Author: Thomas

Wherever I go I find problems that needs to be solved. How do I solve them? In lots of different ways, and here I will try to tell you how I do it.
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Testing the Kazi WWII Lego Tank (267 pieces)

Thomas has built a lot of Chinese Lego lately, and now he has just finished the construction of a Kazi WWII Lego Tank consisting of 267 pieces. He is really satisfied, not just because of the quality, but also because of the look of the finished construction.

Thomas has tested a lot of Chinese Lego, and sometimes he is very happy about the product, and sometimes, he is not. But, this WWII Lego Tank is one of his favorites, not only because of the look, but also because it has a solid quality, and it is quite easy to construct.

The HuiQiBao Lego Tank
The Kazi Lego Tank

As you can see on the picture above, the package comes with two nice looking soldiers, and a very handsome little tank. It isn’t very big, but it is a really nice looking tank.

What about the construction process?

It is quite easy to build this, and the instructions are easy to follow. If you are seven years or older and have some experience constructing Lego, this shouldn’t cause to much trouble.

The Kazi lego Tank instructions paper…
The Kazi lego Tank instructions
The Kazi lego Tank instructions

Above you can see an example of what a page looks like in the instructions manual for this Lego Tank from Kazi.

Is this really Kazi or maybe HuiQiBao?

At first, Thomas thought this Lego tank was a HuiQiBao product as he bought it from the HuiQiBao store. But, as he received the package, he could clearly see from the instructions that this is a Kazi product, just look at the front page of the manual above. It says Kazi with big letters. Now, Kazi is one of the best Chinese Lego brands, so that should be a good sign. And yes, this Lego is 100% compatible with your current Lego pieces.

A picture of the finished Lego tank

Since it was constructed, the kids have played a lot with this tank, and they like the fact that the soldiers look so good, and the fact that the gun on the tank can be turned around, and thus it can shoot in all directions.

The price of the Lego was around 10 USD, and it is absoutely worth it. This is a unique Kazi design, and a real winner if you want to enjoy a high-quality Second World War Lego from China.

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Testing the HuiQiBao Dragon Knight Lego

Thomas doesn’t like Ninjago at all, but it is a popular series among kids, and thus, he decided to order a Dragon Knight Lego from China. Yet again, there is a mixture of brand names, but it seems to originally be a HuiQiBao Lego brand, but it could also be called a Happy Monkey brand. Who knows?

A Dragon Knight should cost around 4 USD (which is a nice price for the product), and it consists of around 115 pieces. It isn’t hard to construct, meaning that people who are good with Lego from 6 years and up should be able to construct it without great trouble.

Lego Dragon Knight from HuiQiBao
Lego Dragon Knight from HuiQiBao

Is the HuiQiBao Lego compatible with normal Lego?

Yes, the bricks are 100% compatible with your normal Lego bricks.

The quality of the Dragon Knight

The quality is nice and it looks really cool. People who and especially kids who like Lego and Ninjago, will for sure be really happy about this one. Thomas had some trouble with the pieces, and for that reason, somehow the bricks for both of the legs were ruined during the construction process, or at least one of them. The second might have been ruined during the playing process. This might have been due to clumsiness (again), or it might have to deal with the fact that this sort of Lego doesn’t have the same quality as the normal Lego. But, if you take care and construct it carefully, you shouldn’t have such trouble.

And to be honest, Thomas really likes the look of it. You can bend the legs, the tails can move, the head can be moved around, and it is a really nice looking construction, available in four different colors. The Lego knight coming with the Dragon is very nice as well.

The Dragon Knight is really cool, even though it has been glued because of some accidents during the construction process.
The Dragon Knight is really cool, even though it has been glued because of some accidents during the construction process.

As a result, this is a nice treat, and Thomas likes both the price and the final look of the Ninja Dragon Knight from HuiQiBao.

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Testing the Sluban Chinese Lego Brand (Station Wagon)

Thomas is really in the mood for testing Chinese Lego, and he has lots of orders delivered at his door in the coming weeks, so hopefully, you are as excited as he is about it all. The last product he tested was a Lego Friends car (kind-of-thing) with the Sluban brand, a nice looking Station Wagon. But, was it really that good?

So far, Thomas has been really satisfied with the Kazi brand, but what about Sluban, or is it Enlighten? Based on the description on AliExpress, it doesn’t show really, because it sais that Enlighten is the Item Brand at one place, and at the next place, it says Sluban. Well, who cares? It would be nice to know though, but as of know, you can just consider this little review to say something about both Enlighten and about Sluban.

The Lego Station Wagon from China
The Lego Station Wagon from China

The Station Wagon consists of 153 pieces, making it quite small. And, if you take that into consideration, it isn’t really very cheap, with a price around 6-7 USD (and from some sellers around 10). It isn’t the worst price, but considering that sometimes you can buy Chinese Lego with more than 1000 pieces for only 20 USD, it still feels quite expensive.

How hard is the Sluban/Enlighten Lego to build?

Thomas didn’t really construct this car himself, but instead he gave it to a seven-year old boy who loves constructing Lego, and it went smoothly. The steering wheel was broken during the construction process, which should be considered a minus. It might have to deal with the quality, or with the clumsyness of the constructor, but it is still worth knowing that you might want to be careful with the steering wheel during construction.

But, all in all, it was an easy product to construct. It isn’t big, but if you have a little girl in the house that has been dreaming of a Station Wagon for a while, this might be a nice treat.

Is the Enlighten/Sluban Lego compatible with normal Lego bricks?

Yes, they are completely compatible with your existing normal Lego bricks from the original Lego brand.

Finished and ready for playing
Finished and ready for playing

All in all, this is a nice piece of Lego that will bring joy to the house. But, Thomas isn’t completely happy with it, mostly because it doesn’t really feel that cheap considering the size of the construction, and also because it also feels like a very close to rip-off from the original Lego when it comes to design and everything.

The character coming with the car looks really crappy, and doesn’t look very much like typical Lego, while the dog is really cool!

All in all, this isn’t at all the best Chinese Lego Thomas has bought or tested. If you want to give it a try, you can buy it right here on AliExpress.

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Testing Kazi 84031, a 16 in 1 Lego Super Tank

Thomas has gotten seriously into testing Chinese Lego, and recently he constructed the 16 in 1 Lego Super Tank from Kazi. This is know to be one of the better Chinese Lego brands, but is it really that good?

The Kazi 84031 16 in 1 Lego Super Tank comes in lots of small packages, 16 in total. In every single package you will find instructions on how to build 2 different small pieces, meaning that you can actually build 32 different small constructions with this package (but only 16 at the same time).

How to build a small military car with Kazi 84031

The instructions are easy to follow, and Thomas had a great time constructing it with kids at the age of 5 and 7 years old (who mostly could construct all the small Lego toys without any help).

Some of the small toys coming in Kazi 84031 Lego - 16 in 1 tank
Some of the small toys coming in Kazi 84031 Lego – 16 in 1 tank

When you are finished playing around with the small figures, you will need to take them apart in order to construct the big tank.

The total package comes with around 550 bricks, and the price when Thomas bought it was around 20 USD (but, sometimes it is more expensive than that). The bricks are 100% compatible with normal Lego bricks, making it easy to use these bricks for other Lego constructions, or using normal Lego bricks to make these constructions even cooler.

Thomas constructs the large Kazi 84031 Tank

Thomas was curious to see the big tank and what it would be like. But, to be honest, Thomas didn’t construct it himself, but the seven year old boy constructed the tank all by himself and without help. Here you can see a little animation of the construction process.

It took a little while, but it wasn’t a very hard thing to build! The bricks always fitted smoothly, and there was no trouble at all. There are no figures coming with this package, so don’t expect there to be soldiers around as you open the different packages.

If you want to see even more of the tank and what it looks like in real life, check the following YouTube video.

Kazi 84031 Lego Tank conclusion

Thomas is very satisfied with the package. It isn’t the biggest tank in size, but it is still nice and cool. But, it might be that kids will actually have more fun with the 16 small toys than the one big toy. Anyway, this is good and can warmly be recommended for fans of World War II Lego pieces from China. The quality is good, so there is nothing to complain about when it comes to that!

Make sure to follow The Thomas Stories and his stories to get more interesting articles in the future, to read more about other Chinese Lego products, and lots of other cool stories.

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Thomas tests the Gudi Lego Bumblebee Transformers Robot from China

Thomas is a big fan of LEGO, but he doesn’t have much experience with the Chinese Lego brands yet. His first order ever was a Lego Bumblebee Transformers Robot from China (produced by Gudi). How did he like it?

At first, Thomas didn’t plan to make an article about it, so as he constructed the robot first, he didn’t make any photos, nor video. But, he was very satisfied with the robot, and it wasn’t even that hard to create. In other words, Thomas believes that people with some building skills from the age of 8 and up will manage to construct the robot quite easily.

The price of the product as Thomas bought it was 8 USD.

Gudi Transformers Bumblebee from China
Gudi Transformers Bumblebee from China

The instructions manual looks very similar to the one from Lego, but you should expect the steps to be harder to follow. Thomas felt this as they often include several steps and bricks in the same instruction, and sometimes these depend on one another, which can make it feel complicated. They will also instruct you on how to build both legs at the same time and both sides of the car, meaning that you will have to calculate a bit in the head as you construct (with real Lego they show you both sides step by step).

Bumblebee Lego from Gudi
The Bumblebee car from Gudi is finished and it looks really cool!

Thomas builds the Gudi Bumblee car

The car was a bit harder to construct than the robot, but still not very hard! The finished product looks really cool until you start playing a lot with it. Unfortunately, both the door and the window are really easy to tear off, meaning that a kid who wants to open and close the door, will be sure to make it fall of every single time he makes a move. The same is quite true if you try to make the window go up or down. Take a look at the video to see how easy it is.

Is Thomas happy about the Bumblebee Lego from Gudi?

What is the destiny of most Lego? You construct it, play with it for 5 minutes, and then you throw it away somewhere and the next time you want to play with it, some parts are missing. In other words, the process of constructing it is actually 85% of the actual fun. If that is true, then this was a great robot! The stability of the car in use wasn’t the best, but since Thomas isn’t going to spend much time actually playing with it, he doesn’t car. It was a great value for the 8 USD he spent on it, and soon he will get some more Chinese Lego he is going to test and write about!

Thomas almost forgot to mention it, but this is very important. The Gudi bricks are 100% compatible with your existing original Lego bricks.

If you have any comments or questions about this Gudi Bumblebee robot in the so-called Transform series, write a comment!

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How to play Dixit with two persons?

Thomas brought some Dixit cards to a cafe here the other day, but they ended up being only two by the table. Is it possible to play Dixit with only two persons? How can it be done?

Thomas didn’t even have a working smartphone nearby, so he asked himself… how can I play Dixit with only two persons? Is there a working method or way to play the game that will work with only two persons? He came up with an idea, and he was actually quite satisfied with the result.

How to play Dixit with two persons?
How to play Dixit with two persons?

How to play Dixit when you are only two persons?

The solution is to hand out 5 or 6 to both players. The first player looks at all his cards and finds one for which he finds a describing word. He then selects two or three other cards that he adds to the selected one and places them on the table.

The other player now has to pick the card the first player described with the first word he said!

There is no good way to decide who is the winner in this game, because you can easily trick the other by selecting stupid words… but if the goal is to have fun with a kid or someone you love and you do not really count the points, only play to have fun, this can actually work quite well!

Have you ever tried to play Dixit with only two persons? How did you play? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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A Playmobil 9482 review

Thomas gave away a set of the Playmobil 9482 for Christmas to someone he likes, and he was curious to see the quality of his gift.

As Thomas discovered the Lots of Fair Fun/Family Fun Playmobil set on Amazon.de, it was available at a great discount. It was written that the original price of the set was more than 100 Euro, but at that given time the sales price was only 39 Euro. That was quite amazing, so Thomas quickly bought it.

The package of the Playmobil Family Fun (9482)

What do you get in the Playmobil 9482 set?

There are four main parts in the Playmobil 9482 set. You can take a look at the video beneath to see the four parts. The stickers are not properly attached in the video, but besides that, it is the way it should look once you make the correct preparations.

The video is little, but you can see the movements and what the four different parts are capable of doing.

After testing it for a few minutes, Thomas is quite sure that this package would never be worth 100 Euro. Yes, it might be worth 30-40 Euro, but he was a bit disappointed that the carousel didn’t move by itself, but it was hand-driven. The lights are blinking at the top of it, but that is all!

In other words, it might be cool and give kids something to play with for a few hours. But, it isn’t the coolest. If Thomas had to mention one thing he actually liked it has to be the shooting game in which you have 4 arrows you can shot at 6 boxes in total. This can be fairly fun, and you can compete with kids to see who is best at it!

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How to create a Windows 10 install disk? (USB/DVD)

Thomas has messed up his Windows installation and wants to give his computer a full restart. He wants to delete everything and install Windows 10 from scratch. But, how can it be done? It doesn’t work properly if he tries to re-install Windows from Windows. So, how can he create a Windows 10 install disk with USB or DVD that he can run upon booting, in which he can decide to format his hard-drive and give it all a fresh start?

Thomas didn’t have to look for a long time in order to find a solution to the problem. What he needs is an empty DVD or an empty USB stick. He can then go to the download site for the Windows Media Creation tool. There he can download and start the little application he downloaded. In this, he will get two options. Either he will install Windows over again, or he can create a bootable disk from which he can install Windows.

creating windows 10 media
Thomas is creating his Windows 10 installation disk

Thomas chooses the bootable disk option, plugs his Pendrive into the USB port on his computer, and it starts working.

The entire process of creating the bootable USB drive that will install Windows 10 to his computer takes about 20 minutes. Once he is finished, he restarts his computer and he is eagerly waiting for his brand new Windows installation to be ready and set to go.

Hopefully, you will be able to create your own boot-disk from which you can install Windows 10 using these instructions.

Should you have a comment or a question, write them down beneath!

 

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What is the time in WordPress? How to change the WordPress time-zone?

Thomas is writing lots of articles that he wants to have published at different times. But, when he sets an article to be published at 12.00, it is often published one hour later. How come? What time system does WordPress run with?

Thomas once tried to help someone to have an article published at exactly 00.00 on New Year’s Eve, wishing everyone a happy new year. But, it turned into a major bummer, because the article was published at 23.00 instead. What caused this? How can Thomas make sure it will not happen again?

Fix the time zone of your WordPress installation

Thomas has found a way to solve this problem once and for all. To do so, he goes to Settings and chooses General in the WordPress menu. Under General Settings he can find an option which is called “Time Zone.”

The WordPress time zone

Above you can see a picture showing what this is like. First, you can see that the time zone is set to UTC +0, and beneath you an see what this actually means when it comes to the time of the given WordPress installation.

If Thomas lives in a country which is UTC +1 and Thomas sets an article to be released at 12.00, it will be released at 13.00 in his local time, because WordPress will publish it at 12.00 UTC +0 time. The easiest way to fix the trouble is by changing the time zone so that it will reflect the time zone you are in!

Thomas is a bit confused, but at least he understands how it works. He will not fail again if he tries to publish something at exactly 00.00 on New Year’s Eve, that is for sure!

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How to schedule a WordPress post?

Have you written a WordPress post that you would like to publish another time and another date? Is there a way to publish a WordPress post at a special time?

Thomas likes to do a lot of work before he is going on holiday and before the weekends. Now he would like to write some blog posts that are to be published during the Christmas holiday, but he doesn’t want to actually work during the Christmas holiday. So, how can he schedule blog posts using WordPress to that it will publish the articles during the holiday?

Schedule posts with WordPress

Thomas was very happy to notice that publishing WordPress posts at a given time and a date was very easy, at least as he found out how and where to do so.

How is it done?

When Thomas has finished writing the actual article, he goes to the “Publish” box on the right side of the blog post itself. You can see it on the picture beneath.

publish wordpress

If you see the picture above, you can see the arrow pointing at the “publish” text. It is set to immediately at the moment, but if you press edit, you can easily set the time and date for the article to be published.

If you want to have the article published on December 24th at 18.00, it will look like this.

The post is set to be published on December 24th at 18.00
The post is set to be published on December 24th at 18.00

Now all Thomas has to do is to press the Schedule button (earlier Publish was written, but since the article is set to be published in the future, the text has now changed to schedule).

That is how easy it is to schedule an article for a future release in WordPress! And, since Thomas uses SteemPress to publish his article to Steemit, this will also help him out schedule articles for future release on Steemit!