Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Hsanhe 6410-1 Not Lego Corner Coffee (Starbucks) Set Review



Look what just showed up!   These cool mini modular buildings are by chinese brick brand Hsanhe.  I don't even know how to pronounce Hsanhe, but I don't care, because these buildings are awesome. What's interesting is that these sets were originally proposed to Lego Ideas CUUSOO back in 2012, but were rejected by Lego.  Here's the link:  https://ideas.lego.com/projects/15229.

Today I will look at one of the sets called the Corner Coffee 6410-1.  The set proposed to Lego looked like this, with the Starbucks branded logos.


And here's the Hsanhe set.


The colour and bricks are identical, except for the logo.  It says Corner Coffee instead of Starbucks.  Note that I used a single brick tile in place of the stack of bricks for the logo.  Other than that the rest of the bricks came with the Hsanhe set.  There are roughly 190 pieces to this set, but you get another 20 random pieces after you finish building.

The original set proposed to Lego had a baseplate that was 16 studs wide by 8 studs deep.  The Hsanhe set is 10 studs deep.  At the front of the building, there is a fire hydrant, 2 tables, 2 umbrellas and 4 chairs.   Two floor to ceiling windows flank the central doorway.


The right side view shows the connection point that makes it a modular. All the rest of the buildings come with the connector hole and peg.  The building is 6 studs wide.  One thing I didn't care for was the fact that the baseplate is made up of 3 pieces, 2 16 x  2 plates and 1 16 x 6 plate.    In future I will replace the baseplate with a single piece, maybe 10 x 20.


Above is the left side view.


The rear of the building is open for access.  Spidey is sitting at the table savouring his grande drip. There is a counter and a small cash register near the entrance.  On the side wall is a table with cups and coffee maker.


Oh I forgot to mention that there are two pendant lights attached to the ceiling.


Here's the view from above.

Ceiling details.


Closeup of the barista station.


Closeup of the seating area.


And finally, here are the two minifigures that come with the Hsanhe set.  You get a guy who is wearing a green and white apron and a female with dark black hair.  Sorry, Spiderman doesn't come with this set.

Overall quality of the bricks is very good, and the glass plates are not too scratched.  You get a small sticker sheet for the store and cup logos.   These mini modular sets can be found on ebay for just over $10 USD and cheaper on Aliexpress, where I bought mine.

Brand: Hsanhe
Model: 6410-1 Corner Coffee mini modular
Pieces:  190 as per package description (but you get more)
Price:  I paid about $7 CDN each because I bought the set of six buildings from Aliexpress.


Recommend?  Yes.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Enlighten 1104 Not Lego Street Roller Set Review

The Enlighten 1104 Street Roller.


For 2016, I found that Enlighten Blocks have released quite a few City sets.  This Street Roller caught my eye.  

The set number is 1104 and came out in the summer of 2016.  It's not a big set because it only consists of 102 pieces.  They all come in one bag and a separate small sticker sheet.

This two sided instruction sheet also comes with the street roller set.

The second page of the instruction sheet.

The sticker sheet got munched.


Here's all the parts.  It comes with one mini figure.

The assembled street roller.  I like that the colour is a light green and not the typical yellow of other construction vehicles.

The right side has a chrome exhaust pipe.

There's a couple of vents where the engine is supposed to be at the rear of the vehicle.

On the left side, a pick is attached.

Despite being quite small, I actually enjoy the look of this little street roller.

Thanks for looking!

Brand:  Enlighten
Model: 1104 Street Roller
Number of pieces: 102 
Number of minifigs: 1
Year released: 2016
Copy of Lego? No, it's an original Enlighten design

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Enlighten 1101 Not Lego Sweeper Truck set review



Recently, I acquired another street sweeper vehicle for my growing building block city.  My first was the Enlighten brand Garbage Truck set 1111.  


This new 102 pieces sweeper truck is also made by Enlighten and it is set number 1101.


Unfortunately, I must report that the build quality and clutch is terrible on this set.


The first issue is the roof.  It is only attached to two upright posts and the windscreen and it is not very sturdy.  You can see from this pic that the posts don't sit very tightly to the vehicle body itself.

The other issue is the two hoses that connect the vacuuming machines to the large collector bin on the back.  The hoses just won't stay on and keep popping off.

On the positive side, I do like the vehicle design with it's hinged cab.

The cleaning brushes roll well.  Front windscreen is tinted blue but not scratched.

The sweeper truck has access doors on either side of the collector compartment for easy refuse collection.

It comes with a shovel and a broom as it's accessories.

I like that it's a smaller vehicle, and it doesn't have a large footprint.


Here is the sweeper driver mini figure and the sticker sheet that comes with the set.  You can see that the set was issued in 2015.

Instructions come by way of a glossy piece of paper, double sided.  Here's page one.

And here's page two on the reverse side.

Brand: Enlighten
Set:  1101 Sweeper Truck
Number of pieces: 102 
Number of minifigs: 1
Copy of Lego?:  No technically, but it looks very similar to Lego set 7242.

On a scale out of 5, I only give this set a 2 or 3, because of it's poor build quality.  I've enjoyed building other Enlighten brand sets, but this was the worst so far.  Very disappointed.