Earlier this year, I mentioned how I was really inspired by JANGBRICKS’ minifigure display wall, using LEGO compatible plates by Strictly Briks, and remade by own wall using the same method (see: Updating My LEGO Minifigures Display Wall). I’m very happy with the quality, interesting shapes, useful sizes, and huge color selection of Strictly Briks plates, and used them for a number of projects where large plates were required. They are basically indistinguishable from LEGO both in quality and color, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to other LEGO fans. 🙂
Originally, Strictly Briks only made plates and baseplates, but now they also offer other LEGO compatible products. While Strictly Briks mostly have kids in mind, and market their products to parents, many of their offerings can also be interesting for teen and adult LEGO fans.
Of course, the most useful are the plates and baseplates. Since my last review (see: Baseplates for LEGO in a Rainbow of Colors), Strictly Briks added some unique shapes, like circles, half circles, and triangles – all of which offer great display options. Just to be clear, Strictly Briks produces two types of plates. Standard thin baseplates with studs on top, smooth bottom, and rounded corners. They are just like what LEGO makes, but in a larger selection of colors, and sizes. Then they also make what they call “stackable baseplates”, which are the same thickness as regular LEGO plates with studs on top, tubes at the bottom, and sharp corners. (These are the ones I used for my display wall, as I like that there are no gaps at the corners. They are also great for mosaics, and as general building plates.) Strictly Briks also make plates that are compatible with DUPLO, which they call “Big Briks”.
The plates and baseplates are also available in silicone. I don’t really care for these, but I do have one, and it’s definitely high quality, I just couldn’t yet figure out a way to take advantage of its unique flexibility. What I do like though, is the smaller silicone straps. They come in regular LEGO plate sizes, like 1×1, 1×2, 2×2, 2×4, and 2×14, and they are also available in DUPLO sizes. They could be used in lots of creative ways.
Strictly Briks also makes some really sweet straight and curved road plates. Please note that these are the stackable plates I mentioned above, so they are the same thickness as a LEGO plate, and not like the thin LEGO baseplates. There is a good selection of options including curvy roads, straight roads, and road plates for a racetrack!
The multi-sided bricks, pictured below, also offer some interesting options. The smaller ones have four studs on four sides and tubes on the other two sides. The columns have studs on two sides, tubes on the other two sides, studs on top, and are hollow on the bottom.
The AlphaBriks & MathBricks set is meant for kids to learn their letters and numbers, but I also find them to be a great lettering (and numbering) option for my own creations. It comes with white numbers on black tiles, and black letters on tan tiles. The tiles are 2×2 stud size, but a bit different than standard LEGO tiles. Two of the bottom edges are angled, so while the tiles stick to a plate perfectly snug, they are super easy to remove. I would really like to see these tiles in other colors and maybe with different font styles to offer more options.
There are a number of other new products by Strictly Briks that are worth checking out. Here, I mostly focused on items that I find useful as an adult LEGO fan, and for kids, there are some other great offers as well, like the super silly and fun Brik Buster Game, as you can see in the video below.
I have been very happy with the Strictly Briks plates, baseplates and other items I tried out, so I would definitely recommend them. If you are interested, you can check out most of their selection at their website, StrictlyBriks.com, however a good number of their products are only listed at their Amazon store, so I would suggest checking there as well: STRICTLY BRICKS ON AMAZON
What do you think? Have you tried out any of Strictly Briks products already? How do you like them? What else would you like to see them offer? Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and own review in the comment section below! 😉
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That’s a definite must have. I mean if LEGO can’t there act together, other companies will beat them to it. I think LEGO is to focused on big and expensive sets that there missing the small things that made LEGO fun in the first place. Bigger doesn’t mean it’s always better.
The LEGO Classic and LEGO Creator lines are great for basic building, and they are quite affordable.
We are talking about baseplates here, mainly the large type that LEGO charge a fortune for (£7 each!) Whereas the Strictly Briks one’s work out at about £2 each and can be stacked in a variety of ways. LEGO have really missed a trick here and must be losing a fortune to these!
Really liking those baseplates and roadplates. One question. Do they have logos on their studs? One thing I don’t like about other brands is that usually the logos are plain, which is very noticeable.
It appears that the studs, at least for the newer products, contain the letters SB (although it’s a bit hard to make out from the pictures).
Btw, how do the roadplates differ from Lego’s own?
I might consider buying something when/ if I move to some bigger place. Could depend on import costs to Sweden, and such…
The studs say Briks. 🙂
As far as the roadplates, as I mentioned in the article above, they are not the thin roadplates plates like what LEGO makes, but regular plates with studs on top and holes on the bottom. They are the thickness of one LEGO plate. I don’t know if Strictly Briks has a distributor in Europe, but I could find out.
Okay, so apparently they sell their products via Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, and Amazon.fr, which should be much more convenient for you. Also, they are working with a distributor in the Netherlands called Brandtraders, who takes care of their distribution to retailers in Europe. They couldn’t give me a list of retailers Brandstanders works with, but if you are interested let me know, and they will look into it. 🙂
But the width of the road is the same, they’re compatible that way?
Yes, same size, but thicker. 🙂
Yes, the plates do have logos moulded into the studs! They say “Bricks”. This does make them very similar looking to LEGO baseplates, and you have to get really close to notice the difference. This is one of many reasons I really like them. 🙂
Oh!!! I like those letters and numbers! Do you happen to know how many of each letter are in a pack?
I did take a quick look for you, and in the set I got, there are definitely more than one letter and number of each. I counted at least 6 “A” and “S”, but some of the less commonly used letters have less pieces. It’s a good mix.
2) I guess what I’m saying is, that if LEGO made things like colorful baseplates it would be be great for builders. Example, this year we got a lot of boat themes and yet LEGO stop making the blue baseplates. It doesn’t make sense.
LEGO’s baseplates are actually no longer made directly by LEGO, but yes, it’s a good point; they should have a bigger and more widely available selection. But there are alternatives, like these ones. 🙂
I got a ton of the really large white plates for my Winter Village. I think they’re great! If I remember correctly they have sharp 90˚ so that the connection between them is seamless.
I am also interested in the letters and numbers. Lego makes similar tiles but you have to go hunting through the educational division and they’re really prohibitively expensive.
Like the road plates too. Will have to investigate them. I take it they’re a new innovation for Strictly Bricks as I don’t remember seeing them before.
Tell me about it! Hunting down those LEGO letter plates is so difficult, and they are so expensive even on BrickLink! I actually really like the little lip on these. It’s a great innovation. Makes it so much easier to remove the pieces! I just hope they will add some more colors. Yes, these were all recently added products. There is even more, but I focused on the ones that I find the most useful for all generations. 🙂
I have some of those old letter bricks from the 60’s, but the clutch is often quite poor…
You do???!!! You are lucky! They are very old, so probably that’s why they got loose.
Not really enough of them to spell out anything useful, but still…
If you hold on to them longer, some fanatic collector will pay you a million bucks for them! 🙄
This is possibly the rarest part I own, from some flea market find. This mold was only ever used in this pretty obscure set…
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=bb165pb02&idColor=1#T=C&C=1
(Strangely enough, it’s a white part that’s printed with opaque red, making it appear like it’s pink…)
Oh, what a nice piece! I always wanted these printed versions with flowers and butterfly: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?pg=1&catString=778&catType=P&v=2
UPDATE: Just a bit of update. Strictly Briks is running a contest right now where you can enter to win some of their stuff free: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/fff62f741/