Set Review: Mork 031063 Ecological Park (Lego Compatible)

 

Good day brick fans!  We are back, and this time we are looking at another Mork/XMork branded set.  This one is called the Ecological Park, and it is my second Mork building set.  The other Mork set I built was the Tooncity Flower Shop and if you missed it, you can find my review of it 👉  here.

This post is brought to you by Afobrick.com who have provided this cool little building for me to review.  Thanks, Afobrick!

👉 Please check out the latest seasonal promo from Afobrick.  They are a new store on the building block scene and if you could support them, that would be great!

Here are the details of today's set review:

Brand: Mork/Xmork

Set number: 031063

Theme: Block Module

Number of Pieces: 1506 pieces

Stickers: No

Minifigures: No

Extra parts: Yes

Deformed or missing parts: No

Brick clutch and finish: Excellent

Age Rating: 6+

Size: 21cm W x 20.5 cm H

Lighting: Yes!

Unboxing

Here's the colourful box which describes all the details on the front.  The box has seen better days, but that's ok because I don't collect cardboard. 

Although branded as Mork, the box logos say Xmork.  I'm so confused.  On the back of the box is a picture of the Ecological Park lit up.  Yes, it comes with a very nice LED light brick.

Unboxings are always fun!  Let's see what we got.

The building block set includes a glossy 74 page instruction booklet, a red brick separator, a light brick, a sprue of pink flowers, and 28 numbered parts bags broken down as follows:

Section 1: 10 bags

Section 2: 9 bags

Section 3: 9 bags

Each of the numbers correspond to the respective section in the manual.  

The Build

Section 1

The 10 bags for section 1 build one side of the Ecological Park.  There are quite a few masonry bricks in this set as well as a lot of windows.  The window glass was just a tad milky but that's to be expected from the Chinese brands.  No scratches or deformities encountered with the bricks so far, that's a good sign.

The building is quite tall and houses some tropical plants and also serves as an animal sanctuary.  There are a good number of printed parts as you will see.  The interior has a rack of plants that are being grown in the corner.  Above them are 4 bird houses with perches.  There are three tropical birds roosting there.  In the lower corner near the entrance is a tank where several frogs live.  I like how there appears to be a waterline in the tank.  We will take a closer look later.

Section 2

Section 2 builds the glass enclosure which is like a solarium.  It also makes the roof line even taller with the slanted roof.  There are some hanging vines that come down inside.  On the solarium side, we find a tropical palm tree and a pond with more frogs and some more plants.  I should mention that there is a narrow gray path that winds around the base, but I don't think it's minifig scale.  

The two sections are hinged at one end and the Ecological Park building can be displayed either opened or closed.  The hinge piece is a tad loose and doesn't really hold up very well.

Section 3

Section 3 adds the slanted roof and lots of foliage.

Like I mean a lot of foliage!  I'm guess a good third of this set is attributed to plant leaves and stems. Oh and the roof tiles too.  I chose not to use any of the pink parts on the sprue.

Entrance to the building is at the side.  You can pretty much put the trees and foliage where ever you want.

Here's the back of the building complete with plants and vines.  The chain is supposed to hang a printed sign that says plants, but I thought that was pretty redundant so I didn't use it.

There are four more birds perched outside.  Can you find them all?  

So the set doesn't come with any minifigures, but I added a few so you could see how big the set relative to the figure.  Based on the scale of the minifig, this building would probably be about 25 to 30 feet tall in real life or approx 8 or 9 meters tall.

Here's a closer look inside the interior.

There are three roof panels, two of which are tiled and one is comprised of windows. They can all come off by lifting.

Brick clutch was good and they needed to be, because there were a lot of 1x2 plates used.  They could have been replaced by longer 1x4 or 1x6 plates to give more structural rigidity.  I found the area with the black tile under the roof line to be the trickiest to put together.  Try not to press too hard here or it will fall off.  This is more a design issue, than a brick clutch problem.  I will probably modify it later to remedy the problematic area.

Here's a closer look at the pond and plants area.

Oh man, every day someone has to go and clean up all of the bird doo-doo!  Be careful they don't poop on your head!  (Bird poop and minifigure, accessories not included).

Hey, but what is included in the set are the following animals:

7 tropical birds pooping

3 cats pouncing

2 dogs sitting

and 5 froggies croaking

(custom stand not included)

But wait, there's more!  The Mork Ecological Park also comes with a light brick and attached LED light string.

The instruction manual pretty much tells you to put the led lights however you want but they do provide a picture of the recommended location.  

Summary

So if you are a fan of plants and animals, you will probably like this set.  It's got a lot of nice details and best of all printed parts and no stickers.  The bonus light brick really makes this building shine! (excuse the pun).  I thought that the build quality was ok except for the area under the roof and the hinge that connects the two parts of the building together.  For a display set, you need to turn on the light or open it up so you can see the interior.  Oh and add a few minifigures for more fun.

For those of you up to the challenge, this would make a nice full sized modular building. I'd expand the footprint and provide more space on the inside so minifigures could take a tour.  I'd also provide a second floor viewing platform with ladder or stairs so that the birds could be better viewed by the minifigures.

I'd give this set a 4 out of 5.  Decent little set overall.

👉 Here's the link to the Ecological Park set on Afobrick's website.  Don't forget to use my code itsnotlego to get an extra 5% off your entire purchase.

Thanks for looking!  And don't forget to check out 👉 Afobrick's latest promo!