Xingbao Home Furnishings - The Study Room XB 01401-A Set Review

Hey look, here's one of the new Xingbao Home Furnishings building sets.  When these first came out, I was all eager to get them until I saw their prices.  On Aliexpress, the going price for the whole set of six is $69 USD or about $90 CDN.  That works out to about $11.50 USD or $15 CDN per set.  By comparison, my Hsanhe shop sets were about $7 USD each, so yeah the Xingbao sets are kinda expensive.  I had resigned myself to maybe just getting just one or two sets but was waiting for the right time to pull the trigger.

as seen on ebay.com

as seen on ebay.ca

Anyways last month, I was scouring Ebay for brick deals (of which there aren't many anymore), and found all six sets for  $51 USD.  The bootleg brick gods must have been smiling on me that day, because Ebay also had a 20% coupon. That amounted to another $10 USD off.  Score!  

No sooner after I submitted my payment, I get the dreaded message back from Ebay saying the listing had been removed.  In fact upon checking that sellers other building block listings, they all disappeared.   Arrghh!

Nowadays, I know better than to buy any of those ridiculously low priced bootleg sets from the many zero feedback China sellers on ebay, but this particular seller had lots of feedback and mostly positive feedback, so I thought I was safe.   Has this  ever happened to you?  

I reached out to the seller, and was reassured when he gave me a valid tracking number.  My sets subsequently arrived a few weeks soon after, so all was good.  I figure I've saved almost half off $53 CDN vs. $90 CDN.  I never did find out why all his building block listings were pulled off ebay.

Anyways, I digress.  Here is set XB-1401A, the Study Room, one of six in the series.  I'll review each of the other sets in order in future blog posts.  Now, let's rip it open and see what we got.

This is my first ever block set by Xingbao, so I don't know what the quality is going to be like.  Instead of a manual, the building instructions are printed on both sides of a large sheet of paper.

There are approximately 6 or 7 bags of parts.  I emptied all of my bags and sorted them by colour.  No stickers though.  And no brick separator either, unlike Lepin which almost always includes one with each of their sets.

I did a quick inspection of the bricks, and finish looks alright and no defective pieces either. No problems with the clutch or quality of the bricks.

The footprint of each home furnishing diorama is 12 studs by 12 studs, typically with a finished tiled floor, two walls, and some furniture and accessories.  Each set also comes with a minifigure.

In the pic above, I've assembled the giant wall unit/bookshelf.  It's got lots of drawer units and shelved for the assorted brick-a-brack.  You can't see it in this picture, but there's a computer monitor inside the bookshelf, next to the table lamp.  Over the window are some blue and white drapes that give the room some contrast. You can see that the height of this diorama is just about twice the height of the minifigure.

There's a few studs on the floor where you can attach different objects, like this side table and plant.

Here's a  close-up shot of the wall unit.  I took the table lamp out and put it on the side table instead.  The headshot of mister minifig is a nice touch.

You also get a computer chair and a red chair.

Just in case you were wondering how it looks from the outside, I took a couple of pics.

 And here's the completed set!  The Study room is well furnished, don't you think?  At some point in the future, I'd like to incorporate this diorama into one of my modular buildings.

I discovered that each set comes with a few extra pieces.  Here's the ones that come with this set.

Ok, that wraps up my review of the the Study room diorama, part of the Xingbao Home Furnishings building set XB 01401-A.  All in all, this was a fun build, and not too complicated.   What did you think of this set.  Did i miss anything in my review? Let me know!

 Thanks for visiting Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com.  See you next time!

Decool 1104 Not Lego Mini Town Hall Set Review

Special Delivery!  Hmm, wonder what's in the truck?  Lisa the delivery lady makes Larry sign for the shipment.   Some of the neighbourhood kids in Its-Not-Lego town all gather to see what's going on.

 Lisa opens up the truck.  Whoa!  So many brick parts!  Lisa's helpers bring out the rest of the pieces.

Izzy wades into the huge pile and finds the instruction manual.  It's the Decool Town Hall!

Ok, time to build this thing.  While Larry goes through the manual, he tells Edwin and Peter to start grabbing parts.  Nibbles the dog wants to be in the thick of things.

 Need more parts!  Izzy carts them over in the wheelbarrow.

Peter snaps the pieces into place while Izzy and Edwin pass him the bricks.

Building up the walls.  Larry watches the kids build.

 Nibbles wants to help.

 Larry comes over to check on the progress.

 So many transparent pieces!

 Larry has to help the kids.

 Keep on building!

 Working on the first floor still.  So much detail.

 Almost done this level.

 Tada, time for a group selfie!  Um, Edwin, we can't see you.

 After a short break,  the construction crew is back at it.

 Er, where do these go?

All modulars need a light post and tree.

Izzy gets to climb up to build the next level.  Larry has to give her a boost.

Ooh, great views from up here.

 Ok, everyone start passing bricks up to Izzy.

 Peter grabs a ladder so that he can give Izzy a hand with the heavier pieces.

 Edwin has the sand green wedges all ready for the roof.

Everyone pitching in.

Another group selfie shot!

 Time for Izzy to get off the building.

 Not sure if the ladder will hold both Peter and Izzy.  Larry makes sure it's ok.

 Larry decides that two people on the ladder is not safe.  There just happens to be a Sluban airplane ladder close by.  Now Izzy feels safer.

Getting a lot harder to reach the top. 

 Time to assemble the clock tower for the Decool Town Hall.

 So, um how do we get the clock tower up on the roof?  It's too high!

 Nick brings his Lego cherry picker over to help.  Yay!

The Decool town hall is completed!

Side view.

Another side view.

Here's how the back looks.

The kids ask Lisa to be in the shot too.  Larry, Edwin, Peter, Izzy and Nibbles all say Hi!

 There you have it, the Decool 1104 Mini Town Hall.  Just in case you were wondering, the wheelbarrow, instruction manual, ladder, airplane stairs, Lego cherry picker truck, Kazi delivery truck and assorted minifigures are not included in the set, lol.

I discovered that this Town Hall is actually a knock-off of Lego set 40183 which was a ToysRus Bricktober promo in 2014.  Based on what I've read, the Lego version of this set retailed for  $19.99 USD.

The set also comes with two little vehicles, a double decker bus and a taxi cab, which I didn't build.  Clutch and brick quality of the Decool version is great. Both the Decool and Lego versions have 186 pieces.

This little set was a gift from the Aliexpress store when I bought my Lepin 15005 Grand Emporium from them.  LOZ brand makes a similar model in case you're interested.


Thanks for visiting Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com and see you next time!