Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Lepin 15039 Not Lego Roller Coaster Set Review - Part Two

Hey there!  Sorry it took so long to post my build of the Lepin Roller Coaster 15039.  I bought the set from Shenzhen China (see more about that here) during my vacation to Hong Kong.  After the trip I got sick for a couple of weeks and then I got busy with other things and then just took my time on the build.  

Anyways, here's the pics. Warning!  This is a massive picture dump, so I hope you have some decent internet speed.

Here's the goods, lots of parts bags and the huge raggedy manual.

The sticker sheet looks pretty good, although I haven't applied any of them yet.

Just a glance at the manual, the instructions are probably lifted directly from the Lego version.

Good assortment of minifigs.  The yellow and blue ones have Lepin logo on their back.


The popcorn vendor.

No wonder it took so long to build the roller coaster, there's only a small crew working on it.






This black piece wouldn't fit into the studs, but luckily I had another piece to replace it with.


The gears are really problematic on this set.  Especially the ones in the middle of the pic, and there's three sets of them.   They don't turn very well at all.

Same two guys now working on the other side of the roller coaster.



Almost all done with the signage.

A sudden realization, that this thing is huge.  It's pretty much occupying my whole build table.   Not sure where I'm going to put it after I'm done building it.

A couple of track pieces need to be hoisted in using the Tower crane.

Unfortunately, one of the workers took a tumble, but Emergency services responded right away.  Let's hope he makes a full recovery.


This set comes with a ticket booth and a concession stand.   After building it the first time, I decided to remove the booths.  I mean who eats ice cream and stuff right before you get onto the roller coaster?






Almost done!   Just need to attach the last few pieces of track and hook up the chain.

Big opening day crowds.

Go see the clown to get your tickets.



I moved the height check to the coaster entrance.  It was originally near the steps leading up to the waiting platform.  I figured by that time you had already bought your tickets for the ride that it would suck if you failed to meet the height requirements.  In my build, you would check your height before buying the tickets, to avoid being disappointed.   In the above pic, the roller coaster staff (dressed up as a unicorn), would check to make sure you were tall enough to go on the ride.  If you pass, she opens the gate to let you in.   The brown refuse bin is for patrons to toss out all their food and drink before getting on the roller coaster.


Woo!   Actually my Lepin coaster cars don't glide so easily on the track.

Here's a couple of roller coaster employees showing up for work.

All employees have to wear costumes.  Here are a couple of them in panda bear outfits.  The waiting girl is not impressed.



Heard some strange sounds coming from the gears, maintenance crew going to check it out now.



Another staff member shows up to help with the crowds.  Walkie-talkies let staff give each other help and status.   I put in some yellow barriers to direct patrons back out after riding the roller coaster.  The old way let too many people sneak back in for free.







 There you have it, my Lepin roller coaster build.   I had to rebuild parts of the roller coaster a couple of times because some parts would fall off, especially the gears under the platform where to get on and off.  Some pillars would not stay together so I used longer technic pins through the centers.

At this point I can manually crank the driveshaft and it will drive the chain to move the coaster cars up the track, just not smoothly.  The wheels at the top turn and help to move the cars along, but I think they are the major source of friction on the drivetrain.  In future, I might replace the gears, but for now the Lepin Roller Coaster still makes a nice display model. 

Thanks for spending the time to look at all the pics!  If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.

Set:  Lepin Roller Coaster
Model:  15039
Lego set: 10261 copy
Number of pieces: 4619
Number of minifigures: 11 (construction workers, mascot staff and and extra patrons not included)

My rating score:  3 out of 5 - some parts needed replacing, doesn't function like the real Lego set.  Displays ok though.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Lepin 36013 City Shop Set Review (replica Lego 40305)


 Hi All, look what the postman left at my front door yesterday.  It's the Lepin version of the "Microscale Lego store 40305".   The Lepin brand store set number is 36013 and it has 405+ pieces.


 The Lepin set was tightly packed into a smallish box.  Contents of the box include the multi-page instruction manual, sticker sheet and ten clear plastic bags of brick parts.


The Lepin manual is copied from the Lego manual because it only shows 4 bags of parts.


Nice to see that the clear window parts are packaged separately.  My window parts were all scratch free.


The Lepin store includes two minifigures, a guy with floral shirt and a small boy with white hoodie and red cap.  I'm going to have to replace the  hands of the small boy because don't fit into his arms.


Let's review the building details now.  The store front consists of a large window and door.  I haven't yet placed the Lepin sign over the door yet.


There's a bank machine at the side of the building.  Is that Lego's way of saying how expensive their sets have become?  Ie. You probably didn't bring enough money, so you need to spend more to buy our sets.  Luckily my Lepin brand store was about half the price of the Lego version.


The back of the store is open and there's a cash register and a pick a brick parts wall.  Some sets are also displayed in the front window.


On the other wall, there are product boxes, for which I still haven't applied the stickers yet.


A quick peek from above.  There's also a yellow bin for parts or polybags.

The second floor of the Lepin brand store has two large windows and two red flags.  Yellow awnings over the windows.

There's windows on both sides of the building.  You can pop them out easily, although I'm not sure why you would want to.


The second floor has a bin with shield and a table for making your own minifigs.  There's more product on the wall between the front windows.


Here's the second floor attached to the first.  Brick clutch is good, however I find the brick plastic to be a bit on the soft side.



 And here's the completed roof.


Tada, the completed Lepin store 36013.






 Hey look, there's the not so official Lepin store mascot girl.   She arrived just in time to receive the latest shipment of the Lepin building sets.   If you need the Blue Brick girl, just search Aliexpress for PG8151 or PG1243 (Pogo brand minifigure).  There's also a red Brick boy minifigure PG1242 not pictured here.


 The Lepin delivery minifigures are actually from the Lepin Roller Coaster set 15039.  Also pictured is the Lepin Delivery Truck 02036.


I finally put the Lepin sticker on the store.  The sticker quality isn't that good, as you can hardly make out the wording.


Here's the Lepin store removable panels .


Finally, here's a few spare parts I got with the Lepin store.   The Lepin store is a nice addition to anyone's City layout.  I plan on making the Lepin store a full modular building for my Its-Not-Lego town in the near future.

Thanks for looking!

Set name:  The Lepin store
Set number:  36013
Clone of:  Lego 40305
Number of pieces: 405+
Number of minifigs: 2
Score:  5 out of 5

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Lepin 15039 Not Lego Roller Coaster Set Review - Part One


 Hey It's Not Lego fans!  I'm presently vacationing in Hong Kong and today I decided to take the train to Shenzhen China.   I took the  Hong Kong East Rail line all the way to the terminus at Lo Wu station.  From here, you have to pass through Hong Kong immigration and then China immigration.

Even though I had a China Visa, the process still took about 30 mins to clear both countries exit and entry counters.   Once you come through the China side, it's mere steps to the Lo Wu Commercial Centre, which is a 5 storey mall filled with fake purses, shoes, and clothes.  Being my first time to the Shenzhen mall , I didn't know what to expect in terms of bootleg toys. So disappointingly,  I was only able to find 3 or 4 stalls that sold knockoff brand Lego.   There was only one stall that carried the set I was looking for, the Lepin 15039 Roller Coaster, which is the knock-off of Lego Roller Coaster set 10261. 

So then the fun begins ....

I entered the store and asked the clerk/owner for the price of the Roller Coaster set.  What's funny is that I didn't even hear what her first price was, it might have been about 1000 RMB, but as soon as she quoted her price, I immediately took out my phone and flashed her a screenshot from Taobao for the Lepin Roller Coaster.  I had grabbed it earlier in the morning to use as ammunition for bargaining.

The price from Taobao was 540 RMB, which I fully expected her not to match, but I threw it out there anyways.  She told me off saying she had to pay rent and salaries, etc, etc.   When I asked her for best price, she'd only move lower by 10 or 20 RMB.  I'd tell her she'd have to do better, she'd asked me what I wanted to pay.   From there it was a matter of her making offers and me making counter offers, she said 900, then 800, I said 560, she said 700, I said 580, she said 650, and I started to walk out the store.

 She told me to come back in and asking me to give her 650, I said no 580, she said no.  I got the impression we were at a stalemate so then I so I upped my offer to 600, then she said 630, so I started walking slowly out the store but a little more slowly to give her time to reset her price.  Just as I was barely within earshot, I could hear her say 610.  I really did want the set for 600 but since I came all that way, I didn't want to lose the set over 10 RMB.   Deal done at 610 RMB.

FYI:   610 RMB = $89 USD, $120 CDN.  ymmv based on current exchange rates.

I asked to open the box to check the contents, and she didn't resist.  There were 2 inner boxes and both looked half empty, and I lamented as such.   She said if there were any missing parts to circle them on the instruction manual and come back to her and she'd order the missing parts for me.  As she was packing it up for me to go, she mentioned that this set was really popular with the foreigners, lol.

 As soon as I got back to Hong Kong, I cracked open all the boxes and took and inventory of the bags, just for peace of mind.   Here's the unboxing pics!


This is how I lugged this monstrosity onto the train back from Shenzhen.



I got the box but in reality, when I return to Canada, I'll probably leave the box here in HK, just no room in my suitcase for it.


Here's the back of the box.

Top and side view.

Side view.

Bottom view.

When you open up the main box, you get 2 separate inner boxes labelled A and B.

Here's what kinda freaked me out.   The boxes are huge but not full at all.  Kind of like when you open your box of cereal only to find the box is only half full because the contents have settled.


I emptied all the bags from both inner boxes and sorted them all to make sure I had all the bags.

My Lepin Roller Coaster set contained 86 numbered bags, 1 un-numbered bag containing some spare parts, 2 bags of red track, and a stack of green baseplates.


The instruction manual is a thick booklet with a bunch of separate addendum pages inserted throughout.   Here's my numbered bag inventory:

Set 1:  bags 1-8
Set 2:  bags 9-15
Set 3:  bags 16-22
Set 4:  bags 23-29
Set 5:  bags 30-39
Set 6:  bags 40-47
Set 7:  bags 48-55
Set 8:  bags 56-61
Set 9:  bags 62-70
Set 10:  bags 71-79
Set 11:  bags 80-86

It looks like all the parts are there, so that's a bit of a relief.
I won't be building the Lepin roller coaster until I return to Canada in the new year, but I'll definitely do a write-up from my build then.    See you then!