have a laugh at Mega Blocks misfortunes...

[mikey]

Some might have read this already, I found it on the BrickLink forum. It's an article detailing the business misfortunes of MegaBlocks

Mega Blocks in trouble

[Natman8000]

selling plastic bricks to prepubescent boy

*Looks down*

Not true!!

[Eilif]

Wow, that's a very informative article, both about LEGO and Megabloks. I skimmed through it, but I'll be back for a deeper read later.

I'll be disapointed if MB goes out of business. Competition is one of the best ways to keep quality and affordability up. Without compeition, it's the customer who loses.

[LEGOMAN132]

Thanks for posting this. The Halo set they made don't look all that good

Edited May 28, 2009 by LEGOMAN132

[Darth Legolas]

I laugh, yet the nematodes who wrote this article have it all wrong. The whole "marketing to demographics thing." Wait to cut out TFOLs and AFOLs. And don't forget SFOLs, senior citizens!

[Ricecracker]

Great read, do you know if this was in the paper today? I didn't see it.

I'll be disapointed if MB goes out of business. Competition is one of the best ways to keep quality and affordability up. Without compeition, it's the customer who loses.

While I definitely agree with you, living in Canada means that our Lego section at TRU is often mixed with Mega Bloks, and you have to thoroughly scan the shelves to see which sets are Lego and which are not.

[Lord Admiral]

While I'm not a fan of schadenfreude, one part of the article did pique my interest. Mega has the licenses to Iron Man and Transformers, and have no products for them. I know TLG recently said they wanted to de-emphasize the licensed lines, so I have to wonder whether Mega picked these licenses up because of this, or whether they actually outbid TLG. If it's the latter, I'm not sure why the license holders aren't up in arms, since AFAIK, there aren't any Transformers Megablok toys, and very few Iron Man products. The fact that Disney pulled out is quite telling, but I'm still curious as to why Hasbro and Marvel haven't yet.

And well, if they have, this may be a good chance for TLG to pick up some new licenses. I'm not sure if Iron Man would be sufficient to generate a decent product line around, but imagine TLG getting a license to large swaths of the Marvel universe...

[meschepers]

I'll be disapointed if MB goes out of business. Competition is one of the best ways to keep quality and affordability up. Without compeition, it's the customer who loses.

I have to agree here. MegaBloks being around allows LEGO to keep their costs relatively low and keep quality relatively high. If hey were to fold and LEGO had no major competition prices would rise and quality would likely fall. The article insiuates that this is exactly what happened to LEGO in the past decade: making poor choices and attempting to expand too much nearly caused them to go bankrupt. The one thing that saved them was a return to their roots. With the release of new Castle, Pirates, Space Police and City we are seeing LEGO's "Big Four" theme back all at the same time, just like when I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s (which a very good thing as LEGO is one of the few individual toy brands that is making a profit on a year to year basis).

All we have to do is keep buying LEGO products and we won't have to worry about what happens to Mega.

[KimT]

Yeah bring on Halo

[Johnnhiszippy3]

If MegaBloks went under I think Lego would still have plenty of competition to keep quality up and prices down. The article states that Lego already controls 73% of the market share in construction toys category.

I don't think Lego's big competition is MegaBloks (except for preschoolers) - it's computers, video games, sports, eletronic toys...all the other things that "prepubescent boys" like.

Besides, I think Lego is driven by more than profit - they have to make money, but they aren't trying to please millions of stock holders.

[Joey Lock]

Yeah bring on Halo

Do you meen Bring It On Halo?

Or Bring on the Halo!

[Ricecracker]

....they have to make money, but they aren't trying to please millions of stock holders.

Stock holders? What stock holders? Lego is a privately owned company with no stock available to the public. Trust me, I've checked.

[The Green Brick Giant]

I have to agree here. MegaBloks being around allows LEGO to keep their costs relatively low and keep quality relatively high. If hey were to fold and LEGO had no major competition prices would rise and quality would likely fall.

MB isn't LEGOs biggest competition, that would be video games.

[Peppermint_M]

I love their not bayblade honest "Battle Strikers".

I lol at you Megablocks.

[Oswald the Rabbit]

While I definitely agree with you, living in Canada means that our Lego section at TRU is often mixed with Mega Bloks, and you have to thoroughly scan the shelves to see which sets are Lego and which are not.

You mean you can't tell right away by the quality?

[Ricecracker]

You mean you can't tell right away by the quality?

I can, I was trying to portray how much of the Canadian toy aisle, at least at my local store, is Lego/Mega Bloks.

[JCC1004]

At Toys R Us I saw Bestlock. They took most molds including legs and hands. I think the attention should be put on Bestlock. Megablocks are more their own molds.

[KDog]

Best-Lock are more of a Lego rip-off. I like their Classic Space-ish ship designs, but the blocks sometimes hold together so poorly, they're very frustrating sets.

[Justin]

Best-Lock are more of a Lego rip-off. I like their Classic Space-ish ship designs, but the blocks sometimes hold together so poorly, they're very frustrating sets.

Even worse: ENLIGHTEN, a Chinese-made LEGO rip-off! I'm glad LEGO destroyed most of them. They were the cause for brand confusion in many foreign countries. I've seen a few on eBay. Two words: ENLIGHTEN sucks! They are worse than both Best Lock and Mega Bloks. (or should I say "Mega Blokes.")

[The Rancor]

""Mega brands has been a household name in toys for many years in Canada. I enjoyed the article and hope that this company can be revived.Go Mega Go Mega"" 0 0 Report Abuse

How dare he!

Lego Star Wars easily beats Halo fanchise. (one good reason is that I've never owned an Xbox and Halo is only on Xbox)

[Natman8000]

I love their not bayblade honest "Battle Strikers".

I lol at you Megablocks.

I know! When the article described Mega's battle tops I though "Isn't that Bayblade?" There is no way that this will be the 'school yard currency'. Because they probably will suck.

[Siegfried]

Good article. I didn't know about the merger details. I read the whole thing and I think it's enough about LEGO that it can stay here.

Thanks for posting it.

[Dadster]

Thanks for the heads-up about the article. Very informative. I really had no idea all that occurred between Mega and Lego. I just always thought it was a cheaper knock-off...

[Johnnhiszippy3]

Stock holders? What stock holders? Lego is a privately owned company with no stock available to the public. Trust me, I've checked.

That's what I said, they aren't trying to please stock holders (because they don't have any public stock holders - and Megabloks does, as do most of Lego's other competition)

Edited May 29, 2009 by Johnnhiszippy3

[avoidz]

Even worse: ENLIGHTEN, a Chinese-made LEGO rip-off! I'm glad LEGO destroyed most of them. They were the cause for brand confusion in many foreign countries. I've seen a few on eBay. Two words: ENLIGHTEN sucks! They are worse than both Best Lock and Mega Bloks. (or should I say "Mega Blokes.")

I still see quite a lot of that rip-off brand being sold here in Australia. Usually it's Chinese-run stalls in shopping malls and flea markets.

And it wouldn't be any sort of loss to me if Mega Bloks went out of business. Just another fake-LEGO company

Edited May 29, 2009 by avoidz