I was obsessed with Lego as a kid, and would like to get into the hobby once again, not as an investment, but for the fun of it.
I am huge fan of Star Wars, and Lego star wars seem to be all the rage nowadays, but looking at the sets, they seem to be awfully overpriced for what they seem offer.
I am looking for something that will be fun to build, and not terribly pricey (not more than cca 180€). Preferably fantasy or scifi inspired.
The Medieval Blacksmith set was the one I was going to suggest! That is a good choice. Also, they are retiring it at the end of the year, so if you want it, get it soon.
The original Galaxy Explorer was my first large set as a child, I purchased this one because of that. I ended up loving it so much I picked up two more boxes so I can do alternative builds with it.
The Galaxy Explorer is a fantastic build, and even better finished product (imo). I love just randomly swooshing it around the place; and I'm 27 years old.
I don't know if one gets brigaded here as well as on reddit, but if you actually want to have a good building experience, with better quality bricks and don't care about the sets as an investment, go to brick alternatives. Mouldking has a ton of cool star wars sets that are much cheaper per piece.
I stopped buying LEGO™ for years now, the alternatives only get better and LEGO™ only gets worse. The only reason to buy LEGO™ nowadays is to keep the sets closed and hope they get even more expensive in the future... They even stopped B-Models. They know their customers...
I have been collecting LEGO for decades and other than a few instances (brittle brown and reds) I have not noticed LEGO getting worse. More expensive, but not getting worse.
I have definitely noticed it. Clutch power and stability is still great as ever, but ugly mold marks, color mismatches, scratches on larger transparent pieces out of the box, low quality of prints on pieces and misprints in instructions are all things that have noticeably increased for me over the last years.
As the other commenter said, they are of similar or better quality than Lego, but be aware that they also feature a higher clutch power generally. That sounds like a good thing initially, until you need to connect two parts of a build with a lot of studded connection surface between them, or try to get two stacked plates apart again. They're still great, it's just something to be aware of. I personally prefer the lower clutch power of Lego, it feels more nicely balanced to me.
Quality wise? Barely. LEGO bricks are of course branded but that's the main difference by now. They are compatible with each other as well if that's what you're asking.
There are people who buy Lego sets and keep them sealed in hopes that their value on the aftermarket will rise drastically once it's not being produced anymore.