LEGO vs. MECCANO

Lego and Meccano are amongst the most reknown model construction systems for children of ages 6 to 14 and up to 16 years old. They drastically differ however since Lego bricks require no tools to be assembled while Meccano relies on the use of a screwdriver and a wrench to fix together the various parts with bolts and nuts.
If you're hesitating between them for your kid's birthday especially they both sell at incredibly high prices, here's how they compare:

Topic	LEGO	MECCANO
Parts relate to a specific model to build	Yes	Yes
Detailed instructions for building the model	Yes	Yes
Parts assembly	By pressing parts (mainly bricks shaped) together with some force.	By bolts and nuts. Tools are provided to tighten the bolts.
Parts material	Plastic	Metal or Plastic
Required level of dexterity to assemble a model	Relatively low. Some parts of difficult access, necessity to press the parts together at the right place to avoid disassembling others. Bricks fit exactly at their intended place, no need to adjust.	Relatively high. Necessity to hold a tool in each hand. The model is first assembled without fully tightening the bolts, then tightened progressively all along the progress while adjusting the metal parts spacing, orientation, etc.
Usual time to assemble a complex model	A few hours	A few days for a similar number of parts.
Easiness of disassembling a model for creating another out of a child's imagination	High, the parts are more difficult to disassemble than to assemble but are so colorful and vary in many shapes and uses that it can be quite easily converted into another free shape.	Medium, the same tools are required to dismantle a built model which remains easier than the assembly because no adjustments are to be made. It is more difficult to imagine and build a different model than the one given in the box.
Price	Excessive	Excessive
Availability	Very widely distributed	Lesser availability

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LEGO

​The below creature was made out of a 13 year old boy's imagination out of various Lego parts. many being from the model pictured to the right. The relative easiness of dismantling and re-assembling models encourages kids to create their own robots, superheroes, vehicles, etc.

The various Lego parts and bricks of several models can end-up being mixed all together in compartment boxes and sorted by type, size, color, etc. before being re-assembled into any shape and model. The educational level of Lego is obviously increased in this case compared to the construction of the exact given model and its step-by-step instruction manual.

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MECCANO

This miniature Eiffel tower requires a higher dexterity to be assembled compared to bricks construction as it involves holding a tool with each hand, handling small nuts, working on both sides of a model, making adjustments to the metal parts prior to tightening the bolts, etc.

Dismantling it for building another model out of free imagination could not be as obvious as in the case of bricks, but requires higher skills and a lot of willingness which is of a higher educational value. The method of assembly is similar or identical to real life construction activities.

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