a bad choice for custom models.
The quality of the pieces however is not nearly as good as LEGO. Even in the Collectors line, it is only the figures that are high quality. The rest of the parts feel cheap, and are very inconsistent in both color and clutch-power. Some are way too tight, others are too lose. Their size tolerance is also much worse than LEGO. Pieces next to each other have weird and inconsistent gaps in between. I have only been focusing on getting the Micro Action Figures , but because some of them came in regular sets, I had a chance to try out the quality of standard pieces as well.
However if you are interested in any of the sets, I would suggest that you first pick up a small set in the same line to see how you like the quality. You have to buy all their sets through third-party retailers. Prices are often better than at retail stores, and you can also buy the figures individually.
Here are some of the listings I have been using. You can find them here:. The characters do look really good, are a pleasure to collect and display, and durable enough for regular play.
It seems like Mega Bloks finally found a niche for themselves where they stand out — instead of just being a LEGO wannabe. If they could get the quality of their regular building elements at least near the quality of LEGO, maybe they would even gain the respect of more LEGO fans.
But at least their Micro Action Figure packs are already making collectors happy. What about you? Have you ever gotten any of their sets or figures? How do you like them? How would you compare their quality to LEGO? Feel free to share your thoughts and own review in the comment section below! I have been looking at MB for some time now too, but I was worried about their reputation of bad quality.
Now that I know about their collectors line I will revisit them again. Those knights look amazing! Are they still available? I actually got both knights fairly recently, so yeah, they are available.
I got them both on eBay. The silver armored knight comes in a small set with just a few accessories. The gold knight comes in a bit larger set with another figure and a raft type of thing. The raft has some pretty gold-printed tiles and a catapult. It is the most pathetic brick-built catapult I have ever encountered in my life.
A five-year-old could build something better than that. Thanks for the comparison picture at the end. Very helpful to put the size of the figures into perspective for those of us who are not familiar with Megabloks. Their collectors action figures do look good. Are the joints nice and tight?
Or do they fall apart easily, or after regular use? Yes, the joints are all good. They are tight and move smoothly. One thing I had to adjust to is how much longer it takes to pose small action figures versus minifigs. Minifigs have few simple joints, so it is easy to manipulate them in the few limited poses they can do, and then stick them on a baseplate or into a MOC. Action figures are a whole other matter. They are very poseable — which means they can look quite lifelike — but it takes a lot of fiddling around to get them right.
It was nice to read this article and finally get the full scoop on Mega Bloks. The Star Trek diorama looks pretty good… I thought about building some space base with a bunch of control screens like that… Is it printed parts? So, yeah, my guess is that all the controls are printed. Yes, their cartoony characters are cute. Amen, sister!!! Good is good! Legos are good for sure but MegaBloks figures are too and people who reject them out of hand are fools.
People who let themselves be intimidated by those idiots are fools as well. But be ready to mangle those arm joints in there, folks! A little spit and a pair of needle nose pliers help. And I have been looking for the Mutant Ninja Turtles since you did that feature on them about a year ago. Still no luck there…. Hm… the Ninja Turtles should be readily available. You can also find them on eBay and Amazon.
And yes, the Minions are very cute. Nice accessories too! The Barbie Megabloks were the gate to getting my daughter into Lego. We discovered those before we discovered the Lego Friends sets. My daughter now has both. I was initially against the genderization of Lego and resisted the Friends sets.
0コメント