QLT YC-184 review: a cute book nook brick building out of 1194 LEGO-compatible pieces inspired by a city street corner.
I again delved deep into the alternative Amazon.de brick world and found a tempting book nook I couldn’t find on Aliexpress or other Chinese stores.
Fast-forward! I ordered the set to check it out for you. My wallet kindly sponsored the set, which I bought online from Amazon.de for around 40€.
QLT YC-184 Review
The YC-184 is a book nook brick building set of 1194 pieces. According to QLT, it is inspired by a city street corner. Important note: This will only be folding facades, not a complete house.
The set’s seller is the retailer QLT on Amazon. I couldn’t find any information about the set designer, so I assume it is more of an OEM set than an original design.
The delivery from Amazon took one day and came in beautiful, double-sided illustrated packaging. It was stuffed with plastic bags and small-format assembly instructions—nothing fancy but nicely and neatly packaged.
Take a quick look at the instructions. There is much on each page, making it very compact for the 1194 pieces. The print quality is good, and everything can be read. Everything already being built is in grey, and the actual step is in color.
Key features of the set are:
| Company/Designer | QLT? |
| Bricks | No info |
| Product name | Book Nook |
| Age | 6+ |
| Set dimensions | 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm |
| Product serial number | YC-184 |
| Pieces | 1194 |
| Stickers | Yes |
| Pad Prints | No |
Section 1
The YC-184 set consists of three building sections. Let’s attack the first section.
In the first step, we built the right section, which consisted of many classic 1x pink bricks. Then, the white and brown tiles provided contrast. Same for the brown windows.
There are also plants and a cat on the sidewalk for decoration. I also added a little white, orange, and yellow tree with a little blue bird on it. Has the Twitter bird found a new home here?
To achieve an elongated window, an interesting construction technique was chosen here: a window is taken, turned, and attached to bricks with burls on the side.
Yes, it’s just a facade. This can also be seen from the narrow construction. The building stands on 2x (6×10) plates.
So far, there have been no problems with the building. The bricks are of (OK—good) quality, but not as high quality as LEGO or GoBricks. Let’s move on.
Section 2
The assembly is progressing quickly. I am already at section 2. The narrow intermediate building was built here. It remains very pleasant without major problems, apart from the first brick irregularity. There was a casting error on the green 1×2 plate.
This happens, but it’s not a tragedy because the pieces could be used. You won’t see the broken side if you turn them the right way.
The two photos show the first part of the second section. It is a classic construction with a mixture of classic and masonry bricks in dark green and dark orange. There are also dark green windows and a door.
You can see that my set is in the middle white. A sticker should be attached over three tiles, but I left it out in good conscience—no stickers for me.
A look at the back nicely shows how narrow the individual sections are.
On page 52, with step 166, section 2 is already over. The house, sorry the facade, has grown further. Both elements now look even more appropriate
The second section consisted mainly of expanding the first area of section 1. More precisely, I added more pink and white tiles to the construction. Additionally, I built a pivoting roof made of a small “technic” design.
The set slowly takes shape, and you can see the foldable concept. It’s growing fast, so fast that we’re already at section 3 – the last stage of this set.
Section 3
In section 3, we build the left side of our facade. I like this one best because the design is more lively here.
The base also consists of 2x (6×10) plates to which everything is attached. On the ground floor, the elongated window construction technique made a comeback. It gives you a nice continuous window design.
There is trash, a table, and some accessories for decoration. Next to this is a black sign in front of a possible coffee shop entrance. It’s very black because there should be a sticker on it that I ignored. And like on the right side, the sidewalk is also tiled.
On the left side is a beautiful staircase design with little lamps, which also brings some structure and “depth” to the narrow design.
The construction remains varied. But there was another casting error—this time a 1×1 white plate. You can see the picture above. An elongated red sign is attached between the ground floor and the upper area. It also has a logo made of a long sticker.
I like the upper area because it has a vintage feel. The white balcony, which really stands out in the set, adds a lot to this. Further, a cat is sitting on the roof. Of course, a China set without a cat is not a China set, right?
And here is a look at the back of the entire set.
Here are some photos of the QLT YC-184 set when it is folded up. In my opinion, it looks better than in the open version.
QLT YC-184 Review Conclusion
In summary, the QLT YC-184 is a solid set. It offers a lot of building fun for little money. Whether you really need something like this as a brick set is something everyone has to decide for themselves.
I enjoyed building it because it was more versatile than I initially thought. The set gets, however, minus points for the stickers and the ok-ish brick quality.
Pro
- original design
- box
- excellent brick amount/price ratio
- mini LED brick
- instruction
Neutral
- brick quality (+/-)
Contra
- stickers
Review Video (German)
QLT YC-184 is available now for around 40€.
More information here: Amazon.de (partner link)