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In lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, Mike Rayhawk wrote:
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Isn’t part of that LEGO’s fault, though? Mega Bloks doesn’t market itself
as LEGO, and I’ve never seen a single store flyer or promotional that
equated the two. If a consumer can’t tell a Harley from a Honda, is that
Honda’s fault? I’m asking sincerely--to what length must a product go to
ensure that no one thinks that it’s something else?
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Kind of off the subject, but Mega Bloks did used to go in for some pretty
openly deceptive marketing practices in their earlier days - see if you can
find an old Mega catalog and compare it to the Lego catalog from the same
product season.
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Not sure when you mean--can you be more specific? I have Mega Bloks catalogs
dating back to 1993, and they’ve never struck me as deceptively similar, except
insofar as they feature pictures of the various sets arranged in a large display
format. But that’s hardly a LEGO-original idea in any case--all kinds of toys
(and products in general) use a similar format. Or were you describing
something else?
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But they’ve definitely come into their own in the last bunch
of years, I wouldn’t try to deny that they’ve become a very legitimate
competitor in the field on the strength of their own design work.
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Thanks for making that distinction. I get frustrated when LEGO’s proponents
throw all clones onto the same “they’re rip-offs” pile, when in fact there’s a
wide range of brands with different strengths and weaknesses.
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But it’s still an accusation that needs to be borne out, because it
unavoidably implies willful deceit. It seems entirely possible to me that
other brands have identified the minifig design as the pinnacle and are
simply using the same configuration. I suspect that’s why all construction
brick toys use a 2x4 brick--it’s the best design.
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Having spent a lot of time designing around the minifig, I can tell you that
it’s not the pinnacle at all, except maybe as a pinnacle of late-Seventies
Norse design fashion at the tail end of Modernism. There are so many aspects
of the Lego minifig that are a design headache. Lego’s just backed itself
into a corner where they can’t mess with it or else they risk damaging its
trademark status, if you remember the discussions that were going around a
few years back about why the Yoda minifig couldn’t just have had a regular
minifig head with ears attached. (Now if only they’d trademarked classic
gray.) I think the direction Mega is going with the mini action figures has
a lot more potential for approaching a ‘pinnacle,’ from a strict design
standpoint.
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I’ve been giving this some thought, and I need to recant that point. The
sculpted-head Mega Bloks figures are IMO far superior to the standard LEGO
minifigs, and the recent highly articulated figures are in a category all by
themselves. I think when I used the term “pinnacle” I really meant “industry
standard,” which is hardly the same at all; in fact, if it were the industry
standard, then it’s clear that LEGO would be holding the reins on the design.
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Do you have much experience with the old style of Best-Lock minfigs?
They’re grossly inferior to LEGO or Mega Bloks figures for a number of
reasons. The move to the Cobi design is a clear improvement.
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I’ll take a second to point out the ‘brikwars’ in my e-mail address up there,
and mention the fact that Lego doesn’t make army sets! I like the Best-Lock
figures just fine, especially the fact that they put studs on the torso
backs.
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?? They do? I admit that I have only about two dozen Best-Lock figures from
before the Cobi merger, but none of them have studs anywhere on them. In
fact, they don’t have leg-holes, the heads are cup-shaped, and the legs attach
by little clip-mounts at the hips. Is there a design with which I am (very
possibly) not familiar?
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I don’t have any experience handling the Cobi figures directly, but
from a shape standpoint I don’t see any special functional advantage. Or I
should say, any advantage they gain from copying Lego details could have been
just as easily gained with a non-infringing design.
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Yeah, like I said above, I’ve been rethinking this point. How sure are you that
the LEGO minifig design is indeed trademarked and protected as such? As fond as
I am of clone brands, I don’t care to support a brand that actively engages in
unlawful trademark violation.
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Well, what if they abandoned their minifig design? Would you be able to
assess the brand on its own merits, or have you made up your mind
altogether?
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That’s hard to say. I love the look of those new pirate ships, but a lot
depends on the quality of the bricks, whether they fasten well enough to hold
together in large constructions. I’ve only ever bought Best-Lock to get the
flashy elements to add to Lego models - army figures, military weapons, nets
and sandbags etc. - I haven’t had a lot of luck getting their actual bricks
to stay fastened, especially not in large numbers.
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Best-Lock prior to the Cobi merger is IMO awful. The bricks have very poor
clutch power, and they intermix with LEGO or Mega Bloks minimally if at all.
Post merger, Cobi/Best-Lock has improved markedly, and the plastic quality is
surprisingly good. You might be able to find a set on the cheap at TRU or KB
Toys. The Just Kidz line, which is a derivative of the Cobi/Best-Lock
merger, is of somewhat lower quality and uses a less LEGO-like minifig design,
but you can pick up at least three different sets for $5.00 each.
Incidentally, Larry Marak has pointed out to me that Cobi/Best-Lock does not
seem to make use of the 2x4 brick, which surprises me but appears to be correct
(based on a review of the sets I own).
Dave!
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Cobi/Best-Lock
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| (...) These sound like MB (URL) Command Ops> (Military) and Dragons (Fantasy) figs to me. I haven't seen studs on Bestlock figs' backs either. And I would heartily agree that Command Ops was just made for BrikWars. And and I can't say 'BrikWars' in (...) (17 years ago, 17-Jan-07, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)
| | | Re: Cobi/Best-Lock
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| (...) For myself, I really dislike the scuplted figures for a few reasons: 1. They just seem over accentuated - they remind me of Games Workshop paint jobs (though I'll grant they use more subdued colors that GW uses). 2. They keep changing the (...) (17 years ago, 19-Jan-07, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Cobi/Best-Lock
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| I'm heading off on a business trip in the morning, so I can only give this a real brief reply - (meaning it'll be just as long but I'll have put less thought into it -) (...) I have no objection to clone brands using the same metrics, especially (...) (17 years ago, 11-Jan-07, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)
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