What good alternatives to LEGO are there?
What good alternatives to LEGO are there?
As a Bionicle fan, LEGO recently burnt me and the whole fandom pretty badly. So I'm pretty much giving the whole company the middle finger.
I know there are probably a bunch of good alternatives out there, and I remember some being mentioned to me previously, but I don't know where to find them.
I'm looking for LEGO and LEGO Technic alternatives/knock-offs of good quality. Preferable European in origin rather than Chinese.
They don't need to have popular or brand themes, or be copies of actual LEGO sets, just good parts at good prices.
Don't have an answer for you unfortunately, but do you care to share more of this story about Lego burning Bionicle fans?
There was a big ambitious project called "Masks of Power" which was going to be a full 3D action platformer. It looked truly amazing for a fan project, certainly better than anything LEGO has done for Bionicle.
The team had been working on the project for eight years. In that time they've had multiple talks with officials from LEGO, who seemed to be fine with it (especially since Bionicle has been dead for 10 years). LEGO featured the project on their official podcast, and even allowed for a Steam release, so long as it remained free and none profit.
We were going to get the first demo of that game a few months from now. But two weeks ago LEGO sent a cease and desist, and the project is dead.
There are several large, ambitious projects in the works by Bionicle fans, a number of them animation projects, one of which I'm part of as 3D artist... But now with Team Kanohi and their game project lynched, we're all feeling like there's a sword hanging over our heads.
Any reason given? Not that they have to give one, it's still their property to do what they want with it. I would keep an eye on them and if they somehow in the future come out with something very similar, I hope there are good records of the past years of work and discussion. Since it was going to be free and not for profit, not really a case for lost income, but there must be some laws to protect people working in good faith with a trademark knowingly who get their ideas stolen FOR profit. If that happens.
Appreciate the background. That really sucks for the team working on Masks of Power, and I hope that your project doesn't suffer the same fate.
That sucks, I'm really sorry. My sympathies as a fellow 3D artist.
That really sucks! But Lego has a reputation for being a real dickhead of a company, though. Quality of sets has long been in decline also.
High time for a change!
How odd that investing your time and passion into a corporately owned IP would go wrong!