Slashdot Mirror
Mega Bloks Wins Supreme Court Battle Against Lego
saskboy writes "Canada's highest court ruled unanimously Thursday that Mega Bloks can continue to sell their Lego styled stackable blocks in Canada.
CBC writes, 'The Supreme Court of Canada decision marks the end of a long-running trademark battle between the Montreal-based Mega Bloks and Denmark's Lego.'"
I remember when I was a kid I had a ton of Legos, including some of the larger Duplo blocks left over from when I was *really* young. At one point my brother and I picked up a set of Tyco blocks (some dinosaur mecha, if I remember right). What was interesting about it was that the blocks and pegs were the same size, so they could connect with Legos, but the flat pieces were half the thickness of a normal piece instead of one-third. That made for some interesting possibilities.
There was also a set of Tic-Tac-style candies (I forget the name -- Ipso or something like that) that we found at some store that came in square plastic boxes with pegs on two edges and holes on the other. Each edge was exactly like the top or bottom of an 8x2 Lego piece. We'd use them to build walls or base plates. I never saw them anywhere else, so I assumed they were discontinued pretty quickly, whether Lego put pressure on them or they just didn't catch on.
We'd mix and match those different brands of blocks all the time. Having the other companies' blocks never stopped us from buying more Legos.
I always hated Mega Bloks. They are made out of the cheapest plastic, and don't stay together. Even though they may have needed to win (legally) they shouldn't have (quality-wise).
☠
Seriously, good for Mega Bloks. LEGO is cool but the notion of preventing someone from manufacturing toys that play with your toys is cruel.
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
...Microsoft and Amazon race to patent 'bumps on blocks.'
Dark Reflection
I'm always here decrying the value is striking copyright, patents and trademark rights. At the most basic, they're a way to gain government's monopoly on force for yourself.
Legos. Plastic bricks. The value in their logo is held up by showing consumers that Lego makes the most consistent blocks, with the easiest instructions and with the most fun creations. The State-granted monopoly that gave Lego sole use of the design isn't the power behind the brand.
I'd normally get replies saying "Without protections, no one would write music/invent/make plastic blocks!!!" But this is not true.
If you open a restaurant, do you get a monopoly for running a restaurant in your area? Isn't it wrong for someone to open a restaurant in a new community, build a customer base for years and then have some whipper-snapper open a new restaurant across the street and steal your customers?
I own retail stores (board sports and paintball). It costs about $25 in marketing to get a new customer into the sport and into my store. At least yearly I have someone see our good fortune and open a few miles away. They underprice me, steal some business and then go bankrupt and sell everything at half price. In 3 years I've outlived 7 such competitors.
Why is my time (or my managers' time) building my product different than a song writer or a book writer? It isn't. Yet they're legally protected with monopoly powers.
Trademark (and copyright) is bunk. Freedom means the freedom to compete.
Create a product. If it's copied easily, find a way to make yours better.
"Trademark law should not be used to perpetuate monopoly rights enjoyed under now-expired patents," the Supreme Court says.
Home court advantage? I wonder what would happen if the Supreme Court ruled the other way. Burning Lego blocks on the court steps... :P
Lego's invention is very old, and was patented a long time ago.
Patents live only so long. This is for a reason. Granting exclusive monopolies on things forever is not a good idea.
Lego's patent expired, long, long after they had recouped money orders of magnitude beyond what would induce others to attempt to innovate in that industry.
Other people started to make lego-like bricks.
Like a lot of monopolists, Lego became addicted to not having and not suffering competitors. They decided that they wanted to play lawyer games and try to keep others from competing with them rather than follow the law, and pretended that the studs on the bricks that make them work are "trademarked" by them...
The judge basically said, "Look, don't you even try that stunt in here. Your patent expired. The studs on the blocks are a mechanical feature, not a mark. Go away."
Tired of Political Trolls? Opt Out!
"purely functional" features, such as the well-known geometrical pattern of raised studs on the top of the bricks, could not be the basis of a trademark.
The quality of non-lego blocks is seriously sub-par compared to the lego company's brick quality.
They feel cheap, they don't hook together and stay hooked, and they use way way way more custom peices than lego (and these days, that's saying something!).
I mean, I'm all for competition, but I can't say that I think the price legos deliver at, around 1c US per brick in the generic bins of bricks is, you know, out of line.
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
The one exception to Mega Blocks being crap is their Dragons sets. Not only are there a lot of cool pieces, they have these nifty gray stone brick pieces that are nice for making castles.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
...Lego shift the current block format a millimeter or so. That way it can cripple interoperability with mega blocks' products and further lock in customers. They can sell it as an innovation, saving money to their costumers with all the plastic being cut out. But that's just how we do it where I work... :)
How is this tit-for-tat? Lego is a Danish company.
- Put up your hand if you played with Lego (mechano/etc) as a child, and
- Put up your hand if you can appreciate Monty Python (the Goodies / Red Dwarf / etc) humour.
If you put up a hand for both questions then you have the right personality to be able to work in IT, otherwise there are now plenty of jobs around the periphery of IT that might suit you.I'm yet to find a major exception to the above theory.
Nice to see that there will continue to be Lego alternatives for those anti-Danish interested in developing IT aptitude skills
MegaBlock clearly is in violation. IMHO this has less to do with Canadian law, and more to do with playing a game of tit for tat with the US over the Blackberries. That is not only a dangerous road to go down, but a foolish one.
I assume you're joking...?
First of all, LEGO is not a US company.
Secondly, MegaBlock is not in violation because the patent has expired. LEGO was trying to use trademark law to extend their monopoly.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
However, Lego did have patents on the little tube on the underside, which allow more connection combinations. After the stud-tube patents expired, Lego attempted to use the appearance of the bricks as a trademark - losing in litigationin most countries, including the United States. Lego now attempts to frighten companies with the more nebulous "trade dress".
More info
but they're still the ghetto blocks that only the ghetto children have,
nothing changing that fact.
It's not there anymore, but http://www.legos.com/ used to open to a personal note (screenshot here: http://jaffejuice.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized /legoslas.jpg) from the muti-million dollar world-reknown company telling you that they did not want their name tainted by calling Lego® Blocks "legos".
Now let's all go build a Mega-Blok castle on Hans Island and really teach those bastards a lesson.
As an aside, since they are made in Montreal would they be Mega-Blok Quebecois? And if so is it ironic or paradoxical that separatist cubes would be specifically designed to stick together with things.
-Pinkoir
We should also dump domain name registration. Just because that nerd Bezos pays a bunch of jerks eleven bucks a year, what gives him the right to the name Amazon? He gets the name amazon.com as his intellectual property, and I get squat. He should open it up to competition.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Hunh?"
Blackberry was a patent infringement case.
This was a Trademark issue.
The correlation is not analogous.
Please understand the dispute before inflaming arguments.
Looks like Lego will have to take their toys and go home.
I think you're nuts... but that's just me.
.. i got karma to burn - but if you mod me troll you must mod him troll too.
This has nothing to do with the US or any tit-for-tat. I think you're seeing leftist monsters in the closet.
go ahead.. mod me troll
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
MegaBlock clearly is in violation. IMHO this has less to do with Canadian law, and more to do with playing a game of tit for tat with the US over the Blackberries. That is not only a dangerous road to go down, but a foolish one.
And how exactly would ruling against a Denmark company like Lego help Canada get back at the USA?
But your selling other people's products. Your 'product' is 'joe's sports equiptment store' or whatever. Now if another store comes in town called 'joe's sports equiptment store', then you've got a case. Again, the difference is, you are not creating you are reselling. Very distinct from this case where you have MegaBlocks making bricks with bumps, and Legos making bricks with bumps, and the question being if the bumps infringe on the image. (go back to my second sentance, your parallel would be another company called joe's...)
-everphilski-
We can look forward to taking our kids to Lego ^H^H^H^H Blocko Land...
Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet
Especially after such a long time of existence. Having said that it's hard to imagine Lego being replaced because competitors cant outdo them on features or it'd ruin the simplicity of the thing and they can copy it but basic Lego isn't to expensive and Lego has the advantage of being Lego with an image created over decades that a competitor cant match. But they should be allowed to try compete, good for everyone.
Barbie reports that she will not drop her divorce litigation against Ken. As many of you know Ken ran off with Mitch over 3 years ago, Barbie also commented she is very happy with her new boyfriend, G.I. Joe who is currently overseas fighting COBRA in Afghanastan.
Shots: A Populist Parable
on software depending on "purely functional features" similar to those of that commercial software.
:(
Then again, that was Canada's, not US' Supreme Court.
And of course, there's the issue of software patents...
OK, it's no longer called "LegoDeath.com", probably for legal reasons*:
:-)
BlockDeath.com.
* - What's the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a dead lawyer in the road? There are skid marks in front of the skunk.
What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.
You might be onto something since I read that Lego is Danish, and Denmark and Canada were recently in a spat about who owns a worthless island in the high arctic, because it might one day determine trade routes through the opening NorthWest Passage.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
This is a great thing, as Legos (whoops! I meant "Models built of Lego bricks") have, as of late, descended into lame branding excercises in order to shift product. Other than the wonderful Technic kits, Legos (whoops!) have become crappy toys that happen to snap together.
Hopefully, now that Lego has been forced to allow interoperation, other more innovative building brick companies can fill the void.
Or maybe not.
Any serious or even semi-serious Lego builder will tell you that MegaBloks are *AWFUL* compared to the genuine article.
They are made of a much harder plastic and after being snapped together and pulled apart just a couple of times, they wear out to the point where they hardly stick together at all.
Lego parts are of a slightly more 'rubbery' plastic - they feel almost oily to the touch. I have Lego bricks from 40 years ago that still work just as well as they day they were first used.
When my son was given a bunch of MegaBloks as a present, they 'polluted' our vast Lego collection. Every time I find one, I toss it straight into the trash.
About the only use for MegaBloks is in making large sculptural pieces that you want to glue together to make permenant. The hard polystyrene in MegaBloks can be glued together with polystyrene cement - and the issue of wear becomes irrelevent!
Yet other Lego clones exist - but they tend to have poorer tolerances than either Lego or MegaBloks and can actually damage your real Lego if you mix them.
www.sjbaker.org
Right... because this case, which goes back several years, and to at least one lower court, has all been a prop used by the Supreme Court of Canada to make a point. Of course, the Supreme Court has such a vested interest in what happens to RIM in the US.
I'm actually kind of offended that you would accuse our Supreme Court judges (who don't have to worry about reelection, and hence popularity) of issuing a ruling as some sort of "revenge" against a third party.
Is Sony entering the building block business?
Yeah, but at least having some competition has reigned in the price. I was surprised when I was shopping this year to see that the nominal prices of LEGO blocks are cheaper than when I was a kid (that's not counting for inflation) and the Mega Blocks are even cheaper.
This seems to be the trend with all toys. Generic or interchangable toys (like building blocks) are cheaper, while branded or IP-based toys (video games, action figures from TV shows, etc) keep getting pricier. My guess is that it's based to more effective marketing (improved advertisements and more extensive use of class-based marketing and pricing are the main changes I've noticed).
I'm surprised Mega Bloks won against Lego. I figured the odds were stacked against them.
And how exactly would ruling against a Denmark company like Lego help Canada get back at the USA?
I recognize that logic ... omg! Bush has a slashdot account!
( but seriously, except when it comes to enforcing the (relatively young) Charter of Rights, the courts in Canada do a very adept job of staying out of politics )
Sounds like Montreal-based Mega Blocks had home court advantage in this particular case.
You can only patent inventions. Why does it need lawyers and courts to figure this out?
It seems fairly obvious that the Lego Corporation tried something pretty amoral (using money/lawyers/trademarks to try to maintain their monopoly after their patents had expired). If this was any of a number of known big name companies we would be happy to scream foul and claim evil...but we are talking about Lego...I grew up with that stuff. I have been dreaming of buying it for my son. And now they went evil??!!
Man, that hurts.
I always hated it when I found other non lego blocks in my bin full of blocks, espically if they fitted with other lego blocks, but not quite perfectly, I'd be happyly looking for the right piece, think Ive found it, and then have it pop off every time I play with my creation, only to find out it's a fake that's slipped under the radar!
:)
Though if megablocks don't fit into lego blocks I'd be happy with it
Tell me about optimism.
LEGO you got served, pwned and owned.
Mega Bloks are crap, as anyone who has used Legos knows that. But it is unfortunate that they are allowed to reproduce legos design, Lego did have their chance though, and Mega Bloks will probably be shot down anyways...
I'm glad that Mega Bloks won the suit - they, at least, put out more creative sets than Lego (not to mention they're Canadian). Lego, if you're listening, I've got lots of disposable income and a fondness towards your brand, but if all you're going to is brand other people's IP, you're not going to have me as a customer.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
As an owner of both lego and mega bloks, I feel that this is a bad decision. Mega bloks themselves are of poor quality, and as a younger child, they used to piss me off because they wouldn't 'stick' properly to other lego pieces. I don't understand why mega bloks can't make their own blocks that are just slightly bigger/smaller than lego blocks. They are obviously trying to piggy back off of lego's hard earned success. In case you are ever thinking about picking up a mega bloks set for a child, here's a warning, don't! IMHO mega bloks take away from the 'lego' experience. You get what you pay for.
The secret is to flex them. And be gentle. Take your time. Also, don't stick two of the same size together like that - leave yourself a handle.
Freedom: "I won't!"
mvh // Jens M Andreasen
send + more == money?
Ahh, yes. Another buy-an-SUV-to-show-up-the-neighbors, warmongering, environmentally-unaware capitalist pig is born.
Why would a bicycle riding, "peace at any cost", tree hugger socialist care? If you had your choice, everyone would be just as broke and miserable as you are. Why must you ecofanatics be so consumed with rage because someone can be more successful than you and wants a truck?
I got news for you: Spend less time bitching about pollution, and try investing in technologies that improve pollution. If you think we are all going to live like you, you are insane.
Even my big ass truck uses less gas and creates less pollution than the average car just two decades ago. My portfolio looks good investing in responsible companies that are working on energy efficient systems, and I design products that use half the power of my competitors, and I get to rake it in for doing it.
I compete AGAINST communist and socialist countries, and whip their asses because they have no incentive to innovate. Your socialist dream is all smoke and mirrors. Capitalism isn't the disease, it is the cure.
So go hug someone elses tree. We know your real agenda isn't about the environment, it is about making every one OBEY your narrow minded set of life rules that you think we should follow. Like most environmental freaks, you have a control disorder that can only be satisfied when we are all as miserable as you. No thanks.
I use Mega Blocks (the small kind) in a class room setting of about 25 children and have never had any problems. They stil stick hard... so hard that they have a tough time pulling them apart (just like I remember with Lego bricks). I can buy 600-900 pieces for $10 with Mega Blocks. Even if they were of lesser quality (which I have not found to be true), they're still a good deal IMHO. Sure.. they don't have all the trashy Neo Lego (non creative) designs... but I just want bricks... like the good ole days when you had to have some imagination to play with Lego bricks. Nowadays, there are tons of pre formed speciality parts that just take the fun out of Lego bricks. The beauty was in the design using the primitive parts. Mega Blocks still gives you that. There are a few generic kits for Lego bricks.. but the price is 4-10x the price of Mega Blocks.
Lego is not the company I grew up with (even then, it was worth the money to buy their stuff... but not anymore).
I love Southpark... We will soon start producing our own marble sirup and flags with marple leaves on!!! Dane
I'm so glad that this ruling will protect my rights as I surf the 'Net.
Branding can be "protected" without official recognition of trademarks. Basically, copying a brand mark is fraud if a person doing so is trying to present their business as one company when in reality it's another. Customers could validly sue.
I suspect that even with no monopolistic IP, brand marks would be sacrosanct and socially enforced. If I made a computer and tried to sell it as "IBM", people would laugh and call me a liar. However, product trademarks might not be - they could quickly become new generic nouns, like hoover or kleenex. Lego, for example, would become a generic name and spec for interlocking bricks from various competing brands.
there was a UK company with a product called Montini.
:)
Lego copied the idea and was better at marketing. Sorta the Microsoft of building blocks.
See, it IS possible to slam Microsoft even with something as simple as kiddie blocks...
Oh well, what the hell...
While the small-sized mega-bloks may not be quite as good as lego in terms of quality, they do have some nice products for younger kids, like the castle I bought my son for Christmas last year *that he can actually go inside*
Yes! We need better pollution!
From your first link...
;)
"The LEGO Logo may not be used on an Unofficial Web Site
The bright red LEGO logo has become one of the most recognized trademarks in the world. We have worked hard to make this logo a symbol of high quality creative products for children. The logo stands for the LEGO Group and we cannot risk allowing the distinctiveness of this symbol to be diluted. We must, therefore, insist that the LEGO logo NEVER be used on an unofficial web site."
Is it just me or am I the only one the sees the irony in having a company a court battle over trademarks on a site that "violates the companys trademarks" (according to the company not me)
I have used MegaBloks. I even have some of the sets that were kinda X-Files ish.
Maybe MegaBloks have gotten better recently, but I find that they are much less 'tight' of a connection than Legos. They seem to be made of a softer plastic, so it may just be from many, many, hours of use. (Most of the MegaBloks I play with are at my neighbor's house, where they have a 5 year old, and the majority of the blocks were hand-me-downs, and they are significantly looser than my vintage (20-25 yr old) Legos.
However, for small children, who might not have a firm grip and not know the tricks on how to split the little tiny ones when they're stuck together, I'd say they're probably better.
If you're making large scale, detailed structures, especially if it has any delicate parts, I'd go exclusively Lego. (unless I needed a specific color that was available in MegaBlok, and not Lego)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Just because they package parts to build one pirate ship, that doesn't mean that's the only thing you can build with all those parts.
Although, if you do get the big pirate ship and build it, you're never going to want to take it apart...
Mega blokes wins supreme court battle... ..those bloody blokes!
I was really hoping some overly-sheltered "progressive" /. basement-dwellers would read that ajd have some spark of electricity flash between their underused brain cells that would cause their fingers to reflexively mod that communstic tripe "+5 Insightful", as they are wont to do around these addle-brained parts. I guess I forgot to call "BusHitler" stupid in one sentence, and an evil genius in the next. Live and learn. Next time it will be better.
:-D).
:-)
Heck, I might actually research how left-wing twits use the word "progressive" to mask their anti-American moonbattery, and troll with something totally indistinguishable from what some baby in a red diaper sucking on the tit of North Korean Stalinism would write. Or maybe what some plagiarist and forger falsely claiming to be a Native American would, anyway. I could throw in a few anti-semitic epithets like "little Eichmanns", or maybe show some actual racism by saying a black man is a "traitor to his race" because he "doesn't think like a black man". Or maybe I'll emulate St. Rachel the Pancaked, make ugly faces while screaming anti-American curses while burning a US flag and then dive under a fully operational and operating Caterpillar (calling Mr. "Do you know how much damage this bulldozer would sustain if it ran over your?" Prosser...
That'll get modded up for sure.
My troll got the wrong person.
And no, I don't own an SUV. They're too damn hard to control when weaving at 120MPH through all the Volvos and tortoise-like hybrids the envirowhackos drive. As if buying a 3,000-lb car full of dangerous, toxic chemicals that we have no experience whatsoever in disposing of is signficantly less damaging to the environment than a 3,500-lb SUV. Dumbasses. But I guess it's too much to expect them to actually think about and understand the consequences of their actions.
Legos are from Denmark??? I thought all my childhood toys came from the good ol' U.S. of A.
What's next, action figures made in Tiawan?
I saw an add once where there was a car made of megablocks. I think it was Toyota or something and it had 'Trademark of Megabloks' which I though was funny because anyone who looked at the add would first think Lego. Megabloks doesn't come to your mind when you seen the thing and it's not like you can tell from a non close up picture what kind of blocks they are.
Their goth Dragon Fire line of products looks so good, my six years old totally fell for it (to my despair). I have been a long standing Lego fan and I really hate the plastic Mega Bloks are made of, but I have to give it to them, the visual design of some of their products is superior to Lego to the point that the original is starting to copy the fake... Just compare http://www.lego.com/eng/vikings/Default.aspx compared to http://www.megablock.com/en/products/description.p hp?level=2&level2=1&level2=1&lId=0&iID=166&subCat= 3 (sorry for the long link). I started noticing the Dragon Fire line of products when it came out and at that time, Lego didn't have a comparable products, now they do ...
Lighthouse? Nah, we'll just put some model rockets up there. For recreational purposes.
I love Southpark...
We will soon start producing our own marble syrup
Why does Canadians always have to carry their stupid _north American_ flags around?
If they don't like people from the south should shut the border or shut up!
Separating Quebec is a joke.. stop it! All the French people in France think it is a joke anyway. What can Quebec do will only polar bears and ice?
I love Canada and Canadians have been there more times on holiday... just kidding.
A Dane
No matter how canadian Mega-Bloks may be, I'm fairly sure Legos originated in some European country. I'm not sure if it's one where the folks say "oui" or "yaaaaah" or "bork bork bork" but it's definitely not from Canadia where every question ends in "...'ey, Wallo?" or the US where every sentence ends in "...so let's go to the mall in our SUVs and be consumer whores."
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
> Just writing a song (1 hour) and recording it (4 hours) shouldn't
> be worth more than a few grand, tops. Copyright is BS.
Well, considering how utterly nonsensical your guesses are about the time it takes to write or record a song, I think it's pretty clear that not only do you have no clue what you're talking about, you haven't even bothered to think about it.
If you want to understand why (limited!) IP protection can be in the public's interest, consider how many new life-saving drugs we'd get a year if the cost to develop them remained more than $500 million and the time and cost to reverse-engineer them and start cranking out copies remained a few weeks and a few million. IP is protected because doing so is a public good.
IP is also protected because it's the guy's own creation; if he works and creates a song and you work and create a house, what makes your creation more worthy of protection than his?
Although I prefer Lego, the good thing about Lego and Mega Bloks is that you may mix them, keeping in mind that Mega Bloks only fit on top of Lego blocks.
A month ago, Jaime (my three and a half years old son) built what he called a train (don't look for wheels though), using almost every block available at home. The train was almost 2 meters long. I took some pictures of the train.
Like a lot of monopolists, [Lego | Disney ] became addicted to not having and not suffering competitors.
It's the same situation like with Disney lobbying to prolong the copyright duration. Senator Disney, anyone? Senator Bono?
When I was 11 or something, I built a hospital out of legos. It had at least 9-11 floors (around 5ft tall), had an elevator that was built off the ropes from the lego-fire engines (you'd use a piece to roll the string to pull the elevator up/down), and had everything inside that a real hospital would have (cafeteria, x-ray, hospital rooms, bathrooms, offices, reception at the bottom, etc). It was cut such that it had 3 walls, so the back was open (the elevator stuck out at the back), and you could see the front, of the hospital. In 2000, 2001, not sure anymore, (It's been over 5 years) a lego contest was held in Indiannapolis, Indiana. I went. I was, literally, guranteed the win- according to a judge. Unfortunately for me, a parent of some child who had some lame out of the box directions entry that was guranteed to lose, noticed I had megablocks at the top of my hospital. (The top was built like the empire state building.) I didn't know, my parents bought megablocks, legos, they all looked the same. Who was to know right? Well, the judges were forced to disqualify me from the $10,000 grand prize, and instead, gave me runner up with a couple hats, a nice t-shirt that now no longer fits, and a pat on the back for an excellant job well done. Story of my life. I think megablocks should be shutdown. If a 11 year old kid can't tell the difference, what proof do you need?
Stoned4Life
gen = new Random
Lego's problems are of their own making, and there are a few of them.
First, average price of a piece of lego: Typically between 20 and 30 cents EACH. Finding sets on sale near 10 cents a piece is a freaking steal now. It's expensive stuff.
Second, lost focus. A few years ago, all they were making was specialty sets. Now they've expanded to many many more specialty sets, and re-introduced some more traditional sets, but not quite traditional like. Basically, they sell one off models, not re-configurable packages of parts.
Third, they've even ruined it for collectors. When they started releasing starwars lego sets a few years ago around episode 1, I started buying them. I love lego, and love (though not as much anymore) starward too. Thought it'd be great to collect them.
5 years or so later, at least 100 sets later, approx $10000 later, I HAVE MAYBE HALF OF THE GOD DAMNED THINGS! Most of them are crap. There are many many multiple models of the same ships, for no good reason at all.
The end result of all of this is that it's too expensive, collectors can't collect it and a huge part of the inherant creativity has been stifled.
I love and hate lego about as much as I love and hate George Lucas.
No Comment.
Just what we need, a revolution by the grammar NAZI's! Then they can implenent their final solution against bad spelers.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You know, if the grammar Nazis DO revolt, they'll certainly get YOU for pluralizing Nazi as "NAZI's" :)
I used to make cars of various sizes and shapes out of Legos.. and nothing gave me more satisfaction than ramming them into each other, sending them off the highest available table, putting them into the wall at highspeed...
AFAIK they never fell apart.
I can't imagine not being able to put something together because it kept falling apart. Sounds like a Mega Rip Off.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Lego is great in quality, but to me, lacking in a lot of variety in colors and block shapes. (The lure of building amazing things with lego, I think, is the inherent difficulty of working totally within the lego block hierarchy - i.e. that many things are so difficult that it becomes a real challange.)
Same thing Ford did with his "they can have any color they want so long as it's black" hurts lego as well. That and their unreasonable expense. I would probably buy more if Lego sold blocks in bulk - like 100 2x4s or the like (they don't do they?).
Just as with operating systems, the look and feel of different types/brands of toy bricks is something you have to experience firsthand before you can really appreciate the differences.
:-)
We had Lego-brand bricks while I was growing up in the 60's/70's, and I have a fairly sizable collection that I've added to over the years, but perhaps five years ago I grabbed a couple of sets of MegaBlocks out of curiosity. I found them to be better than I expected, and they seem to work just fine for the types of things I tend to build (structures for RPGs and that sort of thing). Now I have 30-40k pieces of the things in addition to my 20k pieces of Legos.
Try them. Your initial impression might be confirmed, but you might be pleasantly surprised as well.
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
...is that the slotted ends of the sticks kept on snapping off when we made swords and daggers out of Tinkertoy sticks and wheels. :-)
We probably went through a half-dozen sets doing that...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Hey all, Though I do find, as most do, Legos to be better quality. I do like some of the variety with Mega-Blocks. The Mega-Blocks Nimitz is pretty cool for a big model and was fairly reasonable. I may get the Lego Maersk container ship to compare. Mega-Blocks does seem to do more real-life (ships/planes/cars) than Lego does. However, I do really like the Lego Viking sets (ToysRUs only?). Ciao, Smithsguy
My mother used to yell at me for biting them off, but I never listened. Now all my legos have teeth marks... Gives 'em character!
It's based on outsourcing manufacturing to China, which is much cheaper than making them in Denmark.
Child-free, baby!
I probably WOULD have played with Lego if I'd had any.
So I made do with tinkertoy and erector set.
(But I DID monopolize a small amount of a slide-together brick system in Kindergarten. Much competition for it so I'd snag enough to make a portable toy to play with while the bullies monopolized the rest of the pile.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Is it just me or am I the only one the sees the irony in having a company a court battle over trademarks on a site that "violates the companys trademarks" (according to the company not me) ;)
Of COURSE a news site that is willing to mark stories about a company with the company's trademarked logo, regardless of the company's wishes, and does stories about both so-called "intellectual property" disputes (especially attempts to use copyright or trademark as patent and trademark to make trouble for technical competition) and other things interesting to nerds, will run a story about developments a trademark dispte where a company making a toy nerds like is using trademark to extend their monopoly beyond the expiration of the patent on their functional features and hang the company's trademarked logo on it. Nothing ironic about it.
So it's just you. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
So now they can compete solely on technical merits and price.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Lego exhibited a lack of good faith in the matter - I would argue that they should be penalized by revocation of any/all still outstanding patents, to compensate the public for lost opportunity and the costs of fighting their illegitimate attempts at maintaining exclusive control over this invention. (Although I recognize that there's likely no legal basis for revoking patents as punishment).
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Although "only" 40 now, I remember the OLD Lego that didn't stick together properly, especially not to the newer bricks (the ones we now all know and love). Some older relative gave me a hand-me-down box of old Lego which was a mixture of modern bricks and this weird stuff. Also the colour was slightly off, they were a creamy colour rather than white. As children in the early 70s my friends and I used to call it "mouldy Lego" - but Lego it was, it still had the logo on every brick, although in a slightly-different typeface. Looking at the Wikipedia page it seems that this was probably pre-1963 Lego (made of cellulose(!) acetate), so it was probably at least eight or nine years old by the time I was playing with it.
I prefer Mega Bloks because of the types of sets they put out. I picked up a number of the Dragons sets cheap. Generic fantasy guys in armour and orcs. Orcs! The ship sets are awesome (managed to get 3 of those for $5 a pop), with fabric sales. I saw the Mega Bloks pirate ship and it's much better than the Legos set. I use Dragons figures in fantasy skirmish gaming, and I use the Alien Legacy figures in place of miniatures in our Delta Green games. Mega Bloks just seems to be more interesting. My 6 year old is certainly more attracted to Mega Bloks than Lego, so Mega Bloks is tapping into something the Danish company is missing.
The brick separator doesn't work effectively on smaller pieces. (For example, separating two 1x2 flat pieces.)
And it's always the smallest ones that are the hardest to get apart with your hands.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
You know, if the grammar Nazis DO revolt, they'll certainly get YOU for pluralizing Nazi as "NAZI's" :)
No, I think the AAAAA will get to him first.
(The American Association for the Appropriate Application Apostrophes)
I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.
is the set you're looking for. Red plastic tub full of a bunch of bricks plus cardboard box full of more bricks on top of it plastic-shipping-corded on top. No directions on it, but if you just want lots of random brickage, it's great.
$19.99 at T-r-U, 2k bricks in it. You even get some fun colors. (in my world, lego bricks come in black, grey, white, blue, red, and yellow. Plus some transparent parts in other colors (green, notibly). Base plates come in grey, green, or black.)
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!