Sembo Japanese Shops
Hey what's up everyone! Welcome back to Its Not Lego, where I show you my latest haul of alternate and knock-off brick sets. A couple of months ago, I saw these little Japanese shops on Aliexpress and had to get them. Well this week, they finally arrived and I've had a blast building them.
There are four different Japanese shops in the series, made by Sembo.
Here's something interesting, you have to assemble this guy's feet below the knee joint separately. This was the only minifigure in the entire series that I had to do this for.
All of the minifigures are nicely detailed with back and arm printing.
Each set gets an individually wrapped fabric banner and a sticker sheet. At the time of these pictures, I still hadn't applied any of the stickers yet.
Here's another oddity, this 5 stud tile piece.
Sembo 601065 Takoyaki shop
Here's the assembled set without stickers. The takoyaki set comes with an two fabric banners. On one side there is a lantern and on the other is a free standing sign. There are 24 takoyakis being made, four sauce bottles and two gray mugs. There's also a yellow bowl, which the minifigure is not balancing on her head, it just looks that way in the picture. Each banner has convenient holes cut-out of them. You then attach the shop banner via small bricks.
Here's set 601065 from the back. Each shop is mounted on a gray 16x10 stud plate, however not every shop uses that much space. The shopkeeper has to stand on a platform to oversee his wares.
The minifigs.
Sembo 601066 Sushi shop
The sushi shop doesn't get a roof but does have four different signs, none of which I stickered. This sushi chef must not be very good at his craft because instead of using a sharp knife, he's got a giant cleaver.
This shop only has room for three customers, which isn't unusual in Japan because there shops are sooo small there. Luckily there are three stools so you get to sit down at this shop. Some sushi shops in Japan make you stand up while eating, true fact!
Around the back of the sushi shop we see that the shopkeeper also has to stand on a platform. And here I thought that the Japanese people were taller.
The minifigs.
The sushi shop stickers.
Sembo 601067 Shaved Ice shop
This bright blue shop really stands out next to the other shops. The blue banner wraps all the way around the roof. On the counter there's a giant ice machine and three servings of shaved ice. I don't know what the two red urns are supposed to be.
The back is fully enclosed, but luckily the roof hinges upward so you can put the minifigure inside the shop. Although you can't see it, the shopkeeper stands on a platform.
The minifigs.
The sticker sheet for the shaved ice shop.
Sembo 601068 Ramen shop
This ramen shop has a red lantern and free standing sign. Two stools and two bowls. Bonus accessory is is bicycle which is used to deliver the ramen.
Around back we see thatramen seller has to get a lift.
Street View
Final thoughts
The minifigures were excellent, each printed nicely in their kimonos, which I'm pretty sure hasn't been done in any Lego minifigures. If you know of any, please let me know.
What bothered me about each of these sets is that they are too tall. I didn't like the fact that each shopkeeper had to stand on a platform. The counter heights were way too high, like over the minifigures head in some cases.
I encountered this same problem in the Sembo french fries stand set. The Sembo designer needs to make these stands and shops more in line with minifigure heights. But that's just me, I guess. What do you think of these sets? Do you think they look ok? Let me know!
So I got my sets off Aliexpress for about $10 USD each or a bit lower if you buy all four sets.
Thanks for looking and see you next time! Bye!