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In lugnet.general, Matthew Miller writes:
> If [Ritvik} were able to make a product up to the quality standards of Lego,
> I'd love to see them succeed. Unfortunately, their bricks simply don't stick
> together right.
That's the perennial complaint against MegaBloks. I used to dig in my
heels and deny it, but looking back at products of years past, I have to
admit grudgingly that their earlier products didn't stick together
consistently or well. Some bricks held together nicely, but others held
very poorly. The transparent bricks in particular joined very weakly.
More recently, though, they've improved their molds or perhaps the quality
of their plastic, because the bricks are holding together very well and with
a good deal of consistency. The entire weight of the Battleship set, for
instance, can be lifted by the central tower. It must be admitted that the
plastic itself isn't the same quality as LEGO, but the gap is closing, and
frankly the current product is more than adequate for my needs.
Bearing that in mind, if I have $20 to spend and I want to get a bunch of
basic bricks, I'll head to TRU and pick up a ProBuilder set rather than call
S@H to wait a week before receiving my 2.86 fifty-count bags. Tom Stangl
pointed out that TLC needs to bulk up its bulk sales policy, offering more
than 50-bags for $7.00. That breaks down, for the 2x4 bricks, to about $.14
a piece. I know and accept all the arguments for keeping the price at a
certain level: overhead; the risk of secondary market; undercutting the
sale of sets in favor of specialty orders; blah blah blah. The bottom line
is that, at some point, TLC will have to accept that some (many?) people are
willing to make small concessions of quality in exchange for better
piece:price value.
Why do we suppose TLC survives despite a years-long history of awful,
juniorized, expensive sets? I expect it's due in large part to the fact
that many purhasers today played with LEGO as children, and they now
purchase either for themselves as adults or for their own children. Name
recognition and consumer momentum account for a lot; however, the fact of
MegaBloks' increased market presence indicates that something is afoot.
Given the dangers of product dilution (a la "legos") and price pressure,
it seems very possible that over the course of a few years LEGO will lose a
number of consumers to the very similar but less expensive MegaBloks.
Especially if we factor in the number of incidental defectors who, faced
with a $20 1200-tub of LEGO or a $20 1500-tub of MegaBloks, will choose the
extra 300 bricks. Regardless of informed AFOLs' opinions, this sort of
thing seems a very real threat to LEGO's market sovereignty. That, plus the
fact that MegaBloks has demonstrated an ability to respond to customer
desires more quickly than TLC.
Dave!
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