Our 10 favorite LEGO knockoffs that don’t cost an arm and a leg piece

So you want to spend a week building a gargantuan creation out of minibricks but you don’t want to drop triple digits to do it? Sounds like you need to introduce a little competition into LEGO’s minibrick monopoly. These brands are bonafide LEGO impersonators that are cheaper than the real thing and just about as good, too. Here are some of the best LEGO knockoffs money can buy.

10. JMBricklayer

Are you trying to ghost LEGO? I can’t think of a better way than with this ghostly pirate ship from JMBricklayer. Have you ever seen a LEGO set this spooky and cool? Why settle for a relationship with normie LEGO when you could have a fling with an alt-baddie? Pull a Danny Phantom and go ghostship. After all, he ends up getting together with the spooky goth too. Not a fan of the macabre? JMBricklayer has a variety of other sets. Ships. Cars. Dragon heads. Whatever you type is, JM’s got it.

9. NEWABWN

LEGO might have some cool dinosaur sets, sure. But do their dinosaur sets glow in the dark? That’s a no in the dark. But NEWABWN’s T-Rex skeleton set sure does! Are you really going to spend all day tinkering away at a LEGO set only for you to not be able to see it when the sun goes down? You deserve better than that. You deserve bricks that can adjust to YOUR schedule. NEWABWN’s got something for the amateur paleontologist night owl in everyone.

8. COBI

Are you trying to build an army but don’t have the military budget of a nation at your disposal? Sounds like you’ll never be able to afford all those expensive LEGO sets then. Is there any hope for your dreams of world domination through superior bricklaid firepower? Yes, there is. It’s a company called COBI. COBI will give you an A-10 Thunderbolt II™ Warthog for under a hundred bucks. That’s like a 10000% markdown on what the actual machine would cost. Pretty soon you’ll be able to take Vienna. Veni, vidi, vici, baby.

7. Wange

Want to build a towering cityscape in your garage? Wange is your best option. Start your metropolis off the right way with this scale model of Dubai’s Burj Al Arab. This luxury hotel can be yours for a fraction of the cost it took to build the original. Listen, I don’t know why-you want to build your Garage-opolis. Maybe it’s so you can be mayor and indict yourself on corruption charges. Maybe it’s so you can put on a Godzilla costume and lay waste to it all. Whatever your dream, make sure you have a sound financial plan to achieve it. Look into Wange.

6. fischertechnik

The stylishly all-lowercase fischertchnik is the German alternative for LEGO Technic. Want to take on heavy-duty construction jobs but don’t have the salary to finance it with LEGO sets? Why don’t you do what any self-respecting real estate mogul would do and invest in a fischertechnik crane? This thing has a functioning hydraulic excavator arm, so you can use it to lift both raw materials and your standards for LEGO in the future. They’re going to need to come up with something really impressive to win you back over.

5. Mould King

Mould King needs a better name, but their prices can’t be beat. You can get a Mould King V8 engine for only $50. With over 500 separate building block parts including a turbocharger, who needs a real car at that point? I’m just going to putter around my house making turbo noises with this thing in my hands. Just try and stop me, LEGO. You’ll have to catch me first.

4. burgkidz

Need some low-impact LEGO builds that a child could handle? Whether that child is one you and a special someone created, or your inner child still shoving a popsicle stick up their nose deep in your subconscious, burgkidz has you covered. Check out this burgkidz marble run. It’ll allow even the most innocent babe in the woods to become a full-fledged Baby Rue Goldberg. You’ll be churning out Baby Einstein Field Equations in no time. When you or your child win the Nobel Prize for Physics, you’ll know what company to thank in your acceptance speech.

3. MISINI

Why construct a silly little LEGO building when you could play the role of a divine architect, shaping the heavens to your will like an all-powerful god? MISINI might not let you reconstruct the building blocks of physics, but it will supply the building blocks for a sweet model of the Solar System. Well, almost the Solar System. It’s missing a couple of (most) planets. But the only one that matters is there! Besides, who needs Mercury? She’s always in retrograde anyway.

2. Nifeliz

Are you a fan of LEGO Technic sets but your wallet isn’t? Have no fear, the Nifeliz M24 Formula 1 Racing Car is here. Nifeliz makes some pretty sweet technic-like sets for all you gearheads out there. Just take a look at this baby’s sweet design, it’s so ergonomic. So aerodynamic. So much better than LEGO. Not a fan of cars? Nifeliz also has some sick trains, tanks, and boats. Switch to Nifeliz, you’ll be feliz you did it.

1. ENJBRICK

You’ve known it’s over between you and LEGO for a while now, but you’re just not sure how to break it to them, huh? Let LEGO down easy at the ENJBRICK City Cafe. It’s a public, neutral place, way less loaded than the bedroom or the garage where you two used to make magic together. Don’t want to get coffee jitters? ENJBRICK has plenty of other buildings and storefronts where you can kick LEGO to the curb. A flower shop. A pagoda. A jazz club. You could even dump LEGO outside a scale model of Kevin McCallister’s house from Home Alone. Why would you want to do it there? It doesn’t matter, you don’t owe LEGO an explanation. End things on your terms.