Here's all the Not Lego sets I bought in 2020!

 Here's all the Not Lego sets I bought in 2020

Hey there brick fans, welcome to my first post in 2021 on my blog Its Not Lego.   As the blog post title indicates, this is just a quick list of all the not Lego building sets I've purchased last year.  

Some sets are knockoffs of existing Lego sets such as the Bela brand 11053 Yacht or 11342 Harry Potter Bus.   Other sets are unique China designs such as the Sembo 102348 SWAT truck or the Urge 10180 Bakery modular building.  I also added a couple of MOC design sets to my collection, including the Jerac TIE Bomber and the Kristel Cast Iron modular building.

On the topic of MOCs, I customized a lot of my own sets too last year.   I converted the King 84008 Green Grocer into a cool police station for my not Lego city.  I used the original Zhe Gao QL0935 set and transformed it into a fully furnished modular building.   You can find more example of my MOC builds on my other blog Bricks and Figs.

Here's the list of sets which I bought in chronological order throughout 2020.   I haven't gotten around to reviewing each building set, but if I did there will be a link next to the set name.

Sembo 102348 SWAT truck

Bela/Lari 11053 yacht

Sluban B0780 Recycling truck   (link)

Sembo 601070 Crab Shop   (link)

Lepin 45012 Rexplorer

Qman 1132 Bun shop  (link)

Bela/Lari 11342 Potter bus (link)

King 84008 Green Grocer

Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern    (link)

Sembo 107007 Troop Carrier

Sembo 601075 Sakura Tree

Sembo 601303 Ambulance

Lepin 05145 X-Wing

Sembo 601078 Japanese food stalls

MOC 13952 TIE Bomber  (link)

Jack JJ001 Central Perk

Decool 2113 Osprey Chopper   (link)

Bela/Lari 11429 Snowspeeder

MOC C4228 Cast Iron modular

Rael 10004 Bike Shop (unbuilt)

Urge 10180 Bake Shop

Lele Bros 8613 Food cart

Hsanhe 31001 Train station

Xingbao XB01013 Urban village (unbuilt)

Total of 24 sets - average of 2 sets per month during 2020.   As you can see, 2020 kept me pretty busy building with not Lego.   Hopefully it will continue in 2021!

That's it for this quickie post.   Thanks for looking and see you in the next blog post,

Sluban M38-B0780 Not Lego Recycling Truck Set Review

Intro

Hello and thanks for visiting Its-Not-Lego!  Today I'm going to do a detailed review of the Sluban Recycling Truck which is a fairly new set for 2019/2020.

TL:DR

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

Model: Sluban Recycling Truck
Set Number: M38-B0780
Number of pieces: 432
Number of minifigures: 3
Manufacturers Details: 
http://www.sluban.com.cn/ShowProduct.aspx?ID=833

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

What's Inside?

This is the first time I've seen Sluban number their parts bags.  Eight numbered bags in total. The instruction manual refers to each bag as you need it.  It made for building very quick and easy.

Minifigures

Sluban does not use Lego style minifigures, instead they have their own proprietary design which they have been using for years.  You'll need to assemble the minifigs yourself.

The Sluban Recycling truck building set comes with three minifigures:  a small boy, a girl and a truck driver/operator.  Sluban minifigures have a higher degree of motion than Lego style minifigures.  They can twist at the waist, and angle their head sideways and up and down.

The little boy has a backpack and the truck driver has overalls, but not sure what is supposed to attach to it.

Set Assembly

Let's start building!  Each bag of parts corresponds to the steps in the instruction manual.  Brick clutch is excellent.

I was disappointed to find that the windshield glass was deeply scratched.

I had the cab one stud too far back in the above picture, which I subsequently rectified.  I don't particularly like the curved glass windshield, nor the cab design. It's something I will change at a later date.

Something you don't see a lot of in other vehicle sets are windshield wipers.  I like the side mirror design.  Unfortunately, there are no opening cab doors.

There is a lift up door behind the driver's seat, but it's blocked by the exhaust stack, so it is unusable.  The right side gets a small storage compartment.

Waste is sorted into different colour coded bins.

The multi-jointed arm lifts the trash and recycling containers.

Here is the completed Recycling truck.  The jointed arm can travel along the length of the truck to access the required trash compartment.

Access to the recycling compartments is via corresponding doors on the right side of the truck.

Here's how the rear of the truck looks like.

Secret storage maybe?

There are stickers you are supposed to affix to identify each compartment, but I didn't use them.

There are four separate compartments depending on what's being thrown out.

The Accessories

There are colour coded containers with lids which you could slide into the truck.

And here are the four containers to hold different types of trash.  The gray bin holds non-recyclable material, ie garbage.  The green bin holds kitchen waste.  The red bin is used for hazardous materials, and the blue bin is used for recyclable materials.

An extra set of brown accessories can be used to replace the green ones if desired.

Here's how the containers attach to the lifting arm.

There's a small number of spare parts coupled with some trash accessories.

I believe this set is targeted at the Chinese market, based on the accompanying literature.  The pamphlet probably serves to educate children from a young age how to identify what is trash and what is recyclable material.

There are 4 sheets of items, which can be placed into the applicable colour coded boxes.  So this set serves both to entertain and educate.  An excellent idea.

Summary

That brings this post to a close.  In summary, I gave this set a 4.5 rating out of 5 because I thought that  this set was well designed and came with a good assortment of accessories.  It's great that it also had an educational component to it too.  I took marks away for the less than attractive truck cab design and the scratched windshield.  I don't mind the non standard minifigures, but having said that I don't use them much alongside my other minifigures.  Hope you've enjoyed this review of the Sluban Recycling truck!  Bye and talk to you in a future blog post!