Copying GW.... Will they sue? A friendly discussion

[SaxonAngel]

Forgive me for posting this if it has already been done here. Check out this product from Megabloks, aka the crappy version of Lego.

And check out the heads and weapons on the box...

And yes it is a real released product from Mega blocks. Similar boxed sets can be found here.
Megabloks fantasy range

As someone who has invested a huge amount of time and money into GW, especially Orcs, I gotta admit I\'m a bit steamed.

I\'ve always complained about the cheap, low quality of the megabloks product. Now I have an even greater reason to despise them.

I\'m very proud to have only bought LEGO for my kids. At least they pay for their licensed products, making them perfectly legal.

This...this just gets me MAD!:flame:

 

[Errex]

I think they are cool, as far as cheapo construction toys go.

It is not like you could use those on a Games Day or any other officially sanctioned GW event, Is it?.

 

[darthfoley]

GW might try to sue, I suppose. I think they\'d go down in flames, though.

Orcs in horned helms isn\'t particularly GW\'s intellectual property, I think. It\'s sort of a generally accepted stereotype.

 

[MaestroOfMayhem]

Check out the sheilds.

 

[green stuff]

... and the hats and helmets

 

[No Such Agency]

Mega Bloks suck the big one. GW need not sue, for their suckage eclipses all legal actions. Heck, they even suck more than Lego\'s retarded basketball and Harry Potter lines, and that\'s really saying something.
/crossover nerd

 

[Braveheart712]

Why the attitude toward MegaBloks?

MegaBloks are awesome, who cares if they \"resemble\" GW orks, after all GW did not invent orks, Tolkien did! I have purchase this set and many others for my nephew and my son, who both love them. Between the two boys, they have nearly every dragon there is and spends hours playing with these sets. My opinion on Lego...yes, I played with them as a child but they are WAY overpriced ( almost as bad a GW ) and not very inventive. You should drop the attitude and buy a few of these sets for your children, they will love them. Ask your children what THEY think, my guess is they like them but hate to admit it because of your bias. As to your question will GW sue, probably, but who cares. After all what is another frivalous lawsuit to GW, if they were busy sueing someone they might actually have to work on creating some radically new products rather than reworking the same old crap.

 

[SaxonAngel]

Eh?

That\'s not the point here.

Megablok has taken exact duplicates (recastings) of:

The GW Orc sheilds in at least two different styles with emblems. Both available in the Orc warriors boxed set.

The weapons... All but one of the spears can be found on the orc warriors sprue. Except for a slight alteration to one of the swords, they are exactly the same.

The heads of the ones pictured on the box cover (2nd photo) are an exact duplication of three heads off of the orc warriors sprue.

The rest of the body is of course Megabloks\'.


If this was another miniature company taking multiple bitz and pieces from a GW product and recasting it, there would be an uproar.
Why should the rules be different for a toy company? ???

 

[finn17]

Another tack.....

I think GW might be delighted. :bouncy:

This is clearly aimed at pre-GW age groups and Mega-Blocks could be said to be \'grooming\' these younger children to be GW customers in the future.

That would be my take if I were a GW personage. But that\'s because I am as evil and cynical as they are...if that\'s possible.....
:innocent:

 

[Legacy Account]

How do we know that MB haven\'t struck up a deal with GW?? As Finn said, it\'s brainwashing the kids from an even earlier age! If not, it\'d be fun seeing one of the biggest toy companies in the US going up against GW!! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!lol

 

[SaxonAngel]

Originally posted by finn17
This is clearly aimed at pre-GW age groups and Mega-Blocks could be said to be \'grooming\' these younger children to be GW customers in the future.

Hmmm... Maybe GW paid them to put the images up as a subconcious hint to buy GW product in the future.

After all, the boxes always say; \" Product may not be exactly as shown. \"

Yes yes... That may be the evil conspiracy. Sort of like tobacco companies purposely targeting youth.
*cackles insanely*lol

Finn you\'re a genius.

 

[finn17]

Just wait...

There is probably a whole range of teddy orks and cabbage patch eldar waiting in the wings.

Hang on...Hell! Even I\'d buy them

 

[t_haye2]

i think they will if they find out, their very protective of their own product, and this is blatant stealing, unless ofcourse they did sell the rights to megablocks to use the bits....
anybody have a picture in their mind\'s eye how the next generation of space marines gonna look? that wargame where you use lego men is all of a sudden not so far from the truth...lollollollollollol

 

[finn17]

Heh...

Well there is already a potential crossover between Space Marines and The Wombles. How long before they launch a Rogue Trader era plushy...

Uncle Calgaria? :flip:

 

[minimaker]

Origineel geplaatst door t_haye2
that wargame where you use lego men is all of a sudden not so far from the truth...

Considering that Lego already has a range of Star Wars (Darth Vader actually looks cute!) and Harry Potter figures that would not surprise me. And of course there is lego wars: http://www.lugnet.com/gaming/~11/brickbattles

 

[minimart]

and it\'s not like MB and GW don\'t have a history......remember those classics Space Crusade and Heroquest with tons of plastics

 

[Avicenna]

I think this is really funny! Lego-esque orcs is a really good idea for the younger people, but I also think it is a trevesty that they are blatantly using GW pieces.

I also think that if they were using rackham bits, there would be even more of an uproar on these forums, as the inherant anti-GW feeling wouldnt be involved.

The first pic, the issue is the sword and shield... look like recasts of the GW plastics. And int he second pic (of the box) the heads arent just similar, I would say they are actually the same. And if there was no agreement between MegaBlocks (its not MB as in MB games as far as i am aware...) and GW, i dont think MegaBollocks really have much hope in winning the case no matter the size of the company. Its a bit too cut and dry...

-Peter

 

[minimart]

I\'ll wander off down the yellow brick road now singing \"If I only had a brain\"

(its not MB as in MB games as far as i am aware...)

It must have been an impending sign of the seniors\' moments which are bound to comelol

 

[supervike]

hmm....I have bought a few of these sets for my nephew and I thought they were cool....aside from the fact that you CANNOT get them to lock together the way legos do...I didn\'t notice any blatent copyright issues, but then again, I was only after the Dragon I had bought in the set, so I wasn\'t focused....I did, however notice a striking similarity to the orcs, but thought no more of it.

I can\'t quite see the shield and weapons here in your pic, but they couldn\'t really be \"recasts\" could they? Wouldn\'t the scale be a different?

On the other side of this issue, MegaBlocks wouldn\'t even be an issue if Lego didn\'t try to rip off the consumers by insane prices for their items, thus opening up the need for competition. Some might even say that is a similar tactic GW has used.

lol

 

[barkel]

Um, yeah, that\'s bad.

Ok, I was just about to berate Mega Blocks for theft of product when I looked closer. GW has to have a hand in this. Take a close look. For $6.00 you get 3 figures. That\'s it! It says 24 pieces, but that\'s 3 figs, 3 shields, several weapons, and scenery. Let\'s say GW get\'s 10% license fee, that\'s $.60 for every box sold, for doing nothing. And let\'s assume you thought you\'d be clever and buy a bunch of these boxes to build an orc army. It would take 7 to get a regiment of 20. That\'s $42.00 you are shelling out and $4.20 GW gets (for nothing). Then you still have to order the sprues to get the legs and torsos (unless you are good with green stuff, or perhaps you want to play Warhammer with megablocks bodies), and that\'s gonna cost you an extra $32.50, so it\'s completely pointless. And on the sprues that GW sells are the same weapons and heads that you get in the megablocks, making it even more pointless. So, believe it or not, it\'s cheaper to buy GW.

In summation, I think GW is in on it. Even if the quality of the product is such that you could convert these things, which it probably isn\'t, it\'s cheaper to by GW. So they can\'t lose. And as someone mentioned earlier, they are just addicting our kids to the drug that we are addicted to. <sigh>

barkel