Winner 5086 Not Lego Cable Car Set Review

Hello again and welcome back to It-Not-Lego!  The Winner brand of bricks recently put out some new train sets and I decided to buy one to check the quality.

I grabbed a screen shot from Aliexpress where you can get these trains.  There are seven trains in this collection, the smallest set being about 200 pieces and the largest set coming in at over 900 pieces.

The train set that I bought is called the Winner Cable Car which is set 5086, and has 361 pieces.  I have a different idea of what a cable car should look like, so I prefer to call this a streetcar or tram.  Let's open it up and take a look.

My package included a sticker sheet and instruction manual.

There are six bags of parts.

After I finished building the streetcar, I had 14 extra pieces leftover.

In addition to the streetcar, this set includes a crossing gate and four Lego style minifigures, although their faces look a tad different.  There's a young boy wearing overalls and a baseball cap, a musician, an older guy who might be the streetcar driver, and a lady tourist with satchel bag and camera.

I almost forgot to mention that you get 4 pieces of track too, 2 straight and 2 curve tracks in dark gray.

I found that the streetcar is quite a bit larger than my other Lego style vehicles.  I probably can't change the 8 stud width but I might be able to lower the height. We'll have to see what I can do.  For now,  I made a quickie platform to make it easier and safer for the minifigures to alight the streetcar.

I think Winner did a pretty good job on the colour combination.  The streetcar's red and white scheme is complimented nicely by the yellow accents.  There's oversized lights at the front and back.

So the features of this streetcar include seating for 4 passengers plus standing room for the driver at the front of the car.  There are doors on both sides that open.  You can also flip up the roof but to properly seat the minifigures, I find that removing the side panel is easier.

My pet peeve with this streetcar is that the side panels and windows collapse easily if not handled gently.  I found that the best way to pick this up is not by the middle but by the ends.

I didn't apply the stickers, but actually it looks pretty good without them.

Brand: Winner
Model Number: 5086 Cable Car
Number of pieces: 361
Number of minifigures: 4

I give it a 3 out of 5 for this set. 1 point deduction for being oversized and another point deduction for the fragile side panels.   What do you think of the set and my rating?  Let me know in the comments below.   Thanks for looking and see you next time.

Ausini 25004 Not Lego Freight Train Set Review

Hey All, it's time for another look at another Not Lego building block set.  This time, I did a picture dump of the Ausini brand 25004 Freight Train.

 I actually bought this off Aliexpress quite a few months ago, maybe even a year ago.  Just never got around to building it.  It's a fairly large set that consists of a train locomotive and two small flatbeds to carry a couple of cargo containers.  Also featured is the cargo crane with moveable winch and control cabin.  Finally, you also get a tractor trailer with flatbed carrier.  In total, there are 792 pieces to this set.

 Oh, I also forgot to mention you get quite a bit of track as well. You get ten pieces of straight track and two pieces of curved track.  The train only takes up about four or five sections of track, so you get to move it around on all the track.  Note that Ausini track only has the single railroad ties and not the double ties you get with Lego train sets.  Also, the Ausini tracks are a light gray colour, whereas Lego tracks are usually dark gray.

 Here's all the bags of parts.  You get the instruction manual and a sticker sheet, and some tools still on the plastic tree.

 Assembly is easy using the manual and brick clutch is very good.  Bricks are not scratched either.

 In no time at all, I completed assembly of the locomotive.  It's fairly symmetrical on the front and back.

There are two cabins in the forward and rear parts of the train.  Access is by simply lifting the nose piece on either end.  There are also several doors along the side of the engine.

 Here's one of the cargo containers on the rail car.  This one is red and it comes with stickers, which I didn't put on it.  The containers don't come off the rail cars easily, as it attaches using all the studs.  I'm gonna replace some of the plate pieces to make removal easier.  The red cargo container has a bar attached so the crane can hook it off the railcar.  I don't know why but Ausini, didn't put one on the orange cargo container.

 Here's the orange cargo container.  It comes with some printed pieces, so I don't know why they couldn't have done the same for the red container, instead of providing stickers.

Here's a look at the completed train with locomotive and the two rail cars.  If it was up to me, I would prefer that the cargo containers were just one colour, either red or orange, but not both.

 The train rolls along the provided track very smoothly and the magnets that attach to each railcar have a good hold.   Here's the train pulling up to the cargo crane and getting offloading the containers, well one anyways.

The cargo winch is quite strong and you can roll it up or down using the gear mechanism.

 The crane operator cabin slides along the top of the beams for precise offloading.

Here's the overhead view.

 Almost forgot about these guys.  You get four Lego compatible minifigures, however they are all the same.  Their faces are pretty dopey looking, so I'll probably yank their heads off and replace them.  They all have orange shirts with blue overalls and a red cap that says CITY.  They get to use some tools like a pickaxe, a saw, and other tools.

 I was just testing out the placement of the yellow pieces on the rail cars to see which would hold the cargo containers better.  The red one has the proper placement as per the manual.

 Here's the tractor trailer.  A fairly sturdy build.

The trailer detaches from the cab and you can lower the struts to hold it up.

 It has a pretty good turning radius.  Both cargo containers will fit on the trailer at the same time.

 This pic is just to show the scale of the cargo terminal and one of the worker bees.

The operator cabin has good views all the way around.  The winch motor is attached to the back of the cabin and both of them slide on the beam.   It's got lights so they can still work in the dark.

Here's a look at the winch.

 An overhead view of the cargo terminal.

 Finally, this is how you get into the operator cabin.

Conclusion:

The Ausini 25004 Cargo Train building set is quite a large build that will keep you occupied for a few hours.  The play value is excellent with the inclusion of the cargo terminal and tractor trailer.  I would have liked some variety in the minifigures but I have lots of other ones from other sets I can use.
As mentioned before the Ausini brick quality and clutch is very good.  I didn't have any missing or defective pieces.

This is my second Ausini train set and I'm very happy to have it in my collection. Looking back at my notes, I paid approx $40 USD for this set shipped.

I reviewed the Ausini passenger train here:  https://bricksandfigs.blogspot.ca/2015/04/ausini-25903-passenger-train-part-one.html.

I now have a total of four trains in my collection now:  The Enlighten freight locomotive 627, the Ausini 25903 Passenger train and the Lepin Horizon Express.

Thanks for looking!

Enlighten 627 Not Lego Train Locomotive set review

After waiting like what seems forever, my Enlighten train finally arrived from AliExpress.  It's based on a Derwent Grange steam locomotive.

I wasn't expecting the seller to ship the box, but here it is albeit slightly crumpled.  I also got 2 duplicate instruction booklets.   

I'm a big fan of these Lego style train sets, especially as they are so hard to come by.  Enlighten makes a number of trains but most of them have been discontinued, so I figured I better grab this one before it was retired also.  It cost me just under $20 USD with free shipping from AliExpress.

This set has 168 pieces and is about 80% similar to Lego's Hogwart's Express set 4708 released back in 2001.  This set has both the locomotive and the tender, whereas the Lego set had the locomotive and a train car.  The set comes with a single minifigure.   As with most Enlighten train sets, this one did not come with any track, unlike  Ausini brand train sets which come with six or seven pieces.

The build was pretty straightforward and the Enlighten bricks are completely compatible with Lego bricks.  This non-powered train set is molded in red and black with word printing on the locomotive and tender, not stickers.  It should be noted that the red bricks have a slightly metallic sheen to them.

Pictured above is the front of the locomotive.  Unfortunately it doesn't come with a front coupler.  Derwent Grange is printed on the side and 3688 towards the rear.

Note to self: add some small round black pieces to the hopper to simulate coal.

The engine cover opens up to reveal the steam engine inside.  

There's some nicely detailed tiles inside the cab.

Both trucks under the locomotive's carriage swivel making turns on the track a breeze.  

Above is the coal car with Enlighten brand on the side of it.

Here is the undercarriage for the coal car.  The magnets on all of the couplers are quite strong.

A ladder adorns the back of the coal car.

Here is the steam locomotive pulling an Ausini brand tanker car and an Enlighten brand caboose.   Now I just need to get some more train tracks.  Do you have any Lego or clone brick train sets?

Brand: Enlighten

Set: 627

Model:  Derwent Grange Steam Locomotive

Number of Brick Pieces: 168

If you are looking for different Lego compatible train sets, you can find them on Aliexpress.

As always, thanks for visiting Its Not Lego and See you next time!