MOC building aside, most custom pieces revolve around the minifig, and understandibly so. Minifigs represent people which have arguably more diverse characteristics than buildings, vehicles or dioramas. More individuals are going to make a minifig representation of themselves or their favorite icon rather than a MOC of their house. Brick-building can only be taken so far at the minifig scale thus the need for additional accessories.

So we are led to a fallacy of lumping clone brands together as some evil force in direct competition to LEGO. Does having modern military weapons available from BrickArms somehow deter a fan from purchasing LEGO sets? I don’t see how. Did BrickForge coming out with a Cow 18 mos. ahead of LEGO somehow hurt TLG’s bottom line? Let’s get real here. Rather, these perveyors of such elements are forcing LEGO to do what they failed to do a decade ago – cater to the community. Do you think it a coincidence that just now we are seeing a Cow, an Agents line or a Fantasy theme? The truth of the matter is a few AFOLs got a bit irritated a few years ago and ponied up their own self-interests to send a message. It’s working.

Will we ever see BF or BA accessories at TRU? Frankly, we wouldn’t need much capital to offer accessory packs – much like LEGO once did. And I’m not sure how I see that as being negative for either LEGO or the community. Kids and AFOLs alike will continue to purchase LEGO sets yet willing to spend a few bucks here and there to supplement.

Some artists limit their palette and others mix colors and use anything at their disposal. Would you care to answer which is more of an artist?

It is a hobby and different people will enjoy it in different ways. This includes using different themes and different parts.

Dump out a pile of MegaBloks onto a table and ask any kid in the world what you’ve got and he’ll tell you “it’s a pile of LEGOs.” {pardon the improper use of the word there and try explaining to an 8 year old why it’s just a “pile of LEGO.” :) } I have yet to meet or hear of anyone who says, “I grew up on MegaBloks,” and I don’t think the day will ever come. Brand distinction. Whether or not another company can slap some ABS into a modified mold they ripped off from LEGO, we all know which came first and which still does it better.

Second, I appreciate what BrickArms has done to create items that are not in competition with LEGO, but complement LEGO. It proves that BrickArms is a LEGO-fan thing. Without LEGO, there would be no BrickArms. And, frankly, without LEGO, there would never have been a MegaBloks. To me it is a sad thing that companies have lacked the creativity to do much more than copy an existing product and think that stamping their own company name on it justifies it.

So, copying=bad, complementing=good. IMHO ;P

All that said, I do keep my truly purist projects distinct from ones that use custom accessories. It’s often more fun for me to limit my palette to only what can be accomplished with official bricks. Too many fans (the youngsters especially) are completely reliant on customization to solve what they could do only with LEGO.