Airport: Oxford Transport Series/공항: 옥스포드 트랜스포트 시리즈

Ah, it's been a while since I mentioned Oxford. This was actually the first brick set that I bought in 2013. I had no particular plan for it, but really liked what I saw. I might get the cargo ship port set in the future if I can find it.

This set consists of an airplane, a small airport building, a shuttle bus, and cargo/baggage haulers. The airport has a main floor with a waiting area and bank machine, a second floor with a table, and a top room for air traffic control. It's small but cozy. It would be cool to have a larger building, but clearly the plane is the emphasis of the set.

The shuttle bus is quite nice, but there's no quick way to access the interior to seat the minifigs (and there's a good number of them too!). This could be edited with the proper parts of course :P

The plane is great, though the interior is a little too plain. For what it is, I have no big complaints. Overall it's quite a pleasant set to have on display.

Oxford Empire Tower

Another addition to the Oxford Empire castle series. We have here quite a large central tower and two other side towers. The main gate has a more advanced mechanism than the main castle... advanced in the sense that there's a string and a pulley inside as opposed to just blocks swinging open.

This set is imposing, especially when it is together with the other castle.

Of course Oxford has the usual siege weapon gimmicks. Nice to have I suppose...

There is also a trebuchet-like engine. With all the castle sets I now have, there's an abundance of these things. But what I really want is a siege tower or two! I know that Lego has made a few of those, but the prices for them are ridiculous.










Overall a very nice set. It goes quite well with the main castle. Now Oxford needs to make a few civilian sets to make a real medieval town! Of course, it would be very hard indeed to compete with Lego in that department.

Oxford Empire Castle 옥스포드 엠파이어 성

Oddly enough, Oxford's Empire theme castles are perhaps better than the Lego Kingdoms stuff. Though this castle does not have a nice gate house and portcullis like the Lego set, I rather prefer this design overall. Not only does it have a nice tower, but a large central throne room for the king as well. It even has a bigger dungeon :P

And oh yes- it has better base plates!

These statues at the gate are great minfigs to have.

 The king doesn't look as impressive as his Lego counterpart, but that is to be expected. In any case, there is a nice variety of figures and equipment. Oxford loves giving weapons...

And the opposite side. This set also comes with a piece of siege equipment, but I forgot to get a picture of it before disassembling. I'll add it in the future if I remember.

Oxford: Three Kingdoms Castle (옥스포드: 삼국지 성)

"Three Kingdoms" is an Oxford theme that is derived from the Three Kingdoms Period of China (ie: Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Unless they mean the three kingdoms of Korea (Silla, Baekje, and Gogureo), but there's only one famous "삼국지" (Samgukji- Three Kingdoms Records) and that refers to the Chinese novel. Please correct me if I'm wrong... ANYway.

This was my first Oxford set, bought just after the Lego Kingdoms castle. Lego does have a small number of Asian-themed sets, but nothing quite like this. The castle consists of a tall central gate connected to walls which swing out and a large palace structure with three floors.


It also comes with a number of horses and siege equipment (a ballista and catapult). There's also a good variety of minifigs to represent the two sides in combat.

The walls have a couple larger pieces which can be easily moved to simulate siege damage. But really, these are blocks, so that seems pointless when you can just break it yourself!

The main building has a pretty much empty first floor. The second floor is a nice throne room, and the top is a treasure tower.









Overall, this is one of my favorite sets for aesthetic reasons. It looks nice on display, though it could use more customization in the future.

Oxford: Cobra Combat Force II (옥스포드: 코브라 전투단 II)

Here is Oxford's Cobra Force II pack. Oxford's other military sets include APCs and helicopters, but I like tanks, so...

I was surprised by the complexity of the set. It is comprised only of the tank and jeep, but it took quite a while to get it all together. Sorting through all the bags didn't help much! Anyway, there are also quite a few minifigs and a ton of weapons and other equipment.

 I love this tank :)

I was surprised by rubber treads. They work very well and do not feel cheap.

And the jeep. Simple but sweet.

I would prefer if it was a little longer so more minifigs could fit inside, but as it is I use it to keep the extra equipment.

I might get the helicopter set in the future, but I'm content with this :)

Oxford: House Moving 옥스포드: 이삿짐

Here's a nice little Oxford set. I thought it was cute and so I picked it up. Simply said, it's a little house and a moving truck. Trucks like that are quite common in south Korea and serve a variety of business uses.

Yup, just enjoying the lawn... Which is not something most Koreans can do given the lack of open land!

Cozy little living room. This set would have been better with a slightly larger house, maybe with a bedroom...

Oxford (옥스포드)

 

Ah, Oxford! Oxford is a South Korean manufacturer of blocks that just so happen to be compatible with Lego. While living in Korea, I've been able to get quite a few of Oxford's sets. While I will be talking about the sets individually, I do have a few general comments to make here about Oxford in general.

Some people might assume that if interlocking bricks aren't made by Lego, they probably aren't any good. Well I don't have any experience beyond Lego and Oxford, but I can honestly say that Oxford comes quite close to giving Lego serious competition. Though I have found that the blocks do not fit together quite as nicely as Lego, the overall quality and variety of sets is pretty good. 

Another interesting thing is that Oxford makes military sets. The only soldiers I know of in Lego are in the pirates and castles series. Oxford goes all out with modern military equipment, and they are pretty sweet.

Another plus is the price. At least in Korea, Oxford sets are about half the price of similar Lego sets. On that note, I really hate how expensive something like Lego can be... They're just blocks! I mean, get real...

So, is there anything negative about Oxford? 

See the lovely mess? Oxford doesn't really organize the pieces very well. You might have to open all of the bags at the very beginning just to build the first few steps! Digging through EVERY bag can be insanely annoying. Some Oxford sets (like the Empire Castle) do have numbered bags similar to current Lego sets, but even they are not quite as well sorted. Just getting the pieces ready is an integral part of the building process, though I must admit it is strangely fun... in retrospect!

One other small thing. Oxford uses a lot of stickers instead of actual printing on blocks. It's no big deal, but it is not my preference.