[axod]

> "Don't you find lego is very kit-based (you buy a box and get to build a specific "thing")"

People always say this about Lego recently. They still have a ton of generic building block kits which are great.

My kids love doing both though. They love having the kits, building them, and keeping them 'for display'. But we have boxes and boxes of general lego bits, of which they're always using to build hogwarts castle, a school, or some contraption.

I think Meccano takes more patience. But good when they're older.

K'Nex is ok, but not as flexible in terms of what you can build with it than Lego IMHO.