I have a bone to pick with LEGO. LEGO destroyed Erector sets. Erector sets were great because they were metal parts that you screwed together, and the machines you built look like machines. (My mom was reluctant to get me an Erector set, assuming I could not handle the tiny nuts and bolts. But I had no difficulty with them.)
There is two kinds of Lego (actually, a couple more but for this two will do). Lego bricks and Lego Technic. Lego Technic was conceived from day #1 to make proper machinery possible, the colors you are free to ignore. The old Technic sets such as https://thelegocarblog.com/2011/11/20/lego-technic-8860-car-... this one were really quite nice from a mechanical point of view.
Lego created the technic line because in Europe 'Fischer Technik' (from the factory that makes those plugs to hang stuff on the wall) was eating their lunch, especially in Germany and NL, two major markets for Lego. Fischer Technik was both more durable and far better suited to building machines than Lego and they had a whole line of electronic components to go with it.
Erector sets and Meccano were fantastic too, but not nearly as quick to build with, nor did they stand the test of time as well, clearly Lego did something right in making this stuff accessible.
So Lego did not 'destroy' anything, it all still exists it's just that the markets have shifted considerably and with Lego being heirloom grade plastic some of the bricks that we have here are now in their 6th decade and still being used by my kids.
I haven't thought about Fischer Technik for about a decade. Back in high school, there was a Principles of Engineering class (part of the Project Lead the Way curriculum). One of the projects was to make a marble sorter.
My group wanted to make a continuous belt marble sorter, rather than fully processing one marble then working on the next. Our chute to sort to buckets at the end didn't move very fast though. On the demonstration to the teacher, one of the marbles rolled along the seam between two buckets, only to fall into the correct bucket giving us 100% accuracy. He wasn't impressed with that part, but gave us the grade regardless.
In Uruguay and other spanish-speaking countries those were called "mecanos" (which, judging by other local customs such as calling sneakers "championes" and bubblegum "chicles" was probably a trade name) and they were great. I'm from 1978 and got to play with some sets from my dad (who's from '49). Besides being entertaining, they were a great way to develop mechanical affinity (if that's the right expression in English? I mean things like knowing how far to turn a screw so that it's as tight as it can be but you don't break the piece)
Sadly, you can't get them anymore here, at least not ones good in quality. There are similar building games but they all feel rather cheap and I know from personal experience they only survive a few repurposing of the pieces.
I do love LEGOs though, even though I played with copies in my childhood as my parents couldn't afford the originals. My main gripe with them is the sets. As a child, I just had a bunch of blocks and would build whatever I wanted. Now you can still buy "just bricks" but most of what kids get at stores are sets that tell them what to build. They feel more like 3D puzzles than building games.
Erector-like sets and LEGO-like sets can go together well though: I enjoyed demolishing my brick buildings with my mecano machines :)
In Uruguay and other spanish-speaking countries those were called "mecanos" (which, judging by other local customs such as calling sneakers "championes" and bubblegum "chicles" was probably a trade name)
Take a look at Cobi toys for the less garish models, although they aren't going to be like Technic sets.
I still have my old erector set for my kids, as well as several boxes of knex. When I was young, I eventually lost all interest in legos once I had an erector set and a large enough knex supply.
Those erector set electric motors were downright scary and I have many memories of bruised and cut fingers from making an airplane with a single odd numbered hole bar.
Is that really a bad thing? Minor things like that teach the kids how to handle tools and machinery, so they can operate safely the dangerous tools adults use. Like most boys, I had to learn the hard way to not put my finger in a light socket, and how to not stab myself when the screwdriver slips.
As my professor would say "We learn by doing!" I learned so much from my erector set: about the dangers of spinning objects, how gears mesh, and even seemingly minor things like how frustrating tiny screws and nuts are when you are still learning the required fine motor control.
I took the fine motor control for granted until I saw some young adults unable to get the blade of a screwdriver in the slot, then apply force to keep it in the slot and turn at the same time.
(Maybe that's why people keep reinventing the screw head, so I need multiple sets of screwdrivers. arrgh)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133855778156
Lego machines look like cheap plastic crap with all those bright colors.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/airbus-h175-rescue-helico...
Sorry I just gored all the Lego lovers, but that's the way it is.