What's your opinions on "Lego clones"?

[Axelthestormer]

Hello, I've been wandering on people's opinions on "Lego clones", such as Megablocks. Whats the preference on buying and using them?

For me, I don't use them as they don't really fit properly with Lego or sometimes even their own type of bricks, though some types are useful as there may not be a Lego counterpart (for example, different types of ladders).

I was also wandering, was Lego was the first with those types of bricks?

[Sir Brickalot]

Lego is in fact the original clone brand, it was copied from Kiddicraft I think.

[AndyC]

Lego is in fact the original clone brand, it was copied from Kiddicraft I think.

Sort of. The basic brick shape and studs on the top came from Kiddicraft, but it was Lego who invented the tube system underneath that made the bricks stay together properly.

[Axelthestormer]

Lego is in fact the original clone brand, it was copied from Kiddicraft I think.

Sort of. The basic brick shape and studs on the top came from Kiddicraft, but it was Lego who invented the tube system underneath that made the bricks stay together properly.

Thanks for the information, good stuff to know.

[Heppeng]

I have tried clone brands of Sluban and Enlighten, and found that their quality is far superior to what the nay sayers wanted me to believe. However, having said that the quality they have is not as consistent as lego. For example, the dark bluish gray plates I have from Enlighten are indistinguishable from Lego, save that they do not have lego on the studs. Perfect colour match, same clutch power and so on. However some of their parts and design is not up to that of Lego, but for the price you get a lot of bang for your buck. the only problem I have had with anything falling apart was due to poor model design - too few studs holding things together rather than a lack of clutch power.

Sluban was not so good in this respect. Some bricks had less clutch power than lego, and the one model I got from them - a double decker bus, had badly made wheels. It did however have fantastic plug doors, where the best that lego could manage is either a train door or a building door. and it was very cheap.

So you pays yer money and makes your choice! YMMV and all that too!

[Bennemans]

I'm not a fan of them. Most of the time the quality is rubbish of the cheaper clone brands; bits of sprue, warped, more translucent plastic… bah!

There are some brands that are pretty ok though, like MegaBlocks and Kre-o, but I would never use those bricks personally. Sometimes I find some in a batch of second hand Lego, and even though they are perfectly compatible with lego in size and color, I still take them out (and put them in a bin with other bricks I don't use, and sell it for cheap to parents who don't have a lot of cash to spend on toys). But I can understand parents buying those brands for their kids; it saves them some money and small children won't see the difference. Just stay away from those horrible cheap chinese knockoffs!

I do enjoy people ripping on them though, I love Wendy's 'Commander Cottontail' blog where she reviews off-brand building block sets: http://commandercottontail.com/index.php/blog/archive

[jodawill]

I don't use them. I'm loyal to TLG.

I've gotten Mega Trash in tubs of used parts before and I either throw them away or throw them in the bucket of parts to resell to some poor soul on Craigslist. (Forgive me father, for I have sinned.)

I've heard enough horror stories to make me stay away from other clone brands. I've read some funny reviews of them before. I wish I had a link to the PDF.

[SnapLock]

I enjoy some Clone brands like Enlighten,Sluban,Wange,Ausini,Some of their sets are great like the World series buildings from Wange.

Enlighten have some great Pirate sets, & the Trains are great.

I dont buy many Clone sets anymore i maily buy the Train track packs from Enlighten as Lego train track is too expensive.

[SweetiePie88]

Depends on the brand. I'm mostly getting a lot of interest with mega bloks, kreo, and ionix stuff. One reason im getting into the clones a lot more is the quality is really good and the prices are fair while lego prices are going up and up and up and quality is sinking. I'm not going to abandon lego since they have the stores(but if mega bloks make a store in louisiana, all bets are off on that factor), the lego friends stuff, and some cool parts but they'll be getting less of my money.

Plus the themes the clones are doing are really really cool and thinking outside of the box while lego seems to be getting into a pretty big rut. I mean seriously look at mega blox. they are doing really cool spongebob stuff that actually looks good and the prices are epic! according to the website, the KK set with something like 407 parts is 30 bucks when a 2XX piece Lego KK was the same price. Theres a really cool invisible boatmobile and planktons truck set that's 20 bucks and 3XX parts that'd certainly be a lot more expensive going through lego

And there's another big factor on why i'm getting into the clones: The lego movie. Between the horrible plot twist, lack of humor, and to much focus on animation with not enough on a decent plot, i am embarrassed to be a lego fan, even in a non purist sense.

Edited July 6, 2014 by SweetiePie88

[BirdOPrey5]

I have been buying a lot of the clone brands to figure out which are worth my while and which are not. I actually just built the Sluban Cruiser (883 pieces, 26 inches/66 cm long) this past weekend and made a video of it.

Overall BricTek has been my favorite clone brand with WOMA and Sluban very close behind. What I really enjoy about these brands are the sets that Lego will never make- military themes mostly- Battle Ships, Stealth Fighters, Apache Helicopters, even replicas of guns.

The absolute worst clone brand I have tried so far was- Mega Bloks! That's right- the worst by far. So far only one set, I won't do an official brand review until I build at least 2 sets but the ProBuilder "Carbon" Fighter Jet was nearly impossible to build- the studs simply would not line up no matter what I did, I literally had to use a rubber mallet to bash the wings onto the body. Not something you could expect a kid to do- there were poor reviews on Amazon from parents complaining their kids couldn't put it together but I've seen parents complain about sets that were perfectly fine before.

Oh, the Mega Bloks was also the first new-in-box set I ever purchased from any brand to be missing a piece.

I have yet to try Enlighten but I hear good things.

[LOTRfan]

I don't like most, but I don't go this far- http://thebrickblogger.com/2012/08/sacrilege-what-happens-when-lego-burns/

The MegaBlocks halo figures are ok, but the joints are quite stiff

[fred67]

I have one non-LEGO set that I've had for quite some time. It's a Megabloks Mech. I probably bought it 12 or more years ago, when LEGO still seemed too expensive to me, and just didn't make things like it.

I guess the worm has turned... LEGO made a few mech type suits for Exoforce, and now it's a Cuusoo/ideas winner.

I am anal retentive when it comes to mixing my LEGO with clone brands, but the idea of clone brands at all isn't as disturbing to me as it is to others, I think. I would try Enlighten track if I could find some with reasonable shipping, and I've had my eye on a few Best-Loc military themed sets, but never bought one.

I suppose if there were specific pieces that TLG didn't make (and there are!), I might be inclined to get some; there were 2x2 "rock" pieces that were like regular 2x2 bricks, but one side was a molded as a rock... a wall of those might look pretty cool, even being a pretty cool looking castle. Unfortunately, you can't just buy bulk sets of other brands, either. I also mentioned track... I've already bought a handful of ME train track, and use it quite willingly alongside LEGO, as well as other non-LEGO brands like Brickforge and Brickwarrior. As long as it's clear to me what is what. If I took apart 1000 piece building using basic bricks, I wouldn't want to have to figure out which ones were LEGO or not.

Plus competition is good. One of the (many) things TLG decided to get out of their financial problems last decade was to simply stop bothering to compete with "clones" because they're widely recognized as being inferior. They figured they'd let the "lesser" companies squabble over the low end, and they'd take the high end. It worked. People who bought LEGO before bought it because it was LEGO, and they kept buying it. Still, I like the idea of people flocking to clones for filler and special pieces. What I really want is for a clone brand to step up to the quality of LEGO, to force LEGO to compete again.

It seems like one of these companies should make the bulk products we LEGO lovers wish TLG would release... bulk packs of single colors, and colors you don't get in bulk packs with LEGO, like gray and black. It would be impossible to actually compete with the variety of parts LEGO offers, in the variety of colors they are offered... but a lot of us just want bulk bricks to build large buildings, walls and anything we want to build big.

[BirdOPrey5]

BricTek does bulk parts - and special pieces.

[Jetrax99]

I'll be honest, I have very little interest in brick based LEGO sets unless they look very appealing. For now, Mega Bloks dominates my brick based collection while LEGO covers the action figure department.

[dirk]

so far, i've got sets made by enlighten, sluban, kazi and wange. wange's probably the worst of the bunch.

[fred67]

BricTek does bulk parts - and special pieces.

While I did read this when it was posted, I never responded (I think I was on my phone or something, and didn't feel like the hassle of responding that way).

So, that 800 brick set looks interesting as filler, at least, but at nearly $50, compared to this actual LEGO set ($30 for 650 parts), it doesn't seem like it's really much of a bargain.

If we're talking bulk bricks, generally what people want is like a 1000 pieces of 1x2 in gray (castle building, for example), or a variety of plates (space ship building), etc..

[BirdOPrey5]

so far, i've got sets made by enlighten, sluban, kazi and wange. wange's probably the worst of the bunch.

My only two Wange sets (Eiffel Tower and Big Ben) were excellent sets. Bricks quality was as good as any Lego clone brand I've tried, better than most in fact. Will keep an eye out for more interesting sets.

[klinton]

I find the concept offensive, to be honest.

It just seems to me to be unseemly to attempt to copy such an original idea, and cannot fathom supporting these other companies.

I've not looked at thier wares in any depth, but I'd imagine there isn't near as much precision as you see with the LEGO system, where every part is 100% compatible with every other.

[alois]

This is a strange question, because Lego is a clone itself. This being said, I just bought and assembled a Kre-o tank and it just keeps falling apart when you touch it.

[Tariq j]

I never buy Clone Brands, after a dreadful experiance with a character building Doctor Who set I feel that while being cheaper, clone brands are lower quality in plastic and poor structured sets as well.

[fred67]

I find the concept offensive, to be honest.

It just seems to me to be unseemly to attempt to copy such an original idea, and cannot fathom supporting these other companies.

I find your offense offensive.

This is a strange question, because Lego is a clone itself.

What he said... I find it laughable that anybody still wants to feel "loyalty" to TLG because it's "original." I understand if you just think it's a better brand, but it's history is certainly marred.

I also doubt anyone here doesn't appreciate LEGO as being a superior brand... but sometimes other companies make stuff TLG just won't. I buy brickarms and brickforge products, altbricks products... because they make things TLG doesn't. And I don't feel bad or uneasy or embarrassed... that'd just be crazy.

[klinton]

I find your offense offensive.

I'm not sure what you're offended by?

OP asked for our opinions, and I gave mine. It's obviously different from your own, but it was in no way a personal attack on you or anyone else.

I like the LEGO system. I like to build with LEGO bricks. I like the designs that the LEGO Group produces.

I feel that what other clone products have to offer is of no interest to me. It's inferior in every aspect that I find appealing about LEGO.

This is but my opinion, as requested by the OP. If yours is different, that's awesome for you. I'm not offended that you don't share my opinion, and I'd expect the same of you.

Cheers.

[wilson3a10]

Do you guys find Kre-O popular in your country? I found Kre-O is not popular in my country. The booth of Kre-O becomes smaller and smaller in Toysrus here in my country whereas Lego's booth becomes bigger. Almost 3 large showcases showing Star wars, Arctic and City themes. Most Kre-O now have 70% off discount also......

[BirdOPrey5]

Wish Kre-O would come out with some Star Trek sets that rival the quality of Lego Star Wars, I would buy them in a minute. I can't get over how junky the Kre-O USS Enterprise looks.

[mechamike]

I stay away from clone brands, the poor quality is what tips me of the most event if we had a fairly decent one here in Sweden called "Byggis". Also If I want to build with Lego, I want it to be "Lego" , not some junk.

Once I got a big plastic bag filled with "Lego" from a friend, after sorting I found out that it was mostly Kreo, Megablocks,Sluban and Byggis and some other unidentified parts.. (only one actual Lego piece blue 2x2 Duplo) Most of the stuff was useless to build with and things just didn't line up or fell apart, I was not suprised to find out her kid never liked to play with "Lego" and thats why she was giving it away..