Sunday, November 20, 2016

Sluban M38-B0555 Not Lego Tower Crane Set Review - Part One


Earlier in the month, I blogged about some Sluban sets I found on sale on Aliexpress.  Well, I decided to see if the deal was real or not, so I went ahead and bought some of the construction vehicles and the additionally the giant Tower Crane set.   This post will focus on set M38-B0555 which has 1461 pieces and consists of a slew of minifigures, a delivery truck, a four storey building and a huge crane.


I got the package about 3 weeks after I ordered it. The seller listed it as a gift with a value of $2, lol.


My package didn't come with a box, just an instruction manual, a bunch of plates and 23 bags of parts.

The back of the instruction manual shows you a picture of all the Sluban construction series.  I've got the dump truck and cement mixer coming.


The minifigures.


For those not familiar with Sluban building sets, the minifigures are not Lego compatible.  They have skinnier legs and arms, and smaller hands, torso and heads.  Here's a comparison of a Lego minifigure on the left and a Sluban minifigure on the right.

In this Tower Crane set, you get a total of eleven minifigures, five of them look to be construction workers.

We also get a few pedestrian minifigures.  It should be noted that every Sluban minifigure has a unique face, no two are alike.

Here's a bonus minifigure on a keychain.  The included brick tool is neat in that it looks like a crocodile.

Sluban's quality assurance is not so good, as I found a brick piece with a chunk missing from it.

The Delivery Truck.


Hey, let's see if we can get everyone into the truck that comes with the set.

Yup, I think that's everyone.


Ok, no more pictures please!

The people at Sluban are such masochists because all of the truck bricks were spread amongst the twenty three bags.  There didn't seem to be any order in how the  parts were packaged. In another case I had to look for the same part (1x2 tan plates) in several different bags.  As a result, I had to rip open and empty all of the bags and spend a few hours just sorting the parts.

Here's that defective plate that makes up a corner part of the truck.  I found the Sluban bricks to be slightly softer than Lego or Lepin bricks.  They feel lighter too.

There's just enough room for the driver inside the truck cab.


The orange truck has an opening tailgate and opening doors.

The Four Storey Building.



Here's the first floor of the four storey building.  There's a large baseplate and the building sits on a raised foundation.  In the front, there's a covered porch that leads out onto a small tiled area.  Other features include a street light and a mailbox.  I don't really like the red street lamp, so I'll probably replace it later.  I should point out that the flowers attach really well to the plant stems.


One of things I don't like about Sluban is the smaller size doors.  Also, you have to cut away excess plastic from the window parts.  I left them on so you can see what they look like before I trim them off.  There is no glass for the window parts.  There's no interior details for any of the floors.

Here's the side view of the first floor.

Front view.

Overhead view.



Here's the second floor module.   The third and fourth floors are identical.

This is how the inside of each floor looks like.


The second floor can be easily removed from the first floor.


The rear view with two floors completed.

Third floor added.


A look around back.

 Side view after three floors completed.

Another view.


Fourth floor added.

This thing is tall!  side view.

Hey guys, Be careful, Don't fall off!

Finished the roof portion.  Here's the front.

The rear view of the roof top.


Here's the completed four storey building.


Last look.


This thing towers over my Hsanhe modulars for sure.

Thanks for looking at part one.   The review of the Sluban tower crane continues in part two here.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Lepin 15011 Not Lego Detective's Office Set Review - Part Three

Here is my final blog post regarding the Lepin 15011 Detective's Office modular building set.  We will finish the third and final floor today.  According to the Lepin instructions, it will take us 45 steps to complete the third floor and roof assemblies for this modular.

Step 10.


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Here's the base plate setup for the third floor after ten steps.  There are openings for the stairwell and skylight.

Step 20.


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In step 20. we finish off the small kitchen on the third floor and add railings to the stair case.  As with the second floor, the third floor is composed of two shades of light and medium blue bricks.

Inside the kitchen, there is a cabinet with two fake drawers (not the opening kind, sorry).  We also find a small 4 burner stove.  Additionally, there are two round tables. One with a mixing bowl and another with some cookies on a tray.  Above the stove is a small ledge and rolling pin.

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The hinge is broken on the stove's transparent door.  Unfortunately, I don't have a spare piece like this one in my brick stash, so I will have to make do.

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Here's the side view of the third floor.

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I've now added the third floor to the detective's office  and will continue building from here.

Step 30.


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 Here are some pictures of the completed third floor.

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This door leads from the kitchen to the rooftop above the detective's office.
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A quick look around back.

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Helicopter view of the third floor.

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Step 40. 

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In step 40, we added the skylight, the water tower and cornices over the second floor.

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Front view. Almost completed.

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Side view of rooftop.

Step 45.

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 All done!  Looking downwards from above.

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 I really like the varied details of the roof lines.   Here's a look at the third floor roof.

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And the second floor roof line.

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The back of the completed Detective's Office.

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Last look at the rooftop.

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 The Lepin Detective's Office finished at last.


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 Just a few more pictures...


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its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 15011 detectives office
Here's barber Al and the police officer.  I changed the police minifigure's head, wanted to give him a tougher demeanor.  Oh, and there's that giant tiger cub again.  He should have been a small cat.

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The two pool hall patrons.

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The lady in red and the detective.

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I was lucky that there were no missing or deformed pieces.  The only problem was the swivel chair base, which I've replaced now.   I only wish they had made a bedroom for the detective, because they could have built it above the office.

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To see the other blog posts about the Lepin Detective Office,  Part One can be found here, and Part Two can be found here at http://its-not-lego.blogspot.com.

Thanks for looking!