What's the difference between Duplo and Megablocks?

[DoodleAlley]

My ten month old has started loving blocks and pulling them apart. We're getting requests for birthday ideas from family and as we've clearly not got enough plastic in the house yet, we thought about adding to the current stock with some blocks.

So, it looks like either Duplo or Megablocks but I can't see whether there's any difference between them. I'd also be grateful for any preferences/comments about one or the other?

duplo much better quality and has nicer figures etc. imo

duplo are fab, my dd now 5yrs still plays with it more than her grown up lego
Ds1(2.5yrs) spends ages with it.

Duplo rules.

Megablocks sucks.

Would Duplo be suitable for DS's first birthday? He doesn't have many demands from it other than to be pulled apart and be chewed on (just got his first three teeth in the space of ten days!)

As everyone says, Duplo better quality. We've got a mixture and I find that the Megablocks don't click together as well as Duplo, so aren't so good for making huge towers (we make a lot of towers here...).

Duplo is made by Lego, which is a really ace company. Example: ds had a duplo digger and the joint that joined two bits of the digger arm broke. I went on the Lego website to try to find a replacement, rang up a really nice lady who located the correct part and sent it out to me next day for free - in her words "Of course it won't cost you anything, it shouldnt' have broken in the first place, we've realised there was a design flaw in that kit and have since re-engineered it."

Megablocks - cheap and cheerful, but they don't stick together. One of my ds's favourite games is building megablocks towers and then throwing things at them to see how fast they collapse.

Yes, suitable for a 1st birthday. Might be another 6 months or so before he starts making things with it though.

At 12 months he'll enjoy tipping it out, putting it back in the box, tipping it out again, repeated ad infinitum.

Megablocks are 4X larger than duplo. My 16mo like building with megablocks. I do have duplo because I have a 3yo as well, but I am not sure if your DS is too little to actually put duplo together. Megablocks are much easier to make a tower out of IMO - you don't have to apply much force to put one piece on top of the other, but with duplo you have to apply a small amount of targetted force.

Ours are identical in size to Duplo

Thanks for all your messages. Has given me stuff to think about at least!

Currently DS is mostly interested in doors, door stops, DVD players and the laptop, so it's hard to make affordable present suggestions from his current list of preferred toys!

I might see if I can see the blocks in the flesh to judge their size but it sounds like Duplo would last longer if he can use them in the first place.

Mega Bloks are bigger, softer and easier to put together/apart than Duplo.

For a first birthday i'd buy a bargain pack of megablocks and perhaps wait until his 2nd for Duplo. Play.com do a large bag (80 pieces) for £9.99 with free postage. Amazon is usually good for Duplo on price.

Both are good and we have had both in the past. DS loved his Mega Bloks as you can build quite high with a pack.

DS not so good at targeted force, but excels at large amounts of blunt force!

Megablocks do three different sizes of bricks. Huge, medium (Duplo size) and small (normal lego size). the huge bricks are good for little children but duplo size have longer play span and dont take up as much room. they are not as good quality as duplo either but lighter if ever used throwing .

The chance of less damage when being thrown is certainly a consideration. Duplo sounds like good quality but maybe we'll have to wait until he's a bit older if he's not going to have the finesse to play with them.

It will be good for him to have something to hide around the house though instead of my keys!

Definately go for the Duplo, much better quality - we've had ours since DS1 was about 1 (ok so he did more knocking down than building with them at that point) and they are still fairly frequently played with by his younger brothers and visitors 14 years later, we binned the megablocks within weeks. The megablocks don't stick together properly which will be a continual source of frustation to your ds relatively soon.

oh the decisions! Who'd have thought being a parent was so hard?!!

Although secretly I think I'm quite excited about getting blocks for DS. We had second hand lego but only one green board and my sister always hogged it!

Any other suggestions for presents for a one year old boy with an excess of energy + enthusiasm and shortage of fine motor skills?

Duplo is great. Mega Blocks is cheap c*p! in the words of my Lego obsessed DH!

Definitely go with Duplo. Megablocks are cheap plastic tat and although Duplo is more expensive, you get what you pay for.

My DS go his first lot for his 1st birthday. He's 5.5 and still plays with it and it's still in the same excellent condition. DD1, 3 also plays with it lots as does DD2, 1, who mainly bangs it together and mouths it but still gets lots out of it. It's much easier to clean that megablocks too.

Not many toys are equally loved by a 1yr old, 3yr old and 5.5yr old!

one of those tiny plastic climbing frames and slides - the little tykes cube ones - ours lived in the kitchen all winter when DS1 was 1 and he played on it incessantly, clamber up with much wriggling, slither down the slide, repeat ad nauseum.

Other suggestions:

1)Wooden musical instruments. Try the online wooden toy stores (google them) Lots of fab little wooden instruments.

2)One of those wooden trains with shapes carved in the top and coloured wooden pieces to fit over said shaped spike. So, all the pieces are square(sometimes circular) but have different shapes cut out to fit on the correct pegs. Usually red, blue, green and yellow. These are fabulous toys which all 3 of mine have loved. Good for co-ordination and later colour and shape recognition.

3)Those nylon pop up tunnels. We got one of these for DS's first Christmas (he was 11mths) He loved it then and again, he still plays with it now in the garden. His sisters both love it too.

HTH

Many thanks for all the suggestions and comments.

DS has woken up now and is demanding milk and trips on his baby-walker.

I'll come back later to check any comments, but appreciate your help. I'm sure DS will too... in 5 week's time!

Lego do a larger size called Quatro which is far better than the equivalent sized Megabloks - massive megabloks are variable heights which is far too difficult for even a 2 yo. Quatro is nicer quality too.

Other things for a first birthday - some kind of trolley or dolls pram for pushing and filling with things. A teaset and pretend kitchen stuff.

Actually 18 months is a much bigger milestone than 1 year for playing capability, so if you're likely to be inundated with presents, look at some 18 month age stuff - e.g. Duplo, Brio trains, Playdough etc. You can help him play with them now, or better still keep back and give out later in the year when you think he can cope with it. My DS1 was desperate for new playthings every few months in his second year (and so was I) so it's worth planning ahead.

Agree, get duplo!

megablocks is a bti naff