Prairie Posted June 8, 2015 (edited) I recently got into LEGO again, focusing on and loving the Friends sets. I've noticed the Mega Bloks My Life As series of knockoffs in Walmart for a while and keep getting tempted to buy one. The Valley High School has shown up on clearance for months now, but it hadn't gotten low enough to be worth the likely waste. A few days ago I saw it at $10, a 75% markdown off the $40 original price, and I gave in and got it. It has 583 pieces, four minidolls, and was released in 2014 as I believe a Walmart exclusive. From the start I kept my expectations low. I primarily wanted to give Mega Bloks a chance and just see what they had to offer, especially as people had said that the qauality had improved significantly over the years. The Friends Heartlake High was the first Friends set I built a few months ago, and I really enjoyed it. Even on the box, this Mega set looks sterile and dull in comparison, almost like a prison or castle with the gray brick walls. On opening the box, I found that the minidoll bag's poor seal had broken and leaked them into the box. Some of them had gotten under the front page of the first instruction booklet, crinkling the front page badly. At first I thought that the bags had no numbering until I had laid them out and noticed faint numbers. One bag oddly had no number, even though it had several large pieces and an inner smaller bag of more pieces. The instructions didn't show which bag number to open, so I started with #1. I didn't even get past step 1 as pieces weren't present. Looking through the bags, I found them in #3. The second substep of step 1 required opening a few more bags. By step 2 or 3, I had to open every bag. So the bag numberings are apparently just to help them prepare the set, not to help with building. They don't say anywhere on the box how many bags there should be, so I couldn't verify that they were all there without building the model. Putting it together I paid close attention to how well pieces fit together. At first I noticed some significant variation in clutch strength, but as I got moving I really couldn't say that it was much different than LEGO. Perhaps a little more clutch strength, as the recent Friends sets I've built have felt "oily" rather than "squeaky" as my childhood LEGO bricks' clutching feels. I'm still undecided on whether I like higher or lower clutch strength, so I have no critique of Mega in this regard. Along the way one plate had a noticeable bend in the molding, though to be fair I encountered something similar in a recent LEGO set as well (second picture showing proper plate that doesn't lift at edge): Mega has matched LEGO in colors being slightly off in the instructions. These tiles are navy blue but look purple in the manual, and the these light gray pieces look a noticeably darker gray in the manual. I finished the model without a hitch, without missing any pieces. There were a few left over, and I don't think I missed using these. The arch pieces were noticeably thinner than the normal bricks. Otherwise the tolerances on pieces seemed good. Interestingly some props like the apple and juice carton have a little handle so a minidoll can hold it. I didn't apply the stickers beause stickers are stressful and I'd like to keep it pristine for now. Looking at the stickers, I'm not sure they'd help. I don't like their style. Looking at the finished model, it looks just as sterile and uninteresting as on the box. Everything about this is just off in some vague way. The scale of furniture, the sparseness of the rooms, the colors, the slight translucency of the plastic, random studs having little dimples, the general design of the set seeming jumbled and uneven. I tried mixing Friends minidolls with these Mega Bloks minidolls, but the Mega ones' studs are smaller so that they aren't compatible. I'm glad I determined with certainty whether I like Mega Bloks and am missing out on anything by ignoring them. It gives me more respect for how well LEGO gets it right, at least for my taste. Edited June 8, 2015 by prairie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Exetrius Posted June 8, 2015 It gives me more respect for how well LEGO gets it right, at least for my taste. Ugh, seeing Mega Blocks and other clone brands really hurts my eyes , but you made a good point: sometimes we should take a moment to appreciate the super high quality standards that Lego maintains. Please don't do a MB review again, though! (btw, it is even against the rules of this forum, I believe) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robianco Posted June 8, 2015 Please don't do a MB review again, though! (btw, it is even against the rules of this forum, I believe) It's not against the rules at all... In fact there's several reviews and threads about other manufacturers... They just have to live in this part of the forum. Lego itself is a clone brand of a previous product... Just one that got big enough to take major market share to the point of their brand name becoming a common term for the product as a whole. MB have had some pretty iffy QC as well as poor plastic and design but they seem to be getting better... I think once other brick products gain more of their own identity and licenses the better they can get. I just personally prefer the design of the Lego minifig and the overall design ethic they use. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prairie Posted June 8, 2015 Please don't do a MB review again, though! Indeed! I had to take that set apart a day later because I didn't even want to look at it and have its lifelessness rub off onto my perception of LEGO. I still have images of it in my mind that I hope abate soon. I just personally prefer the design of the Lego minifig and the overall design ethic they use. Increased respect for LEGO's designers was the most unexpected part of this. I see that there is an immense gap between the two, which no amount of technical improvement in the Mega Bloks themselves will address IMO. I feel almost shame that I kept wondering whether the other brands of sets on the shelves might be nearly equal to LEGO in terms of experience, whether I was just being a snob about LEGO. These were the main reason I felt such a review of a Mega Bloks set would be valuable to others here, who might have had similar nagging questions. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vorkosigan Posted June 9, 2015 Thanks for the review, interesting to see some perspective on these sets. Don't let anybody tell you what to review! The mismatched archs is major Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jetrax99 Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) As someone whose brick based collection is entire Halo Mega Bloks, I can safely say that recently their quality has been the same as LEGO. Edited June 9, 2015 by Jetrax99 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prairie Posted July 21, 2015 Watching from a different line, I get the same sterile feeling of the design, colors, etc. So it's not something specific to this Valley High School set, but general to their sets. This interests me a lot because I still can't put my finger on what technically is responsible for this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frozen Assasin Posted August 26, 2015 Oh. Well, this is different from the lively and playful sets I remeber from my childhood. Well, thanks. Now I can safely say that Megabloks has lost all respect in my eyes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
