Sembo Block 601070 Japanese Crab Shop (Not Lego) Set Review

Hey and welcome back to my Its Not Lego blog!  Hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe.  Today we will be looking at another set by Sembo Blocks.

TL:DR

Here's the synopsis, if you just want the details.

Model: Sembo Japanese Crab Restaurant
Set Number: 601070
Number of pieces: 341+
Number of minifigures: 3

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

On the back of the instruction manual, Sembo shows you all of the other Japanese themed shops in the series.  From what I can tell there are six different shops.

Just wanted to point out that the parts bags are numbered.

The crab restaurant sits on a 20x16 stud base plate.  The building itself is 18 studs wide but only about 8 studs deep.  In the front of the shop, there's two large windows and an entrance.  On one side you can probably watch them steam the crabs in the cooking area.  On the other side there is a tank that holds the fresh crabs.  Outside of the shop is another stand-alone tank with more crabs.

The inside of the crab restaurant is mostly empty except for the grill and prep area.

Here's the sticker sheets and the fabric banner.  I won't be installing the stickers just yet.

This is how the shop looks just before placing the shop banner.  There's lots of signage which looks bare without the stickers.  There's also some extra details over the crab tank.

Here's a side view of the crab restaurant.  I really like the big distinctive crab on the second floor.  Too bad they didn't put any walls on the side of the second floor.

The second floor is supposed to be the restaurant and seating area, except I haven't put the pieces in place because I plan on rebuilding the set as a modular building.  At that time, I will add the furnishings to make it look more legit.

Minifigures

You get three minifigures with this set, the crab shop owner and two japanese ladies in their colorful kimonos.

Summary

The Sembo Japanese crab restaurant is a fun little build.  From a parts to price perspective, it's a tad more than I want to pay, costing around $20 USD.  I think the shop could have been more detailed but I do like the crab sign.  Like the other Sembo japanese shops I have reviewed, this set doesn't scale very well with the minifigures. The external crab tank is way too tall and the minifigures wouldn't be able to reach what's on top very easily.   For this reason, I only give it a 4.5 out of 5.    I will be rebuilding this set soon as a modular building.  Look for that review in the near future!   Thanks and bye for now!

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!

Lari 11342 Harry Potter Knight Bus Set Review

Hey, what's up and welcome back to my blog It's Not Lego!  Today we will be reviewing a set from a new brand called Lari.  It looks like they have now joined the Bela family of blocks, as the two brands are now used interchangeably.

TL:DR

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

Model: Lari Harry Potter Knight Bus
Set Number: 11342
Number of pieces: 400
Number of minifigures: 3
Manufacturers Details: N/A

Fake Lego?  Fake.  Bootleg of Lego 75957
Missing Parts: N/ Deformed pieces: Y/ Scratched pieces: N
#itsnotlego Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars, solid build, excellent clutch, but deformed window glass

The Harry Potter Knight Bus

I ordered this set from Aliexpress at the beginning of March, and it arrived in about 3 weeks, which is surprising, given the number of flights that have been cancelled due to COVID-19.  Normally it takes about 6 weeks or double the time for block sets to reach me from China.  This set cost $20 CDN, so probably around $14-15 USD.  In terms of price, it's just meh.  I think a price of $15 CDN would have been better value.

As you can see, this is an average size set, with about 400 pieces, more or less.  The instruction manual gives no indication of the set name and just says Justice Magician.

Here's a shot of the back of the manual. It's probably copied from Lego but with the set numbers altered to match the Lari numbering system.  There appears to be 8 sets in the Justice Magician series.

Removing the items from the shipping bag, we find the instruction booklet, a small sticker sheet, and about 8 or 9 parts bags.  There was a split in one of the bags, so I found some loose parts. Hopefully nothing missing!

So, building the Knights bus is pretty straightforward, instructions are clear, and the brick clutch is acceptable.

 Here are the three minifigures that come with the set.  I'm not really that familiar with the Harry Potter characters, so I'll let you figure out who's who.  Anyways, the face and torso prints on the minifigs are crisp and clear.

The stickers for the bus have been modified to show the Lari set number instead of the Lego set number.  I have no plans to sticker the bus in the immediate future.

With this set you get a few extra parts.  BTW, the head is not a spare part, I just never attached it to the inside of the bus.

And here is the finished product, the Harry Potter Knight bus.   The biggest quality issue this set has is the windows.  There are extrusion dimples on every corner of the glass and they are scuffed as well.   I would say this is the worst part of the set but given the amount of windows it's really apparent.

The swing away side panel reveals an interior that consists of a sliding bed, a chandelier and some seating.  You can see there's no actual second floor.

So technically it's still a double decker.  Not pictured is the driver's seat in front.

The third floor of the bus comes off as designed.   You can also remove the roof.

The top floor carries a newspaper and trunk of small accessories.

Front view.  Don't know why the original design didn't feature a real grille piece instead of a sticker.

The wheels use technic pins as axles and run through the long technic pieces that make up the undercarriage.  The wheels roll well.

Final Thoughts

I think this set has a limited appeal to Harry Potter fans, otherwise it's not really an exciting set.  Personally, I think this bus is too short and feels too small. I think the wheelbase needs to be extended to give the bus a larger feel. It should be resized to increase bus length by 2 to 4 studs.  Someone on the Eurobricks website made a larger MOC version of the Knight bus and it looks so much better.

This was my first Lari brand set and I think it's inferior to other brick brands such as Enlighten or Sembo.  The 3 minifigs were good and brick clutch was ok, but as I mentioned previously, the extrusion dimples on the window glass really ruins the set for me.  I also think this knock-off set could be priced lower overall on Aliexpress.

Anyways, that's a wrap and thanks for visiting!  What did you think of this set?  Do you already have it?  How do you like it?  Let me know in the comment box below!  Bye!