Intrigued I bought a ~8000 pieces set from Bluebricks for 250 euro.
The quality of bricks is strictly worse than Lego - there’s no “click” when you put in place. No paper instruction. Small issues with building instructions pdf (e.g. brick in a wrong place). The bricks have random indentations from the manufacturing process. Lego also has some, but much less.
The set is fun to build, some of the techniques are more inventive than Lego, some are just meh.
For that price it’s a steal, but if only brick quality matters, based on The Astronomer’s Observatory, Lego is better, even if whenever they push the stickers at me I just want to go to Bilund and start slapping people all around.
Those are cheaper because they’re made with much higher tolerances. You can 3D print crude legos for nothing more than the cost of filament. But they’re not going to be any good.
General rule of manufacturing. Every time you decrease the tolerances by an order of magnitude, you increase the cost by an order of magnitude.
So, as far as I’m aware BlueBrixx use a brick manufacturer called gobricks in China - these are generally considered top tier. Mould King also use gobricks - they do some good start wars/space/car stuff (not clone kits, Mould King are pretty legit, as far as I’m aware they license/pay MOC designers for plans for the most part as well).
Other brands I don’t have experience with (but have a really good rep) are CaDa, Pantasy and Rastar. CaDa and Rastar both license IPs.
IMO JieStar are also a pretty good brand, they are a brick manufacturer and a set manufacturer. I’ve never had an issue with a JieStar set, their bricks/clutch is a little tighter than Lego which is sometimes beneficial, sometimes a little annoying, but it’s never caused an issue. (I’ve build a couple of 5k+ brick sets from JieStar - worst I had was a single malformed brick that I just hid). They make clone kits and original IP. (Some cool little 50 pc sets you can pick up for £1-2.
Reobrix is the other brand I like, they use JieStar bricks but make their own sets and license MOC designer work. Have some interesting aircraft/vehicles. Their cars are good, their B2 bomber was a bigger set, some of it was a little fiddly, but it holds together - it had 1-2 bricks missing, but I picked up replacements on bricklink for pennies.
I also pick up the odd no-name brand from AliExpress, tbh they’ve mostly been fine too, a couple were mediocre (I didn’t have high expectations £15 for 1000pc sets, they were fine for the price tbh, the bricks were fine for one set, a bit too little clutch on the other - but honestly both look fine when they’re assembled. I wasn’t disappointed considering the price).
I’ve ordered from all 3, they’ve all delivered what they said they would. YOURWOBB doesn’t do clone sets, all original IP (and you can sort by brand) youmko are a mix, though mostly original stuff. Marstoy officially don’t sell clone sets, however they do sell “Brick kits”. If you go on the site you’ll see a lot of stuff with names like M12345 - take M off the name and reverse the number, this is the corresponding Lego set (eg. M12345 would be Lego set 54321)
There’s loads on AliExpress too - usual rules apply here, but choice, buy an item that has a lot of buyers with good reviews. If you buy a MOC off AliExpress chances are the original designer isn’t being compensated - many people will go and buy the design off rebrickable to compensate the designer, but no obligation.
There are definitely a few other brands and stores I’ve kept off the list - just because I’ve not used them/built them/heard significant things about them before. One other thing to mention, the postage on big sets can be significant (like 50% of the price of the set sometimes on Marstoy, you can save £20-30 by not buying near Christmas or Chinese New Year) - sometimes it’s sensible to throw another 4-5 small cheap sets in if you’re buying something big from YOURWOBB or Marstoy because the shipping on them is basically free.
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Are you for real? They aren’t any different from compatible bricks which all “fit with every other piece”.
It’s 2025, Lego quality is not “insane”
It’s run of the mill injection molded plastic that you can get for cents a piece.
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Lego itself is a knock off brand. There’s plenty of alternatives with equally good quality.
It’s greed. There are alternative “interlocking toy brick” manufacturers, like BlueBrixx, that are cheaper than Lego.
Intrigued I bought a ~8000 pieces set from Bluebricks for 250 euro.
The quality of bricks is strictly worse than Lego - there’s no “click” when you put in place. No paper instruction. Small issues with building instructions pdf (e.g. brick in a wrong place). The bricks have random indentations from the manufacturing process. Lego also has some, but much less.
The set is fun to build, some of the techniques are more inventive than Lego, some are just meh.
For that price it’s a steal, but if only brick quality matters, based on The Astronomer’s Observatory, Lego is better, even if whenever they push the stickers at me I just want to go to Bilund and start slapping people all around.
Those are cheaper because they’re made with much higher tolerances. You can 3D print crude legos for nothing more than the cost of filament. But they’re not going to be any good.
General rule of manufacturing. Every time you decrease the tolerances by an order of magnitude, you increase the cost by an order of magnitude.
What you’re saying isn’t true, several other brands are as good and cost less.
Hi, I’m interested in other brands. I tried Blue Brixx. How do other brands compare to Lego and BlueBrixx?
So, as far as I’m aware BlueBrixx use a brick manufacturer called gobricks in China - these are generally considered top tier. Mould King also use gobricks - they do some good start wars/space/car stuff (not clone kits, Mould King are pretty legit, as far as I’m aware they license/pay MOC designers for plans for the most part as well).
Other brands I don’t have experience with (but have a really good rep) are CaDa, Pantasy and Rastar. CaDa and Rastar both license IPs.
IMO JieStar are also a pretty good brand, they are a brick manufacturer and a set manufacturer. I’ve never had an issue with a JieStar set, their bricks/clutch is a little tighter than Lego which is sometimes beneficial, sometimes a little annoying, but it’s never caused an issue. (I’ve build a couple of 5k+ brick sets from JieStar - worst I had was a single malformed brick that I just hid). They make clone kits and original IP. (Some cool little 50 pc sets you can pick up for £1-2.
Reobrix is the other brand I like, they use JieStar bricks but make their own sets and license MOC designer work. Have some interesting aircraft/vehicles. Their cars are good, their B2 bomber was a bigger set, some of it was a little fiddly, but it holds together - it had 1-2 bricks missing, but I picked up replacements on bricklink for pennies.
I also pick up the odd no-name brand from AliExpress, tbh they’ve mostly been fine too, a couple were mediocre (I didn’t have high expectations £15 for 1000pc sets, they were fine for the price tbh, the bricks were fine for one set, a bit too little clutch on the other - but honestly both look fine when they’re assembled. I wasn’t disappointed considering the price).
In terms of ordering -
YOURWOBB Youmko/Barweer Marstoy
I’ve ordered from all 3, they’ve all delivered what they said they would. YOURWOBB doesn’t do clone sets, all original IP (and you can sort by brand) youmko are a mix, though mostly original stuff. Marstoy officially don’t sell clone sets, however they do sell “Brick kits”. If you go on the site you’ll see a lot of stuff with names like M12345 - take M off the name and reverse the number, this is the corresponding Lego set (eg. M12345 would be Lego set 54321)
There’s loads on AliExpress too - usual rules apply here, but choice, buy an item that has a lot of buyers with good reviews. If you buy a MOC off AliExpress chances are the original designer isn’t being compensated - many people will go and buy the design off rebrickable to compensate the designer, but no obligation.
For minifigs there’s:
RebuildVenus
This is the same company as Marstoy, free shipping over $17.
Thank you for the comprehensive guide.
There are definitely a few other brands and stores I’ve kept off the list - just because I’ve not used them/built them/heard significant things about them before. One other thing to mention, the postage on big sets can be significant (like 50% of the price of the set sometimes on Marstoy, you can save £20-30 by not buying near Christmas or Chinese New Year) - sometimes it’s sensible to throw another 4-5 small cheap sets in if you’re buying something big from YOURWOBB or Marstoy because the shipping on them is basically free.
Bluebrixx are great! They’re also like 40% cheaper on average than Lego.