LEGO

There was some discussion about this in another post some time ago: https://lemmy.world/post/238970

To me it seems there's not really a consensus either way on Lego competitors at the moment. I for one am of the opinion that splitting off into multiple communities would not be a great idea for now, seeing how little content there is so far overall anyway. Having a community simply called "Lego" makes for the best discoverability right now, and allowing compatible brands as well just increases the chances of growing the community healthily. We can always change the rules if it becomes a problem.

Edit to add an answer to the other question: I do have quite some experience with alternative brands by now, I've written a little about that here. Not so much with technic-specific alternatives, but from what I'm hearing, that generally positive experience seems to extrapolate to technic offerings as well.

Cada and mould King are very reputable Brands, their parts are equal if not better quality Thank Lego bricks

I would also like to know

What looks promising to me is the following model: “CaDA C51026 RC Megalithic Robot + Excavator”

I found 3 sets in this series: C51026 / C51029 / C51030

For my son, this one would probably be the best. (or the white one with the plane)

I might have the wrong name, but MegaBlocks were totally compatible with Legos. But something about them was always just... Weird. They weren't smooth like Lego. They didn't have the weight of Lego. They snapped together just fine and yet the Mega Block bricks seemed thinner somehow.

They're the only competitor I even know of that had regular bricks and technic style bricks. I'm not sure if that's still the case, though.

Personally I would like this community to be LEGO-only, as the name implies. As an example, Reddit had alternative communities for non-LEGO bricks like mould king and lepin.

I would sub to an alternative community about other brick types, but I think it’s important to keep them separate.

I just found out these exist:

• ELEGOO Building Block Car Kit, Intelligent and Educational Building Block Toy Car Robot Kit 3 in 1 for Fun and STEM Learning Toy https://a.co/d/btz03Rq
• Mini Drone with Creative DIY Building Blocks Sets for Childs Beginners and Adults, 5-in-1 toy for Educational STEM Science Experiment, Family Activity, Birthday Gift Christmas, Small RC Drone Quadcopter with Altitude Hold,3D Flip, Headless Mode,Stress Relief Toy, Gift Toys for Boys Girls Teens https://a.co/d/hJY3vuE
• ELECFREAKS microbit 32 in 1 Wonder Building Bricks Coding Kit, Programmable STEM Educational Learning Kit with 400+ Building Blocks/Sensors/Wukong Expansion Board(Without Micro:bit) https://a.co/d/ehTvbza

There's a bunch of these kits that are based around easy-to-use microcontrollers like Arduino, and it looks like most of them support graphical programming tools like Makecode.