An introduction to LEGO® alternative brands and alt bricks

Most people are familiar with LEGO® from their childhood, but nowadays there are plenty of alternative brick building brands that offer a fantastic building experience.

Ready to explore the world of alt bricks and LEGO® alternatives? You've come to just the right place.

What are alt bricks?

Alt bricks, or alternative bricks, is a catch-all term for any brick building brand that isn't LEGO®. We are well past the days of copycat knockoffs, with many reputable companies supplying unique or fully licensed sets.

Most of these brands use LEGO® compatible pieces, but this is perfectly legal as the relevant patent expired back in 1978. Judges around the world have repeatedly ruled that the interlocking studs are functional in design, and therefore not subject to trademark protection.

As a result, the landscape of legitimate alt brick LEGO® alternative companies has exploded in recent years, particularly after the shutdown of notorious copyright infringer Lepin.

Best LEGO® alternative brands

Here at Latericius we only stock original or licensed sets from reputable alt brick brands, so we know a thing or two about what's out there. Here's a quick overview of the the best alt brick brands and LEGO® alternatives you can buy today.

CaDA

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Excellent
• Most popular sets: Cars, Japanese houses

CaDA was established in 2016, and it's the closest to a true LEGO® rival as there is. The company manufactures its own bricks, and it only releases original and licensed sets.

While best known for its excellent car sets, the company has also recently expanded into buildings and other subject matter. That includes Japanese houses and other buildings, as well as an elegant collection of botanicals.

In 2020 the company launched the CaDA Master Series, which works with well-known MOCers to turn their designs into licensed products. This process is far less strenuous than LEGO® Ideas submissions, quickly winning over many serious MOCers. Check out our CaDa vs. LEGO® comparison to learn more.

If you're in Europe, check out some of our most popular CaDA products to learn more about what the brand has to offer.

If you're in the US or elsewhere, the best place to shop is the official CADA website.

Mould King

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Excellent
• Most popular sets: Cars, buildings, spaceships, botanicals

Mould King is a larger alt brick brand that stepped in to fill the gap after the shutdown of Lepin. It uses excellent quality bricks, but not all of its designs are licensed.

In the past, the company has been accused of stealing designs from MOCers, although it has cleaned up its act in recent years. Newer designs are typically licensed from the designers, but there's still some questionable practices going on around IP, as seen in the "Star Plan" series of totally-not-Star-Wars spaceships.

With that out of the way, this company sells sets that easily give LEGO® a run for its money, both in terms of design and the quality of the bricks. These include cars, buildings, robots, flowers, and just about anything you can think of. What's more, they use the GoBricks brand of LEGO® alternative bricks, which are among the highest quality we've tested.

Check out our collection of Mould King sets if you're in the EU, or head over to the official Mould King website to browse the full catalog.

Pantasy

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Excellent
• Most popular sets: Pop culture characters

Pantasy is a relatively new alt brick brand, but it has really impressed us with its original, licensed designs from popular IP like Snoopy, The Little Prince, and others.

Founded in August 2020, the brand has been expanding rapidly each year, with each set featuring a spectacular design, often with notable extras like lighting kits and fully pad-printed pieces. Sets range from small display pieces to full modular buildings.

Browse our catalog of Pantasy sets for quick shipping in Europe, or head over to the official Pantasy website for global shipping.

Lumibricks

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Excellent
• Most popular sets: Large buildings

If there's one brand that's trying its hardest to follow in LEGO®'s footsteps, it's Lumibricks. Formerly known as FunWhole, it makes some of the most impressive modular buildings we've ever seen, and many of them are actually better than anything LEGO® can offer - not to mention significantly cheaper.

One of the main reasons for this is hidden in the name. Lumibricks sets nearly always incorporate built-in lighting kits to really make it shine on your display shelf. These aren't just light strips tacked on, either. They are fully incorporated in the build, with special pieces to make it work.

Lumibricks has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with themes spanning The Old West, Cyberpunk, modern city buildings, and more. 

Head over to the official website to browse the full catalog.

Cobi

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Excellent
• Most popular sets: Military 

Cobi is unique in our list in that it's actually based in Poland rather than China. The company has been in business since 1987, with a different style of minifigure with a more 3D face design.

LEGO® notably doesn't make any military sets, but Cobi has no such qualms. The vast majority of sets made by the company are for modern military equipment, including tanks, airplanes, boats, and more.

Many of these sets are officially licensed, either by manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Boeing or popular IP like Top Gun or Company of Heroes 3.

Check out our collection of Cobi sets to learn more.

Mork

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Very good
• Most popular sets: Buildings, cars

Mork, sometimes called xMork, is a lesser-known alt brick brand, and it's another that has taken great steps toward becoming a more legitimate contender on the scene.

The company features both original designs and licensed builds from popular MOCers around the world. These are mostly buildings, but they range from modern coffee shops and modular city restaurants to rural wineries and more. 

Mork sets are somewhat hard to find, but they are some of the most affordable LEGO® alternatives out there. See our collection of Mork sets to learn more.

Sluban

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Very good
• Most popular sets: Military, cars

Sluban was in hot water a few years back for selling minifigures that were too similar to LEGO®, but today the brand is more legitimate than ever. It now uses a newer minifigure design that is definitely unique, with a bit more of a Playmobile style.

The alt brick brand is still focused on smaller sets, mostly for military and car themes, but it has also branched out into small shops, boats, and licensed sets for things like Garfield.

Sluban sets tend to be a bit hit or miss, but they're very affordable and worth a look. Check out our handpicked selection here.

Mattel Brick Shop (MEGA)

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Very good
• Most popular sets: Cars

Many of use grew up with oversized MEGA blocks or the true LEGO® alternative MEGA Construx lineup, but they never managed to live up to their competition. After largely fading from the scene, their parent company Mattel re-launched its brick-building efforts under the new brand Brick Shop.

This adult-focused LEGO® alternative brand has quickly gained fans by incorporating another popular Mattel brand: Hot Wheels. The Brick Shop catalog includes many licensed car builds, and they come with matching die-cast Hot Wheel cars.

It's still early, but Mattel Brick Shop has already carved out a niche for itself in the LEGO® alternative world. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one in the years to come.

JMBricklayer

• Compatible with LEGO®: Yes
• Brick quality: Varies
• Most popular sets: Varies

While there are plenty of brands that re-box sets from companies targeting the Chinese market, JMBricklayer is the only one that's truly doing something unique. Rather than just sticking the bags in a new box and calling it a day, it does extensive work behind the scenes to avoid IP infringement and legitimize the industry for a global audience.

There are a few ways the brand does this. The first is by removing any pieces that LEGO® still claims a design patent for, which includes many pieces that came out in the last few years. The other is by taking care of customer support, which you won't get by ordering from a sketchy AliExpress listing.

More recently, the brand has also begun releasing its own original designs, and some of them are very cool. However, the rest of the catalog comes from different brands across China, so it isn't always a consistent experience. The instructions and bricks vary in quality, but they are all remarkably cheap.

Check out the official website for the full catalog of sets.

Nanoblock

• Compatible with LEGO®: No
• Brick quality: Excellent
• Most popular sets: Pokemon, anime, buildings 

Nanoblock is a sub-brand of the Japanese company Kawada, and you may have seen its tiny block sets pop up in stores in the past decade.

Nanoblock pieces are far smaller than LEGO®, and use a rail-based mechanism for interlocking rather than tubes. The pieces are so small that we recommend using tweezers to assemble them.

There is no shortage of licensed sets coming out of this alt brick brand, including very popular anime series like Pokemon, Naruto, and others. The company also makes interesting architectural models, as well as a few other themes.

The bad news is that they are surprisingly difficult to find abroad. 

LOZ

• Compatible with LEGO®: No
• Brick quality: Very good
• Most popular sets: Buildings, characters 

LOZ is another brand that uses smaller bricks, and they are somewhere between Nanoblocks and LEGO® pieces in size. However, design-wise they are much more similar to LEGO®, with a wide variety of pieces and builds available.

In fact, the catalog of LOZ sets is absolutely enormous, and it can be difficult to know which sets are worth buying. In the past, some sets were simply smaller versions of LEGO® or MOC builds, but thankfully those days are long gone.

Although you can find LOZ sets overseas, the brand seems to focus on a Chinese audience, with themes for popular IP in China and holidays like the Chinese New Year.

Still, LOZ building sets are far cheaper than LEGO® and even many other alt brick brands, mostly due to the diminutive size of the pieces.

Frequently asked questions

Here are a few common questions about alt brick sets and brands to help clear up any confusion for anyone new to the hobby.

Are alt brick sets legal?

Yes, alt brick sets are legal, provided they respect copyright law. Standard bricks are not protected by patents or copyright, but some elements, such as the iconic LEGO® minifigure, are protected by copyright and cannot be legally replicated.

Are alt brick sets good quality?

It depends on the manufacturer of the bricks, but nowadays the quality of bricks from alt brick brands very nearly matches that of the Danish giant. They all feature great clutch and finishes, although the most common failing is in slight moulding variations.

Do alt brick brands provide replacement pieces?

This depends on the brand, but many alt brick brands do provide replacement pieces free of charge for missing or damaged pieces. In other cases, the place you bought the set, such as Latericius, can often provide aftermarket service.

 ---

Disclaimer: LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.

This article contains affiliate links.