What are the best LEGO alternatives?
There are countless benefits to letting kids play with open-ended toys like LEGO. It’s also great for kids to have a wide variety of building toys, so that their developing brains can explore the ways that different shapes and connections go together. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of LEGO alternatives, so parents can expand their arsenal and help their kids grow!
Best Lego Alternatives and “Lego Type” Toys
LEGO’s cool and all, but what are some awesome “LEGO-like” toys? Our favorite LEGO alternatives are:
| Image | Product | Why it's great | Recommended Age | Pieces | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Plus-Plus | Rubber plus-shaped interlocking building toys – even though every piece is shaped exactly the same (varying only in color), you’d be surprised the variety of creations that you can make. The pieces fit together loosely enough to make intricate curved designs, but tightly enough to pick up your creation and move it around. | 3 years and up | 600 | $ |
 | Green Toys | “The World’s Most Environmentally Friendly Building Block”. These oversized and lightweight building pieces are actually made from recycled milk cartons, making them safe for teething (ages 6 months and up) and great for growing into constructive play | 1 year and up | 40 | $ |
 | Tegu | Magnetic wooden building blocks that are great for supporting open-ended and unscripted play; not to mention sustainably sourced, non-toxic, FSC-certified Honduran hardwood with no lead, no plastic, a water-based lacquer finish AND supports tree planting and child education in Honduras. | 1 year and up | 42 | $$$ |
 | OgoBILD | A large range of abstract and recognizable parts including attachments like wheels, a scoop, hands, feet, wings, springs, and more allow nearly endless possibilities for creation. The ball-and-socket connections are interchangeable, safe, and functional; and if that’s not enough, there’s an awesome stop-motion animation studio. | 6 years and up | 100 | $$ |
 | Zometool | Contains 246 precision-made components that teach kids the basis of spatial interpretation. The artistic, structural kits range from basic to very complex, but the shape-and-color coded system makes complex 3D structures intuitive to build and allows endless possibilities for fascinating open-ended play and discovery. | 6 years and up | 246 | $$ |
 | Mega Bloks | A LEGO alternative including a Maxi size featuring slightly rounded corners and edges and intended for young children, a Mini size designed for toddlers and preschoolers, and a LEGO-comparable Micro size for experienced builders. | 1 year and up | 150 | $ |
 | K’NEX | K’NEX has building toys specially designed for every age group and skill level, and the easily followed, color-coded instructions included in every set made it easy for young builders to bring life to their models. This Lego type toy has captured the imagination of children for almost 3 decades. | 7 years and up | 521 | $$ |
 | Laser Pegs | Looking for light-up LEGOs? Laser Pegs are similar to LEGO, but a bit different, this clear plastic LEGO clone has a neat trick – LED lights on the inside of the bricks that illuminate the entire creation. | 5 years and up | 102 | $$ |
 | Nanoblock | Micro-sized building block system with the smallest piece measuring only 4 x 4 x 5 millimeters. The tiny pieces allow construction enthusiasts (with adept fingers!) to build in much greater detail than ever before. Many of the kits feature detailed architectural kits from the Eiffel Tower to the Empire State Building to the Taj Mahal , or cool miniature animal models. | 12 years and up | 100 | $$$ |
 | ZOOB | Zoob is a building set where the pieces can move after they are assembled. Since it’s quite abstract, ZOOB provides instructions and suggestions for models to build, but overall it’s great for exploring, inventing, and discovering new creations. | 6 years and up | 250 | $ |
 | Meccano-Erector | There are endless construction possibilities combined with motors! Since the sets contain all real-metal pieces, they require tools and are best for advanced builders. Most of the sets have instructions to be taken apart and re-assembled in a variety of ways to inspire limitless imaginative possibilities. | 10 years and up | 638 | $$$$ |
 | Qubits | Connect & reconnect Qubits pieces for endless construction possibilities! An easy to assemble, snap-together toy that teaches about modular design. The trick with Qubits is to learn how to make geometric patterns, then combine patterns to create anything you want for your project. Fun, artistic, colorful, and challenging, Qubits will entertain children safely down to the age of 4. | 8 years and up | 184 | $$$ |
 | Brackitz | The unique design of the connect-anywhere Brackitz allows them to attach to traditional planks at multiple points and angles, allowing young builders to create just about any design they can imagine. Because kids are unrestricted by step-by-step instruction manuals, the construction possibilities are endless, encouraging creativity and endless rounds of construction, disassembly, and rebuilding. Brackitz award-winning construction toys encourage imagination by permitting open-ended play and helping kids build anything from small-scale models to huge, complex structures. The promote key math, science, engineering, and architectural principles as well as higher-level cognitive thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. They can construct even more impressive structures with collaborative building, encouraging social play and teamwork. | 3 years and up | 44 | $ |
 | Viahart Brain Flakes | Teaches children spatial thinking and imaginative play. 500 simple discs allow for a surprisingly large amount of variation and creativity, which means hours of endless fun and engineering education. | 5 years and up | 500 | $ |
 | PowerClix | An easy click and connect 3-D system with a strong magnetic force. Fast, simple, and powerful modeling allow creative construction such as bridges, skyscrapers, and animals. A myriad of possible geometric shapes and extender rods provides open-ended and creativity-inspiring buildings. An included activity guide gives builders step-by-step instructions, although future engineers may have more fun deviating from the guidelines to make their own creations. | 3 years and up | 48 | $$ |
 | Guidecraft IO Blocks | Unique open-ended interlocking construction blocks with an easily adjustable friction fit allow limitless creations like people, animals, architecture, robots, vehicles, and more. An augmented reality IO Blocks App for smartphone or tablet acts as a virtual build guide. Soft-touch plastic pieces connect with a secure fit and advance fine motor skills and spatial concepts. IO Blocks come in sets of all sizes, from a 59 piece travel set to a 1,000 piece group activity set. | 3 years and up | 192 | $$ |
 | Better Builders | A unique magnetic rod and ball building set allows numerous configurations and myriad design possibilities. Kids learn creativity and the principles of science, construction, and engineering with durable plastic rods, multicolored metal balls, and super strong magnets. Since the magnets are safely and securely embedded in the over-sized rods, this construction set is suitable for ages 2 and up. | 2 years and up | 60 | $$ |
 | Texo | Texo is a 3-D design and construction system that is a simple puzzle, shape sorting and color matching toy all in one. The simple yet innovative system allows for a gradual progression, from the beginning by stacking the interconnected shapes and advancing on to complex architectural models including bridges, houses, and skyscrapers. | 1 year and up | 210 | $$ |
 | ClickABrick | The 3-D design of ClickABrick promotes learning and creativity by allowing children to construct in many directions. Unlike many other competitors’ brick toys, ClickABricks are not limited to building straight: the pieces can be joined together in diagonal lines. The solid “peg-in-hole” designed parts are engineered to fit snugly together, forming strong connections that stand up to play. Each set includes instructions to build multiple creations, although there are possibilities for nearly unlimited elaboration. | 5 years and up | 100 | $ |
 | Lux Blocks | Lux Blocks are a set of versatile interlocking building blocks. The snap and lock hinges let kids create constructions that curve, bend, and move. You can make cubes, dollhouse furniture, H-Frames, balls, moving animals, and much, much more. | 6 years and up | 88 | $ |
 | Build and Imagine | Building blocks meet dollhouse meets dress-up! StoryWall play-sets feature illustrated background scenes that kids can assemble, decorate, and use as inspiration for the creative play. Build and Imagine promotes design, building, and storytelling skills. | 4 years and up | 61 | $$ |
 | ARCKIT | ARCKIT is a 100% free form model-building set that permits kids to explore actual architectural designs and create their own true-to-life projects. The self-adhesive media sheets are real material patterns, including detailed finishes such as timber, stone, concrete, metal, solar panels, grass, and water. This is one of the most truly architectural model building kits we’ve seen, and we love it! | 4 years and up | 130 | $ |
 | Jarrby Linx | In a construction toy aisle dominated by industry juggernauts like Lego, MegaBlocks, and Playmobil, it’s refreshing to see a creative new entrant in the ring. While it’s no easy task to stand up to these giants, it’s necessary in order to continue to expose our children to novel ideas and fresh ways of playing with building toys (rather than the same pieces with today’s hot license slapped on them). We’re a big proponent of keeping a variety of toys in your home, and that means supporting up and coming toy vendors putting out a new take on construction toys. Enter Jarrby: this hands-on STEM toy kit is simple enough to be easy for a three-year-old to assemble with some help, yet open-ended enough to be engaging for an older child, Jarrby offers unlimited construction possibilities for kids to assemble and reassemble to their heart’s content. | 3 years and up | 100 | $ |
Was there a LEGO shortage?
Fun fact: there are currently sufficient Lego bricks in the world for every single person to own 86 bricks, LEGO creates 45.7 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) bricks annually, at a rate of 5.2 million every hour. Last year, LEGO became the world’s largest toymaker when its by revenue and profit eclipsed those of the former leader, Mattel.
But, demand still sometimes outweighs supply for new sets during the Holiday season. Forecasting demand accurately is always difficult, and consequently, some children may be disappointed not to find the new set they asked for under the tree or in their stocking. There have previously been shortages in Denmark and Canada during the inflated demand from the success of the movie.
In the first 6 months of that year, LEGO sales were 18% higher than in 2014, due in part to the popularity of the Lego Movie (which grossed almost $500 million worldwide at the box office) and new licenses such as Star Wars, Batman and the Avengers. The company says that it is working its factories at maximum capacity and “closely monitoring the demand and taking action to secure our inventory for the holiday season.” Luckily, there are many building toys similar to LEGO that are fantastic for kids.
The demand for Lego products during the first half of the year has been significantly higher than our and our customers’ expectations and projections.
–Roar Trangbaek, LEGO
If you aren’t able to find the sets you want this Christmas, please don’t resort to crime (like the New York woman who was caught stealing 800 sets, the Phoenix-based crime syndicate specializing in LEGO theft, or the Watford Gap LEGO truck hijackers). Luckily, there are some pretty cool LEGO alternatives out there with just as high a play value and creative element.
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If you’re looking for highly detailed, miniature LEGO architecture sets, check out the best Nanoblock sets
Read this if you’d rather rent LEGOs?
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