[zirgs]

Lego was expensive during my childhood as well. There's a reason why there were lots of Lego knock-off brick sets that weren't fully compatible (similar size, but wrong tolerances - so they didn't stick together very well) with actual Lego bricks. But adults who bought those sets for their kids didn't know better.

[ant6n]

Nowadays, the cheap knock offs are so good that you’re basically only getting the Lego for the name. I was impressed when my wife got one for the kid, but also I somehow don’t want them to mix with the „real“ ones, it’ll be hard to separate them later.

[zirgs]

But are they compatible with "real" bricks?

[ant6n]

Yes. Hard to distinguish except for the trademark on the nobs.