Quick Look: The Mini Brands Copycat Spaces Collection by Zuru

I've posted a lot of big, multi-doll reviews lately.  Those take a long time to write...and a long time to read!  And I'm not even done: there are at least two more mega-reviews on the way as I try to explore some of the hot new summer releases.  However, right now I'm waiting for a few stragglers that are necessary to start those reviews, so I thought it'd be a good chance to pause and do a nice, simple Quick Look!

During one of my many trips to Target this month, I noticed a group of flashy-looking building sets in sleek black boxes sitting on a high shelf.  On closer inspection, I could have sworn they were re-packaged Rolife Super Creator sets, which is something I adore and have written about several times.  But no.  It's a new Zuru Mini Brands product called Spaces, and it has stunning, piece-for-piece similarity to Rolife.  Those of you who are here regularly might swear that you've already seen this cover picture (or at least the ice cream items) in one of my Rolife reviews.  But this is the Zuru product:

Mini Brands Spaces Sweet Scoops Ice Cream Store by Zuru, $39.99.

And Zuru isn't just copying Rolife here.  There are more layers.

First of all, they straight-up took the "Spaces" name from MGA's Make it Mini Spaces sets:

Make it Mini Spaces set by MGA Entertainment.

I mean, MGA was also copying Rolife to a pretty embarrassing extent with their Spaces kits, but at least their products have novel pieces and are in a different scale so that they can accommodate a different range of dolls:

An assortment of dolls in a Miniverse Spaces room.

The other nice thing about MGA's Spaces kits is that they work with other Miniverse miniatures.  In fact, one of my criticisms of those toys is that they rely a bit too heavily on the assumption that somebody will have an existing stash of Make it Mini items.

In contrast, the Zuru Spaces sets are in the same exact scale as Rolife, which is approximately 1:18.  That doesn't work with any of the other Mini Brands products that I own.  They might work with Zuru's new Minnee dolls, and I'll be able to tell you soon because my Minnee dolls arrived today.

The third thing that Zuru is copying here is the packaging.  Those sleek black boxes that caught my eye at Target look like this:

Mini Brands Spaces packaging.

And they're clearly inspired by Lego's gorgeous and popular Botanical Collection packaging:

I'm obsessed with the Lego Botanical Collection.

I can't deny that these are all strategic moves by Zuru.  They're trying to attract the Rolife Super Creator buyers, the Make it Mini buyers, and the Lego buyers all at the same time.

And Rolife doesn't sell their sets in stores like Target.  They stick with craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby.  So there was definitely an opening to be exploited.

Strategic or not, I have no respect for this kind of copying.  It shows a complete lack of creativity and imagination.  Furthermore, it fills the shelves with redundant clutter.  Capitalism at its worst.  On top of all that, copycats like this are usually lower quality than the original.  We'll see if that's the case here.

I should have walked away and left this product on the shelf, but my curiosity got the better of me.  I had to see how extensive the copying actually is.

The back of the box shows all of the Spaces sets that have been released so far, and they're all connected together exactly the way you'd connect a group of Rolife rooms:

Let's start at the bottom and see what all of the different rooms are.

There's a burger joint:

Of course Rolife also has a burger joint, and if you study the pictures you'll notice that most of the pieces are the same:

Rolife Yum Yum Burgers.

I featured this awesome Rolife set in my Pop 'n Swap Polly Pocket review:

"Love & Meat"

There's a bar on the second floor of the Zuru tower:

Note the use of the word "cheers."

This is a stripped-down version of the fabulous Rolife Leisurely Cheers bar:

There are a lot of similarities, but the Zuru set is missing the wine cabinet, which I think is one of the best pieces in the Rolife room.

And, okay, both sets are probably referencing the 1980s Cheers television show, but the Rolife set does it only in their title while the Zuru set copies the whole color scheme and font from the show in their signage and decorations:

There's no copying Sam's hair, though.

On top of the tower there's a bakery:

Which, despite many copied pieces, is nowhere near as cool as the Rolife bakery:

Rolife Golden Wheat Bakery.

On the other side of the tower, on top of the ice cream shop, there's a little outdoor space:

By now it should come as no surprise that this is a close copy of the Rolife terrace set:

Rolife terrace set.

I honestly had to pause after looking at the box to research whether or not Rolife and Zuru are under the same parent company or something, because this is ridiculous.  But nope: they're completely separate.  It's baffling.

You'd think that perhaps Zuru's angle with this concept was to pare down the detail and make their sets more affordable than Rolife.  But that's not even the case.  The Zuru sets cost $39.99 and the Rolife sets are about $43.99...often on sale for $39.50.  So it's basically a wash.

Furthermore, for anyone shopping in a lower price range, Rolife already has a Mini series, with attractive smaller sets that are in the $27-30 category:

Rolife Mini Series Butter Bakery, $29.99.

The right hand side of the Zuru box shows all of the pieces that come with the ice cream shop, most of which look familiar to me:

Deja vu.

Before I dive in and look at the Zuru set, let me give you a quick reminder of what the Rolife ice cream shop looks like.  I used this as a comparison piece in my Make it Mini Spaces review:

Rolife Flavorful Ice Cream set.

It's got wonderful details, both in the printed decorations and in the plastic miniatures.  My 1:18 Lundby doll, Freja, is very at home in this shop:

Time to make the ice cream...

The Pop 'n Swap Polly Pocket...um...critters are comfortable here, too!

Freja makes yummy ice cream!

I never set up any of the lights for the Rolife ice cream shop, but I have a picture of my Rolife kitchen so that you can see how the lighting for these kits tends to work:

Rolife Happy Meals Kitchen with roof and light.

The kitchen came with wiring, a light-up oven, a ceiling light, and a hub to plug in all of the cords.  In order to have a place for the ceiling light, you have to purchase a roof for the room.  These cost about $8.  But the glow of the light looks wonderful.

With all of that in mind, let's dig into the Zuru set!

All of the pieces came in plastic bags, pretty much exactly like a Rolife set:

The construction of the room and the basics of the electrical wiring are exactly the same as they are with Rolife, so if you're curious about those things, please see my Rolife Happy Meals Kitchen review.

The directions are fairly straight forward, although the order seemed a bit random and one of the sections had me completely lost.  I just ignored that section and everything was fine.  Here's a sample page:

There are lots of adhesive dots, just like with the Rolife sets.

As you can see, the layout and design (and even the color palette) of the Zuru instruction booklet is copied from Rolife:

Rolife instruction booklet.

There's incredible similarity in the details of the directions, too.

The set went together in about 30 minutes, which is the same as what I've experienced with my Rolife builds.  The worst part was trying to weave the electrical cord in and out of the walls and behind and around the wallpaper.  I didn't have that kind of trouble with the Rolife wiring.  Rolife wiring is all very deliberate, and this felt haphazard.

Aside from the electrical wiring, I didn't notice any significant differences in build experience between this and Rolife.  The pieces all fit together well, and it's a satisfying project.

Here's the final product:

Zuru Spaces room.

Unlike the Rolife sets that I've built, this room has a wall light.  It's the bulky-looking white rectangle on the front left side of the picture, below:

There's supposed to be a sticker on that light, but I didn't get a sticker.

The cord from the light has to run all of the way around the whole room to the back of the opposite wall where there's a power hub, which is what gave me such a headache with the building experience.

I think the only Rolife set with this kind of light is the bakery?  I'm not sure.  But it's not like Zuru designed a whole new light fixture: they copied it from the Rolife bakery.

Here's the little ice cream cabinet:

There's also a topping station and a drink cooler:

With a soft serve dispenser hiding at the back of the room.

There's a little seating area, too, although it's awkwardly positioned at the very front of the store:

I wouldn't sit there.

The entire layout of this room is bizarre.  It's hard to play with.

The signs at the back of the shop are simple advertisements with pictures of fake ice cream:

The electrical hub plugs into the wall with a USB-C cord (exactly like Rolife) and the wall light glows brightly:

A bit too brightly.

The position of this light isn't great.  It clutters the space near the ice cream cabinet and makes it hard to see things in that area:

It's going to melt the ice cream.

It's difficult for me to be a fair critic here because I'm so disappointed about the copying.  But if I step back and look at this set in isolation, it's cute.  If I'd seen this with no knowledge of Rolife, I'd probably be charmed.  I might be frustrated by the layout, which doesn't feel natural, and by the location of the light and the poor design of the wiring, but I'd surely be interested in buying more sets.

But since I have had experience with Rolife, I know better.

I'm going to go back and look at all of the main components of the Zuru set again, this time comparing them side by side to their Rolife counterpart.

First up is the ice cream cabinet, and I'll look at the original one from Rolife first:

Rolife ice cream cabinet.

This has a deep red base with cream accents.  The display case is clear, with sliding doors that open in back to access the ice cream.  There are several sticker decorations, including little price tags for each flavor of ice cream.  I struggled to get those price tags in place, and they're always tipping over.  The smaller accessories are two fancy ice cream cones in a holder, a cup of green ice cream (not shown here because I lost it) and two stacks of empty cups.

Now here's the copycat Zuru cabinet:

Zuru ice cream cabinet.

The mold of the cabinet is exactly the same.  It's done in a light pink color with brown trim.  It also has sliding doors that open in back.  The accessories are exactly the same except for the stickers. And this version has fewer empty cups.

Here are the two versions together, and I'll mention again that the Rolife set should have a cup full of green ice cream:

Rolife ice cream cabinet (left) and Zuru ice cream cabinet (left).

Everything is the same in terms of shape and function.  One difference is that the Zuru ice cream price tags were easy to assemble and they stay upright.  But I like the Rolife color choices and sticker designs better, and the extra stacked cups are nice to have.

On the bright side, now I have an exact replacement for the green ice cream cup that I lost!

Next up is the soft serve ice cream maker.  This one is from Rolife:

Rolife soft serve machine.

This has working wheels on the bottom and dispensing handles that actually move.  I love the vintage blue color and the three sticker decorations.

The tubs at the top of the dispenser have lids that actually come off:

But there's nothing inside.

Now here's the Zuru dispenser:

Zuru soft serve machine.

This is made out of a much brighter blue that's missing any kind of vintage feel.  Also, the largest of the three stickers is made out of cardboard, so it doesn't sit flush up against the plastic.

All of the moving parts are there same: the wheels spin, the dispensing arms move, and the bin lids come off:

It's interesting that the black sticker on the upper right is exactly the same between the two machines.  I guess Zuru figured they could get away with using that without any modifications.

Here are the two dispensers side by side:

Again, the molds and functionality are exactly the same.  But the Rolife color choices are more refined and appealing to me.

I remember being really happy with the Rolife toppings bar when I first saw it:

Rolife toppings bar.

It's got three little bins of labeled toppings and two jars of sauce.

The great thing is, the topping bins actually open, and there are appropriately-colored fillers inside!

Incredible.

There's even a little can of whipped cream that actually opens:

Love it.

The Zuru toppings bar has the same exact molded details, but the stickers are different, it's missing the jars of sauce, and there's nothing inside the little bins:

Empty Zuru toppings bar.

There's no whipped cream in the set, either.

Here are the two versions together:

Rolife toppings bar (left) and Zuru toppings bar (right).

Zuru probably felt like the sauce jars, the topping fillers, and the whipped cream were easy details to lose, but I disagree.  It's little things like finding something inside those tiny bins that make the Rolife kits magical.

The drink coolers are so alike, I didn't feel the need to photograph them separately:

Rolife drink machine (left) and Zuru drink machine (right).

The only differences are the color, the stickers, and the fact that the Rolife machine comes with a clear cup that can be set underneath one of the spouts.

So far, we've looked at items that Zuru copied identically from Rolife--at least with the molds.  With the next couple of pieces that I'm going to show you, the differences get a bit more pronounced.

The Rolife seating area comes complete with a table, chair, ice cream sundae, spoon, and menu:

Rolife seating area.

There are also two stickers on the table, one is a coaster for the sundae, the other is an order receipt.

Now here's the Zuru seating area:

Zuru seating area.

The table, spoon, and sundae use the same molds as the Rolife set.  The sundae is exactly the same right down to the color choices and paint job.  But there's no menu and no sticker decoration on the table.  The stool is also completely different, but it's not original: it's copied from the Rolife Cheers bar.

Here are the two versions side by side:

Rolife seating area (left) and Zuru seating area (right).

The Rolife setup is so much cuter.  I love the chair and the translucent table.  And the added detail with the menu and the stickers is great.  The Zuru items look like cheap imitations...which they are.

I left out a few smaller accessories here for the sake of brevity.  For example, there's a basket with two ice cream cones, but each set has these and there's no difference between them, so there's nothing much to say.

Here's a tally of the smaller items from the Rolife set that are absent in the Zuru set:

Extra stacked ice cream cups

Clear drink cup

Sauce jars

Topping bin fillers

Whipped cream

Menu

Various stickers

The counter section is one of the best items in the Rolife shop.  It looks good, with a wood-like brown base and light cabinet doors:

Rolife counter.

And all of the doors and drawers open!

Rolife counter.

Zuru punted with this.  They didn't copy the Rolife cabinet, but rather used a simpler piece:

It's big and has a lot of shelves, which is nice, but there's not much to put on the shelves, so they look empty and sad.

Here's the front of the counter:

It has a molded woodgrain finish and a single decorative sticker.

This counter might be an original piece?  I don't recognize it from any Rolife set, although it's similar to the Perfect Romance Café counter.  It's probably copied and I just haven't figured out from where.

Here are the two counters next to one other:

Rolife counter (left) and Zuru counter (right).

There's no contest here.  The Rolife counter is so much better, and it fits the space better, too.  The curved shape of the Zuru counter makes it hard to rearrange in the room.

Speaking of the rooms, I also want to compare those.

The construction of the Zuru floor and walls is identical to Rolife.  This is yet another case where Zuru copied the Rolife molds exactly.  This means that the Zuru rooms can connect to the Rolife rooms and vice versa.  That might have been a fun detail if it weren't for the fact that the Zuru rooms are so similar to the Rolife rooms.  There's no need to have two ice cream shops with all of the same stuff in them.  And I definitely wouldn't connect two such similar rooms to one another.

Anyway, because the plastic parts of the room are all the same, the differences come from the decorations.  In both cases, cardboard wallpaper slots into both sides of each plastic wall.

Here's the Rolife room:

Rolife room. 

And here's the Zuru room:

Zuru room.

The Rolife room has a lot more contrast and detail in the wallpaper design.  This has the effect of dividing up the space into different sections, which somehow makes the room look bigger and cozier at the same time.  I prefer the Rolife interior, but I can also see how some people might like the relative simplicity of the Zuru design.  It's more of a blank canvas.

Here are the front door sections of the two shops:

Rolife shop (left) and Zuru shop (right).

These both look appealing to me from a distance.  However, I like how the Rolife exterior shows actual glimpses of what's inside the room.  I can identify the exact cups, stickers, ice cream dispenser, and other details from the set when I peek inside:

Rolife window.

In contrast, the Zuru window shows an exaggerated interior with mostly items that are not in the set:

Zuru window.

The side walls look like this:

Rolife shop (left) and Zuru shop (right).

Both have the exact same power hub.  But again, the Rolife window shows us a glimpse into the shop, while the Zuru wall is covered with random ice cream cones.  The Rolife design showcases thoughtfulness and attention to detail, the Zuru design is a cop out.

For some context, I know that there are a lot of diorama kits on the market right now.  I get it.  Many of them were heavily inspired by Rolife.  For example, there's a set on Amazon with a similar build approach and a similar theme:

But it's not exactly the same as the Rolife shop.  It has--for all I know--its own molds and ideas.  My beef here is that Zuru has used all of the exact same molds.  They did not create a new product.

I put the Zuru room back together to see if Freja wanted to check it out:

That curved counter is in my way.

The flow of the room is awkward.  Freja has plenty of space, though, even if it's not arranged the way she wants.  She can scoop ice cream from the cabinet or operate the toppings bar:

But there's no room for customers to come in and look at the ice cream.

I tried pushing the ice cream cabinet back, but this traps Freja with no escape!

Let me out of here!

It makes the front of the store look more usable and welcoming, though:

I tried out a different configuration that opens up the front of the store even more:

This works pretty well for the toppings bar:

Really?  I feel claustrophobic.

But Freja has no way to scoop ice cream:

This isn't going to work.

I think maybe this is my favorite arrangement:

This exposes all of those empty shelves, but it also creates a lot of open space for play.  I can reach in and access the ice cream cabinet and the soft serve dispenser, and there's even some room for customers to walk around.

I can scoop ice cream again!

I think Freja is ready to open for business:

C'mon in!

She waited and waited, but nobody came to the store.  Where is everyone?  It's hot today, so I know there must be people who want some ice cream.

Finally, a lone guest showed up:

I'll take a bone-ana split.

I guess now I can say that business is dead at this place without exaggerating.

I got a bear bones cone instead.

Bottom line?  Did the market need these sets?  No.  Do they cost significantly less than Rolife?  No.  Do they offer anything that Rolife isn't already offering?  No.  Do they improve upon anything that Rolife has done?  No....well, okay: the ice cream price tags are better in the Zuru set than in the Rolife set, but that doesn't make up for all of the other things that are better in the Rolife set.

The Rolife sets are absolutely wonderful and I can see why Zuru wishes that they'd invented them.  Heck, I wish I'd invented them.  But I didn't, and neither did Zuru. What they're doing here is a blatant money grab that's free of any kind of creativity or innovation.  I'm not impressed.

If Zuru had copied the basic structure of the Rolife sets but then designed their own unique rooms with new pieces, that might have been interesting.  They could have gone with a completely different aesthetic, like ultra-modern or even historical.  Or they could have introduced new types of rooms and retail spaces (like a toy store!) so that people like me could add cool new things to their Rolife universe.  Or they could have a made a budget version of this type of room that cost half the price.  But they didn't do any of that, did they.

It's possible that the Spaces rooms with fit Zuru's new Minnee dolls.  That would actually be really cool since I'm always looking for new dolls for my Rolife setup.  But it doesn't excuse the copying.

I don't know about the legalities of all this, but even if it's technically okay for Zuru to copy Rolife, I hate that they did.  There's no need to duplicate products that are already on the market, especially ones that are extremely well made.  It's super boring and uninspired.

I regret my Zuru Spaces purchase, but at least now I know the score.  Having seen the original and the copycat side by side, I know which space I'd rather be in.  And all of my dolls seem to agree:

This is the place to be!