LEGO has rivals, and the trade wars are encouraging some of the Chinese-based alternatives to redirect their marketing efforts toward Europe. However, LEGO has its own homegrown (or at least European) alternatives that are also chipping away at the market.

I’ve decided to write about the experience, because as someone who’d never before built any kind of LEGO kit despite having very almost reached the grand old age of 40, my brain (firmly stuck in its creative thinking and arting ways) really had its work cut out for it.