Sembo Block 601070 Japanese Crab Shop (Not Lego) Set Review

Hey and welcome back to my Its Not Lego blog!  Hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe.  Today we will be looking at another set by Sembo Blocks.

TL:DR

Here's the synopsis, if you just want the details.

Model: Sembo Japanese Crab Restaurant
Set Number: 601070
Number of pieces: 341+
Number of minifigures: 3

Fake Lego?  No.
Missing Parts: N/ Deformed pieces: N/ Scratched pieces: N
#itsnotlego Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars, excellent play value, solid build, excellent clutch, wish it was bigger.

On the back of the instruction manual, Sembo shows you all of the other Japanese themed shops in the series.  From what I can tell there are six different shops.

Just wanted to point out that the parts bags are numbered.

The crab restaurant sits on a 20x16 stud base plate.  The building itself is 18 studs wide but only about 8 studs deep.  In the front of the shop, there's two large windows and an entrance.  On one side you can probably watch them steam the crabs in the cooking area.  On the other side there is a tank that holds the fresh crabs.  Outside of the shop is another stand-alone tank with more crabs.

The inside of the crab restaurant is mostly empty except for the grill and prep area.

Here's the sticker sheets and the fabric banner.  I won't be installing the stickers just yet.

This is how the shop looks just before placing the shop banner.  There's lots of signage which looks bare without the stickers.  There's also some extra details over the crab tank.

Here's a side view of the crab restaurant.  I really like the big distinctive crab on the second floor.  Too bad they didn't put any walls on the side of the second floor.

The second floor is supposed to be the restaurant and seating area, except I haven't put the pieces in place because I plan on rebuilding the set as a modular building.  At that time, I will add the furnishings to make it look more legit.

Minifigures

You get three minifigures with this set, the crab shop owner and two japanese ladies in their colorful kimonos.

Summary

The Sembo Japanese crab restaurant is a fun little build.  From a parts to price perspective, it's a tad more than I want to pay, costing around $20 USD.  I think the shop could have been more detailed but I do like the crab sign.  Like the other Sembo japanese shops I have reviewed, this set doesn't scale very well with the minifigures. The external crab tank is way too tall and the minifigures wouldn't be able to reach what's on top very easily.   For this reason, I only give it a 4.5 out of 5.    I will be rebuilding this set soon as a modular building.  Look for that review in the near future!   Thanks and bye for now!