Hmmm never heard of Miniso before. Looks like they have both LEGO-sized and Nanoblock-sized sets. Are you certain that the LEGO style bricks are 2/3the size? I’d love to see a comparison photo.
Hmmm never heard of Miniso before. Looks like they have both LEGO-sized and Nanoblock-sized sets. Are you certain that the LEGO style bricks are 2/3the size? I’d love to see a comparison photo.
I really should get off my ass and build something. More appropriately, finish something....
Approximately 2/3 size. I can't figure out what the exact ratio might be. If I take a regular two-post LEGO block and cover up part of the Miniso, or otherwise put them beside each other for comparison the two spaces of LEGO take slightly less than three Miniso spaces.
Okay, so I use more bricks and 6 LEGO might occupy exactly 8 Miniso spaces.
2/3 = 8/12
3/4 = 9/12
So maybe it's 2/3 +- 1/12 (i.e 1 of the 8 or 12.5%)
"Nanoblock" seems like an abuse of the prefix "nano". The set even came with a small brick separator.
That's using left-over bits. The set had quite a lot of spare bits, but strangely only a couple of the sort you're likely to lose, and specifically none of the extra individual 1 peg roof bricks. And I could really only put a nine peg (6 + 3) together; the other square piece helps indicate the boundaries.
Last edited by SportWagon; May 30th, 2018 at 09:18 AM.
Hmm!
You might be interested in this, but Modulex was a thing until the 1970s.
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Modulex
These Miniso pieces might be smaller than Modulex, but imagine if they were compatible!
Two more things I want to know:
1. What is the quality of the bricks? Do they exhibit faults like cheaper knockoff brands do?
2. Do they have strong and consistent clutch power like genuine Lego does?
The quality seems good for what is intended as a one-time build. The entire peaked roof part is composed of single-stud pieces. (No special pieces for where the two roofs meet in a corner, however, though I remember such pieces from our 1960's LEGO; similarly there's no "peak" pieces; the peak is formed by two rows of bricks meeting each other).
No flash problems, etc. It all just fitted. And it was cheap^H^H^H^H^Hinexpensive. $8CDN for the Brandenburg Gate.
I can't quite tell if the height ratio is the same; that needs to be adjusted for spacing tolerance, anyway.
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Modulex?f...comparison.png
Standard 4x2 brick (Modelex) is 20x10x5mm instead of 32x16x9.6mm.
Basic ratio is 20/32 = 10/16 = 5/8. (Ignoring the aspect ratio difference).
5/8 = 30/48
3/4 = 36/48
Well, everyone knows 3/4 is larger than 5/8.
2/3 = 32/48
And we know the Miniso bricks are LxW more than 2/3 the size of standard LEGO.
So, no, they cannot be compatible.
Last edited by SportWagon; May 30th, 2018 at 03:52 PM.
Those roof tile pieces you remember still exist, but they’re too big to fit the scale of the original Brandenburg Gate set.
I think Miniso is a Chinese-based retailer which doesn't mind if people assume they are Japanese. They have a bit of a dollar-store feel to them, but with a lot of emphasis on toys and technology. And they appear to apply their brand to many of their products, too, such as the LEGO clones.
And they appeared to have a fairly strong Australian web presence, too. Which makes some sense given the proximity of the two countries.
Yep, the wikipedia page sort of confirms my claim. Chinese but would like to be able to claim to have Japanese roots/connections.
To my ears "Miniso" sounds much more Japanese than Chinese. Oh the Asian characters in some of the English logo ARE actually Japanese katakana, if I read correctly.
Wait. An early picture you see on miniso.ca clearly says "Japanese Designer Brand". And it recurs a few times in the Canadian version of the video, anyway. (Not sure if it got my google location or not; running it now in a brand-new browser profile).
Wow.
I should almost apologize for initially understating the case...
Last edited by SportWagon; May 30th, 2018 at 03:51 PM.
The Lego Technic Bugatti Chiron has just been unveiled, priced just below it's real life counterpart at an eye-watering $599.99 AUD.
https://shop.lego.com/Bugatti-Chiron-42083
Though, it is very beautiful.
Speaking of Lego Technic, i really want:
Which can be remade into:
https://shop.lego.com/en-NZ/Mack-Anthem-42078
But it's too expensive for me at the mo, and i have nowhere to put it anyway.
And (to bring back an earlier conversation topic) when we were in New York last year we went to Toys R Us, and were extremely disappointed. It was smaller than some of the McDonald's restaurants we went to, upstairs in an extremely boring mall. According to a workmate it used to be in Times Square, where, i presume, the three storied M&M's building (also a little boring/samey) is now. Got there too late i guess, wanted to relive the Home Alone movies, even though i think it was a different store in them.
Our local dedicated toy shop, Toyworld, closed last year too, so now we are just left with toy departments in chain stores. Kid's need to stop growing up!
Last edited by SkylineObsession; July 4th, 2018 at 01:05 PM.
You're thinking of FAO Schwarz, which closed their famous huge store a few years back, but it was located near Central Park, not in Times Square.
Interestingly, the alternative Mack truck you can build is a garbage truck, which the chassis for those are built here in town.
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