Lego_Hero Posted December 3, 2010 Posted December 3, 2010 I was in Canton, Texas today for the "First Monday Trade Days". This is a giant (website boasts 200,000 visitors on a given weekend) flea market/craft expo/resale/antique fair. The boothes range from high-end furniture to junkyard quality antiques. In all the times I've been there, I've never come across Lego (and I scour the place). This afternoon, I saw three gallon-sized bags of random bricks on sale for $4/5 each. I recognized some unique Lego parts right away, but when I picked up the bags to inspect them, I saw that they were mostly Megablocks. The quality difference was so obvious, I was able to eyeball the difference without reading the "LEGO" on the studs. I don't have alot of Megablocks, so I've never done this, but you can see the difference when bricks are stacked together. Where the Lego blocks made a smooth and seemless connection, the MB stack was ragged and each individual piece was easy to see. I know this isn't anything new to the readers of this forum, but I thought I'd relay today's experience. TLG is miles ahead of anything the competition has. Quote
vexorian Posted December 3, 2010 Posted December 3, 2010 (edited) Megabloks quality varies. I buy from flea markets a lot. And TLG pieces are almost always mixed up with some megabloks and other things. So I spend quite some time sorting clones and bootlegs out. I can say that most of the times, the quality difference is just obvious and you can spot the megabloks piece from far apart. But there are some megabloks parts, I am not sure what year that are a lot closer to LEGO's parts than usual. So much that I sometimes have found megabloks stuff in my sorted bins because I just didn't notice while pre-sorting and sorting. Most of the other clone pieces are much worse quality than mega bloks though. Edited December 3, 2010 by vexorian Quote
Brickdoctor Posted December 3, 2010 Posted December 3, 2010 Yeah, I've found a couple in my bins before too. Mostly what I try to look for is the lustre finish on most MegaBlok pieces (or at least the ones I have) Compared to the glossy finish of LEGO. Quote
Cyanide Kualus Posted December 3, 2010 Posted December 3, 2010 Actually, the quality of early Megablocks was great (beginning of "Dragons" theme). Then for a couple of time it became much worse. In 2009 it grew again. Quote
Peppermint_M Posted December 3, 2010 Posted December 3, 2010 Right, this belongs in community according to policy (no worries, when I was new It happened too), so I will move it to community with this post. Old megablocks are dire, they have "sugard" edges they fit oddly and have some clutch issues. The newer bricks that come in say, the Halo sets, are much sharper in mould and colour. They also clutch much bettter. Tyco bricks are always hard to spot in massive mixed boxes, so take a good look through any older mixed lots you buy. Colour alone won't help you there! Quote
benhead Posted December 4, 2010 Posted December 4, 2010 Have you ever tried to assemble a mega block set?I have.If the pieces stay together the moment you try to pick up the completed model,they`re neat.Some of the blocks are compatible with lego.They make the sets that lego won`t,mainly war toys.Mini figure accessories are more detailed and better looking than lego.But,mega blocks are cheap crap!Most of the time the parts don`t fit together and if you can manage to force them they are permanently locked to each other forever. Quote
vexorian Posted December 4, 2010 Posted December 4, 2010 Aw megabloks minifigures. They are just...wrong. - "Hey what can we do to make this PotC set even worse?" - "I got an idea! Let's make an uncanny valley Jack Sparrow!" Quote
Peppermint_M Posted December 4, 2010 Posted December 4, 2010 On 12/4/2010 at 3:23 AM, vexorian said: Aw megabloks minifigures. They are just...wrong. - "Hey what can we do to make this PotC set even worse?" - "I got an idea! Let's make an uncanny valley Jack Sparrow!" Oh they are so much better than the other kind of figures, I have quite a few and they keep losing their arms... Quote
smittyfan Posted December 5, 2010 Posted December 5, 2010 On 12/4/2010 at 9:29 AM, Peppermint_M said: Oh they are so much better than the other kind of figures, I have quite a few and they keep losing their arms... LOL! yep.. i got one, and her legs broke... even the clear duct tape couldn't fix 'em right... although i admit i grew up with both Legos and Megablocks... my parents couldn't tell the difference... but guess which ones are still around today? actually i still have them both, but the Megablocks are a little worse for wear... (they kinda had a way of multiplying... i currently have twice as many pieces as the set originally came with...) now, i only buy Legos... Quote
Peppermint_M Posted December 5, 2010 Posted December 5, 2010 I had both by choice. When you are 10 and the choice is very little expensive Lego or quite a few cheaper Megablocks sets? The Grand Prix megablocks was my largest set to date, then I got a rather big Skate Park. It was great to have a lot of bricks to play with, even if the skate park would "ping" apart every now and then... Now all my clone brands reside in a box seperate to my Lego, supplying filler material and a useful distraction for children and those with the brain of a monkey (sigh, you can choose friends, but not their sense of humour. I was quite fed up of having to empty my large sharks of figures). I still use all the figure accessories and unique parts. Quote
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