Clone Brands : 2250


Off-Topic / Clone Brands / 2250	2249 \| 2251

Subject:	Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
Newsgroups:	lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands
Date:	Thu, 5 Aug 2004 14:10:40 GMT
Viewed:	1665 times

In lugnet.general, Maggie Cambron wrote:

Dave! Want MegaBlok anecdotes? Here are a couple:

After Christmas I got an Alien Agency Mobile Recovery Unit on clearance and gave it to my 8 year-old. He found it very frustrating because the garbage truck would not stay together but fell apart at the slightest touch. (And this kid has experience with bricks-- he is a far better builder than anyone in our family).

Bummer! I have that set and didn’t notice any problem with clutch power. The vehicle has fold-away walls so that the garbage truck can “transform” into a mobile lab, and the wall panels don’t hold together too rigidly, but I’ve been satisfied with the binding strength of the basic bricks.

A few weeks ago my just turned 11 year old built 9705 Street Rod from a lot of LEGO I had acquired. He says it came apart easier than a LEGO model as he was building it, but it held together well once it was completed and he liked this set.

This critique is especially useful because one of the common complaints I’ve heard RE: MEGABLOKS is that the sets don’t stay together well during assembly. Obviously that’s a gray area, and one’s mileage may vary, but I’ve never quite understood why a half-built model should be judged in terms of completed-model stability? If it stays together upon completion, then that’s a success, IMO.

Just last week I told this same kid he could have all the 9157 Extreme Sports Skatepark pieces he could find from various LEGO lots (we found *four* copies of the instruction book, so I figured he could build this huge park). Unfortunately he didn’t even complete the basic model because he too became frustrated with the tendency of the pieces to fall apart. In the end he just asked if he could have the chrome bikes for his LEGO town.

Interesting. Maybe a general comment that can be made about MEGABLOKS is that they require more force to bind two pieces together than would analogous LEGO pieces. I guess I’ve gotten used to that over the years, but I suppose it would be understandably off-putting to someone accustomed to LEGO.

There you have it Dave!

I asked, and I have received. Thanks for the feedback!

Dave!

Message has 3 Replies:

		Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
(...) A model that keeps falling apart while I build it is fustrating. A little bit of this is fine, but if it happens too much, I will give up on the model. My own building style leans towards beefy from start to finish. That said, I seem to recall (...) (20 years ago, 5-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)

		Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
(...) It needs to stay together the whole way. If it crumbles in my hands while I am assembling it, using reasonable assembly operations (turning, picking it up, etc) then it doesn't matter whether or not it would putatively be sturdy once I got it (...) (20 years ago, 5-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)

		Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
(...) Instability during construction hints at two potential major problems. The first, and easiest to prove, is that it probably won't stay together as well if you drop it than it would if the pieces had more consistent clutch strenght. The second (...) (20 years ago, 5-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:

		Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
(...) Dave! Want MegaBlok anecdotes? Here are a couple: After Christmas I got an Alien Agency Mobile Recovery Unit on clearance and gave it to my 8 year-old. He found it very frustrating because the garbage truck would not stay together but fell (...) (20 years ago, 4-Aug-04, to lugnet.general, lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)

13 Messages in This Thread:

Entire Thread on One Page:: Nested: All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear: All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:: Nested: All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear: All | Brief | Compact

Custom Search