Review: Miniso Toys Mini City Flower Shop

I picked this up back in April after spending some time trying to figure out if it was Lego compatible or Nanoblock sized like a lot of other recent Miniso toy releases.  There are three other sets in this line -- I may review them at some point -- but I wanted the botanical parts from this one.

 

Box.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.05 Price per Piece.  

Instructions & Stickers.

Parts 1.  Plates, Quarter Circle Plate, 3x4 Leaves, Large Jumpers, Wedge Plate, Printed Transparent Door, Turntable Base, Round Large Jumper, Hinge Brick Top, Fence, Door, Window, Transparent 2x2x2 Round Brick, Panel, 1x1x2 Brick, Macaroni Brick, Transparent 2x2 Round Brick, Bricks, Log Bricks, Corner Tile w/Cutout, Travis Bricks, Brick w/Pinhole, Hinge Brick Base, Studless Slopes, and Tooth Plate.

Parts 2.  Dish, Turntable Top, Tiles, Jumper, Transparent Window, Tooth

Plates, Plant Stems w/Stud, Wedge Studless Slopes, Plates, Apollo

Studs, Round Plates w/Flower Edge, Clip Tiles, Bar Studs, Padlock,

Minifig Telescope, Friction Pin, Bar Bar Holders, Bars, and Tap.

   

Build.  Three 1 Hit pieces of Cover.  

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Cover.  (0)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +15 (A).  There are some nice colors and pieces -- that 2x2x2 Transparent Round Brick is intriguing -- but there's not a lot of useful parts for building Frames.

Review: 60484 Rides Gaming Car

The set in this review is from a new in 2026 City sub-line called Rides.  I think I've heard the term "Baby Racers" being used for them though.  I thought it might have a few interesting parts worth reviewing, so let's take a look.

 

Box.  MSRP is $9.99, for a $0.16 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Microfig.

Parts 1.  Plates, Printed Tile, Large Jumper, Corner

Tiles, Tiles w/Studs on Ends, Transparent Round

Tiles, Double Studless Slope, Grille Tile, Round

Tiles, Spoiler w/Base, Corrugated Brick, Clip

Plates, Wedge Tile, Transparent Lightning Bolt,

Transparent Windscreen, and Minifig Steering Wheel.

   

Parts 2.  Mudguard Bricks, Wheels, Brackets, Printed Tile

w/Studs across Center, Mudguard Plates, Axle Plates,

Translucent Brick, Large Cheese Slopes, Translucent Plate,

Bar Bar Holders, Plates, Wedge Tile, and Translucent Cones.

Build.  IO Escort Frigate (2Rpd+d8/2W)

[Systems are Dark Bley and Color Tagged.].

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  The chibi microfig is cute, the printed parts are nice, but the PpP is awful.

MFZ Pride 2026

The calendar has turned to June which means it's time, once again, for the Mobile Frame Zero Pride Build Invitational!  For those of you unfamiliar with this event, members of the community make Frames in the colors of Pride flags. These can be new designs or old ones converted into new colors.  I believe some people are also trying this challenge with starships too.  There is even the chance that the "best" design will become the MF0 Discord server logo for the next year.  We have a dedicated topic on the Hangar for those that want to share their designs there.

This is my design from last year.

I'm working on more designs and hope to have them posted on Flickr before the end of the week.

Don't forget we have a hashtag, #MFZPride, for better connecting all of the community's builds for this challenge.  There's also the "MFZ Pride" tag on Flickr.

 

Terrain Workshop: Tree 34

This idea chased me out of work one night.  The basic premise was to have stacked, multiple 1x2 Rounded Plates w/Rounded Leaf with all of them at an angle to the one below it.  That's not quite how it turned out but I like the final version more.

The center of this is an Axle Connector w/4 Bars & Through Axle Hole.  Two

1x2 Rounded Plates w/Rounded Leaf are placed on each bar of the connector.

The inner one is placed in a vertical orientation, the outer is placed horizontally.

Another 1x2 Rounded Plate w/Rounded Leaf is placed on the open stud of each

inner Leaf in a diagonal orientation.  A 2L Axle w/Pin w/Friction Ridges is placed

through the center of the Axle Connector, axle side down.  A 2L Smooth Axle Connector is connected to the 2L Axle w/Pin, a Notched Axle goes in the

bottom of that with another 2L Smooth Axle Connector attached to that.  A

1x1 Round Brick goes on the other end of that assembly.  This is eighteen

pieces which is 3 Hits.  It's 25 feet tall and 28 feet across in 6P Scale.

I haven't got that many Sand Green 1x2 Rounded Plates w/Rounded

Leaf so right now this is an orphan build.  I hope this gives people

ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Trees 33

I dug these out of my storage bin the other morning in a "quest" to unify a group of trees into one terrain set.  Except, it turned out I had never taken pictures of them and never posted about them.  Weird.  This design is a riff on my Tree 8 with elements of Tree 19 added in.

The core is a Travis Brick with four Appendages, Bladed w/Pin plugged into it, and four 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip on the end of them. This is mounted on a 1x1x6 Solid Pillar then a Fez and a Cone are mounted on the Travis Brick.  This is a total of twelve pieces which is 2 Hits.  The tree is 38 feet tall and 30 feet across in 6P Scale.

To expand and toughen this build we have to add another Travis Brick with four 

Appendages, Bladed w/Pin, and four 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip mounted at an angle

to the first.  New to this version are three 1x1 Round Plates sandwiching

each Travis Brick.  All of this is placed on the 1x1x6 Solid Pillar then the Fez

and a Cone are popped back on top.  This is a total of 24 pieces which is 4

Hits.  This expanded version is 43 feet tall and 40 feet across in 6P Scale.

As you can see, both versions are tall and cover a decent amount of space.  Once again I hope I've given people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Trees 32

Sometimes you subconsciously reach back to older builds while trying to design something new.  That's not a bad thing.  If a technique has worked before, it should work again.  Today's creation draws from ideas I had back in 2022.

This build starts with a 1x1x6 Solid Pillar Support and a Travis Brick with four

Trunks w/Bar End (Long Straight Tip) plugged into it.  On the ends of the

Trunks are four 1x2 Round Plates w/Pointed Leaf.  On top of the Travis

Brick is a 1x1 Round Brick and a 1x1Round Plate w/Twist.  This tree is 29 feet

tall and 15 feet across in 6P scale and can take 2 Hits before being destroyed.

As you can see in this version, I changed the colors and a few of the parts to

make something that would fit better with some of the plants in my Oasis

setting.  The trunk is changed to two 3L Axle Connectors joined by a

Notched Axle.  Topping that off is an Axle/Friction Pin.  The Travis Brick,

four Trunks, and four Pointed Leaves are added to that.  Topping off the

stack is a 1x1 Cone.  Added to the outside of the Pointed Leaves are four

1x1 Round Plates w/3 Layered Leaves.  This version is 26 feet tall and

15 feet across in 6P scale and can take 3 Hits before being destroyed.

Here's the size comparison against the usual suspects.  Once again I hope I've given people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Review: Brix 64169 Fashion Bags Quilted Bag

These sets have been out for a while but are still available, for the moment.  They aren't labeled as a Brix Buildable Trio but they are packaged as such.    All of them have some interesting Colors and Parts, so let's take a week and review them.

Box.  MSRP is $6.00 for a $0.13 Price per Piece.

This is what the combined sets look like.

Instructions.

Parts.  Half Circle Plates, Tiles, Quarter

Circle Plates, Plates, Double Sided Plates,

Large Macaroni Tiles, Chain, Round Plates

w/4 Petals, Brackets, Quarter Circle

Tiles, and Small Macaroni Tiles.

Build.  IO Frigate (2W).

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Above. (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)
Score: -5 (B-).  This is the weakest set of the bunch but it still has some decent pieces.  I figure the overall set is worth it just for the amount of Gold, Dark Blue, and Olive Green pieces you get.