Cada C66006 Steamed Bun Shop Set Review (not Lego)

Hello brick fans and welcome back to bricksandfigs.blogspot.com, my little space on the web where I review Lego and non Lego brick sets, mini figures and share pictures of my MOC builds.

Today, I'll be reviewing the Cada C66006 Steamed Bun Shop.  The Japanese style building is a design of Tong Xin Jun (ExeSandbox).  It's a small two storey building, and is comprised of 1108 pieces.  The set comes with an instruction manual, a sticker sheet, a brick separator and a USB powered light string.  Please note, that this set does not include any minifigures, however I have included one of my own minifigures for display purposes.

Thanks so much to AFOBRICK.com for providing this set for me to review!  Details on how you can get this set from them at the end of this post.

The Cada bun shop was well wrapped and it arrived in great condition.  Thanks AFOBRICK!

Here's everything I got in this set, in addition to the instruction manual.  There are 7 bags of parts for Step 1, and another 7 bags of parts for Step 2.  There's a few other bags of additional parts.

The instructions were adequate, but I sometimes found it hard to differentiate between clear and light gray pieces, and the same for dark brown vs. black pieces. Below are a few pics that I took during the build process.

People were asking if the Cada Bun Shop was minifigure scale, so I took a few pics during the build and posted them in my earlier blog post which you can find here. 

Buns for sale at the counter.  Just want to point out that brick quality and clutch is excellent.  You really can't tell that you aren't building with Lego bricks.

Makings of the vending machine.  I haven't put on the stickers yet for the little bottles inside the vending machine.

Here's the completed storefront.   Actually, it's more like a stall with the seating in front.   One of the changes I would make is to put the building on a full 16x32 stud baseplate, and then set the building back a few more studs, so that the accessories like the sign and the pipe don't impede either the patrons seating at the counter or pedestrians who might be walking past.

Although I can't read what all the signage is about, they give a very authentic feel to the Japanese bun shop.  The stickers were not too hard to apply.

Here's the backside of the shop. The stairs to the second floor are pretty steep.  On the second floor, is space for a cabinet, a desk and stool, with ladder access to the sleeping loft (bedding not shown).  On the wall is an air conditioner unit.  

By adding the back wall, the shop has a much more completed look.  The electrical pole, the ducting, the wall mounted ventilation unit, all add to the cool details of this building.   The designer did a great job here, I must admit.  With a deeper baseplate, one could even add a few extra trash bins or some boxes.  That's something I might do in the future to modify the bun shop.

The rear wall of the bun shop is hinged so that you can access the interior, however unlike other modular buildings, you can't separate the first and second floors from each other.

Check out the finished model.  The first thing that catches my eyes are the wooden slats over the windows, so cool.  Then there's the foliage growing near the roof.  The plastic piping needs to flex a little more, right now it pushes on  the electric pole so that it doesn't quite stay upright.  There's even a small light that extends off the electric pole.

With the drink vending machine built into the side of the bun shop, it doesn't take up too much room.  I like the awning over the vending machine too. 

With the provided USB powered LED light, you can make the interior glow!  Looks awesome, doesn't it?  The manual instructs you to weave the LED light wire all through the shop during the building process, but I just shoved the lighting in as an afterthought and it still looks great.  

Please note that I have used my own battery pack which has a USB port to which I can attach the light.  That's not provided with the set, but it would have been nice if Cada had included one.

The bun shop looks amazing all lit up.

Here's how I fed the LED light wire into the back.  You can see the battery pack to which I attached the USB plug and switch into.  Cool, right?

I forgot to mention that there's a skylight on the roof of the building.

So to wrap up, here are some of the extra pieces that I had left over.  I might not have added everything as per the instructions because sometimes I gloss over things.  But it didn't affect the final result.

The furniture that I built but didn't put into the second floor includes a desk with computer monitor and tower, a small stool, a futon bed and a small nightstand with light and potted plant. 

For my rating I give this building 5 out of 5 stars, despite the stickers and the smaller base plate.  Once built, the bun shop just looks amazing and even more so with the LED lighting that comes with the set.  To improve this set, I would use a larger base plate and add one or two minifigures, like a shopkeeper and a customer.

This was my first time building a Cada brand set and I thought that the quality and clutch of the bricks was first rate.  I would love to build more Cada buildings in the future and have them added to my modular building collection.

For those who are interested in acquiring the Cada C66006 Steamed Bun Shop, you can find it at AFOBRICK.com.  They are a newer seller of Lego compatible brick sets.  Feel free to check them out, if you like.   Click on the picture below to take you to Cada bun shop on the AFOBRICK website.

For a limited time only, get a further discount by using code ITSNOTLEGO at checkout for extra savings.  Don't know how long the discount code will last.

Also on Aliexpress, find it using the term Japanese Streetview.

Thanks for sticking to the end of this long post.  Hope you enjoyed all the pictures and the review of the Cada C66006 Steamed Bun Shop.  Let me know how I can improve my content or what not in the comments below.   See ya!

Review of the Cada Japanese Tea Shop C66010 Building block Set (not Lego)

Hello brick fans!  Welcome to the Cada C66010 Japanese Tea Shop!  That's the set we are reviewing today.  It's the third in a series of Japanese style buildings designed by Tong Xin Jun aka ExeSandBox.  The other two buildings in the series are:

Cada C66006 Japanese Steamed Bun Shop 

Cada C66007 Japanese Coffee Shop

If you loved those little buildings, you are most certainly going to want to include the Japanese Tea Shop to your collection.  The shop has 1200 pieces with full interiors within the two floors of the building.  

The exterior looks like a very authentic Japanese shop, complete with vending machine and little bonsai plants on the shop's doorstep.  There is a large utility pole right outside with transformer and street lamp.

Around back, one can view the interior of the shop by ingeniously sliding the whole back wall.  We will look at all of the interior details below.

Where to get it

Afobrick.com has all three of the Japanese inspired buildings on their website.  They have kindly provided today's set for me to review.

Feel free to check out their store, they have over 700 competitively priced building block sets, available in all sorts of themes. Free worldwide shipping for most orders.  Please use my discount code itsnotlego to save a further 5% off their already low prices.

The Set Details

• Brand: Cada
• Set: C66010 Japanese Tea Shop, designer: Tong Xin Jun
• Piece count: 1200pcs
• Numbered bags? Yes
• Stickers or printed parts? Stickers
• Missing or deformed pieces: No
• Extra parts: Yes
• Minifigures: No
• Lighting kit: included
• Brick Quality and Clutch: Excellent
• Measurements (approx): 
• Age Rating: ?+

Unboxing

The Cada Japanese Tea Shop arrived in a brown cardboard box from Afobrick.com. Inside were several bags of building blocks, two sticker sheets and two instruction booklets.  There are 57 pages on the first booklet and 115 pages on the second booklet.  I wonder why Cada just didn't print one booklet instead of two?  Same with the sticker sheets. They are small enough that they could have simply used one larger sheet of stickers.

Here's a closer look at the stickers, some with Japanese wording and the majority of them are for the canned drinks inside the vending machine.

Here's the breakdown of the bags for parts corresponding to each step of the build.

Step A consists of 6 bags

Step B consists of 6 bags

Step C consists of 5 bags

Also included are three individually wrapped transparent window pieces, a bag containing special parts for the utility pole, a bag containing the LED light string, and an assortment of baseplates.

The instruction manuals are well printed and easy to follow.  The last few pages of the second instruction manual features a complete visual parts list just like Lego manuals.

As you can see the building process has three different steps.  Step A builds the foundation and first floor of the tea shop.  Step B adds the second floor and sliding rear wall, and Step C builds the roof, and remaining accessories.  Let's dive in now!

Building Step A

The baseplate is 16 studs wide but shorter than the standard 32 stud depth of other Lego modular buildings.

Flipping it over, we see the structure of the base.  I would have much preferred that the tea shop was built on a regular 16x32 stud baseplate.  It would add so more space in the front and back of the shop.

I really like how storage was incorporated into the bottom of the staircase.  I need to do this more in my other MOC buildings.  The tea is stored in several containers and shelf drawers and fronted by a long counter.  For tea tasting there's a round table with two stools.

The front doors to the tea shop can be conveniently opened and closed by sliding each one.

Front awning installed.

You get one long LED light strip with USB plug included with the set.  You simply thread the wires around the interior of the building's first and second floor.  I used a battery pack from one of my Funwhole branded building sets to provide power for the lighting.

Building Step B

Here you can see that step B  completes the interior of the second floor.  It looks to be a tea tasting room that has a raised floor with tatami mats.  A low table and seats adron the room.  The lighting is a bit of a mess but it's been installed in the second floor.

On the front of the second floor, there is an air conditioner mounted next to the balcony.  On the other side of the balcony is some kind of utility box. It opens but there's nothing inside.  One can access the balcony from the inside via the sliding door.

The instructions for building the rear wall are split between the first and second instruction manuals.  It slides open as we will see later.  It's interesting how the designer uses the ladder piece for the rear window grill.

Building Step C

The roof is attached to the building through a series of clips.

With the roof attached, we test out how well the rear wall slides.  Pretty smooth!

The vending machine and utility pole really enhance the look of the set.  The dark blue roof tiles provide a nice contrast to the tan bricks walls.

I'm not sure why there is a rear notch in the baseplate.  I ended up removing the piece when I rebuilt the base.

Here are some of the leftover/extra pieces afterwards.

I think the Cada Japanese Tea shop is a very nice model.  Fit and finish of the bricks was excellent.  Too bad it doesn't come with any minifigures though.  I've added a few of my own for display purposes.  That little pink bike isn't included either, sorry!

The lights don't seem quite as bright as my other Cada sets, maybe my batteries are low in juice?

I'll probably see if I can replace the lighting with some from Lightailing/Briksmax in future.

Here is the Cada Japanese Tea shop pictured with the other two Japanese shops. They certainly make a nice little street scene altogether.

Also on Aliexpress, find it using the term Japanese Streetview.

I had a great time building this set, and it took me less than a day.  The only improvement to the set would be using a standard 16x32 baseplate, oh and add some minifigures!  I'm going to give this set 4.8 out of 5.  The look and the price of the Japanese Tea shop really beats out any similarly priced Lego set.  Highly recommend!

Thanks for looking, bye for now!