JMBricklayer 30109 Medieval Farmhouse Building BlockSet Review

Hi brick fans!

I have a couple of favourite building block themes that I'm into at the moment.  The first theme that piques my interest is Japanese themed modular buildings.  I'm a big fan of the varied architectural styles and I've collected every Japanese themed building that Cada blocks put out.

My second most favourite theme would have to be medieval buildings.  I love the rustic style of buildings that have lots of wooden beams, thatched roofs, brick walls  and stone facades.    My medieval building collection already consists of a guardhouse and watchtowers, a windmill, a medieval pier inn and an apothecary shop. My goal is to create an entire medieval building block village complete with townsfolk, soldiers and livestock.

So with today's featured set, I'm that much closer to establishing my medieval village.  It's the Medieval Town Farmhouse building block set 30109 which is my newest addition thanks to JMBricklayer. 

JMBricklayer stands for Joy Makes Brilliance, and they are an up and coming Lego compatible building block distributor and manufacturer.  They have authorization from the manufacturers of building block sets for their global online distribution, with channels on Amazon US, CA, UK, DE, including their official worldwide online store at JMBricklayer.com.

I'll be doing my normal set unboxing and build.  I'll look at the brick quality and the compatibility to my other medieval sets with my recommendation and rating at the end of the blog post.

Some Details about this set

• Brand: JMBricklayer
• Set and Number: Medieval Town Farmhouse 30109
• Theme: Medieval
• Piece Count: 2024 pieces
• Age Rating: 14+
• Numbered Bags: Yes
• Stickers: No
• Printed Parts: No
• Minifigures: No
• Lighting Effect: No
• Extra pieces: Yes
• Pricing:  Currently on sale for only $62.99 (regular price is $89.99)

Unboxing

All JMBricklayer sets I've received so far come in their own sturdy black boxes, unlike the bagged packages you would get from Temu or Aliexpress.

Here's the glossy 74 page instruction manual that comes with the set.   Inside the manual, there is a reference to the designer of the set named LetzPlay from Malaysia.   I have previously built another  colourfully designed set by LetzPlay called the Mork 031051 Toon City Flower shop which I reviewed here.

Inside the manual, we find that there will be three stages of construction to build the medieval farmhouse.

There are 11 bags of parts for the first stage.

With another 11 parts bags for stage two.

Stage three has the most bags of parts at 16 bags.

Finally, there is an un-numbered bag that contains several baseplates and brick plates.  A bonus red brick separator is also included.

Constructing the Medieval Farmhouse

In stage 1, we start by constructing the base, composed of brown, dark gray, green, sand green and dark tan brick plates.

Here is the raised stone foundation which the farmhouse will sit on.  There is some good storage space here which isn't used.  The designer should have put some crates and barrels down here with access via a trap door.  I would have also liked to see some smooth tile pieces installed to make it easier to remove the first floor from the foundation, but that's not the case here.

Having built the foundation, we now build the interior of the first floor.  There is a stone fireplace, a some barrels containing some tools and a table with 2 chairs and a frying pan.  There's also a ladder to the second floor.   This completes stage one of the build.

In stage two of the build, we put up the walls for the first floor.  There is an dark alcove behind the fireplace which doesn't have any furnishings.

Similarly, there is an arched addition which is also under utilized.  This would be an ideal place to put a suit of armour and a weapons cache, like axes and daggers.

There are stone steps that lead up to the arched doorway of the farmhouse.   I will probably add a wooden railing so that people don't fall off the high patio.   Safety first!

I like this part of the building where it looks like it used to be part of some old castle or fortress that has now been incorporated into the farmhouse.  There is a small wooden gate that can be opened to a small area which we will discover later is a pigpen.

The last part of stage two is the addition of a large tree with pink and purple leaves.

There are opening windows on every side of the farmhouse to let the light in. The exterior has brown wooden beams installed over white and sand green brick walls.  Stage two is now complete. Time to build the second floor of the farmhouse.

Here's a look at the build progress during stage three.  We have added some roofing, and windows.

The second floor serves as a bedroom, but the furnishings, again are very sparse.  There is basically only a bed and a small table with a candle on top of it.

A little surprise for the farmhouse set is the stash of gold coins that are hidden in the bedroom table.  You get more gold coins than can actually fit in the table.  I would use one of those treasure chest parts to store the rest of the gold coins and hide them in the foundation under the first floor.   Oh btw, the farmhouse set doesn't come with any minifigures, so you will need to add your own figures to the set if you want.

Second storey structure finished.

Adding the final chimney assembly.

Building the roof panels.

The two roof panels are attached to three clips on either side of the top beam.

Now we can place the second floor onto the first floor.

Are you ready for the reveal??

Here's the finished Medieval Town Farmhouse!

I think this side is the best view, with the blossoming tree, steps leading up to the front entrance and the stone chimney.  There were a lot of spare pieces to decorate the landscaping around the foundation.

This is another one of my favourite views of the medieval townhouse.

Logs for the wood burning fireplace, can be found at the side of the farmhouse.

Here's the pig pen with the opening gate which we looked at earlier.  The pink hog is included with the set.

There's a door from the bedroom that leads out into a small outdoor area on the second floor.  In the past it probably served as a place to shoot arrows from, now, you can enjoy your morning coffee.

Time to sweep away all of the leaves!

Final Thoughts

The JMBricklayer Medieval Town Farmhouse is one of my new favourite sets.  It looks great all around, and it fits in nicely with some of my other medieval themed sets.   Brick quality and clutch was great and I had no issues.  The steps in the manual were easy to follow and the brick pieces were easily distinguishable from each other.

I felt that the set cold have included at least a couple of minifigures to give the display more life.  Well, at least they included the pig.

Where I felt that the farmhouse was lacking was the use of the interior space.  I feel that the inside was quite empty and could have used more furnishings on both the first and second floor.  Plus I would have liked to have seen an access door to the space under the first floor with more crates and barrels underneath.

Despite the lack of furnishings, I still really loved the design of the farmhouse. So my rating for this set is 4.7 out of 5 with points deducted for lack of minifigs and lack of extra furnishings.

Here's a final pic with the JMBricklayer Medieval Farmhouse next to the JMBricklayer Observation Guard Tower and the Funwhole Apothecary shop.

More about the JMBricklayer brand

You will find that all JMBricklayer sets are tax free and always shipped in sturdy premium boxes fulfilled quickly by Amazon, directly from their US, CA, UK & DE warehouses. They offer free replacements for missing or broken parts. Their Trustpilot page (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.jmbricklayer.com) has a solid 4.5+ rating.

Here are some other JMBricklayer Medieval themed sets.  For the non sale sets, you can use my special discount code itsnotlego15% to save an extra 15% off.

Don't forget to check out the JMBricklayer Facebook and Instagram pages to participate in their promotions and monthly contests where you can win free sets and get exclusive discount codes up to 60% off.

Want to see more JMBricklayer set reviews?  Check them out at https://bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com.

Thanks for looking!   Bye!

Review of the Lego Skatepark 60290 Replica Set / Lari 60053

 

Hello brick fans!

I bought a bootlego replica of the Lego 60290 Skatepark set from Aliexpress and I'm here to tell you all about it today!

Here's the set details:

Set Name and Number:  Lari 60053 Skatepark

Replica of: Lego 60290 Skatepark

Number of pieces: 217 pieces

Minifigures: 4 of them

Stickers: Yes

Printed Pieces: Yes

Numbered bags: Yes but they don't correspond to the building instructions.

Price paid: $13.91 CDN or about $10.24 USD

I ordered the Skatepark set from a store called China Iwonders Store on Aliexpress.  I've never seen this particular clone of the Lego Skatepark set 60290 on Aliexpress before, and the price of  about $14 CDN was fairly decent So I decided to take the plunge.

I bought the set on March 28 and it was immediately shipped, with subsequent delivery to my porch in a mere 11 days.

Here's the packaged building block set with the 16 page instruction booklet.

This sticker sheet was taped to one of the pages inside the manual.

I found four bags of parts and one of the newer baseplates.   The bags are numbered 1 thru 4 but I soon discovered that the parts of bag 1 did not correspond to the steps in the instruction manual.

Since there are only 217pcs in the set, I just opened up all of the parts bags and dumped them on the table.

Here's all of the minifigure parts I picked out from the pile.

And here all all of the printed pieces, consisting of 6 soda/pop can lids, a cell phone and several signs for the fictional product Vita Rush.

There are a total of 4 minifigures that come with the Skatepark set.  There's a female who looks to be the product marketing rep for Vita Rush, and a young lady with a purple skateboard and matching helmet.  The hair is part of the helmet and she doesn't get any extra hairpiece.  She does however have an alternate face.

The other two minifigures are male, with the younger lad riding a bmx style bike and the older guy in a wheelchair.  Both minifigs are wearing bike helmets and they don't have any additional hairpieces either.

Here's the back printing on all four of the minifigures.

Accessories for the Skatepark set include this baseplate and some ramp pieces.  It's up to you how you want to arrange the equipment on the baseplate.

More ramps and guard rails to keep the atheletes busy.

This offroad vehicle is included in the set and it's probably used by the marketing rep to travel to all of the different events.  There are a couple of pylons with flags to promote the Vita Rush product.  Also included in the set is a small palm tree.

Regarding the quality of the bricks, I found them to be overly plasticy with that feeling that maybe Lari cheaped out on the type of plastic used to mold this set, and their clutch was a bit tighter than I would have liked.   It's an easy set to build for the younger crowd but I think they will have fun  creating new adventures in the skatepark.

I was going to add a link to the store on Aliexpress, but unfortunately, it looks like all of the products in the store have been removed.   A search for this copycat Skatepark in the Building blocks section of Aliexpress only yielded this result, which looks like customized version of the newer Lego 60364 Skatepark set.

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DkA2i1x

Maybe the fakelego clone of the Lego 60290 Skatepark set will reappear in a few weeks time, who knows?   Hope you've enjoyed this quick look and review of the Lari 60053 Skatepark building block set!   Thanks and see you next time!

Here's A Closer Look at the Funwhole Medieval Watchtower F9027

What's up brick fans?  Today, we will take a tour of the 1625 piece Medieval WatchTower by Funwhole.  There's so much of the set I want to show you, that I'm going to skip the build pics this time and jump right into all of the amazing details and features of this set.

Today's blog post was made possible by Funwhole for providing the Medieval Watchtower for purposes of review.

You can get it here: https://www.funwhole.com/products/medieval-watchtower?ref=tN9EBQmQ and save 10% off using my code itsnotlego.

The Funwhole Medieval Watchtower is also available through Amazon.  Discounts now available.  Please refer to the Amazon store that applies to your country.

Overview

• Set Name: Funwhole Medieval Watchtower F9027
• Piece Count: 1625 pieces
• Minifigures: 4, not compatible with Lego
• Numbered Bags: Yes
• Stickers: No
• Printed Pieces: Yes
• Lighting Kit: included 
• Bonus items: Tweezers, Brick Separator, Mobile Ballista, Ox and Cart

The medieval watchtower is constructed in two parts, first the namesake watchtower and second the main gate segment of a castle wall.   From a display perspective, the watchtower looks awesome with all the accent lighting, like the flickering lights that flank the entrance and the bright flame that burns in the tower keep.  It's details like this that differentiates Funwhole from other Lego compatible brick brands.

Oh BTW, if you want to see what's in the set, I did an unboxing post which you can find here.

The Funwhole Medieval Watchtower comes with it's own uniquely designed minifigures, of which there are 4 in this set.  There are two soldiers, a villager and a maiden.  One of the soldiers has a fabric cape and the maiden has a fabric skirt.   If you look closely, I've included two Lego style minifigures in the picture above.  Although they have different designs, I think that you can display both types of minifigures together.

There are no stickers, I repeat, no stickers with this set.  Only printed pieces, like the watchtower walls.

And the shield decorations.

Here is the entrance to the watchtower, it's flanked by two lights which flicker when turned on.  The door can be opened and closed as a play feature.

A thatched addition houses some weapons on one side of the watchtower.  In fact, there are a plethora of axes, spears and swords included in the set.

Moving to the rear of the watchtower, there is a giant door that runs pretty much the entire height of the tower.  

The door can be opened to reveal the interior of the watchtower!  See the steep staircase that gives the soldiers access to the top of the tower.  

The stairwell looks even cooler when it is lit up!

Here's the top of the watchtower.  There is a burning flame to be used as a signal to other watchtowers in the area.  A stash of weapons are readily available to defend the tower.

Back on ground level, the Castle is protected by not one, but two different gates.   The one in the back is a drawbridge and using a crank, the large ramp can be easily raised or lowered.

Check it out!

The Medieval Watchtower contains a segment of main gate and castle wall.  It would be cool to get two complete sets of the watchtower to fully protect the inside of the fortress grounds.   This side has a small flowering tree growing next to the wall.

There's lots of secret passages throughout the set, it's fun to discover them all.   More weapons can be found on the roof.   Pictured above are the two spindles that operate the gates to the fortress.

This huge ballista can be swivelled in the desired direction to thwart off enemy intruders with the javelin.  Sadly, the javelin is for display only and doesn't actually work.

More weapondry is on display including helmets and shields.

I love the look of the main gate which can also be raised and lowered.  

However, the front gate is cogged, so that you have to remove the second floor to release the mechanism that holds the gate in place.  Just a minor quibble.

Here's a peek inside the main gate.  There's even a cauldron for pouring boiling liquid on invaders should they manage to breach the fortress walls.  Too cool.

Some bonus accessories found in this set include this Lego compatible ox cart carrying two barrels.  

And this portable ballista that can be rolled around easily.   These items are great little play features.

Of course, what makes this set truly special is the LED lighting that comes embedded with the Funwhole set.  

I'm super happy that my Medieval town is growing, especially with the new Medieval Watchtower.  This was a really fun build, with lots of play features such as the working gates and it also makes a great display.  Of course, we can't forget that this Funwhole set has printed pieces and no stickers.  I'm going to give this Medieval Watchtower set an awesome 4.9 out of 5!

Here are some of my other Medieval themed set reviews, you might be interested in:

Medieval Apothecary Shop

Medieval Pier Inn

Medieval Dutch Windmill

Medieval Observation Watchtower

Thanks for looking!   Bye for now!