The unfinished list of alternative brick toys or the non-Lego ones

This post will be edited from time to time and will collect my thoughts on the alternatives to Lego bricks.

Good Alternatives but almost as costly:

Mega bloks
http://www.megabloks.com/

They make good quality bricks that are compatible with good old Lego.  They also have partnerships with such stellar properties like Marvel, Halo and World of Warcraft.


UPDATE (9/8/2013)
Currently the Hello Kitty sets are on sale in most Manila toy outlets.

Kre-o
http://www.hasbro.com/kre-o/en_US/

Made by Korean manufacturer Oxford who started out with Lego knock-offs.  The Kre-O toys are distributed by big time player Hasbro and is home to brick toy models for Transformers, Battleship and Star Trek

UPDATE (9/8/2013)

Currently most of the non-selling sets are at 50% off in local toy stores (for example the set with Wheeljack and another bot is now at 1000 pesos)

The Cheaper Alternatives:

Star Diamond   

What I personally consider as the closest you can get to Lego without getting actual Lego bricks.  This Chinese manufacturer has come up with top notch models that have amazing build quality.  I also turn to Star Diamond to get some military green bricks as well as some unusual brick shapes









Sluban     

http://www.slubanshop.com/

Sluban is my next go to manufacturer for cheap bricks after Star Diamond.  They even have a line of actual transforming models (something Kre-O can't seem to do with their own Transformers line) which was extremely enjoyable to build and play with.








Enlighten
http://enlighten-brick.com/


Rounds out my top choices for cheap Lego alternatives.  Their sets come with a lot of the accessories that you'll normally find in Lego sets.






Ausini

http://ausini.en.alibaba.com/

Recently I've added this to the list of my go to alternatives for cheap brick toys.  Their minifigs are close to the Lego minifigs and they have increase very quickly my collection of minifig accessories.  Me and my girlfriend found their Farm series and their Pirate series to be fun sets to build.

COGO/Loongon

http://www.cogobricks.com/en/index.asp


Wange

http://wangetoys.en.ec21.com/

Jubilax

Banbao