Unboxing the JMBricklayer 70124 Mechanical Chameleon Brick Set

Hi and welcome to It's Not Lego, my blog about the latest Lego style building block sets.  I received this latest set from JMBricklayer.com, it's a very cool looking mechanical chameleon.  For this post, I'll just do an unboxing post (part 1) and I will do a full review in another post (part 2).   

Thanks to JMBricklayer for sending me the boxed set to review!  The almost neon green highlights on black background is a great color combo for the box.  The set number is 70124 with 827 pieces.

Here's the contents of the box that the chameleon building set comes in.  Let's take a closer look at what you get.

There's a good quality instruction booklet with 269 individual steps over 94 pages.

There are 5 major bags of parts accompanied by an assortment of smaller bags.

The larger bags are numbered 1 through 5  to correspond to the steps in the instruction manual.  The smaller bags contain the neon green body parts of the chameleon.  Additionally there is two other bags, one consisting of chrome plated parts and another containing a light brick and small sticker sheet.

Here's a closer look at the sticker sheet.  Just some minor stickers mostly.

Inside the manual, it shows you the breakdown of the build process using one of the corresponding bags of parts.

It's hard to tell but these are the chromed pieces that were in one of the extra bags.

Oh, here's an interesting piece, it's a 1x5 plate.  I don't think Lego makes a piece like this one.

I wonder if we will find more interesting or unique brick pieces, once we start building the mechanical chameleon.

The JMBricklayer Mechanical Chameleon is currently available for preorder on their website with early bird pricing and also on their Amazon stores in the very near future.

It will also be available from the their Amazon stores, so keep your eyes peeled for it.  That's it for now, look for an upcoming post where I build the chameleon and give you my thoughts on the building block set.

Update: part 2 of my mechanical chameleon blog post is now up.

Don't forget to check out my other building block set reviews on bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com.   Bye!

Today's Review: JMBricklayer Pink Succulent Planter Brick Set 20103

 

Hello Brick Fans!  Here's my latest quickie review, it's the Pink Succulent Planter brick set 20103 from JMBricklayer.  It's a cute little set that's a perfect display for your desk or tabletop and it makes a nice gift too.

Brand: JMBricklayer

Set: Pink Succulent Planter 20103

Theme: Botanical Collection

Piece Count: 327 pieces

Numbered bags: No

Stickers or printed pieces: None

Minifigures: None

Missing or deformed pieces: None

Extra pieces: Yes

Age Rating: 14+

The small box contains 5 un-numbered bags of parts and a thin 18 page instruction booklet.

Because there's no numbers on the part bags, I just opened them all up to see how the parts looked like.  The variety of brick pieces are Lego compatible in size and shape.

Here's the planter for the succulents.  The creamy white and pink colour along with it's shape makes it look just like a soap dish.

Let's fill this soap dish, oops I mean planter, with some dirt.

Here are the first succulent flowers, which have red petals and transparent yellow centres.  On the side, there's a small green plant with pink balls.

Next up to add to the planter is this multi-layered flower with pink and purple leaves.  It has a creamy yellow centre.

Lastly, we get an assortment of pink mini roses.  I particularly like how the flowers contrast each other.

These are the extra pieces that came with the set.  I think you have a choice of substituting the middle parts of the red flowers with either clear or yellow flowers.  Which one would you choose?

This set was easy to put together and is suitable for anyone, even kids.  Brick clutch was excellent and I think the set's age rating of 14+ could be lowered to age 6+.   With only 327 pieces and an easy to follow instruction guide, this makes a perfect brick set for that rainy day build.  

This set and many more are on sale at the JMBricklayer store.  Feel free to check them out.  You can also find JMBricklayer sets on their Amazon store.

The JMBricklayer 21102 Coffee Shop Set Review, It's Lego compatible

 It's review time at It's Not Lego and today, we will take a closer look at the JMBricklayer 21102 Coffee shop!

Update:  I modified the Coffee shop to fit my modular city!  Check out my mods here:  https://bricksandfigs.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-completely-rebuilt-jmbricklayer.html

Where to Get it

Today's set was generously provided to me by JMBricklayer.com for the purpose of the review.  

Get it from their web store, on sale right now.

Or from the JMBricklayer Amazon store (discount coupon).

For other non sale items, use my code ITSNOTLEGO15% to save 15% in the JMBricklayer web store.

Coffee Shop Details

• Brand: JMBricklayer
• Set: Coffee Shop 21102
• Theme: City Architecture
• Piece count: 1512 pieces
• Numbered bags? Yes
• Stickers or printed parts? Both
• Missing or deformed pieces: Yes
• Extra parts: Yes
• Minifigures: No
• Lighting kit: included
• Brick Quality and Clutch: Great
• Measurements (approx): 8"W x 6" D x 7.5" H
• Age Rating: 14+

Unboxing

Here's a look at what we get in the box.  Various bags of parts, an instruction manual and a small sticker sheet.  Not sure why they spelled Coffee as Coffe, both on the manual and on the printed parts.

Here's my inventory of parts bags corresponding to the steps in the manual:

step 1: 10 bags

step 2:  9 bags

step 3:  8 bags

plus one LED light strand and battery pack.

Step 1 Highlights

Assembling the base of the coffee shop.

Ooh, we got some printed parts including some milk containers, some coffee cups with logos on them, a cookie, a payment terminal and a couple of records.

Here's the coffee counter setup with room for a barista minifigure which is sadly not included.  Love the cookie jar, the coffee maker, and the coffee grinder.

Step 1 finished.  The scale of the front door doesn't match the scale of the interior, it's way too big.  It's something I'll want to fix at a later date.  The owner of the coffee shop must love the sound of old school vinyl records.

Step 2 Highlights

More printed parts! Some more cups and cookies as well as some wall art and a clock.

Interesting concept of having a giant tree inside your coffee shop.  

Now we see that all those printed pieces are placed into the adjacent seating area.  The hinged wall makes it so much easier to take pictures of the inside.

Step 3 Highlights

Misprinted signs.  Would have preferred if it said Coffee Shop instead.

Main building is complete.

Roof 1 covers the counter area and gets a nice skylight.

Roof 2 covers the tree and seating area but didn't come with any glass panes.  I wonder if this was a case of missing parts or was it designed not to have any glass in the roof.

Exterior accessories include a lamp post and a shelving unit full of plants.

The completed Coffee Shop!

The side less frequented.

Overhead view.

Bonus Pictures

The JMBricklayer Coffee shop doesn't come with any minifigures, so I added a few of my own.   Here's Betty the barista.  And there's that one sticker which is the menu board.

Shift change at the coffee counter.  Ted has come in for the night shift.

Betty takes a break before heading home, after a long day at the shop.

Now that Betty has left, Ted can play his favourite Barry Manilow songs on the record player.

Er, not everyone is a fan of Barry Manilow, sorry Ted.

Can't forget that the Coffee shop comes with an LED light string.  There's no right or wrong way to place the light strand, so I just weave it around randomly inside.

Summary

The JMBricklayer 21102 Coffee Shop set was a lot of fun to build and makes a nice addition to your building block collection, especially if you like these little shops that open up to display the detailed interior.

The bricks used were excellent quality and had great clutch as evidenced by my pictures. I really liked all the nice details behind the coffee counter and the record player was a cool bonus.  The plant stand outside was nice to have but probably wasn't really necessary.

The large tree in the sitting area provided a nice canopy for the coffee shop patrons. This set came with a lot of printed parts like coffee cups, wall art, and signage, however the menu board behind the coffee counter was a sticker.

Play value is good because you can open up the shop to display and place your own minifigures with ease. And because the bricks are Lego compatible, you can display it with all of of your other Lego and alternative brick sets.  The included LED light string is something you definitely don't get in any Lego set.

The set is not perfect though.  The entrance door is way too large for the shop despite the interior being minifigure scale.  The rooftop over the sitting area didn't come with any glass panes, so you wouldn't want to be sitting there during a rainstorm.

Let's not forget the glaring spelling mistake for Coffee on the signage either.  

Rating

Going over all the pluses and minuses, I'll give this set a rating of 4.3.  I would have rated it higher if the spelling on the sign was correct, the roof glass included, a standard sized door was used and maybe one or two minifigures included with the set.

Thanks again JMBricklayer.com for the set.  Please visit their website or their Amazon store if you get a chance. Bye for now!