Juhang Garden Street Modular Building Review - Set 86012

 

Hello fans of alternative bricks!  Welcome back to Its Not Lego, my blog about alt Lego brands.  Don't forget to check out my custom brick builds on my other blog bricksandfigs.blogspot.com.

Today's review stems from a video I saw from Scottie Hui's Youtube channel brickmeupscottie, where he reviewed the Juhang Garden Street modular.  I saw that it was on sale on Aliexpress, so I decided to order the modular.  It was just under $100 CDN delivered.  

I've never heard of the Jujang brand before, so this will be my first time reviewing this brand.  This modular building is one of three in a series by Juhang, all of them done in a white and black theme.  There's several vendors on Aliexpress that stock these new modulars.

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These buildings have a medditerranean vibe like those villas you might see in the Greek islands.   I like it but not sure if this new white building will fit with all of my other more traditional modular buildings.

In this post I'm going to look at the finished Garden Street modular, but if you're interested to see the unbagging and build process, I made a separate post about that here.

So this set got my attention because of the curved addition to the building.  It's something I haven't seen in many other modular buildings.  The white brick is contrasted by the pink flowered vine on the front of the building.  There are two terraces in this design, one over the circular addition and another on the third floor.

This building also has a small empty greenhouse type structure on the right side of the building.

This three storey modular building is supposed to be some kind of hotel based on the the sticker sheet found in the set, but to me, it looks more like a regular house.

All three floors have interior furnishings and tiled floors which is a bonus.  There's even patio furniture on the terrace and rooftop deck.

Looking at the rear of the building, there's a doorway and steps leading out, plus a small balcony on the second floor.  Getting to the second and third floors is by the stairs, however there's no access to the rooftop deck from the third floor.

Speaking of the rooftop deck, let's check it out now.  There's a patio table with umbrella and two chairs,  and a barbeque with a hose attached to a propane tank.

 There's an enclosure under the brown plate that can house a battery pack for some LED lights that come with this set.  I didn't use them, but it's nice to have this extra feature available.

Here's a closer look at the front and rear facades of the third floor.  Roman style columns flank the windows.  Three pots of flowers adorn the upper terrace.  The jewelled lights are a nice design feature.

The back to the third floor is open.

The interior of the third floor features a tall cabinet, a desk and office chair, a bed with floor lamp, a small table with potted plant and a rug.  There's two protrusions in the stairwell but I have no idea what their purpose is.

Third floor, different view.

Here's the second floor balcony.

The modular building was not originally designed with any glass in the windows on the second floor, so I added my own.

The second floor is furnished with a bookshelf, a coffee table and sofa, and a coffee maker with  water dispenser.  The doorway leads out to the terrace.

Different view of the second floor.  Not sure what that white angle block is supposed to be on the end table.

Here's a look at the ground floor, rear access.

And here's the greenhouse.  I had a hard time trying to get the window glass into the greenhouse slanted windows.  I didn't want to force them and end up breaking the glass, so I simply left them off for now.  BTW, that green motorcycle does come with the set, although I would have preferred that it be parked around the back.

The front door with steps and columns.  Not really a fan of the first floor window design.  The original set came with a white flag over the door but I changed it to a red flag instead.  That and the 2nd floor window glass were my only mods to this set.

Here's the first floor layout.  As you come in through the front door you are greeted by this dining room table and chairs.  There's two round tables that flank the entrance. The only furniture in the extension is a cabinet.  There is a stove and sink located right at the base of the stairwell.  What a weird location, because it would have made more sense to put it into the building extension.  

A two piece bathroom can be found under the stairwell, but I laughed when I saw the glass door for the bathroom.  No privacy here!

Another view of the main floor.

Here is the Juhang Garden Street modular positioned next to my other modular buildings for a size reference.   This is a rather tall building, primarily due to the very high first floor.  While the flowers give it a boost of colour, without them, I think this modular would be rather drab.  I'm wondering what sort of architectural accents I could use to liven it up if I decide to remove the flowers?

Bonus pic: Juhang building with all the floors separated.

Bonus pics #2:  Every piece of furniture included in the set.

Before I wrap up this post, just wanted to share that this set comes with 6 Lego style minifigures.  There's a family of four, ie mom, dad and two kids plus a delivery guy and a balloon seller.  They all have two sided heads, here's the happy faces ...

... and the not so happy faces, lol.

So here's my final two cents on this modular building:

For under $100 CDN, this is just an average priced modular building with the number parts totalling 1914 pieces as per the guide.   It features a small sticker sheet (that I didn't use), six decent minifigures, some LED strip lighting and battery box.

The build is not difficult but it uses a lot of 2x5 and 2x2 bricks instead of the traditional 1x4, 1x6 bricks normally used when making walls.  I think that's why the brick count is low for this set because a modular building of this size is usually over 2000 pieces.  Each floor of the modular building gets progressively smaller.  Maybe that also contributes to the smaller brick part count.  

I find the brick clutch to be extremely tight, which some may not like.  Just to separate the different floors from each other, I have to use an X-acto knife to pry open between the seams.  That's something I've never had to do with any of the other alt Lego brand modular buildings.  To mitigate this problem, I may have to substitute some of the bricks that clutch too tightly with some other bricks in my stash.  The brick colour is consistent on the white bricks and the tiled pieces.  I'm pleased that every interior floor is tiled and has a decent amount of furnishings.  The minifigures are decent also.

There were some parts I didn't use, such as the 2x14 floor support plates (not necessary because the brick clutch was already tight).

I didn't have any missing or deformed parts with this set but I actually got  some larger arch bricks which are not used anywhere in this set.  If you want to see my unbagging and build pics of this modular, check out the blog post here.

My rating out of 5 stars?  I give it a 4 star rating for the reasons above.

Hope you've enjoyed my review of the Juhang Garden Street modular building!  Let me know what you think in the comment box below!

Sembo Coffee Shop Modular Building 601143 Review

Hey brick fans, welcome back to Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com!  Today I'll be showing you my build pictures from my latest modular building.  It's a coffee shop from the Sembo brand, set number is 601143.   Don't forget to check out my other blog over at bricksandfigs.blogspot.com too!

This set has a total of 1295 brick pieces and comes with six minifigures, a cat and a bicycle. I'd normally only expect two or three minifigures for a set this size, so extra minfigs is quite generous.  There are two sheets of mostly coffee themed stickers, with a particularly large graffiti sticker for the wall.  This is a three storey building that sits on a 16x32 baseplate.  I purchased this set from Aliexpress around the end of June 2021 and it arrived around mid July, so the Aliexpress delivery times were acceptable.

The instruction booklet is printed on decent quality paper and the instructions are easy to follow.  The instructions are broken down into two sections and the numbered bags of parts reflect which section that pertain to.

The first thing you might notice about this building is the rather unflattering use of dark yellow bricks and light yellow bricks, rounded out by brown framed windows. Not gonna lie, this is one ugly building in my opinion.  But what drew me to this set was the french style architecture of the top floor, which has some similarity to the Lego Bookshop roofline.

All three floors of this modular are furnished inside although only the main floor is fully tiled.  Sembo blocks are generally of good quality however I did find a deformed brick in this set.  Other than that all pieces were accounted for and had decent clutch.

I didn't apply any of the stickers but there are some tiles ready for some coffee posters, flanking an unexpected pink and green gramophone.  The counter has some mugs and baked goods with a large shelf on the back wall that has more mugs and a coffee pot.  There's a winding staircase that goes over the back entrance to the second floor.  Other accessories on the main floor include a microwave oven and cash register.

On the second floor of the coffee shop there are two round tables with seats and some glass mugs.  Other furnishings include two pedestals with flowers and a bookshelf under the second floor staircase.

At the back of the building, there is an awning over the door, with light and a cool looking dumpster.

The third floor of the shop is furnished with a bed accompanied by a night table and lamp.  There's a door that leads out to a back terrace adorned with flowers.

Here's a few close-up shots of the front elevation.  All of the lights on this set are a spooky dark orange colour, unlike other modular sets where typically the lights would be clear glass. Even the street light is dark and foreboding.

Following the standard format, this modular building can be separated at each floor.

All of the interiors in one shot.

Some more pics.

There you have it, the completed Sembo Coffee shop, set 601143. 

Thanks for checking out my review and see you in my next post.   Feel free to let me know what you think of this set in the comments below.   Bye!

Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern (Not Lego) Set Review

Hello brick fans!  Welcome back to Its Not Lego, where I review the latest Lego alternative building sets.  Today, I'm going to show you this new modular building from the Zhe Gao brand.   It's a three storey building called the Hill Tavern. This will be my first Zhe Gao branded set, and I'm excited to see what the quality is like, so let's go!

TL:DR

Here's the synopsis, if you just want the details for the set.

Model: Zhe Gao Hill Tavern
Set Number: QL0935
Number of pieces: 1367+
Number of minifigures: 3

Fake Lego?  No.
Missing Parts: N/ Deformed pieces: N/ Scratched pieces: N
#itsnotlego Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  The set is good value for the price but the minifigures are not Lego standard, and there are a few bricks with clutch problems.

The Instruction Manual and Sticker Sheet

The Hill Tavern's instruction manual has 46 pages.  Mine was all wrinkly and has seen better days.   Here's the front and back covers and the first page.

The Hill Tavern is part of Zhe Gao's Street View series.  The set number is listed on the manual as QL0935 but there's no piece count.

On the back page of the manual, it shows you the three other modular buildings that make up the Zhe Gao Street View series.  I looked up the set codes and these are the other Street View modulars pictured:

QL0934 Coffee Store

QL0935 Hill Tavern, that's the one we are reviewing today

QL0936 Rome Restaurant

QL0937 Chinese Restaurant

As you can see from the manual, there are 4 stages to the build process and there are  a total of 4 bags of parts for the set.

Here's the small sticker sheet for the Hill Tavern, which I didn't use.

The Minifigures

This Zhe Gao set comes with three minifigures, two guys and one girl.  There's one guy that looks like he works behind the counter of the Tavern.  His apron is more suited for a coffee house than a bar, don't you think?  The other male minifigure looks to be some kind of delivery person.  It's interesting to note that his skin colour is different than the other 2 minifigures.  Finally there's the female minifigure who has a really high forehead.  There are two accessory pieces which are a brown broom/mop and a lavender purse.

The minifigs are a unique design and do not follow the Lego standard so they won't be compatible with the rest of my city minifigures.  They have lots of ball joints and pose really well for extra play value.  Lego style minifigs don't have this kind of flexibility.

This is how a Zhe Gao minifigure looks before assembly.  There's an internal skeleton that has three ball joints.  It goes inside the torso piece and then that gets attached to the hip joint.  The legs are then attached to the hip ball joints.  The arms have a ball joint at the elbow and wrist.  The minifigure's head and hairpiece looks like it might be compatible with Lego friends. There's a total of 13 pieces that make up a Zhe Gao minifigure.

The Build

This is how the package looks like with the mailing sleeve removed.  As noted previously, there are 4 stages to the build so let's proceed with stage 1.

These 8 bags will build the first floor foundation of the Hill Tavern.

A progress picture of from stage 1.  The main floor is fully tiled which is a nice bonus.  The orange brown headlight bricks have very little clutch and are the worst pieces in this set.  The remainder of bricks have decent clutch and not scuffed. The window glass is just a bit hazy.   Let's move on to stage 2 now.

The stage 2 build completes the main floor with 10 bags of parts.

Some nice exterior details include the 4 carriage lights, and a small fenced off patio seating area with umbrella.  The street light is black and there's a mailbox or trash can next to it.  The contrasting sand blue and white tiling gives a nice contrast to the orange brown brick facade of the tavern.

Here's the interior of the main floor.  Navy blue and white tiles adorn the floor.  The bar area has 2 stools with eye catching turquoise blue countertop.  Other features include cabinet and drawer storage and a small cooler and a plethora of  bottles, cups and glasses.  The delivery guy is having a drink at the table.   I'm glad that the design of the building includes a staircase to the second floor.

 Please note that there is no back wall in the design of this modular.  To facilitate picture taking I've removed the support beams.

Stage 3 consists of 9 or 10 bags of parts to build the Hill Tavern's second floor.

Second floor front facade.  Yellow window frames are nicely contrasted to the orange brown bricks and sand blue accents.  I think the center white portion is mismatched and doesn't really complement the rest of the building.

The second floor interior consists of a large stairwell with sideboard and separate bedroom.   In addition to the bed, there's a floor lamp, a bookshelf, and desk and chair.   Zhe Gao is quite generous with the small accessories as evidenced by the extra mugs and bottle.

The second floor layout has a lot of wasted space that could have been put to better use.

I forgot to mention that there's a sink mirror and towel inside the bedroom.  It would be easy to reconfigure the second floor to provide a full 3 piece bath.

Here's the completed first and second floors of the Hill Tavern.

The view from the rear  so far.

The fourth and final stage begins.  It will build the third floor rooftop terrace.

The top floor of the Hill Tavern sports a very spacious terrace with seating for two and a small flower bed.  A light stand and flower pot complete the accessories. 

Enjoy the rest of the pics!

Well that's a wrap for today.  What did you think of the Zhe Gao Hill Tavern modular building?   This was my first Zhe Gao branded not Lego set.  Do you have this or the other buildings in this series?  How were they to build? Did you have a favorite? Let me know in the comments below!   See you next time, Bye!

Update (Feb 2021):  

Thanks for making it this far!  In the following months after this post, I turned the Hill Tavern into a full modular building and fully furnished the interiors of every floor.

Here are the subsequent posts specifically about the Zhe Gao Hill Tavern.  Enjoy!

1. A look at the original set          <--- you are here

2. Modular conversion         

3. First floor furnished

4. Second floor furnished        

5. Third Floor furnished

6. Bonus Pics (coming soon!)