Lego Alternatives: What are the options?

Lego is wonderful, but they aren’t the be-all-end-all of toy building playsets and it's worth knowing that there are some other brands available which sometimes offer something a little extra or a little different. These alternatives have similar concepts, but also have unique characteristics that will appeal to any blockhead!

Plus Plus

This building brick toy is of the quality you would expect from the land of Lego and is increasingly popular with UK parents and schools looking for a fun yet practical activity set. The simplistic shape allows for endless possibilities, limited only by imagination, and models can be as simple or complex as you wish.  We think that the Plus-Plus Mini range is ideal for children aged 5 - 12. Available in pack sizes from 35 pieces to 1200, this toy will keep your children, and probably parents too, busy for hours.  Plus-Plus is available in standard colours or in bright neon colours.

Brikkon

This isn't really a Lego alternative. It's actually an awesome Lego accessory.

The designers of this toy came up with the idea from watching their children play with Lego. They felt that the step by step manual of the design on the box prevented their children from using their imagination to create something new. Yet starting from scratch is sometimes difficult too. Brikkon makes it easy to begin and inspires to keep on building. From tree house to bridge and from house to castle and city: creative play starts with Brikkon. They're simply good-quality wooden building plates, on which you can build on with all regular bricks. Once you start, you keep on playing on and on. Whether you have lots of bricks at home or only a handful, with Brikkon you can achieve a creative result quickly. 

Light Stax

Light Stax are beautifully illuminated construction blocks that use LED technology, but are still 100% compatible with existing traditional building blocks.  Using their patented system, each Stax will magically light up as it is connected to a power base or any lit Stax.  No special connectors or wires are needed.  Just stack them and they light up! They're a bit hard to get hold of at the moment, but have recently been recognised for several awards, so expect to see them around soon.

Brixies

These bricks are a lot smaller than Lego; the smallest brick only measures 4 x 4 x 5 mm, allowing designers to create models that are highly detailed. There are 23 different colours of Brick providing for colourful and real-looking construction kits that you and your children will enjoy.The brand has an ever growing portfolio of construction sets that can be assembled to create a collection of animals, world famous buildings and all manner of other lovely objects. Depending on the complexity of the model, each set is categorized between five levels of difficulty, allowing you or your child to choose the right product. All sets are accompanied by an illustrated instruction sheet.