Wange Villa Not Lego set list 2013

Historically, Lego city buildings like their Modular series have been very expensive, ranging anywhere from $100 to $200 per set.  They get even more expensive once they become discontinued.

They have some Creator buildings like the Family House, Hillside House, Beach House and the Bike Shop, but they too are quite expensive.

So I wanted to find some in-expensive building block sets where you could build some houses.  I found a brand called Wange that does a series called Creation Villas.  Obviously Creation is a knock-off term for Creator.  

Pictured above is the largest set in the Villa series, it is set number 34051 and it has 909 pieces.  The house has two stories and a large patio that is fenced in.

The next Villa model is set 34052 being a three storey building consisting of 755 pieces.  This one has a basketball court in the side yard as shown in the picture above.

Set 34053 has 816 pieces and a see-saw in the yard of the three storey home.

Enlighten and Ausini Not Lego Train set list - 2013

It seems to me that, these days, there aren't as many interesting minifigure sets on ebay anymore. There used to be auctions ending almost every 15 minutes, now they are down to about an hour or so. But still there's not much new stuff , so I decided to see what other brick sets were available.

I followed a certain alternate brick seller and noticed that he had these little train cars for under $20.

Here are some images I snagged from the Ausini website.  This is the link to their train page.
http://003.tsdn.net/CN/ProductList.aspx?Class1=17

Ausini 25002 - 832 pieces

Ausini 25003 - 764 pieces

Ausini 25004 - 792 pieces

Ausini 25110 - 928 pieces

Ausini 25111 - 1008 pieces

Ausini 25807 - 588 pieces

Ausini 25808

Ausini 25810 - 517 pieces

Ausini 25902 - 630 pieces

Ausini 25903 - 681 pieces

There are other Ausini train sets and train cars but the above are my favourites of the lot.

Which ones are your favourites?

Kazi 8055 Not Lego Fire Utility Vehicle set review

Here's another Kazi set from the Fire Fight series.  This one is a nifty little pickup truck with trailer. 

 I was surprised that the ebay seller shipped the box too, although it got pretty munched during transit.  I took pictures of it before I threw it out.

These are the one page instructions and below is the contents of the box.

Just some shots of the pieces.

Assembly of the 140 plus parts was quite easy.  Would have been better if it had the opening doors.

I think they gave me an extra arm and hand, which I threw into the pickup bed.  The little accessories include the fire mask and breathing apparatus, the extinguisher, a saw, a walkie talkie and a power generator in the trailer.  The trailer also has extra cubbies for storage.

Brand: Kazi
Series: Fire Fight
Model: 8055 Pickup Truck
Pieces: 143+
Would I recommend this set?  No, because it smells like gasoline.