22 replies to this topic

[LegoCityMann]

Megablocks has apparently been scared by Friends and is introudcing a Barbie themed Building Brick collection just in time for Christmas

Barbie Megabloks

Interesting to see this after the "media backlash" at Lego over the Friends line and stereotyping.

Edited by LegoCityMann, 28 September 2012 - 06:18 PM.

[Spider-Man]

Now that is a lot of pink   I think this is going to get some backlash just like Friends has.

[TheLegoDr]

They need to stay competitive, so I guess it makes sense. That is a lot of pink, but when I think of Barbie, I think pink. She always had a pink convertible and dream house. I honestly don't see this being as big of a deal just because it is Barbie instead of LEGO. I think the media is fickle like that. Plus, I think the controversy probably helped LEGO a bit and Barbie has been declining from what I've read, so this might help out Mattel also.

[Aanchir]

Spider-Man, on 28 September 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

Now that is a lot of pink   I think this is going to get some backlash just like Friends has.

Probably not as much, since LEGO has a stronger reputation in general than Mega Brands, so it won't be such a shock to people. There'll be backlash, but it won't be as widespread or well-publicized. Also, Mega Bloks had Hello Kitty sets not long ago, so it hasn't been as long for them since they had a girl-oriented brand.

I am quite grateful that it seems LEGO Friends has gone beyond proving its own success and done what I had hoped for it to do, which is prove to the world that building toys aren't just a boys' thing. The people raising cain over the Friends theme of course already understood this, but the majority of parents and manufacturers alike did not. How long until Hasbro tries to capitalize on little girls (and of course bronies) with My Little Pony Kre-O?

[Spider-Man]

Well I thought after that CuuSoo project that Hasbro would have jumped all over that  

[Bilbo Baggins]

Didn't TLG once had the Barbie license?

[Aanchir]

Bilbo Baggins, on 28 September 2012 - 10:34 PM, said:

Didn't TLG once had the Barbie license?

No. Never. Not even close.

You may be thinking of the Barbie-like fashion dolls of the Scala theme, but I can't think of any time in history when LEGO and Mattel (the makers of Barbie) have been on friendly terms.

Edited by Aanchir, 28 September 2012 - 10:43 PM.

[just2good]

Aanchir, on 28 September 2012 - 09:02 PM, said:

How long until Hasbro tries to capitalize on little girls (and of course bronies) with My Little Pony Kre-O?

The question I ask myself everyday: If they had it, would I buy MLP:FiM Kre-O?
And, to be honest, I really can't see any pieces in the Barbie sets... What a great way to slap the Mega Bloks name onto these products.

Edited by just2good, 28 September 2012 - 10:50 PM.

[Aanchir]

just2good, on 28 September 2012 - 10:46 PM, said:

The question I ask myself everyday: If they had it, would I buy MLP:FiM Kre-O?
And, to be honest, I really can't see any pieces in the Barbie sets... What a great way to slap the Mega Bloks name onto these products.

I see pieces just fine. These sets may look like terrible quality, and with less building than traditional Mega Bloks sets (which themselves have many large, overspecialized pieces), but really couldn't the same thing have been said about Belville or Scala?

It's clear that with this brand, Mega Bloks is trying to create something that's unrepentantly a "dollhouse theme", with large prefabricated wall sections and doll-sized figures. So a bit of a different strategy than LEGO Friends, which despite some dollhouse-like characteristics really has the same amount of building put into each set as the typical boy-oriented LEGO product. I can't say for sure whether Mega's strategy will be successful. After all, as I have often said about the LEGO Super Heroes Ultrabuild sets (albeit with regard to action figures rather than dollhouses), a buildable doll/dollhouse/action figure offers inherently more creative play potential than a traditional doll/dollhouse/action figure with no building whatsoever. Certainly though the Mega Bloks approach isn't as groundbreaking or as respectful to girls' creative inclinations than LEGO Friends is.

[def]

Spider-Man, on 28 September 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

Now that is a lot of pink   I think this is going to get some backlash just like Friends has.

I don't think there will for a few reasons, all having to do with expectations:
1) Lego has long had a reputation as an intelligent toy, meaning that traditional gender-stereotype toys and gender-based marketing from them were disappointing to a lot of people
2) MegaBloks has no reputation, except among Lego people as being crap.  For real, I hear "Legos" name-dropped in pop-culture once or twice a month.  I've never ever heard MegaBloks ever referred to anywhere except this site.
3) Barbie is a famously bad toy for girls (google "math is hard").  That a toy that is somewhat popular, but with almost no critical approval, is producing pink-girl sets is not news.

The Lego Friends bruh-hah-hah was mainly rooted in the fact that people had such a high opinion of the company and the product, and it was "lowering" itself to the level of other toy manufacturers.    MegaBloks can only wish it had such a reputation to do damage to.

[SheepEater]

Thanks for the picture...

Wow, those are CRAP! Reminds me of Belville.
Even the dolls are similar in size to Belville's dolls.

The only way this will compete with Friends is solely due to Barbie brand recognition.

And as for Hot Wheels megabloks... is this supposed to compete against Lego Racers?

[Leela]

You know, I like Barbie... Not her cheapest $5 pink incarnations but still... and I was hoping for something much better. How naive of me.
It's so awfully pink and I don't see anything there to build (maybe a few small pieces, though a good point about Scala being similar). I was stupid enough to think that I could take some MB sets and pieces and add them to Heartlake City (blasphemy, I know! ).
But I don't see these Barbie sets being a real competition for Friends as I thought when I first heard of it. This is exactly Polly Pocket-style and nothing more.
As much as I like all things cloned these poor Barbie figures can only dream about a house like Olivia's House.
I don't think it's going to get any backlash, that's just Barbie playsets scaled down. Mattel has been accused of stereotyping girls for so many years that nobody cares any more.

Thanks for sharing the picture.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Aanchir, on 28 September 2012 - 10:42 PM, said:

No. Never. Not even close.

You may be thinking of the Barbie-like fashion dolls of the Scala theme, but I can't think of any time in history when LEGO and Mattel (the makers of Barbie) have been on friendly terms.

Thanks for the clarification

[HumanPackMule]

def, on 29 September 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

I don't think there will for a few reasons, all having to do with expectations:
1) Lego has long had a reputation as an intelligent toy, meaning that traditional gender-stereotype toys and gender-based marketing from them were disappointing to a lot of people
2) MegaBloks has no reputation, except among Lego people as being crap.  For real, I hear "Legos" name-dropped in pop-culture once or twice a month.  I've never ever heard MegaBloks ever referred to anywhere except this site.
3) Barbie is a famously bad toy for girls (google "math is hard").  That a toy that is somewhat popular, but with almost no critical approval, is producing pink-girl sets is not news.

The Lego Friends bruh-hah-hah was mainly rooted in the fact that people had such a high opinion of the company and the product, and it was "lowering" itself to the level of other toy manufacturers.    MegaBloks can only wish it had such a reputation to do damage to.

As far as brand recognition and reputation goes, you never hear anyone complaining about the pain of stepping on a Mega Blok. On the other hand, I think for some people, the name "Lego" is a catch-all term used for brick-based building toys. If I had a penny for every time I've heard someone in the toy section say something along the lines of "oh look! They have Halo Legos now!". So in some regards, MegaBloks isn't damaging their reputation, they're damaging TLG's with this new Barbie theme.

Edited by HumanPackMule, 01 October 2012 - 01:56 PM.

[Spider-Man]

def, on 29 September 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

3) Barbie is a famously bad toy for girls (google "math is hard").  That a toy that is somewhat popular, but with almost no critical approval, is producing pink-girl sets is not news.

That's crazy! Haha wow I actually can't believe that actually ever existed. Thanks for making my night def  

[SheepEater]

On this video we can get a closer look. Just as bad as we thought.... huge pre-fab pieces.



The Barbie minidolls DID rip Lego off in one way: the arms with their oversized claw-like  hands are almost identical!

Edited by SheepEater, 21 October 2012 - 06:30 PM.

[Aanchir]

SheepEater, on 21 October 2012 - 06:28 PM, said:

On this video we can get a closer look. Just as bad as we thought.... huge pre-fab pieces.

The Barbie minidolls DID rip Lego off in one way: the arms with their oversized claw-like  hands are almost identical!

Well, that's really just an unavoidable consequence of Mega Bloks using the same style of 3.2mm minifigure utensils as LEGO and both brands maintaining those dimensions with accessories in their girl-oriented products. You could just as easily say that they were ripping off the LEGO Gollum figure, who also has the same style of hands.

In general these products look cruddy, but they're not really an example of Mega Bloks ripping off the LEGO products' designs in any way-- just playing follow-the-leader as usual when it comes to brand strategy. I imagine the Barbie products probably had to follow pretty tight regulations from Mattel, so that's the source of the figure designs' faults. The set designs' faults are more likely just a case of Mega Bloks completely missing the point of what made LEGO Friends successful: its potential for creative building. But there's still more creativity in these than with the average dollhouse, so maybe they'll still cut into LEGO's profits a bit. Hard to really tell.

[SheepEater]

This one goes into more detail.
The comment you see (whplague) is me. I play dumb and pretend to be someone who doesn't know much about toys, while still plugging Lego Friends

[Bilbo Baggins]

Those are way to many pre-fab pieces for my taste.

[dr_spock]

It appears that they kept the same style of construction like the MegaBlocks Hello Kitty sets.   I guess it works for their target market.

Glad my daughter is now grown past that Barbie and pink phase.  

[Plastic Nurak]

Quote

If I had a penny for every time I've heard someone in the toy section say something along the lines of "oh look! They have Halo Legos now!"

I don't wanna believe it .

Megapoop however demonstrates that MB fans' barks about TLC lines and marketing strategies bettered by competition are just silly rumors because TLC needs just a metaphoric snap to win over competitors .

[deltarex101]

Well I could all stay this!
  This is a well fought fight between Lego and Megablocks

[freakwave]

SheepEater, on 26 October 2012 - 04:59 PM, said:

This one goes into more detail.

I wonder how hard it is for the MB-guys to not say "LEGO". I guess they go to bed with a headset on that continuously says "MegaB..."
I like when she said "you can go to the pet shop, ...and over to the Friends house".

But the figs look worse than the friends ones IMO. Although quite big, they have joined legs and sit on one stud.