Here in Canada, we take pride in anyone who makes it big. (Except Justin Bieber.) All Canadians can rhyme off the names of Canadian celebrities. Canadian business success stories are a bit harder to come by, but we do make a big deal if a Nortel or a Blackberry gets to the big time, and politely look the other way when they fall back down.
So from time to time, I've seen stories about the success of MegaBloks, the popular Lego alternative from Montreal. But it's hard to feel good about a company that copied someone else's invention after the patents expired, then figured out how to make it slightly more cheaply. They're the generic drug manufacturers of the toy world. It doesn't help that they're selling Call Of Duty sets, despite those games being recommended for ages 17 and up.
But now I find that MegaBloks isn't even the only Canadian Lego rip-off. There's also Brictek. How did that happen? In addition to resource companies and short-lived technology giants, our other Canadian business cliché is plastic blocks. But surely if you can build plastic blocks cheaply, you can build other small plastic things easily?
This is just so damn Canadian, being a distant anonymous second to the
folks who got things started. Okay, it's refreshing that we're copying
the Danes, rather than the Americans. But this year MegaBloks was
bought by America's Mattel, completing this microcosm of stereotypical
Canadian business. You could at least get together with a chocolate maker and go after Kinder Eggs.
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