Sluban M38-B0555 Not Lego Tower Crane Set Review - Part One

Earlier in the month, I blogged about some Sluban sets I found on sale on Aliexpress.  Well, I decided to see if the deal was real or not, so I went ahead and bought some of the construction vehicles and the additionally the giant Tower Crane set.   This post will focus on set M38-B0555 which has 1461 pieces and consists of a slew of minifigures, a delivery truck, a four storey building and a huge crane.

I got the package about 3 weeks after I ordered it. The seller listed it as a gift with a value of $2, lol.

My package didn't come with a box, just an instruction manual, a bunch of plates and 23 bags of parts.

The back of the instruction manual shows you a picture of all the Sluban construction series.  I've got the dump truck and cement mixer coming.

The minifigures.

For those not familiar with Sluban building sets, the minifigures are not Lego compatible.  They have skinnier legs and arms, and smaller hands, torso and heads.  Here's a comparison of a Lego minifigure on the left and a Sluban minifigure on the right.

In this Tower Crane set, you get a total of eleven minifigures, five of them look to be construction workers.

We also get a few pedestrian minifigures.  It should be noted that every Sluban minifigure has a unique face, no two are alike.

Here's a bonus minifigure on a keychain.  The included brick tool is neat in that it looks like a crocodile.

Sluban's quality assurance is not so good, as I found a brick piece with a chunk missing from it.

The Delivery Truck.

Hey, let's see if we can get everyone into the truck that comes with the set.

Yup, I think that's everyone.

Ok, no more pictures please!

The people at Sluban are such masochists because all of the truck bricks were spread amongst the twenty three bags.  There didn't seem to be any order in how the  parts were packaged. In another case I had to look for the same part (1x2 tan plates) in several different bags.  As a result, I had to rip open and empty all of the bags and spend a few hours just sorting the parts.

Here's that defective plate that makes up a corner part of the truck.  I found the Sluban bricks to be slightly softer than Lego or Lepin bricks.  They feel lighter too.

There's just enough room for the driver inside the truck cab.

The orange truck has an opening tailgate and opening doors.

The Four Storey Building.

Here's the first floor of the four storey building.  There's a large baseplate and the building sits on a raised foundation.  In the front, there's a covered porch that leads out onto a small tiled area.  Other features include a street light and a mailbox.  I don't really like the red street lamp, so I'll probably replace it later.  I should point out that the flowers attach really well to the plant stems.

One of things I don't like about Sluban is the smaller size doors.  Also, you have to cut away excess plastic from the window parts.  I left them on so you can see what they look like before I trim them off.  There is no glass for the window parts.  There's no interior details for any of the floors.

Here's the side view of the first floor.

Front view.

Overhead view.

Here's the second floor module.   The third and fourth floors are identical.

This is how the inside of each floor looks like.

The second floor can be easily removed from the first floor.

The rear view with two floors completed.

Third floor added.

A look around back.

 Side view after three floors completed.

Another view.

Fourth floor added.

This thing is tall!  side view.

Hey guys, Be careful, Don't fall off!

Finished the roof portion.  Here's the front.

The rear view of the roof top.

Here's the completed four storey building.

Last look.

This thing towers over my Hsanhe modulars for sure.

Thanks for looking at part one.   The review of the Sluban tower crane continues in part two here.