With more and more alternatives appearing to Lego which also increase in variety and even surpass at times Lego quality, why focus just on this company for a brick building community? I for example have been badly burned by Lego’s handling of the Mindstorms brand and there are more compatibility broken product lines from Lego.
Is posting other brands alright here? Will it lead to unpleasant conflicts from Lego, if their brand name is used?
Great summary of the Constitution’s IP clause.
Patens are expired, bricks are fair game to copy.
Sets designs and appearance are copyrighted so for sure copies of sets is piracy.
I prefer only Lego brand bricks. Sometimes I buy bulk bricks for my son at a local used Lego store and there are always a few off brand bricks. I usually remove them and throw them out. They don’t go together as well sometimes, and all the time the colors aren’t quite right. Even if the color does match, the color fades a little and always fades differently on off brand bricks. Just prefer the real thing.
The used Lego store has used bricks in bulks for $6 a pound, and you can pick and choose what pieces you want. For three bucks you can get half a pound of rare, genuine bricks, if you know what you’re looking for. Great value.