Brickipedia News:Mattel buys Mega Bloks - Brick War heats up

User:CJC95 0:00, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

by CJC95
March 1, 2014

Mattel has brought Mega Brands, owners of Mega Bloks and RoseArt, today for $460 million. Reuters suggests the worlds number one toy company is looking to compete in the one area which it has basically no market share, - construction bricks - raising fears that once again the world will be plagued in the kind of conflict not seen since the Smartphone Patent War of 2012.

The move means Mega Bloks are likely to gain ground in both the quality and licensing fronts, both currently dominated by LEGO.

While Barbie puts on her camouflage and the Master Builders prepare the defences, Playmobil released its 40th Anniversary line, which shocked many analysts who thought it went out of business years ago.

Tags: 2014

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Comments (14)

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TheNightingaleNovice

130 months ago

Score 0

Brick War 2 is coming. Mega Bloks will never be as popular as LEGO. Nearly 85% of all boys from ages 6-12 in the US alone knew BIONICLE existed. And I'm sure Mega Brands will never impact Australia, either. Doesn't matter that MG is cheaper, LEGO is more popular.

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

130 months ago

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Mattel and Disney are very friendly, by 2022 we might have no more lego disney.

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

130 months ago

Score 1

LEGO's Disney licenses have mostly been flops. Prince of Persia definitely was and hearsay says that The Lone Ranger, Toy Story, and Pirates of the Caribbean didn't do so great either. I don't remember about Cars. Am I missing anything else? Anyway, Marvel has been a hit and Disney owns Star Wars now, and there is no denying the popularity there. I think that the new Disney Princesses line will do well too, so Disney might not have as good of a relationship with LEGO as Warner Bros do now (Harry Potter and DC Batman were/are pretty big, I don't think that LOTR/Hobbit are doing terribly either), but I think it will only as long as those three themes do well. And I don't see why they won't, unless the new Marvel/Star Wars movies are completely terrible....

Sorry for the rant, I just don't think that Disney is going to drop them, especially after MB did so terribly with Spider-Man, Iron Man, and POTC stuff.

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CJCBricktastic

130 months ago

Score 1

LEGO will be more than willing to pay whatever is necessary to keep Star Wars, that is for sure...

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

130 months ago

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I was reading a toyfair report and it stated disney princess was green lighted due to the success and we can look forward to more sets but none where at display.

I guess disney will try some megablocks set to test if they sell.

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NovaFlareMaster Builder

130 months ago

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Oh no, now it'll be Mattel's Mega Blocks Mattel's Barbie instead of Mega Blocks Mattel's Barbie :O

I just hope they don't get the recently available Doctor Who license....

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ToaMeikoHonorable Brickipedian

130 months ago

Score 0

They probably won't. Mattel's never gone after that license, nor has Mega Bloks.

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CJCBricktastic

130 months ago

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True, but the license hasn't been worth as much as it has now before. Certainly worth too much for a small British company whose only other licenses are Scooby-Doo, HM Armed Forces and Deadly 60 (A kids animal show) to hold.

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

130 months ago

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The license would be worth a lot for a toy manufacturer primarily catering Great Britain. Doctor Who isn't too popular in the US. I think that at its peak, about 941,700 Americans watched it (which is about .3% of our population) while 3,793,800 is the average for Brits (around 17% of the British population). That is about a 25% difference, at best.

It is possible that my numbers are inaccurate, but I don't think that an entire Doctor Who line would be too likely to happen with a large company like Mattel or LEGO, unless it's like those odd sets only available in Japan or the Team GB minifigures and only available in Great Britain. However, I think that the numbers are good enough for a CUUSOO set or two, and I think that could very well happen now, unless the license does cost too much for a limited run.

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CJCBricktastic

130 months ago

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BBC won't charge too much for it, but they know they can get more than a small British company can give them, especially if they are clever and are up to date with how Cuusoo works.

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

130 months ago

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Well, we'll see then. I'm sure that one will pass eventually. It does have a big cult following (especially with GB and the US together) and there is a lot of overlap with the LEGO fan community. The biggest question is; which Doctor and companion(s)? :P

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

130 months ago

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(By pass I mean reach 10,000 votes. It could fail review. :P)

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