> I think LEGO has done a great marketing job here... never buy something that is not LEGO, it might be bad quality or scam.

I don't think that was LEGO. I think that was just the off brands being pretty university awful and people caught on.

I'm going through a bucket of loose parts right now, separating the off brands from the LEGO. There are at least 6 different brands in there. The difference is almost always obvious.

And when it's not and the part sneaks its way into my main collection, I can instantly tell when I use it because it either doesn't fit, or fits incorrectly.