I have built the Hasegawa, Academy, & Monogram F-86 kits in 1/48 scale. Hasegawa & Academy kits are very similar. Academy kit is slightly cheaper & has 2 nice pilot figures included, but I have heard many complain about the quality of the decals. Monogram kit is nice, & cheapest of the 3, but has minor shortcomings which I felt I needed to improve when I built it.
I would say that Hasegawa & Academy kits are pretty even in quality, & give Academy a slight edge because of the lower price. If you just want a simple build for short money, Monogram gets the nod.
There is also plenty of aftermarket stuff available which can be used on any of these kits to make them stand out. Also, you can probably get any of these kits & AM parts on Ebay at a reasonable price