Frowned upon? No, not by most. Though further comments may disprove that.

Most of us simply prefer Lego and the vast majority of our collections are Lego. It has a high level of quality and a clean, consistent look to it.

I've seen a handful of Mega Bloks only films, but they seem to be rare around here. More often, I've seen knock-off bricks and accessories used on the side, or when Lego doesn't make that one piece or weapon. Brickarms in particular seem popular and accepted.

Myself, I am more concerned with quality than brand. I don't mind using knock off parts when they match or nearly match Lego quality. However, a good 95% of my collection is Lego.

My current project is using knock-off torsos, mostly Lego bricks, a few Mega Bloks parts, and probably some Tyco blocks in some later sets. It may even use some Brick Forge weapons.

I'm not against using non-Lego, but the look and feel doesn't always match, and I simply don't have much of anything else.

I find many knock-off minifigures to be down right ugly, even though the extra joints of some to kinda interest me.

As for your film, feel free to use whatever brand you like. Sometimes films do need torso prints or designs that can only be found on knock off minifigures. If it looks the same, many may not notice. But if it's a Mega Bloks figure, it may look uncanny if mixed onscreen with a genuine Lego minifigure.

Before buying much more, I suggest you make something with what you have now. It's amazing what even a little Lego can do. (I recently released a film made entirely with one $15 Lego set.) If you're just getting into the hobby, it may be better to first learn how to make do with what you have now, then down the road make more significant investments for your films.

Also, could you cairify what you mean by "for the film" and "real collection?" The joy of Lego is the reusability, so everything I buy, even for a specific film, goes into my collection after the film is done. 

Hope this helps!

If you're going the Made in China route, I'd definitely get one figure first before buying a bunch in bulk. I accidentally bought some figures a couple years ago that were branded LBGQ or something like that, the picture was kinda small so it looked like the real Lego brand. Kinda funny, in retrospect, but I was pretty angry when I got them. They were poorly painted over with thick paint, probably lead based. Also I've heard tales of third party baseboards splitting open the feet of minifigs, so definitely test that sort of thing out on lesser figures of your collection.

Lepin bricks are certainly in a legal gray area (if not outright illegal) because they are producing sets/figures/bricks based on other people's intellectual property, or IP, without a license to do so.

This site is definitely not a LEGO purist one, though. Any films made with interlocking block toys are perfectly acceptable. (Even CG films made to emulate the Lego-like look are fine) Feel free to use off-brand products and even non-Lego elements in your films! - All perfectly fine - and even encouraged!

But, be careful about buying from sources such as Lepin and other Chinese knock-offs. Personally, I'd rather wait and save up my money for the real deal than risk it on figures that would more easily break & perhaps be against the law to own in the first place.

There's definitely a pull toward the official LEGO bricks than knockoffs. It's more obvious when we get into minifigure territory though. Cheap bricks often look out of place or different, but not always. If you have mega bloks or other types of bricks, use them! It's a brickfilm, not a LEGO movie. Use what you've got and use them well. A lot of people here use knockoff bricks in their set building because they have more of them readily available, so it just makes sense.

We're definitely accepting of knockoffs in a brickflm. People are judging you on your collection, generally. It's more about the filmmaking. Some people choose to use knockoffs purposefully as a statement. Others use them, again, because it's what they have. Easy as that. And to clarify, with knock-off minifigs, if you can use them well, go for it. They do stand out as lower quality and knock-off aesthetic more, however, which often can negatively influence viewers.

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