Lepin 05038 Not Lego UCS Star Wars Sandcrawler Set Review - Part Two

Hi there.  Today we are going to review the building of the Lepin UCS Star Wars Sandcawler 05038.  As with my other bootleg brick set reviews, I will take pictures every ten steps or so to show you the progress of my construction.  I don't bother sorting my bricks, so I just leave them in their plastic bags and try to memorize where I last saw the parts I need.  Sometimes, it works and sometimes it doesn't, lol.

Step 10

Here is the bottom of the Sandcrawler after step 10.  The first pic above is also step 10.  As I'm building it, I can't help but think that it's not as big as I imagined the set would be.  So far the bricks look fairly clean and there's not a lot of scuffs or scratches as I encountered on the Lepin Modular sets.  Clutch is good and no loose parts yet.

Step 20 

Before I continue back to the construction, I want to digress a bit.  I've accumulated a fair amount of bricks from Lego and non Lego sets over the years.  Where possible I want all of my bricks to be as compatible with Lego as possible.  That includes clutch and colour similarity.  In the event I find some bricks to be substandard (like MegaBlocks), I keep those bricks separate from the standard ones.

A lot of people would probably just throw out the off colour or poor fitting bricks but I keep them and then look for opportunities to use them without affecting the appearance or clutch of the model I'm building.

In the case of the UCS Sandcrawler, there is the perfect opportunity, here in step 20, to swap out some better Lepin bricks for some crappy Megablocks bricks.  There is a subfloor between the brick tiles if you look at the picture above.  Bricks are used to provide stability but are never seen again after the plate bricks have been applied.  It is here, where I have swapped in some Megabloks for some Lepin bricks.

Step 30

If you couldn't quite figure out which bricks, I have now substituted them with pink bricks in the pic above.  Yeah sometimes I get stuck with these off-colour bricks but there's little purpose to them.  So I bury them inside a building or inside the floorboards of this Sandcrawler.  Another example where I used pink bricks is under the Lepin Town Hall modular front steps.  The bricks that came with the set originally can then be repurposed in another set, or be used in the case of missing pieces.  Once I put this Sandcrawler together, it won't be coming apart, so only you and I know what's inside of it.  Shh, it's our little secret.  I'm curious to know if it's just me or does anyone hide undesirable bricks inside their sets?

Ok, back to our construction process.  In step 30 we are putting down the gearing that will help to turn the future Sandcrawler tracks.

Step 40

We've now hit step 40 and page 23 of the manual.

More technic pins and bricks applied.

Another view of the knob and gearing that will steer the Sandcrawlers giant treaded wheels.

This will all be invisible soon.

Lower rear view.

At this point, everything is holding together well and I have had no missing or deformed parts.

 I want to mention that the Lepin UCS Sandcrawler manual is 143 pages long and there are 121 steps used to build this iconic Star Wars vehicle.   I've decided to split the construction process into three parts so that each blog post will span 40 steps of the build, so the next blog post will cover steps 41 thru 80 with the obligatory pictures of course.

If you missed the preliminary pre-construction blog post of my Lepin Sandcrawler, you can find it here.   See you in a few days!

Lepin Not Lego Technic Series Set List - 2016

I've been wanting to compile a list of all the Technic building sets since October 2016, except that Lepin keeps coming out with new sets before I even start to type any text.  Now that we are in January 2017, I've made it my New Year's Resolution to curate this list before I start getting lazy again.  Lepin has recently changed the name of  it's Technics series to the Technician series.

You are visiting http://its-not-lego.blogspot.com.

This is going to be a long post.   Pictures of the sets from Aliexpress follow the table.   Oh, by the way, I've created this table so that you can sort any of the columns just by clicking the column heading.   Hope you like this feature.

Lepin set #	Set Description (its-not-lego)	Number of Pieces	Lego Set #	Retired (Y/N)
20011	4x4 Crawler Exclusive	1605	41999	Y
20001	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	2704	42056	N
20010	Crawler Crane	1401	42042	Y
20003	24 Hours Race Car	1219	42039	N
20013	Crane Truck	1877	8258	Y
20035	Container Yard	631	42062	New 2017
20028	Supercar	1281	8070	Y
20020	Tow Truck	1877	8285	Y
20033	RC Tracked Racer	397	42065	New 2017
20019	Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 400	2088	8110	Y
20005	Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3425	2793	42043	N
20002	Heavy Lift Helicopter	1060	42052	N
20004	Mobile Crane MKII	2606	42009	Y
20014	4x4 Crawler	1327	9398	Y
20034	Ocean Explorer	1347	42064	New 2017
23011	Avtoros Shaman 8x8 - MOC	2816	5260	MOC
20009	CLAAS XERION 5000 TRAC VC	1977	42054	N
20008	Motorized Bulldozer	1384	8275	Y
20007	Excavator	1132	8043	Y
20006	Remote-Controlled VOLVO L350F Wheel Loader	1636	42030	N
20031	Air Race Jet	1151	42066	New 2017
20015	Bucket Wheel Excavator	3929	42055	N
20012	Arctic Truck	913	42038	Y
20016	Cargo Plane	1337	42025	Y
20032	BMW R 1200 GS Adventure	603	42063	New 2017

There was a lot of information to sort through, so if I've made any mistakes, please let me know.  

Lepin 20001 - Porsche 911 GT3

Lepin 20002 - Heavy Lift Helicopter

Lepin 20003 - 24 Hours Race car

Lepin 20004 - Mobile Crane MKII

Lepin 20005 - Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3425

Lepin 20006 - VOLVO L350F Wheel Loader

Yup, you are still visiting http://its-not-lego.blogspot.com.

Lepin 20007 - Excavator

Lepin 20008 - Motorized Bulldozer

Lepin 20009 - CLAAS XERION 5000 TRAC VC

Lepin 20010 - Crawler Crane

Lepin 20011 - 4x4 Crawler Exclusive

Lepin 20012 - Arctic Truck

Lepin 20013 - Crane Truck

Lepin 20014 - 4x4 Crawler

Lepin 20015 - Bucket Wheel Excavator

Lepin 20016 - Cargo Plane

Lepin 20019 - Mercedes-Benz Unimog

Lepin 20020 - Tow Truck

20028 - Super Car

Lepin 20031 - Air Race Jet

Lepin 20032 - BMW R 1200 GS Adventure

Lepin 20033 - RC Tracked Racer

Lepin 20034 - Ocean Explorer

Lepin 20035 - Container Yard

Lepin 23011 - Avtoros Shaman 8x8

Wow, I counted 25 Technic sets that Lepin has copied!

I'm not sure how Lepin can get away with bootlegging the Lego 2017 lineup. before it's even released.  It's all very strange to me. Very interesting about the Avtoros Shaman 8x8, it's not an authentic Lego set but a custom creation.  I'm sure in a few days time, there will be more new Lepin Technic sets released, but hooray I completed my New Year's Resolution!   Thanks for visiting Its Not Lego!  Happy New Year to One and All!

Lepin 15008 Not Lego Green Grocer Set Review - Part Three

Hello, if you've just joined us, this post is about building the third floor of the Lego knockoff Lepin 15008 Green Grocer modular building.  I take pictures of the sets as I build them, so you can see what the Lepin build and brick quality is like.  In the above picture, I have just finished the third floor base.

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The Green Grocer third floor walls and windows are now in place.  I like the neat hot water radiator design under the rear window.  I also put in the railings for the staircase.

This is the rear view and you can see there's the makings of the fire escape exit.

Just pointing out the nice pendulum clock.  That and the rug is all the furnishings you get on the third floor.  Pretty sparse layout.

I put the staircase in and the upper window elements.  The front facade is starting to match the design scheme of the second floor now.

Here's the completed front with bay window.

A final look at the third floor interior.

I've attached the sloping roof tiles now.

This is how the structures look from the inside.

And with that, I have positioned the third floor onto the rest of the Green Grocer building.

Just some views.  Front corner elevation.

Rear corner elevation.

This is the back of the Green Grocer building.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the black windows are my own substitution, and the garbage bin is an addition from the Lepin Parisian Restaurant set.

This picture gives you a good look at the fire escape and how it all fits together between the second and third floors.

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The Rooftop

This is the formation of the Green Grocer rooftop.

Another view of it.

Here's how the rooftop looks as per the original design.  It has doorway into the third floor staircase and it opens up onto a small terrace.  Take a good look at this picture now, because then you will see what is to come later.

This is the front of the roof top.

The completed rooftop with all the embellishments including railings and chimney stack.

Here is the rooftop with the furnished terrace.  There's what appears to be a BBQ with open lid, and a small seating area with chairs and umbrella.  The terrace is adorned with flowers boxes also.  At this point, the rooftop is still the original design, but if you know me, I never leave things alone.

Do you notice anything different between this picture and the previous one?  I mean besides the presence of the minifigure.

Not sure?  Ok, how about this side view, maybe now you will notice the change.  It's all very subtle but it was a challenge to do.

Ok, if you still don't know, I raised the height of the roofline by several bricks and added a canopy over the door opening.

What I like about the taller roofline is that it gives a better visual appearance, especially the proper sense of scale when a minifigure is present.

The bay window turret required that I turn the rear angle plates around to accommodate the new slope of the rooftop.

The Lepin Green Grocer with rooftop modification is all done.

Just one more picture before we go.

Finally, here's the Lepin Green Grocer in it's new home next to the Lepin Town Hall.

That's it, bye and thanks for looking!

Oh wait,  in case you were wondering whatever happened with my Aliexpress dispute regarding the missing baseplate and other bricks I talked about in my first Green Grocer post, Aliexpress ruled in my favour and I got a refund of 50% back. Woohoo!

If you want to see my previous posts about the Lepin Green Grocer you can find them here and here.

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