5 ms·
In USSR there were a lot of Meccano knock-offs but almost no Lego knock-offs (there were some made in East Germany, but they were scarce). I'd have a ton of dif
by blacklion 4y ago
In USSR there were a lot of Meccano knock-offs but almost no Lego knock-offs (there were some made in East Germany, but they were scarce). I'd have a ton of different, mostly compatible, sets and play with them for hours.
Original Lego becomes available right after USSR crash (it was very expensive for 1990s in newborn Russia, but it pas present in several posh toy shops), and Meccano never appears in Russia and Soviet knock-off sets were forgotten.
Only many years later (when Lego was very well-known already for years) I've learned about Meccano.
Looks like Lego has much more competent marketing & distribution department.
- bombcar 4y agoIt’s only been in the last 20 years or so that knockoff Lego got anywhere NEAR the quality of genuine. At the turn of the millennium knockoff Lego was PVC and so badly toleranced that you could barely put a medium or larger set together without it falling apart. That’s changed now, but it would have been much easier to knockoff low tolerance metal pieces in the 70-90s
- blacklion 4y agoYes, now I know how amazing and advanced Lego is from technological point of view, real marvel of precision molding. But I'm talking more about marketing: post-USSR countries were ready to Meccano (because parents had played with Meccano clones, not Lego clones), but Lego won, and almost nobody knows about Meccano,
- brnt 4y agoAround 1990 I also knew of just one guy who had Meccano, inherited from his father mostly. Everyone played with Lego. This is the Netherlands. Going to the toy store to fetch the yearly Lego catalogue was a cherished ritual for me. I would study it thoroughly and think of how to spend my yearly budget most wisely.