I received my latest purchase from Ali Express this week. It's a brand new set from Enlighten called the Sunshine Hotel. Typically Enlighten makes police and fire block sets. They also have a set of train sets but they are discontinued. I was happy to see that Enlighten made a building set for 2015 and hope that they continue the series.
Review
The Sunshine hotel set number is 1127 and according to the instruction manual,
there are 628 pieces. The manual says that it comes with 4 mini figures, but
there's actually only 3.
Here's the front page of the instruction manual showing a turn of the century
hotel, a vintage car and the three mini figures.
Here's the back page of the instruction manual. As you can see the hotel
is the only building in the new 2015 line-up. The rest of the new sets
include a tour bus, a police chase set, an ambulance, a delivery truck and
storefront and lastly a camper.
I was pleasantly surprised that the instruction manual is printed on heavy
glossy paper.
I typically don't get the original boxes when buying brick sets from Ali
Express. The 4 bags of parts and plates came in a generic brown box.
I did notice that Enlighten has started to number their bags in the same
fashion as Lego.
Here are the three mini figures. The male figure sporting the red vest
and bow tie looks like he is an employee of the hotel. The lady figure
in the center has a unique hairpiece and is wearing a long dress so she comes
without legs. Lastly the gentleman figure on the right is wearing a suit
and top hat. I would imagine that the lady and gentleman are guests of
the hotel.
Here is the vintage car that is included with the set. There are about 70
pieces to it. It rolls well, despite the thin wagon wheels.
It has a clear windscreen and opening doors. I like the details on the one
piece grill and mirrors.
The car has several printed blocks with the words Victory. The rear of the car
looks like it might be a convertible.
Sadly there's only room for one person in this car so the lady does not get to
ride in it, especially in her wide dress.
Other set details include the bunch of roses and the tiara worn by the lady.
All the signs are printed blocks and not stickers.
Here's the hotel in it's entirety. Quite a tall building with three storeys.
The first floor is white, while the second floor is light yellow.
The roof is dark blue with light gray details.
This pic shows the details of the second floor facade. It's got 4 arched
windows and a bigger arch on the front face of the building.
Here's the hotel roof with lots of little details like the S sign. It's
got a chimney and windows in the attic. I put a skeleton mini figure in
the attic to make the hotel haunted.
Here's the pic of the left side of the building. You can see that there is
another window on the second floor.
The right side of the hotel. It is only six bricks wide.
Here's the back side.
On the first floor you can see the main floor windows and the door that opens.
It's too narrow for furniture so they just give you a potted plant.
Although it's white on the outside, the first floor is dark gray on the
inside.
The second floor is the restaurant or cafe in the hotel. The set comes
with 2 tables, 2 lamps and 4 swiveling chairs, but I removed one of the chairs
to put the Sluban lady mini figure in. The two mini figures in the
dining room and the ome in the attic are not part of the set. I just
added them in for more interest. Details include two mugs and vegetable
platters.
There's just enough room in the attic to put a mini figure so I put a skeleton
mini figure here.
More roof details.
Another second floor view.
First floor view.
All in all, I'm very pleased with the hotel set. The bricks all fit together
nicely and solid. There were no other extra pieces or bricks except for
some extra flowers. The thing I didn't like about the set was that all
of the window glass pieces were scratched. If there was one thing to
improve, it would be to make the building deeper, but that would mean more
bricks and consequently a higher price point.
I might have to pick up a vintage train set to go with it. Let's
hope Enlighten continues to make more of these buildings.
Brand: Enlighten
Set: 1127 Sunshine Hotel
Pieces: 628 pieces
Minifigs: 3
Would I recommend this set? Yes.