Which is Better, Mega Bloks or Kre-O?

[Deathleech]

I know, I know, both pale in comparison to our beloved Lego! Let's just say Lego didn't exist (*gasp*) and you had to pick one of these two brands. Which would you go with and why?

[The_Skirrid]

That's like choosing between your mum and your granny to give you a lapdance, either way it's just not right...

[imvanya]

This very amusing piece on 1000Steine.com pretty much sums it up - LEGO is still the best, but some of the clone brands (very few) might offer unique pieces or themes and those are the only reason to maybe pick them up Edited February 14, 2014 by imvanya

[HawkLord]

I like Kre-os, but then again it's mostly for the Transformers and the recently released D&D stuff. If that scaled better with Lego, it would be a great supplement. Some of the weapons and accessories from the Cityville and army stuff is useful.

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

I would go with whichever company had the Star Wars license.

[Alfadas]

Why didn't you include Sluban? (a link to those who don't know sluban) That is also a quite big clone brand. But if I really had to choose between Kre-o or Mega blocks, I would pick Kre-o. Don't know why, maybe because Kre-o sounds better then mega blocks.

[Blondie-Wan]

If LEGO didn't exist at all? I think I'd just have a lot more money and space and time for things other than construction toys.

This very amusing piece on 1000Steine.com pretty much sums it up - LEGO is still the best, but some of the clone brands (very few) might offer unique pieces or themes and those are the only reason to maybe pick them up

Oooh, thanks so much for that link.

[the flash]

kre-o

[Galaxy Explorer]

Hmm, burning or drowning! Seriously, though- when I worked at TRU (this was over ten years ago) we had a sale on the Dragon series of Mega Bloks, and the store director asked me to build a big display using each of the available sets. While I was working on this project I was really disappointed in the overall quality of the toy. Pieces did not hold together well at all, and the whole building process felt very unstable. That was the only time I've ever used Mega Bloks, and I doubt I'll ever use them again.

As for Kre-O, I have not had a chance to try them out. However, I have been a little interested in their Star Trek line. I've seen TRU have some decent sales on the bigger sets, and I've been tempted to pick some up.

If LEGO were to suddenly end, I would not switch to another brand. I have plenty of the good stuff to keep me going for years!

[TheLegoDr]

If LEGO never existed, I probably wouldn't be into plastic interlocking bricks. If LEGO were to suddenly not exist, I'd horde Bricklink for pieces as often as needed (although prices would probably shoot up immensely!) I'd also end up saving lots of money from not buying LEGO.

I have handled some megablocks and they were of okay quality, but the sheen and color was vastly different compared to what I was used to. The large Megablocks (similar to Duplo) are terrible. Duplo is vastly superior in every way.

Kre-o seem decent, but I've never touched or seen one outside of the cover art. I'd like to have some of the Transformer sets, but at the same time I'd rather build one out of LEGO and call it good.

[dr_spock]

Megabloks. Their under 3 years-old stuff is not too bad. Besides they are a Canadian company.

[Deathleech]

Why didn't you include Sluban? (a link to those who don't know sluban)

You answered your own question... I had never even heard of them! I know there are tons of clone brands out there but I just wanted to pit the biggest two against each other.

[arc]

I own a few megabloks pro-builder series sets, and honestly they're not to bad. Not Lego quality of course, but Much better than other clone brands I've dealt with. I have not had kre-o however.

[Alfadas]

You answered your own question... I had never even heard of them! I know there are tons of clone brands out there but I just wanted to pit the biggest two against each other.

And you are right. Maybe Sluban is bigger here in the Netherlands, but I don't know that. I already gave my opinion, but I stay with the real Lego, no knock offs.

[N-4K0]

You forgot to add a 3rd option - none of them

Honestly, I've never tried or even SEEN any of these 2 brands, but from what I've read on this forum, I don't want to know anything

[Meiko]

Personally I like Mega Bloks over Kre-o, though I have had very few interactions with Kre-o. I do have a couple Mega Bloks "Pro Builder" sets which do build some really nice models though.

[raminator]

I got last year some kreo sets on sale (like 90% off).

The quality of the bricks is supperior to megablocks and the kreons and their accesories are superior too.

[LAKAbricks]

Well... With the products they offer, I hardly can imagine I would buy anything from these two companies. Therefore I have not voted.

[OpusMcN]

I've aquired both Megbloks (McLaren F1 car) and Kre-o (transformer), and the Kre-o bricks are far better. Not Lego quality, but not that far off... I also got some Wange architecture sets, and was reasonably impressed.. Lots of spare parts, they fit well, and the block quality was as good as the Kre-o. That being said, I also got an older Wange truck that was a shocker :)

[Lego Spy]

Of course Lego is always on top, but overall, it seems Kre-O's parts are of a higher quality than those of Mega B***s.

[TheOrcKing]

I have built both Mega Bloks and Kre-O sets in the past, and Kre-O has the best quality plastic between them almost up to par with Lego. I just do not care for their Kreons of people although the Transformers ones are neat. Mega Bloks has some of the better licenses and characters with some posability but even so, they aren't that great. Plus Mega Bloks take a lot of force getting any piece to go together especially plates. I honestly wonder if that Star Craft license they acquired years ago will ever kick in?

[Deathleech]

I honestly wonder if that Star Craft license they acquired years ago will ever kick in?

I was looking into this and it seems the WoW license wasn't a big hit for them so a lot of people were thinking they ditched the SC license.

[The Kumquat Alchemist]

I'd say Kre-O off the bat, if not for the problem of the plastic used for the hand-sized clips. Good luck using a Kre-O clip of that size even once without stress marks appearing. Would it have killed them to use a softer plastic for Kre-O hands and clips of similar sizes?

Still, even with that issue Kre-O wins for me. I like the Kreons, because the designers have done such a great job of making them character-accurate despite their blockiness, much in the same way that LEGO handles their minifigures. Mega Bloks, on the other hand, uses a large amount of custom molding per figure, and I don't find any charm in that.

[B-Lister]

Kre-O for the characters, but only for the characters.

[A2L]

Megabloks, excluding the micro scale figures, are way better. I remember being so disappointed after buying Smurfs that I never bought a single Mega set after that. Parts did not fit, some were loose and fell off. And look now, beginning with Halo, moving upto Blok Squad and now the fantastic Call of Duty line (my opinion changed after I got a Blok Squad at a clearance sale). It is amazing how far they have improved their designs, quality, build process and customer service. Not only the lines are fantastic, particularly the WWII line from Call of Duty (CoD), their builds are so solid that sometimes I thought that I was building with LEGO. Even the treads on the drone that came apart in 2 days were replaced by a different one through online customer service. The newer ones have lasted weeks of playing without a single tear.

So yes, there is no comparison with LEGO, but they are definitely up there now, no more a one glance reject, even for serious collectors. This year will see a lot of my attention moving to MegaBloks from LEGO (first time ever).

The only drawback being their figures (which gain have improved a lot with CoD). That is where Kre-O scores higher.

Edited April 3, 2014 by A2L