Set Review: Blue Brixx Sparrow (106714)

So here we go, my first time trying a different brand for brick building. I’ve seen some poorly executed interlocking brick manufacturers before and these didn’t appeal to me at all. But scrolling on the Blue Brixx website I saw so many sets that were exactly to my liking, I just had to give it a shot. 

The Brand

Blue Brixx is a German retailer selling various brick brands. These brands vary in system and this is indicated on the website with the graphic below.  Their focus is mainly on adult builders which is reflected in the variety of sets. There are architectural sets, animals, history including military themed sets and much more. They also sell sets under their own label. They don’t have their own factory but work together with Chinese factories like Xingbao to produce the sets for them. 

Before ordering I had a look at reviews online to see what other people had to say. I didn’t see a lot of reviews in English or Dutch. And the couple that I found were mostly complaining about poor customer service when parts were missing or orders went wrong. With 33 stores running at the moment and just a handful of these complaints I reckoned this probably wasn’t representative of the average satisfaction. And with prices quite favorable I took the bait and ordered a few sets. In my order details on the website there are direct links to ask for missing parts so it seems that customer service isn’t as awful as some people stated. 

After a few days the order arrived and I could have my first look at the sets. In this review the focus will be on the smallest of these sets, a brick built sparrow. More reviews will follow in the near future.

The Packaging

The sets came in generic brown boxes with a sticker on the side with set details. I prefer this to be honest, the environmental footprint is of course better with generic boxes that are used for a lot of sets without the printing. Furthermore there won’t be leftovers at the end of production runs that might get destroyed. A final (perceived) benefit of this is that no budget was used for the artwork/marketing etcetera, bringing the cost down. Most sets I throw boxes away immediately so for me this is a positive. However, in this small 161 piece set six (unnumbered) plastic bags were used. This seems a bit excessive to me. 

The Instructions

The instructions for the set needed to be downloaded from the Blue Brixx website. I prefer digital instructions, so once again this is a plus for me. The advantages are similar to the generic boxes, environmental footprint and keeping costs down. The instructions themselves are really clear, when there might be confusion over a color used it’s marked with a specific description as can be seen in the picture. 

The Bricks

I’d say the quality of bricks is rather good. The bricks are a bit shinier compared to what I was used to. They feel slightly different and require a bit more force to be connected. The clutch power as a result is also stronger.Especially the bamboo plants present in the set benefit from this. Some of the plates have a dent from the molding process in one of the studs. I’m not an expert on these procedures so don’t know how to accurately describe it so there’s a picture showing a couple. This doesn’t impact the clutch power and the plates are perfectly usable, it just looks a bit different. For me it isn’t a big issue, the building process is more important for me and from a little distance you don’t notice it. However I’m sure there will be people who will dislike this. 

The Build

I really had fun building this set! The instructions offer a nice complexity, not too easy with building steps too small but also not too complicated. There are some nice parte usages and techniques in the build. It uses a more basic assortment of parts to great effect and no specialist parts are used to achieve certain curves and angles. I’d say a rather old-school building experience that I’ve been missing for some time. My favorite parts were these knobs to reverse the building direction. As shown in the picture below, you need a bar to position them, but it’s a really nice little trick to use in builds. The feet benefit most from these, having binoculars attached with these.

The finished build is quite a nice depiction of a sparrow. Maybe slightly bigger than real ones. The dimensions seem to be with quite a thin design. Using a basic assortment of bricks this is as close as you can get I think. The sparrow is positioned on a small base with a branch and the bamboo leaves I mentioned before. This not only looks nice but give the model a sturdy connection as well.

Value For Money

For €9,95 there’s really no debate, this is a great little build and really worth the purchase. The amount of parts, the complexity of the build, the quality of the bricks all these things combined I’d say the price is spot on. 

Conclusion

The product is both similar and very different to the products LEGO offer. I was a big fan of the Ideas Birds set from 2015 and absolutely regretted buying the Kingfisher set earlier in the year. This kind of set is much more to my liking, but that’s a matter of taste. It’s more what LEGO used to be a few years ago compared to how their products developped over the last few years. So in all honesty it probably won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, depending to what you’re looking for in a set. 

For me an interesting build is much more important than how the finished build looks. It’s also more serious (less cartoonish) compared to most LEGO animals. So if that sounds like something you could be interested in, I’d definitely encourage you to give this a try. If you value different things in your building sets, this might not be for you. Hopefully we’ve given you a good insight into the pros and cons of this Blue Brixx model to give you an impression what this set is about.

So what do you think of this set? Does it appeal to you? And how do you feel about buying other brands than LEGO? Share your thoughts in the comments!