Chaobao Renren 5632 Garbage Transfer Truck (Lego Knockoff) Review

Hi all, welcome back to It's Not Lego, it's time for another not Lego review.  This time we are seeing a knockoff set that more or less copies the Lego Garbage Truck set 4432 that was released in 2012 and retired in 2013.  There are certain elements that are different, so let's take a look at the pictures and compare.

The set we are building and reviewing today is by an obscure Chinese brand called Chaobao Renren.  I searched brick4.com and found that they have made 11 building block sets of which 4 are their original design.  The other sets are copies of Lego or MOC sets.

The Chaobao Renren Garbage Transfer Truck, as it is called, has different minifigures and accessories that the Lego version.  It has 369 pieces whereas the Lego version has 208 pieces, that's almost a third more pieces, how could that be? Let's take a closer look!

My set arrived in the typical white plastic shipping bag.  Here is the set unbagged.

Here's the very thin instruction booklet with a total of 10 pages.  

Here's the back page of the manual.

Here's a sample page from the instructions.

You get this large sticker sheet with the garbage truck set.  Have you figured out what those extra brick pieces are? 

This set consists of 8 un-numbered bags of parts.  Comes with an orange brick separator and two minifigures.

The minifigures are two garbage collectors and they come completely un-assembled. 

Note, that these figures are completely different than the Lego garbage guy and girl pictured above.  The Chaobao set comes with two shovels instead of one shovel and one broom.

Since the bags are un-numbered, I'm just gonna rip all the bags open and start building.

Brick clutch and quality was pretty good. Although the transparent pieces weren't packaged separately, they weren't too badly scratched or scuffed.

This set is an easy build and doesn't take too long to finish.  I think anyone over 6 years old could handle building this set, although they probably would need some adult help to assemble the minifigures.

Functionally, the Chaobao garbage truck has all the same features as the Lego version, I'd imagine.

Lots of play value here.

Turning the wheel will raise the platform and empty the garbage bin.

More pics of the completed Chaobao garbage truck follow.

The original Lego 4432 set comes with two trash cans and some fish for garbage.  In the Chaobao set, it comes with a recycling station, which we also saw in my review of the Sluban M38-B0780 Garbage Truck set.  

So instead of garbage, we get 80 1x2 pieces of tile parts to which we affix the stickers.  There are 20 pieces of red, green, gray and blue tiles, respectively.  Each colour coded piece is supposed to teach kids about what can or cannot be recycled.   For this set, I chose not to apply any of the stickers just yet, maybe later.  Anyways, once applied, the tiles are supposed to be sorted into the proper coloured bins, just like the Sluban set.

The Chaobao Renren Garbage Truck is now my fourth Garbage/Recycling truck in my building block collection.  The others are:  

• Mochimaster MOC garbage truck
• Enlighten 1111 Garbage Truck
• Sluban M38-780 Recycling Truck

Note that this set seems to be very hard to find on the internet.  There's not many on-line retailers carrying this and I only found this store on Aliexpress  that has it.  The price paid is probably a little higher than normal for a bootLego set, but I went ahead and bought it anyways for the rarity of it.  

It's still a lot cheaper than if you try to buy the now discontinued Lego 4432 Garbage Truck.  A used set will probably cost you $50 and a new set will probably cost over $100 USD.  

Lari 11342 Harry Potter Knight Bus Set Review

Hey, what's up and welcome back to my blog It's Not Lego!  Today we will be reviewing a set from a new brand called Lari.  It looks like they have now joined the Bela family of blocks, as the two brands are now used interchangeably.

TL:DR

Here's the synopsis, if you want to skip all the pictures.

Model: Lari Harry Potter Knight Bus
Set Number: 11342
Number of pieces: 400
Number of minifigures: 3
Manufacturers Details: N/A

Fake Lego?  Fake.  Bootleg of Lego 75957
Missing Parts: N/ Deformed pieces: Y/ Scratched pieces: N
#itsnotlego Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars, solid build, excellent clutch, but deformed window glass

The Harry Potter Knight Bus

I ordered this set from Aliexpress at the beginning of March, and it arrived in about 3 weeks, which is surprising, given the number of flights that have been cancelled due to COVID-19.  Normally it takes about 6 weeks or double the time for block sets to reach me from China.  This set cost $20 CDN, so probably around $14-15 USD.  In terms of price, it's just meh.  I think a price of $15 CDN would have been better value.

As you can see, this is an average size set, with about 400 pieces, more or less.  The instruction manual gives no indication of the set name and just says Justice Magician.

Here's a shot of the back of the manual. It's probably copied from Lego but with the set numbers altered to match the Lari numbering system.  There appears to be 8 sets in the Justice Magician series.

Removing the items from the shipping bag, we find the instruction booklet, a small sticker sheet, and about 8 or 9 parts bags.  There was a split in one of the bags, so I found some loose parts. Hopefully nothing missing!

So, building the Knights bus is pretty straightforward, instructions are clear, and the brick clutch is acceptable.

 Here are the three minifigures that come with the set.  I'm not really that familiar with the Harry Potter characters, so I'll let you figure out who's who.  Anyways, the face and torso prints on the minifigs are crisp and clear.

The stickers for the bus have been modified to show the Lari set number instead of the Lego set number.  I have no plans to sticker the bus in the immediate future.

With this set you get a few extra parts.  BTW, the head is not a spare part, I just never attached it to the inside of the bus.

And here is the finished product, the Harry Potter Knight bus.   The biggest quality issue this set has is the windows.  There are extrusion dimples on every corner of the glass and they are scuffed as well.   I would say this is the worst part of the set but given the amount of windows it's really apparent.

The swing away side panel reveals an interior that consists of a sliding bed, a chandelier and some seating.  You can see there's no actual second floor.

So technically it's still a double decker.  Not pictured is the driver's seat in front.

The third floor of the bus comes off as designed.   You can also remove the roof.

The top floor carries a newspaper and trunk of small accessories.

Front view.  Don't know why the original design didn't feature a real grille piece instead of a sticker.

The wheels use technic pins as axles and run through the long technic pieces that make up the undercarriage.  The wheels roll well.

Final Thoughts

I think this set has a limited appeal to Harry Potter fans, otherwise it's not really an exciting set.  Personally, I think this bus is too short and feels too small. I think the wheelbase needs to be extended to give the bus a larger feel. It should be resized to increase bus length by 2 to 4 studs.  Someone on the Eurobricks website made a larger MOC version of the Knight bus and it looks so much better.

This was my first Lari brand set and I think it's inferior to other brick brands such as Enlighten or Sembo.  The 3 minifigs were good and brick clutch was ok, but as I mentioned previously, the extrusion dimples on the window glass really ruins the set for me.  I also think this knock-off set could be priced lower overall on Aliexpress.

Anyways, that's a wrap and thanks for visiting!  What did you think of this set?  Do you already have it?  How do you like it?  Let me know in the comment box below!  Bye!

Hsanhe 6853 Not Lego Tanker Truck Set Review

Hey boot Lego fans!  Welcome back to Its Not Lego.  I finally got a Hsanhe tanker truck to go with my Lepin Gas Station 02047.  This set number is 6853 and consists of 250 pieces.  It's my first Hsanhe set that isn't a modular building. I guess they are branching out with their set offerings.

This tanker truck bears a striking similarity to the Lego City Tanker truck 60016, especially in style and colour scheme, but I discovered after building the Hsanhe version, the pieces that make up the tank differ from the Lego version.  

I got my set from Aliexpress and it arrived in about 3 weeks.   The instructions to build the tanker truck are printed on a large two sided folded sheet.

There are five bags of parts and a small sticker sheet, but nary an Octan logo to be found.

Time to start building!

Making good progress after completing the steps on the first page.

And here's the finished product.  The clutch on the bricks is excellent.  This thing feels solid.  

This near copy of the Lego set even includes a gas pump but the Lego version has a wheel on the pump where it's been replaced by what looks to be a fire extinguisher in the Hsanhe set.  

I'm not really impressed with the minifigure.  The leg portion doesn't match the body.  That's probably why the minifig is scowling.  Of all the Hsanhe sets I've built, this is the worst minifigure.

Another peeve of mine is tanker cab's cloudy windshield.

No issues though with the rear of the truck and attached ladder.

A view of the right side.

Overhead shot.

On the Lego tank truck there's a hose and spool on the left side, but  on the Hsanhe version it's been replaced by a storage compartment.

Also the last difference is that the Lego truck has white coloured mirrors vs the Hsanhe silver mirrors.

Here's the Hsanhe tank truck pulling up to the Lepin gas station to make a delivery.

The Hsanhe tanker truck is a nice addition to my Its-Not-Lego town.  It's a solid build and looks great.  The misses are the cloudy windshield and the sad looking minifigure.   Thanks for visiting and see you next time!