TopToy 16001 Retro Television Picture Review (Part Two)

Hi there and welcome back to Bricks and Figs.  I'm guessing you are here to see the pictures of the TopToy 16001 Retro Television.  In case you missed it, I did an unboxing and build post which you can check out here:  Part One.

Here's the finished product!

In my previous build post, I forgot to show the antenna that gets attached to the top of the TV.  I should mention one of the antenna doesn't clutch into the socket so I resorted to my tried and true method of tearing a small bit of the cellophane packaging from the parts bags and sticking it into the hole.

Here's some various views of the TV set.  Here's the hinged part of the TV.

Back side.   Cool right?

Brick quality is quite good, no scuffs or scratches and you can barely make out the colour differences.

I got lazy because I should have trimmed off the extra cellophane.

The legs actually look kind of clunky.  Should I replace them with small round knobs instead?

The inside of the TV has carded graphics on the three sides that depict a living room interior.  Not sure who the wedding couple is supposed to be, perhaps the girl dyed her hair?

Some more pictures on the back wall.  I wonder if the guy was in the Chinese army?

The couple must be animal lovers.

Here's what I didn't show you in my previous post, this is the completed living room which was constructed in Section 3.

Peace out!  Just trying out the new fingers.

All this furniture was part of Section 3. A storage unit with chrome statue and vase of flowers.

A retro TV, lol!  The screen is a printed part, no stickers in this set!

My guess is that this couple are avid readers.  Or maybe music lovers?  But sadly no record player anywhere.

I'm gonna say that this looks more like a futon than a sofa.

Who wants some fruit?

Was this all a show?  I suppose if you wanted to make your own little scenes inside the TV, you could do that too.  Replace this living room with a scene from Seinfeld or Friends or whatever you can think of.

Hope you enjoyed this look at the Top Toy Retro TV!   Get it from Aliexpress or whoever sells it!   Get it now!

My Rating

I'm gonna give this set 5 out of 5 stars!  Why? It was relatively cheap at under $20 for over 600 pieces.  They sent me the box!  Brick quality was decent and no problems with clutch (well, except for that antenna piece).  Despite being a small-ish set, you get two decent minifigures, with bonus hands.  The interior is nicely furnished and rich in details.  No stickers or scuff marks, even on the TV glass.   All in all, a nice and enjoyable build.   What's not to like?

TopToy 16001 Retro Television Unboxing and Build Pictures (Part One)

Yo, what's up everyone! I'm back with another not Lego set review, this one is another new brick brand that I discovered on Aliexpress.  The brand is called Top Toy and the set I'll be unboxing and building today is the 645 piece Retro Television set number 16001.  It is part of their vintage appliances series.

If product unboxing and build pics are not your thing you can skip to my next post (Part Two) where I show you the pictures of the completed set and give a rating for the set.

I got this from the Top Toy Aliexpress store for just under $20 CDN with a promotional discount coupon and free shipping to boot.  Aa a bonus, they even sent me the boxed item, which has very cool graphics on it.   On the side of the box, it says Living Room and there are two minifigures in pajamas, one is a guy and the other a girl.   Just want to mention that this Top Toy uses Lego compatible bricks. The only difference is the minifigure construction, which I will discuss later in this post.

On the back, they have more graphics of the TV set showing the back and interior.  Let's see if the bricks are high quality as they say!

BTW, I did some research on the Top Toy brand, and they are part of the Miniso group of companies that specialize in Japanese themed items, even though the company originates in China.  They have a handful of other building block sets but mostly specialize in small blind box items.  

I did see a cool game arcade diorama set on their Aliexpress store, which I might get later.   With discount, that set is also under $20 CDN with 557 pieces and free shipping too.

Oh, and I saw some Sembo Japanese themed shop sets rebranded as Top Toy on their Aliexpress store as well.

Hmm, looks like they increased the price since I bought it.  Hope you can use the Aliexpress discounts to get a better price.

Unboxing the Top Toy Retro TV

Anyways, let's unbox this set and check it out.  Upon cracking open the box, we find the nine bags of building block pieces, three labelled 1, three bags labelled 2, and three bags labelled 3.

A baseplate and two bags, one containing the TV "glass" screen, and the other a bag of minifigure fingers, lol.

Three cards for the interior of the living room walls/

And a bonus postcard that reads "Top Toy Everyone Is Player One" with a picture of some cartoon animals behind a sign that says "Let's TT Carnival".

The user manual is a booklet that has 79 pages with 187 steps divided into three sections with the aforementioned parts bags each pertaining to either section 1, 2 or 3.  The front of the user manual is identical to the box front.

The back of the user manual shows you the other models in the retro appliance series.  They are the gramophone 16002, the refrigerator 16003 and the washing machine 16004.  I believe each of these sets come with a little vignette inside with accompanying mini figures.

Here's a sample page from the instruction manual, all the steps are clearly marked.

Building the Retro TV

Here are the contents of the three parts bags for Section 1.  And yes, I'm building the set on my bed, lol.  I came upstairs right after dinner to build the retro TV and completed it right before bedtime.   Appropriate since the minifigs are in their PJs.

Here's the legs at the bottom of the TV.

Next we are building the side and back of the TV.  The brick quality and clutch is decent.  There are some very subtle colour variations in some of the red bricks but only noticeable if you look hard.  The set is rated for ages 6 and up, but attaching the side of the TV to the bottom requires a steady and patient hand because it uses the SNOT construction technique throughout the build.

Here's the back panel with the simulated video input jacks.  For extra realism, Top Toy could have simulated an electric plug and cable.

Attaching the back panel to the side and bottom of the TV.  With that we have finished Section 1.

Ok, let's unpack the parts for section 2.

Step 2 build the other side of the TV and the top.

We also build the TV screen and controls.  The knobs have a metallic sheen to them.

All done constructing the retro TV!   Let's move on to section 3 before we finish the TV.

Here are all the parts for section 3 of the build.

So inside of the TV, there's supposed to be a furnished living room that is occupied by two minifigures.

To get around any minifigure design infringements, Top Toy uses a double pin system which is inserted into the torso to hold the arms in place.  The rest of the minifigure including the head, hairpiece and legs look to be Lego compatible.

The guy's green striped PJs and the girls orange PJs with the hearts are printed nicely.  There's even some striping detailing along the hems and sleeves.

Not happy with the default minifigure hands?  No problem, Top Toy gives you a bonus set of hands/fingers which you can use.  There are two sets of 10 styles.  Be careful when using that middle finger hand!

Hey, I'm going to end this post right here and keep you in suspense.  The next post (Part Two) will show you the finished Retro TV.  Bye for now!

Cada Steamed Bun Shop and Summer Breeze Coffee Shop Picture Show (Special Promo by Afobrick.com)

Hey, what's up people, welcome back to Bricks and Figs!  I recently built both of the @exesandbox designed Japanese themed buildings for which I posted separate detailed reviews of the Steamed Bun shop and the Summer Breeze coffee shop.

You can find pictures of the individual buildings on various websites, but I've yet to come across many pictures of both the bun shop and coffee shop together, so that's what this post will do.  

For a limited time only, afobrick.com is doing a special promo, buy both the CADA C66007 coffee shop and the C66006 steamed bun shop together and get 8% off their already low prices.

The side you mostly won't see.

Drone view

Side of the bun shop

Beauty shot

Coffee shop with doors closed

The buildings really shine at night!

Hope you have enjoyed the pictures of both the Cada buildings together.  Don't forget to take advantage of the special pricing only found at AFOBRICK.com!

See ya!