When you start trying new Chinese brands you just can't stop :) The last one was Panlos (inbrixx sub-brand), now I decided to try minGDi (also known as Leibao, not sure which is the main brand). They have many sets and some designs look great from the pictures, so I wanted to try something small just to see the quality of parts and building experience.
Ordered at AE Wonderful Childhood 2 Store, 7,37 EUR (coins+coupon), 9 days to the EU.
The set #K2241, Space Exploration Program: Star Disc (星际飞碟), has only 304 pieces, but as there were awful lot of stickers (more on them further) the building took about 2 hours.
Brick quality. Not sure how to describe it. On the one hand, bricks look and feel like those from the cheapest set I ever had by JIQILE. Like that one, minGDi bricks' clutch power is perfect, a bit stronger than Lego, no missing pieces, no malformed or damaged pieces. Colours are consistent. At the same time, the plastic feels a bit better, maybe like DK? Only one spare part was included. Transparent pieces were packaged separately and are mostly unscratched, not anything you can't encounter on transparent pieces from Lego. 8/10. By the way, the minifigure is Lego-like, with simple prints only on the from of torso and legs, face resembles those of SW clones. Nothing fancy, but it's ok.
Design. This is a toy first and foremost, so I didn't expect much. Building started as fairly primitive, but further in the process it really grew up on me. The final shape is cleverly achieved and the whole thing is sturdy and totally wooshable. I totally forgot that this thing also features a "beam"-stand - or maybe I didn't even noticed it in the first place. These UFO-kidnap-beams somehow became very popular among Chinese producers, and many brands had already done something similar. Most of those sets cost around 20-30 Eur and are bigger/"taller", also either doesn't feature a minifigure at all or have a buildable one. This set, in my opinion, did the best UFO beam - it's not that big, and it actually has a minifigure inside in the process of being kidnapped/teleported, how cool is that?? 10/10.
Stickers/prints. EVERYTHING is stickers. From the pictures I was already prepared for them, but damn not for such diabolical ones. The stickers themselves are pretty good - colour-match is great, can be reapplied fully (though their surface becomes "cracked", but it's only visible with certain light, angle and very close distance). The worst part are those quarter-sphere pieces. OF COURSE it's impossible to apply stickers normally on them. I did it and it looks BAD, see yourself. Those pissed me off, 5/10.
Instructions. Many steps per page, cheap-ish paper. Otherwise - pretty clear, I did no mistakes and wasn't confused by any step. Bags are numbered, but instructions completely ignore this, there are no separate parts in the manual. Nevertheless, that sorting certainly made searching for parts easier. 8/10.
The set and minGDi certainly exceed my expectations with such a small build. 31/40. For 7 or even 10 euros it's a great set. Added Lego's 60430 set for comparison on one of the pics - double the cost and 240 pieces.
Regarding Wonderful Childhood 2 Store - sloppy packaging, as instructions came with bent corner, stickers sheet was also a bit bent, but stickers were not affected.
Ordered at AE Wonderful Childhood 2 Store, 7,37 EUR (coins+coupon), 9 days to the EU.
The set #K2241, Space Exploration Program: Star Disc (星际飞碟), has only 304 pieces, but as there were awful lot of stickers (more on them further) the building took about 2 hours.
Brick quality. Not sure how to describe it. On the one hand, bricks look and feel like those from the cheapest set I ever had by JIQILE. Like that one, minGDi bricks' clutch power is perfect, a bit stronger than Lego, no missing pieces, no malformed or damaged pieces. Colours are consistent. At the same time, the plastic feels a bit better, maybe like DK? Only one spare part was included. Transparent pieces were packaged separately and are mostly unscratched, not anything you can't encounter on transparent pieces from Lego. 8/10. By the way, the minifigure is Lego-like, with simple prints only on the from of torso and legs, face resembles those of SW clones. Nothing fancy, but it's ok.
Design. This is a toy first and foremost, so I didn't expect much. Building started as fairly primitive, but further in the process it really grew up on me. The final shape is cleverly achieved and the whole thing is sturdy and totally wooshable. I totally forgot that this thing also features a "beam"-stand - or maybe I didn't even noticed it in the first place. These UFO-kidnap-beams somehow became very popular among Chinese producers, and many brands had already done something similar. Most of those sets cost around 20-30 Eur and are bigger/"taller", also either doesn't feature a minifigure at all or have a buildable one. This set, in my opinion, did the best UFO beam - it's not that big, and it actually has a minifigure inside in the process of being kidnapped/teleported, how cool is that?? 10/10.
Stickers/prints. EVERYTHING is stickers. From the pictures I was already prepared for them, but damn not for such diabolical ones. The stickers themselves are pretty good - colour-match is great, can be reapplied fully (though their surface becomes "cracked", but it's only visible with certain light, angle and very close distance). The worst part are those quarter-sphere pieces. OF COURSE it's impossible to apply stickers normally on them. I did it and it looks BAD, see yourself. Those pissed me off, 5/10.
Instructions. Many steps per page, cheap-ish paper. Otherwise - pretty clear, I did no mistakes and wasn't confused by any step. Bags are numbered, but instructions completely ignore this, there are no separate parts in the manual. Nevertheless, that sorting certainly made searching for parts easier. 8/10.
The set and minGDi certainly exceed my expectations with such a small build. 31/40. For 7 or even 10 euros it's a great set. Added Lego's 60430 set for comparison on one of the pics - double the cost and 240 pieces.
Regarding Wonderful Childhood 2 Store - sloppy packaging, as instructions came with bent corner, stickers sheet was also a bit bent, but stickers were not affected.