Set Review: Keeppley K18003 Yinyi Garden Entertainment Building Block Set

It's huge, it's colourful, it's packed with details!  It's the new Keeppley K18003 Yinyi Garden Entertainment building block set.   Hey, brick fans, today we are back with another review and it's quite the set.

In case you are unfamiliar with the name, Keeppley is a building block brand that is part of the Enlighten Toys franchise. A quick scan on brick4.com reveals that they have produced just under 200 sets for such names such as Naruto, Pokemon, Doraemon,  Crayon Shin, and Hello Kitty to name a few.  If you see sets with the names Enlighten, Keeppely, and Qman, they are all part of the same brand.

A huge shout out to online store Afobrick.com who made this review possible by kindly furnishing the set for me to review.  The set was sent to me superfast and well packaged.  Afobrick.com has an excellent track record for packaging and delivery.

Afobrick.com also provides free worldwide shipping and it's all tax free. Buy more, save more!

The Keeppley K18003 Yinyi Garden Entertainment Center is now available on their website, and don't forget to use my discount code ITSNOTLEGO at checkout. (click on the pic below to go directly to the item listing).

In 2020, Keeppley  expanded into Chinese Street Architecture theme, with the  Kaiyun Hotpot Restaurant K18001, then shortly thereafter the Qiyun Luxury Hotel K18002.  

New for this year is the Yinyi Garden and Entertainment Center K18003. The Entertainment center consists of three storeys in an L shaped layout.  Where your normal modular building sits on a 32x32 stud baseplate, this one has a footprint of 36 by 42 studs.  If you want to fit this into your modular city, you might have to make some adjustments.  This is a decent sized set with well over 2000 pieces I'd imagine.

Typically, a modular building has a very interesting front facade, with a not so interesting backside.  The Keeppley entertainment center is an exception as both front and rear of the building are exquisitely and richly detailed.

Dominating the front corner of the building is a large sign board that runs the entire height of the three floors.  If someone knows the meaning of the characters on the sign, please let me know.  And yes, those are all printed parts, not stickers.

Here are some of the different exterior facades that adorn the three levels of the building.  More examples of printed pieces can be found.

Left side front view.

Right side front view.

Being a corner modular building, you can choose to display the side you like the best.

Here's the other side of the entertainment centre.  One can see a rooftop garden, a stone bridge that leads to a pagoda surrounded by water and a huge tree that overlooks a waterfall.   In the center of all this, there is a working glass elevator that services all three floors. It's a very nice setup, although one wonders where all that water is coming from.  

There's a bird perched in the tree, wish it was more colourful though.

The view of beautiful waterfall is obscured by the pagoda.

A better view of the waterfall with pagoda removed.

Shaded lookout from the second floor.

The full height glass elevator shaft. The elevator works by turning the blue knob at the top to raise and lower the platform inside.  There are openings from each floor to access the shaft, however there should be glass doors to prevent people from falling into the shaft and getting seriously injured.

I don't know if this applies to the other Keeppley buildings, but this one does not come off floor by floor like a regular modular building.  There are a couple of novel ways to view the interior of the entertainment centre.

Kitchen in a drawer!  This sliding feature makes it possible to remove the entire kitchen for extra play value.

With the kitchen fully removed, one can see all the details of the double stove, sink and other utensils.

On the other arm of the building, there are four different rooms to be seen by swinging away each section.  Unfortunately access is limited and is for viewing only.

Here is the main floor dining room, with seating for six.  Even inside there are printed signs on the wall and even the rice and noodle bowls are printed, not stickered.

I'm not exactly sure for sort of room this is on the second floor.  I'm guessing from the cups on the table that it's some sort of tea room, with different teas for tasting.

On the top floor is the mahjong room.  Mahjong is like a chinese version of gin rummy but using plastic tiles instead of cards.  Of course, there are a lot more complexities to this game than my simple explanation.  Anyways, mahjong can be found in many asian gambling establishments, typically frequented by the older generation.  And yes, all the colourful mahjong tiles are printed pieces.

One last look at the Mahjong room from an exterior view.

Finally for those of the less geriatric crowd, there is a video games room next to the mahjong room.

With a couple of controllers on the shelf and a dance mat on the floor, this should have the kids poppin.

So let's talk about the minifigures that come with this set.  There are six of them, three males and three females, all dressed in traditional chinese garments.

I'm pretty sure that Enlighten/Keeppley/Qman wanted to avoid Lego's wrath when it came to minifigure replicas.  So they made their minifigures with huge heads that look more like dolls than minifigures.   If you like them, then that's fine, but for me, I prefer all of my minifigures to look similar in size.  Xingbao and Sluban have uniquely designed minifigs as well, but they still keep within the same size norms as Lego style minifigures.  

But did you know that you can actually swap out the ginormous Enlighten heads and replace them with standard minifigure heads?  I went through my minifigure collection and selected some that loosely replicate the ones in the set.  

Which minifigure style do you prefer? Let me know if you prefer the Lego standard or the new Enlighten ones.  

As a final note, I took a lot of pictures as I built the set, but not sure if there's anyone interested in seeing the process.  Let me know if you want to see those pics and I can make a subsequent post.  I found the brick clutch and quality to be excellent.  There was a matter of  one missing piece and one deformed piece, however those did not impact the build.  There are some transparent window parts which are relatively clear and scuffed or scratched.

I gave this set a 4.8 out of 5 with points deducted for the missing and deformed parts and the big headed mini figures.  But overall a fun and enjoyable build.  And the entertainment center is absolutely photogenic.

Want to build this colourful and exquisite set?  Head on over to Afobrick.com and check out all the different brick sets they have at the store.

Hope you have enjoyed this review and let me know what you thought in the comments.   Bye for now!

Set Review: Not Lego Technic 42096 Porsche 911 RSR

 

Hey alt Lego fans!  Today I'll be doing a short review of an unbranded not Lego copy of 42096 Porsche 911 RSR set.  This was a really fun technic build, which is a nice change from the sets I normally build.  In fact it's my second technic build ever, the first being the Lego 8273 Off-road truck from 2007.

So let's talk more about this alt Lego version.  This thing measures 19" long by 8" wide by 6" inches high which are probably the same dimensions as the OG version.

There's no mention of the number of pieces so I'm going to assume that it's roughly the same at 1580 pieces, give or take.

I got my set from Youmko.com in late July, but didn't get around to building the set until mid August .  But anyways, shipping took about a week from China to Canada which is pretty fast.  Unfortunately, the parcel then languished with Canada Post for a couple of weeks before I could receive it.

Here's the set out of the package. No markings on any of the bags except 00911.  A total of 12 parts bags.

The alt Lego set comes with two sticker sheets and a condensed version of the manual.  I say condensed because the instruction pages are greatly reduced in size, sometimes making it difficult to make out the proper steps.  

I should add that this unbranded set comes with made up brand names.  The stickers say Borsche instead of Porsche and Motll instead of Mobil.  If the stickers were accurate I might have been inclined to apply them to my model, but certainly not as they are.  For those of you wishing to get this set, I would recommend buying legitimate stickers for your Porsche.  Meanwhile, the manual cover, calls this race car a Baosche!

Now having said that, don't let the stickers and manual deter you because the build is amazing.  With the exception of one overly tight pin, this set comes together nicely.  The clutch is very good and the gearing is spot on.  The engine camshaft operates the pistons very smoothly.

I won't bore you with too many build pics, but I just wanted to show you that this thing is solid and tight, for the most part.  

At this point, let me point out some very minor issues, that aren't show stoppers but might give some of you pause to consider.  The headlight covers weren't packaged separately, and as a result have several nicks and scratches on them.

 The doors don't close tightly.  I understand that this was also an issue with the Lego model as well, if I read correctly.  Unfortunately all of my spare parts are still packed away otherwise I'd probably insert a technic pin into the door to lock them in place.

Picture perfect undercarriage.

I wish the roof line was just a bit flatter than curved but I think that's a design flaw and not a build flaw per se.  Anyways, enough of my griping, let's get to the pictures.

This unbranded set has all the proper workings, just like the Lego version.  It has working suspension on all wheels, steerable front wheels, functional engine connected to the rear wheels, opening side doors and engine bay.  Because I did not apply the stickers, the interior is devoid of the radar screen and map.

In my opinion, this set rates an honourable 4.5 out of 5.  It loses points because of the mis-named stickers, the non closing doors and rounded roof-line, otherwise it's a very nice set that looks great and rolls well.  This is one technic set every Porsche fan should have.

According to brick4.com, the Lego 42096 Porsche 911 RSR has been cloned and copied by several times and this unbranded 00911 version is just the latest in the series.

Get yours today from Youmko.com!  They provide a huge selection of Lego replica sets.  

https://youmko.com/products/00911-high-tech-series-super-car-911-rsr-building-blocks-1580pcs-bricks-ship-from-china-compatile-with-20097-42096?DIST=QURB

And if you are looking for the latest chinese designed building block sets that are not Lego copies, look no further than Barweer.com (who have kindly provided this set for my review.)  All sets include free shipping worldwide and are tax free.  They have warehouses in USA and Europe, in addition to China.

As a special itsnotlego discount, you can get 7% off all your purchases at Youmko.com and Barweer.com if you use the code "itsnot5" at checkout.

Thanks for looking and see you in my next post!  Bye!