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This thread has been interesting. There are claims both that Lego bricks are made to better tolerance, and the opposite, they they are worse. So which is it?
As I understand it, Lego moved their production out of country for a bit, but returned it because tolerances could not be met. So who are making these better, or equally good pieces now?
Full disclosure: I've 3d printed a few Lego bricks now, and some certainly came out better than others - but I did manage to get some fully adequate 4x2s printed. Now as for the angle supports for my Lego wall.. Not so much unfortunately.
Lego's tolerances are pretty good, and so are a couple of other non-counterfeit brands. They might be a bit "stickier". Lego as an overall product is behind. The prices are not just high, rather borderline questionable. Color consistency is notoriously poor with certain colors, due to cost saving measures. They stopped using colored granulated plastics, and instead inject ink.
They charge premium licensing prices and deliver stickers while Cobi is able to print it properly. Cobi is pricey mind you, but they at least deliver. Lego has no proper lighting, which opened the market for Fun Whole. They butchered and killed their robotics line up of Mindstorns. Lego butchered their Technic electronics with compatibility breakage and forced app usage. Lego abuses the that brand to keep selling model cars with few functions. Lego abused the Technic brand to publish a Mars Rover which has a design failing suspension and zero chassis stability.
For cost savings, they fill the invisible insides with random colored blocks, drowning alternate uses.
Their product photos are misleading, with photoshopped headlights which don't exist and other trickery.
Lego has likely a way too big catalogue, sells perhaps not enough of most, and goes quantity over quality.
The truth is, there are very well designed sets, with prints, no random colors, at acceptably high prices and they are adorable. And I would and maybe will purchase them and have done so not long ago. It's the amount of crap which comes out. I often assume the Internet scandalizes Lego's state, and of course they do, but when I walk past my local Lego shops, I see terrible designs, at ridiculous prices.
If Lego would position themselves as a mainstream brand at medium prices, nobody would bat an eye. It's them often surcharging 50% above competition at lower quality which grinds people's gears really badly.
Man, comments like this are why I love the internet (and the current culture on Lemmy); You have given me a tiny glimpse into a part of the world I'm oblivious to; it's a reminder that basically everything that exists actually has a mind-blowing level of hidden depth and complexity, and people who care about these niche areas enough that this texture is their life.
It makes me feel small, but in a good way.
Can you give me a few examples of other good quality companies? I am looking to diversify, but I want the new sets to be Lego-comaptible.
It's that moved away from big sets of random blocks to specialized kits.