Sluban M38-B0516 Not Lego Postbox set review

I'm pretty sure that this is a new 2015 set put out by Sluban brand bricks.  It doesn't have any English description but the set number is M38-B0516.  It comes with a minifigure, a baseplate, bricks to build a mailbox and a bicycle.

Here's how the back of the box looks like.

The one page instruction sheet.

Sluban's minifigures aren't compatible with Lego minifigs.  They have a slimmer leg and arm design and the head is attached to the torso via a post, which allows the head to be placed in a tilted position.

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Here's the assembled mailbox and baseplate,  You get two stickers for the letter and the mailbox.

Here's the bicycle.  It is teal in colour with rubber tires and white spokes.  It comes with a yellow stud that serves as a bike rack.  There is a pink basket that attaches to the bike handle bars.

The bike is compatible with Lego type minifigures.

Here's the Sluban minifigure (pictured left) with a Lego style minifigure.

The set comes with quite a few extra pieces.  I really just wanted the set for the bicycle as you normally have to buy a much larger block set to get a bike.  This set only cost me $1 USD on ebay.

The bicycle and mailbox will work nicely in a city type setup.  I'll probably throw away the minifig.

Brand: Sluban

Set:  M38-B0516 (no description)

Number of Pieces:  29 (with bonus pieces)

Number of minifigs: 1

Copy of Lego? No, this is an original set by Sluban.

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

How to buy bootleg/fake Lego

Welcome to Its Not Lego!

This is my website to inform you that there are other brick brands other than Lego.  Some will be Lego knock-offs and others will be unique originally designed building block sets.

I buy my bootleg  mini-figures and block sets from only two online shopping platforms:  Ebay and Aliexpress.   Each site has it's pros and cons.

Mini-figures

Mini-figures can be bought individually, or in sets of 4, 6 or 8.  I buy big figs individually.  The best quality bootleg mini-figures are made by Sheng Yuan, Decool, Lele, Bozhi, Pogo and Xinh.  There are other Chinese brands but their quality is questionable.

Sheng Yuan sets, in general, are mostly eight figure sets, whereas Decool minifig sets have six figures in them, but sometimes there are more or less.  I tend to focus mostly on the Marvel and DC Superhero mini-figures, but I have bought clones of the Lego mini-figure series, Clash of Clans and Ghostbuster figures too.

Building block sets

Building block sets can be bootlegs of older and newer Lego sets, or unique designs by Chinese brands such as Sluban, Enlighten, Ausini and Bozhi.    Examples of Lego sets can be older city vehicles or more recently, modular buildings from the Friends series, Superheroes vehicles and probably the most popular theme, Star Wars.

Sluban makes a few airplane and city vehicle sets.  Enlighten sets clones some of the older Lego sets like submarines and trains.  Ausini makes their own train series that Lego has not produced.

The latest block company to enter the foray was Lepin.  They successfully cloned all of the Lego modular buildings and several of the large Star Wars sets.
They were shutdown in 2019 when the Chinese authorities clamped down, but since then there have been a number of newer brick brands to hit the scene, namely Sembo, King and Mould King.

Where to buy - Ebay

You can usually find mini figures and block sets under the Toys and Hobbies category.  Most times they are in the Building Blocks subcategory but you can also find them in the Action Figures subcategory.

Items are listed in auction format or Buy it Now.  I look for items that come with Free Shipping where the sellers are from China.  Sometimes you can find some really good deals with Buy It Now, but the best prices come from winning an auction and paying a lot less.

For Ebay, you'll need a Paypal account to provide the most painless payment method.

I have found that sellers typically ship out the items within one or two days of payment and it takes on average three weeks to one month before I get it.

Items will come with a tracking number (see below for more about tracking) and an estimated delivery date.  If the item doesn't arrive within the specified period, you can get a refund from ebay.

Where to buy - Aliexpress

I've been using Aliexpress since early 2014.  Aliexpress is like an online mall where many sellers have virtual storefronts.  You are basically dealing with a seller and not Aliexpress directly, although they will try to mediate disputes.  There's no auction style listings, only fixed price listings.    Some listings will state a minimum quantity that needs to be purchased, because they might sell both retail and wholesale.

Some items will be shipped for free and others will charge for extra shipping.  I don't know why but it takes up to one week for a seller to ship an item, and then it takes over one month for it to arrive.  if it takes longer than one month, raise a dispute with Aliexpress.

It's somewhat intimidating for new users because of the plethora of products available.  There's a learning curve to figure out how to filter out the items you are looking for.  Start by browsing the Toys / Blocks category and use the search filters to find things you are looking for.

Be warned that seller ratings and feedback are irrelevant. Do not trust any of the feedback or reviews because they may be bogus.  Even  sellers with great ratings will still try to scam you.  You have to understand that it's buyer beware and ethical behaviour is not always followed on Aliexpress.

You may discover some amazing deals, but even though they are listed, the seller might not actually have any stock.  I have bought items only to find out that the seller lied about having inventory. Sometimes they will give you a fake tracking number and indicated that they shipped it when in fact they didn't.

There is no requirement for a seller to honour an item's price.  They might decide not to sell you the item because they realized they priced it too low.   Sometimes they try to ask you for more money after you have bought.  If that happens raise a dispute right away.  I tried to file an Aliexpress complaint against the seller, but there are limited complaint categories and if it isn't listed, they will not listen to your complaint.  Seller asking for more money after an item purchase is not considered as fraudulent by Aliexpress.

Your only recourse is to get a refund but you will have to raise a dispute and wait sometimes up to one month to get your money back.

Paypal is not an option for Aliexpress users.  I have purchase protection on my Visa card so I use this as my payment option.

If you want to see some of the fake Lego set deals I have found, please visit my other blog altbrickdeals.blogspot.com.  I update my site whenever there are new building block sets that look interesting on Aliexpress.

Package Tracking

Most items come with a tracking number but there are two types, one for small packages and one for larger packages.

Small packages are usually sets of mini-figures or items under ten dollars.  The tracking numbers associated with these items consist of ten numeric digits.

I use this website to track packages originating from China.
https://www.17track.net/en

Larger packages come with a different format tracking number, ie: RI586779712CN.  
The first letter will always be R and the last two letters will be CN, sometimes SG or HK. The last number is a check digit to verify the other numbers in the tracking number.

Hope this information has been useful to you.  As always, thanks for visiting Its Not Lego and See you next time!

Review of the Enlighten Sunshine Hotel 1127 Building Block set (not Lego)

 I received my latest purchase from Ali Express this week.  It's a brand new set from Enlighten called the Sunshine Hotel.  Typically Enlighten makes police and fire block sets.  They also have a set of train sets but they are discontinued. I was happy to see that Enlighten made a building set for 2015 and hope that they continue the series.

Review

The Sunshine hotel set number is 1127 and according to the instruction manual, there are 628 pieces. The manual says that it comes with 4 mini figures, but there's actually only 3.    

Here's the front page of the instruction manual showing a turn of the century hotel, a vintage car and the three mini figures.

Here's the back page of the instruction manual.  As you can see the hotel is the only building in the new 2015 line-up.  The rest of the new sets include a tour bus, a police chase set, an ambulance, a delivery truck and storefront and lastly a camper.

I was pleasantly surprised that the instruction manual is printed on heavy glossy paper.

I typically don't get the original boxes when buying brick sets from Ali Express.  The 4 bags of parts and plates came in a generic brown box.  I did notice that Enlighten has started to number their bags in the same fashion as Lego.

Here are the three mini figures.  The male figure sporting the red vest and bow tie looks like he is an employee of the hotel.  The lady figure in the center has a unique hairpiece and is wearing a long dress so she comes without legs.  Lastly the gentleman figure on the right is wearing a suit and top hat.  I would imagine that the lady and gentleman are guests of the hotel.

Here is the vintage car that is included with the set. There are about 70 pieces to it. It rolls well, despite the thin wagon wheels.

It has a clear windscreen and opening doors. I like the details on the one piece grill and mirrors.

The car has several printed blocks with the words Victory. The rear of the car looks like it might be a convertible.

Sadly there's only room for one person in this car so the lady does not get to ride in it, especially in her wide dress.

Other set details include the bunch of roses and the tiara worn by the lady.  All the signs are printed blocks and not stickers.

Here's the hotel in it's entirety. Quite a tall building with three storeys.  The first floor is white, while the second floor is light yellow.  The roof is dark blue with light gray details.

This pic shows the details of the second floor facade.  It's got 4 arched windows and a bigger arch on the front face of the building.  

Here's the hotel roof with lots of little details like the S sign.  It's got a chimney and windows in the attic.  I put a skeleton mini figure in the attic to make the hotel haunted.

Here's the pic of the left side of the building. You can see that there is another window on the second floor.

The right side of the hotel.  It is only six bricks wide.

Here's the back side.

On the first floor you can see the main floor windows and the door that opens.  It's too narrow for furniture so they just give you a potted plant.  Although it's white on the outside, the first floor is dark gray on the inside.

The second floor is the restaurant or cafe in the hotel.  The set comes with 2 tables, 2 lamps and 4 swiveling chairs, but I removed one of the chairs to put the Sluban lady mini figure in.  The two mini figures in the dining room and the ome in the attic are not part of the set.  I just added them in for more interest.  Details include two mugs and vegetable platters.

There's just enough room in the attic to put a mini figure so I put a skeleton mini figure here.

More roof details.

Another second floor view.

First floor view.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the hotel set. The bricks all fit together nicely and solid.  There were no other extra pieces or bricks except for some extra flowers.  The thing I didn't like about the set was that all of the window glass pieces were scratched.  If there was one thing to improve, it would be to make the building deeper, but that would mean more bricks and consequently a higher price point.

 I might have to pick up a vintage train set to go with it.  Let's hope Enlighten continues to make more of these buildings.

Brand: Enlighten

Set: 1127 Sunshine Hotel

Pieces: 628 pieces

Minifigs: 3

Would I recommend this set? Yes.