An entire subculture of interesting creations designed from their plastic building blocks has influenced Lego and Mega Bloks. Though they serve the same purpose there are many differences between mega bloks and legos.
While Lego bricks are more costly, they are generally regarded as higher quality. Mega Bloks is also known for its lower quality and accuracy, as reflected in the lower prices.
But they make stuff like camo bricks fused together with various colors, which is very cool.
You can re-use the Lego pieces again and again without having to order more and more sets if you already have a moderate one. Before going to the differences between mega bloks and legos we’ll have a look at what Mega bloks and Legos are.
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Mega Bloks
Mega Bloks are produced by Mega Brands, a public company based in Canada. Mega Bloks is a Canadian company that is essentially known by LEGO fans as a LEGO rip-off and copycat, with poorer quality items and lower costs.
They use the same pattern of studs and tubes as LEGO, bundle their sets similarly, and their main purpose seems to be to trick parents and children into purchasing a set of Mega Blocks rather than a LEGO one.
Lego
Lego, a privately owned company, headquartered in Billund, Denmark, is a popular brand of building toys made by The Lego Group. The company’s signature product, LegoLego, consists of colorful plastic interlocking bricks with various gears, mini-figures, and other elements.
Mega Bloks VS Legos
Being competitors for a long time since 1990, they are working on interesting and impactful designs for the customers. The loyal audience contented with products excelling their expectation leads to the success of these companies. Let’s make some comparisons between mega bloks and legos.
From a young age, kids love to create or to take things apart. For this, building blocks are great. But what block is better, and why? These differences between mega bloks and legos will help you clear the confusion. Have a look:
| Particulars | Mega Bloks | Lego |
| Type of toy | Construction set | Construction set |
| Origin | Canada | Denmark |
| Manufacturer | Mega Brands, Inc. | The Lego Company |
| Release | 1967 | 1949 |
| Cost | Less expensive | More expensive |
| Inventor | Marc Bertrand, CEO Vic Bertrand, COO | Ole Kirk Christiansen, Hilary ‘Harry’ Fisher |
| Games | No | Yes |
| Theme parks | No | Yes |
| Color | Various (including metallic and camo) | Various (nonmetallic) |
| Themes | Star Trek, Hello Kitty, Call of Duty, Sponge bob SquarePants, Hot Wheels
Halo, etc. |
Angry Birds, Star Wars, Jurassic World, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, Ghostbusters, Nexo knights, etc. |
Differences Between Mega Bloks and Legos
Mega Bloks and Legos are the expertise of their product satisfying the loyal audience. They have established themselves as one of the best brick bloggers or construction toys. Here are some major points on the differences between mega bloks and legos.
1. History
Kiddicraft, created by Hilary ‘Harry’ Fisher Page (1904-1957) in 1932, was a toy company. The firm is notable for the introduction of the Self-locking Bricks, the predecessor of the Lego bricks.
After reviewing a prototype given to them by the British supplier of the first injection molding machine they had purchased, LEGO reprised the concept of the Kiddicraft brick. Before launching litigation against Tyco, Lego finally purchased the rights to Kiddicraft in 1981.
Born in 1943, at the age of 20, Victor Bertrand had all the knowledge and information about the toy industry, plastics, and injection molding. In 1967 he started his own toy distribution company called RitVik Holdings. They owned plastic design operations, marketing services, tooling manufacturers, and injection molding operations.
Bertrand wanted to expand his business beyond Canada. He considered two advantages over Lego. One Lego was small for a little child, and Mega Bloks aimed a jumbo size suitable for young children.
With the experience he gained in the injection molding business, Mega Bloks produced plastic bricks that were less costly than Lego. Bertrand introduced Mega Bloks construction sets at trade shows held in U.S. and Canada in 1984.
2. Rights
By owning some exclusive licenses, Mega Bloks also have a niche for themselves. Mega Bloks has the rights to render Thomas the Tank Engine, Hello Kitty, Need for Speed, Halo, World of Warcraft, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Skylanders Giants, and Call of Duty sets.
The Duplo set for younger children is also offered by Lego. Lego owns the rights to many common themes, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, the Marvel, D.C. Super Hero ranges, and the Caribbean Pirates. New Minifigures on a theme from Batman and Spiderman are included in upcoming Lego products.
These differences between mega bloks and legos express the popularity of the toys given huge franchises’ rights.
3. Figures
The figures for Mega Bloks are somewhat different. For a much wider variety of poses, they have articulated joints. This is their greatest benefit. Most of them have special molds, which suggests that they are not as customizable and interchangeable.
The figures come entirely assembled in Mega Bloks sets, while they come in pieces in their collectible packages, and you need to build them. Trying to pop the mini ball joints together, in truth, proves to be quite a challenge and sometimes impossible.
LEGO Minifigures with yellow skin are adorable and chubby (except for the licensed minifigs). Both LEGO Minifigures are composed of the same body parts and are interchangeable, so you can mix and match them any way you want.
Considering the demand from LEGO fans and enthusiasts, there has been a lot more attention on Minifigures in recent years, resulting in a larger range of facial expressions, higher quality and more accurate printing, and even a series of collectible mini-figures.
They also work with several connection points inside the LEGO scheme. The figures and the assemble quality are also considered major differences between mega bloks and legos.
4. Accessories
The accessories for Mega Bloks are much more detailed and serve only one reason. To make them as realistic as possible, they also come with printed highlights. The accessories of Mega Bloks are compatible with LEGO mini-figures, and while the figures of LEGO and Mega Bloks are very different, their size is about the same, and both have claw-like hands.
LEGO has released a wide variety of accessories for mini-figures; instruments, weapons, body armor, backpacks, and more. The specifics on the accessories appear to be general, so several different themes will suit the same style and even serve various purposes.
A Minifigure-size dinner plate, for example, may act as building decoration, or a Minifigure instrument may become part of an engine. With these differences between mega bloks and legos, versatile access to the function of the brick building gives Legos the advantage.
5. Quality and Value
While based on the studs-and-tubes system, Mega Bloks does not focus on compatibility and connectivity but life-like information. Their sets are more like templates or maquettes that fit together like a jig-saw puzzle, not based on the reusability of the components and fitting into a comprehensive structure.
They make a lot of big, specialized pieces that are available in one set only. It would not be easy to make your custom models and landscapes. You can also end up with loads of pieces that can only be used one way and usually have no long-term value or play value.
Loosely fitting bricks and complexity in building Mega Bloks are also included in the differences between Mega Bloks and Legos as the major point.
LEGO is an expensive toy. Their mid-priced sets are in the $30-$50 range. However, the bonus is that LEGO pieces are completely interchangeable and can be re-used in an infinite number of ways. In LEGO, there are no junk pieces that can be used for one item only.
For many years, possibly decades, all the pieces have been used repeatedly in many different collections. In a range of forms, they will both interconnect and be part of the complete structure.
This variability and the extremely high consistency of LEGO components give them enormous long-term value. The downside to this is that the life-like details of LEGO are more difficult to obtain. These differences between mega bloks and legos show why the customers favor lego products.
6. Legal Issues
More than the differences between Mega Bloks and Legos this is a conflict on the patent lawsuit. Owing to the company’s use of a “studs and tubes” interlocking brick scheme that violates Lego’s patents, Lego has filed multiple law cases against Mega Bloks. In 2005, Mega Bloks was allowed to continue selling the product in Canada by the Supreme Court of Canada, and in 2008, the E.U. made a similar ruling. The Lego patent has now expired on its bricks.
These are the differences between mega bloks and legos. It’s hard to consider which one is better, but Lego seems to have the upper hand on quality and flexibility. These complexities will give rise to the new company, and the customers will benefit from the competition.
