[delichon]

These kits can have extraordinary longevity. I was playing with Lincoln Logs in 1967. Turns out they got started in 1918. Lego bricks have been around since 1945. The moat created by seriously delighting your customers at a young age is large.

[rapnie]

It is a really nice concept. I had never heard of it. But then as GenX at young age I played with Fishertechnik [0] more than with Lego. Around since 1966 [1].

[0] https://www.fischertechnik.de/en

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik

[shagie]

I'd love to play with fischertechnik again...

https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/industry-and-universities -- Factorio on a shelf would be neat (but "request quote" tends to suggest its out of my price range https://www.studica.com/fischertechnik/fischertechnik-factor... )

https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/maker

----

I first saw fischertechnik at an engineering expo at the local university in the 80s. There was a terminal and you'd enter the type of candy you wanted, and it had a robotic system that got it from the shelving... which was neat. The backside of it had another robotic system that got a piece of candy from a conveyer belt (of many different ones), identified it, and put it in the now empty spot.

[aidenn0]

Construx is what I played with. It was only sold for a few years.

[patwolf]

I too had construx. I probably used them more than Lego because they were better suited for large structures. It's a shame they don't make them any more.

[reaperducer]

Don't forget Erector Sets.

I spend untold hours failing to build a cable tramway between my mother's dresser and bed.

But at least now I'm an expert at pylon design!

[eru]

> The moat created by seriously delighting your customers at a young age is large.

I'm not sure that's enough: most kids wouldn't be able to tell a genuine Lego brick from a knock-off.

(Lego famously has insane quality control on their tolerances. But I haven't had any trouble with knock-off bricks so far either.)

[estearum]

I'm sure that Lego still captures virtually all of the revenue in this category, no?

[eru]

Maybe, I'm not sure. Though Wikipedia demonstrates that you don

[eru]

that you don't need to make a lot of money to suck the revenue out of a sector.

[lostlogin]

> The moat created by seriously delighting your customers at a young age is large.

I wish Meccano would get its shit together. I can’t see anything I want on their limited site and there is so much cool stuff that could be made.

https://www.meccano.com/

[touggourt]

You may found them on the Eitech website. It is a german compatible brand. https://www.eitech.de/en