What a find that was! A few weeks ago while going around at our local flea market we found the Mega Bloks Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl Ship Playset. The important things to understand here is that this Mega Bloks collection is no longer available and that they are fully compatible with Lego!
If you check online this playset goes for as much as $249! We got it for $10! What a deal! Ok it is missing one piece of the boat but since it is Lego compatible and that I found the instruction manual online, I was able to reconstruct that missing piece, amazing!
This is a superb playset that comes with cannon ports, opening desk panels, moving pulley system, captain's cabin, treasure chest and more! Overall there are about 175 pieces.
On a sidenote, a few years ago the Lego Group has filed law suits against Mega Bloks, Inc. in courts around the world on the grounds that Mega Bloks' use of the "studs and tubes" interlocking brick system is a violation of trademarks held by Lego. Generally such law suits have been unsuccessful, chiefly because the functional design of the basic brick is considered a matter of patent rather than trademark law, and all relevant Lego patents have expired.
The Supreme Court of Canada, ruling in the case of Kirkbi (Lego) v. Ritvik Holdings (Mega Bloks), did not only strike a metaphorical blow for children (and parents!) in Canada, not to mention the pocketbooks of the latter, but also clarified the boundaries between two areas of intellectual property. In holding that Lego does not have a trademark in the shape of its building blocks, the Court forced Lego to compete with Mega Bloks where they are in fact supposed to compete: in the marketplace. The ultimate winners here are the kids!
