Lepin 15002 Not Lego Cafe Corner Set Review - Part Two

Due to my busy schedule, I'm not able to sit down and build the Lepin Cafe Corner modular all in one go.  So I'm just pacing myself and building it when I have time.   I took a look at the instruction manual and I figure I will build 10 steps each day. 

The completed Lepin Cafe Corner.

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Day One

 

The above picture shows the progress after reaching step 10 of the first floor.  All of the tiles for the base have been applied.  The building foundation has been laid and the walls and step construction is underway.  Day one complete.

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Day Two

Here's the progress after day 2.   The building has now reached step 20 as per the instruction manual. The walls of the main floor are now up, as are the doors and windows.  First floor staircase for the hotel is now complete.  I had to bring in a few friends to help out with the construction.

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Day Three

Welcome to day 3 of the Lepin Cafe Corner build.   Got lots of pictures to share today.

The first floor is now complete.  All the awnings and over door details have been installed.  As the interior space is empty, there's nothing new to report there.  The Hotel signage has also been fixed to the side of the building.

Here's Sam the supervisor confirming that the left side of the cafe is complete.

There's Dan the Man, taking a break in the shade.  Boy, is it ever hot out day.   Please note that the front door design of the Lepin Cafe is different than the original Lego door.   The baseplate corners are lifting ever so slightly, despite me trying to bend the corners down.

Carpenter Ken decides to hide from Sam the Supervisor behind the cafe.  No windows here for anyone to spy on him.

The back of the cafe is really devoid of any details.   Hmm, this would be a really good place to put an outhouse, lol.

The HOTEL sign sure looks confusing when seen from behind.   The hotel door goes up the completed staircase but the second floor still needs to be built.

Dave and Mike are still cleaning up the mess left inside.   We are now finished step 30 in the instruction manual.  Today, I encountered a missing part, light gray 1x2 tile.  Not sure if I dropped it on the floor or it was missing from the set.  Luckily I've got lots of these in my brick inventory, so no delays yet on the build.  Well that's it for the pics from day 3.   See you tomorrow.

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Day Four

So this is how things looked at the end of Day 3.  On day 4, I started to build out the floor of the second storey and found I didn't have the necessary black plates to complete.  I kept checking the remaining parts and could not find them.  It was upon reviewing the instruction manual that I discovered that I made a big mistake on the last step.  

See the black brick plates over the awning?  That's supposed to be dark gray, not black. After I realized this mistake, the build started to go smoothly again.

Ok, this is how it's supposed to look.   All the debris has been swept up from the first floor too.

The exterior details like the tables and umbrellas have been added.  Also the bench and lamppost.  The bicycle was challenging until I realized the bike rim was two pieces.   The second floor walls are now being built up at the end of day 4.

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Day Five

More brown bricks added to the second floor walls today.  The second floor kind of snaps into the first floor, but it's a little bit loose.  Not sure if it's supposed to be that way or not.

Second floor windows installed and we're starting to use some red bricks now.  The last of the light blue bricks have been used up.  Stair railing added too.

Here's the street view of the cafe corner so far.

And finally the overhead shot of the second floor.   Oh, I forgot to mention that I changed the white lamp post from the set to a silver one instead.  I didn't like how the white post stood out.  Ok, that's a wrap for today.

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Day Six

Welcome to day 6.  We didn't really do a lot today so it will be a short update.  The top of the second storey walls were completed and the arch windows and grills added.  The grills are up and down grid shaped and not diagonal like the original Lego set.  The second floor staircase was put in also.

To complete the second storey walls, you need to put some non-studded pieces around the rear perimeter of the cafe building.  I was supposed to have 4 1x4 brown smooth bricks to complete the top of the walls.  

Instead, I got 4 1x6 smooth bricks instead.   I used a couple of them and rearranged the placement of the bricks.  I didn't have any 1x2 smooth brown bricks, so I ended up using a couple of 1x2 brown grill pieces instead.

Wrong bricks, should be 1x4, not 1x6.

 Anyways, after that little diversion, work started on the third floor base.

Carpenter Ken, get back to work and quit ogling the girls.  Tomorrow, the third floor walls and windows go up, see you then.

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Day Seven

Well it's been almost one entire week, ( well actually a couple of hours each day), and the Lepin Cafe Corner is finally complete.

After the third floor walls went up, we didn't stop to take any more pictures. The workers had to hurry up construction as they have another job to go to.

These were the left over parts after completing the build.   Luckily the handful of parts that were missing were easily replaced by other bricks in my stash.

And here's the completed set. Yay!

So I really enjoyed the build, although I did it somewhat leisurely.   I did not sort out all the parts, and basically left them in their 43 different bags (yes, I counted) and hunted for them as I needed them.

I really like the colour scheme and some of the interesting building techniques such as building the hotel sign, and putting in the angled front facade.   I wished that there was an interior on each floor, but that's now something that I will plan for and add to the building later.   The set is quite sturdy so I don't have to make any adjustments structurally, however the door leading to the hotel stairs is loose (looks like a design flaw), so I will come up with a fix for that.

I'm already thinking of some minor modifications to the Cafe corner such as replacing the front door with a full glass door.  I want to fence off and make a patio area where the tables are.  I want to add some planter boxes under some of the windows and add a door and window or two to the rear of the building.

Well, that was fun, soon i will tackle my next set which is the Lepin 15004 Fire Brigade set.  See you then.

Brand: Lepin

Series: Creator Modulars

Model: 15002 Cafe Corner

Number of pieces:  2133 pieces, according to the description

Price paid: $71 CDN (after Aliexpress seller discounts and coupons),  DHL shipping included.

Recommended?  Big YES.

Lepin 15003 Not Lego Town Hall Set Review - Part Two

Hello and welcome back to the construction of the Lepin Town Hall modular building.  Sorry for the taking so long to get to this second update.   Part One of the Town Hall build can be found here.     Without further ado, let's return to the Town Hall to see how the build is progressing.

Day Five

Most of this day involved constructing the Town Hall's elaborate facade which includes the columns and support system for the portico.  

 Interior wise, not much has changed on the main floor.  We find our mini figure couple in the auditorium having a lively exchange.  Let's hope they're not bickering about something already.

In the previous post I thought that the first floor was pretty much completed, but I was wrong.  There's another couple of rows of dark gray bricks that were installed with more windows at the back of the building.  Wow, this first floor is almost as high as the main floor of the Fire Brigade modular.

Did a preliminary test of the elevator and it's working fine.  I'm really looking forward to the completion of the main floor front facade.   That's it for another ten steps done!

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Day Six

Day six was probably the most challenging part of the Town Hall build because it is between steps 48 thru 61 where you will recall from my previous post that the Lepin instruction manual was incorrectly put together.   The area that was specifically affected was the portico that protrudes from the front of the building.  I improvised as much as I could, before going on-line to confirm the proper brick placement.

Here is the completed facade and I must say that this is my most favourite element of the Town Hall.  

Here's a closer look at the exquisite details of the portico.  My only nitpick is that the front doors can't fully open because of the proximity of the columns.  

I would love to rebuild the front so that it protrudes out further giving some space between the columns and the front walls.

At long last the ground floor is finished!  We started to lay our first orange-brown bricks.

Here's the helicopter view of the completed main floor.  Day six done.

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Day Seven

On Day seven, we start a new level, yay!  Although it's still ten steps, it doesn't look like we accomplished much today, other than laying down the foundation of the second floor.

A lamp post and landscaping completes the front of the Town Hall . I install the second floor onto the first for a quick test fit.

Unlike the first floor which was mostly light and dark gray, the second floor will be composed primarily of the red brown bricks.  This is a unique colour for me, as I don't have any other bricks in this colour in my collection.

Looks like the mini figure couple is taking some preliminary photos on the steps of the Town Hall with their professional wedding photographers.  I guess they can't wait for the Town Hall building to finish construction.  Sorry for the delays!   Day seven over and out.

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Day Eight

The second floor walls are starting to take shape and they were quick to bring in the furnishings, such as the office desks, lamps and rug.

Everybody is already testing out their workspaces before the second floor is even completed.  Luckily the second floor railings are in place so nobody accidentally falls into the first floor from all the excitement.

The original office administrator's (we don't say secretary anymore do we?) was a tad too small for her impending workload, so I gave her a L shaped desk and gave her some technology in the form of a computer.

Here's a closer look at the admin's desk.

Hey wait, is that Spiderman paying us a visit and posing for pictures? Cool!

At the back, the window sills have been installed to support the second storey windows.  So this was a fairly long blog post that covered the activities spanning days five through eight.  I guess there will need to be a third blog post to report on the final completion of the Lepin Town Hall.  Stay tuned and thanks for looking!

Update: here's the third and final post for the Lepin Town Hall review

Lepin 15003 Not Lego Town Hall Set Review - Part One

It's time to unpack and build the Lepin Town Hall modular set.  Lepin set 15003 is a knock-off of Lego's Town Hall 10224 set.

The Town Hall is the third modular set I've got from Lepin.  My first was the 15002 Cafe Corner and the second was the 15004 Fire Brigade.  This set is the biggest one of all the modular buildings with 2859 pieces.

The delivered box was heavy and the 52 bags of parts was overflowing from my storage bin.  

I actually count all the bags to make sure I've got a complete set. I've read on the bootleg brick forums about some Lepin sets that are missing pieces, so I'm a bit paranoid about making sure I've got all of them.  I was missing some minor pieces in the Cafe Corner, but luckily the  Fire Brigade build was completed with no problems.  It's best to not mark your Aliexpress transaction as completed until you've verified your Lepin modular set inventory.  That way, you can still raise a dispute with the seller to either get the missing parts or get some credit on your purchase price.  

As with the other Lepin modular reviews, I will follow the instruction manual and build about 10 steps per day, taking pictures of the building progress as I go.  It usually takes between a week to a week and a half for me to complete a modular building.   Here we go!

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Day One

Before I even started to build the Town Hall, I ran into a problem with the instruction manual.  It appears to have been put together incorrectly and some of the pages were cut in half.  

I'll follow the instruction manual until I get to step 48, after which I may have to search for and download the affected steps from the Internet.  As near as I can tell, there are about 10 steps of the build that will be impacted by the incomplete pages.

I wasn't expecting any firearms with the Town Hall set, but found that I had 5 racks of guns in one of the ziplock bags.  I'm pretty sure the Lego version doesn't have them, so this is a Lepin bonus.

You get eight mini figures with the Town Hall building.  Here's all of them posing with their choice of firearms.   Lepin's mini figure hair pieces are different than the actual Lego hair.

Lepin's Town Hall baseplate is also different from Lego.  This set comes with a thicker one piece 32x32 stud base, which I like.  In the Cafe Corner and in the Fire Brigade, Lepin gave you two 16x32 pieces for the bases which made for some instability at the outset of the modular builds.

The above picture shows the progress after the first 10 steps.  The foundation is starting to take shape and the sidewalk has been laid.

I found it odd that there are two small white windows used as support pieces for the first floor.  Once the first floor goes in, you will never see them and I thought what a waste of two good windows.

From my parts bin, I replaced the windows with some black 1x2 bricks.  I also removed the flat white 1x6 and black 1x3 pieces as well, as I don't see them serving any purpose.  I subsequently also replaced the two round fluted bricks under the front steps with just some standard square bricks as I have very few of the fluted bricks.  Ten steps done and probably a hundred more to go, lol.  Day one complete.  More to come!

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Day Two

On Day 2, with the foundation complete, the building of the first floor can continue.

First floor walls and window sills in place.

It's neat how the design includes access to the elevator shaft at the rear of the building.

Some of the office furniture is now in place.

The pedestals are now ready for front columns to be installed.

The podium and it's town hall crest in the general assembly room.

Here's a look at the base of the elevator shaft.

Steps 11 through 20 completed on day two.

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Day Three

Here we are on day 3, and we've got the first floor interior and exterior walls and windows up.

The back door and windows are in place.  What? we already have a giant weed growing!

The administrative office is open for business even before the building is complete.

Steps 21 through 30 now completed after day three.

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Day Four

Today, I installed the front doors, interior doors and more windows on the first floor.

The double front doors are massive.

The administrative office with door and arched windows added.

More pics of the auditorium.

Overhead shot of first floor.

Second row of windows installed at the back of the town hall.

I decided I didn't like the windows looking into the elevator shaft, so I replaced them with a shuttered window instead.

Day four finished.

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That's it for this post.  The Lepin Town Hall build continues in part two.   Thanks for looking!

Update: Part Two of the Lepin Town Hall Building Review can be found here.