Product test
Testing the Tesla Cybertruck from Mega Construx
by Ramon Schneider
A street to stroll down: the Qman City Corner series
30.5.2022
Translation: Megan Cornish
Is the Qman City Corner series any good? I took a closer look at the building blocks from Asia. Minor spoiler: I loved them.
I came across Keeppley when I was looking for an alternative to the Danish market leader in the building block business. It’s a sub-brand of Chinese toy manufacturer Qman, which has been making plastic building blocks for almost 30 years. Besides the affordable prices, I’m particularly impressed by its printed blocks, as Qman doesn’t use stickers in any of its sets.
It all sounds very tempting in theory, but how good are the sets in reality? To find out, I ordered Keeppley’s full City Corners range, which consists of five buildings: a Hong Kong sandwich restaurant, a fan shop, a perfumery, a Japanese restaurant and a mojito bar.
One hour per building
There are around 300 blocks in a set, so you don’t need a huge amount of space for building. A small table will do. I’ve often had problems with the instructions from Asian building block manufacturers. Not this time. The assembly steps in the instructions are clear, simply explained and easy to understand.
I have to commend the manufacturer on the quality of the blocks. They’re very well made. There are no visible irregularities in terms of colour and the prints are all perfectly centred. The blocks can also be put together easily and they hold together well.
The finished street looks great
All the buildings consist of roughly the same number of blocks, have two floors and are particularly striking because of their decorated roofs. Joining all five together creates the best visual effect.
Verdict
If you’re also on the lookout for affordable building block alternatives, I can highly recommend the City Corner series. I can say with certainty that this won’t be my last encounter with Qman. I’ll be keeping it on my radar.
