Mini Building Blocks - Izakaya Shop 789 PCS Bricks Model, City Street Mini Bricks MOC Creative Simulation Architecture Construction Assembly Toys Set for Boys Girls Ages 6+

I really in enjoyed the clear instructions and how it looked at the end. My only negative is there’s lots of extra pieces at the end.

This case was the perfect size for what I wanted to display, and I love that it has the wooden top and bottom, plus the overhead light. It was easy to put together (though the plastic sheets around the pieces was kind of hard to peel) and I didn't wear gloves or anything and didn't have any trouble with getting fingerprints on it. The light is nice and bright, though I wish it plugged in from the back and/or the bottom of the case instead of the top right to be less obtrusive. But all in all, a really nice display case for a reasonable price ($19.99 as of this review) and I'm very happy with it!

I bought one for each of my kids ages 7 and 9 and they really enjoyed assembling them. They worked on them every day for about four days. The pieces are really small but they were still able to complete with a little help from me. The completed projects are so cute and have so many details.

Whenever a few pieces are missing, I could replace them from my stash of spare parts. I've never built a mini- block project, so there's nothing to fall back on. Emailed the manufacturer 10 days ago but no responseMy choices:●Return it before my 30 day window expires.●Buy another kit, take the parts I need and save the rest as spares●Muddle on, hoping to finish it with what I have.●Give-up, take the loss, dismantle what I built (50%), and use these parts as sparesI have about a week to decide.

This review is for the HIKOSHI Mini Bricks Model (Takoyaki Shop). I received a free taxable sample of this set to review in my search for a nice enjoyable brick build.The set arrived in a branded postal box with a standard UPC product sticker attached on the top and letter branding on the bottom. I recommend wrapping the box in giftwrap or placing it in a gift bag if you plan on gifting this set.The final Takoyaki Shop build weighs 141 grams and includes the main shop as well as an outdoor table setup complete with two stools and a cat. The main shop is a hinged creation that measures approximately 3" x 3" x 5 1/2" and can completely open to create a side-by-side façade measuring 6" x 1 1/2" x 5 1/2" and revealing the inside of the shop from the rear.From tallying up the count of pieces from the instruction manual, there are 722 pieces used as part of the build. Most of these pieces are 1 x 3 bricks or smaller and include some shapes I have not seen from other manufacturers. The pieces are roughly 25% smaller than standard buildings bricks and some sections of the build required a higher level of dexterity than usual. I was pleasantly surprised by the decent overall quality and fit of these bricks, but I would also add that the premium ones from another manufacturer are noticeably better on both counts.Building the takoyaki shop was a good medium difficulty challenge and enjoyable experience which took me and my sixth grader a few on-and-off hours. I recommend setting up on a hard surface that you can comfortably sit at - I hadn't properly planned ahead of time and spent most of the time uncomfortably hunched on the floor. Part of the challenge was dealing with the smaller scale of the pieces, while another challenge was with the instruction sheet. The multi-colored instruction sheet as a whole is decent, but it would have been easier to manage in booklet form and there were some sections where you have to make an educated guess as to what almost similar colors it's referring to - I remember one point where I was searching for what looked to be solid light beige swirly caps only to realize that it was referencing transparent yellow swirly caps. What might have also helped is if the plastic packages were synched to the instruction sheet, so you don't have to go hunting across all of the pieces. Finally, although the manufacturer thoughtfully included a brick removal tool, I don't see this as something I'm motivated to break down and rebuild or recompose.The final build looks nice, and besides the overall aesthetic of the shop, I like the extra little details that were included such as: pull-out drawers underneath the counter; functional cabinets with items in them; and signage within the shop itself. My favorite detail is the big octopus on top with its cartoon eyes, exaggerated beak, eight suckered arms, headband, and tiny takoyaki in one of its arms. I especially like that the entire body can rotate and each of its arms has some freedom of vertical movement.Note about stickers: a fair amount of the extra detail including the headband and pennants is accomplished with stickers. The only thing I didn't like was applying stickers across multiple pieces instead of a custom single piece, but I'm sure that was a financially driven design decision.All in all, the mini bricks for this takoyaki shop are of decent quality and the finished model looks quite neat. I would recommend this as a nice option for a mini brick model build and even consider building the Iazakya Shop and Post Station models down the line.

The most important thing I want to note with this set is that the pieces are really small. I have small fingers but even then, these are hard to handle as an adult. I wouldn't recommend these for kids though since they are very small and might be dangerous for smaller children. Definitely for teenagers and adults since this is not sturdy enough for a play set.I had no complaints with the build itself. The techniques were interesting and the finished model looks great. Due to the nature of the smaller bricks, the finished set was a little smaller than I expected. So it's not a standard minifigure scale unfortunately, but regardless, it looks better than I expected. The details are good and the stickers are a a nice touch. I actually read and speak a little Japanese so I was checking each sticker print to check for errors or typos and didn't find any, which was great!The quality of the pieces is pretty good, but not terribly consistent. Some parts had better "clutch" power and snapped into place nicely, while a handful of others didn't fit as snug. But I had no damaged pieces or anything so the quality was 90-95% great, with the remaining bits being "alright", but not a big enough problem that the average person might not notice.My biggest problem with this set were the instructions. It was this large poster that you had to unfold and re-fold all the time. Additionally, the colors on the instructions were a little unclear at points. But the most egregious problem was how each numbered step included too many actions- in practice, this meant adding 5-10 pieces each step, and it was too easy to miss things. Typical building block sets don't usually make you do so many different actions per step and this threw me off a lot.Another minor gripe was with the stickers, since they were cut almost perfectly for the part they would be placed on, so 1mm of error in placing it down meant you had an obvious misplaced stickers. There were also a few "illegal" techniques with the stickers placed over two bricks, but that didn't bother me too much.Perhaps it was an error on my end, or with the instructions, but I had a few missing pieces. I want to give the set the benefit of the doubt and say it was a bit of both- the aforementioned problems with colors of parts on the instructions might have resulted in a few of these. The common error was differentiating between the two light brown 1x1 circle stud pieces. Some were light brown and the others were bronze, and they looked really similar in the instructions. I was able to complete the build by substituting other pieces, and I found workarounds for a few other random missing items like a red 2x1. This was made possible by a generous amount of extra pieces.Overall this set was a fun build. I actually ended up liking the smaller size since it's easier to fit on a crowded shelf. Minor problems aside, I was able to finish this set without much of an issue and had fun doing it. The little octopus guy on top was a really cute touch as well.