Sunday, June 6, 2021

Garbage Truck MOC C5333 (Lego Ideas Garbage Truck)

Hello!  Welcome back to my blog, Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com!  

Last month, I bought this garbage truck MOC set from the BuildMoc store on Aliexpress.  


This MOC is based on the Mochi Master designed garbage truck that was submitted to Lego Ideas back in 2019.  Two years later, Lego has yet to produce this truck.   Here's the Lego Ideas submission:  https://ideas.lego.com/projects/7d7f4e15-55e7-44c4-bb30-3a66b9cc0598.


I just finished building it and I just want to say that this set disappointed.  Don't get me wrong, the original design of the mechanism that pick up the garbage cans and empties them into the truck is excellent.  It's just that this MOC set used some really bad quality bricks.

This truck is really cool in that you can twist a knob on the side of the truck and the mechanism arms will grab the garbage can to lift and dump the contents into the truck.  There is another knob that is used to push the collected refuse into the rear bin.  That bin is hinged so you can then unload it by lifting it up.



Pictured above is the truck using not Lego bricks.  The set comes as shown with three garbage cans and some assorted bones and 1x1 circular pieces.  After I completed the build, there were 2 extra pieces left over.


The instructions are in booklet form.  As you can see on the cover, the set is designated as C5333 and has 379 pieces in total. As this is a MOC set, there is no branding associated with it.


Here's the back cover of the booklet describing the features of the garbage truck.

There are eight bags of parts, six of them are numbered plus one bag of tires and one bag of transparent pieces.



The issues I have with this truck:

The garbage truck has three main colours, green, white and light grey.  The white bricks were somewhat yellowed.  The light grey bricks had some yellowing as well. The green bricks had different shades of green depending on the part, although hopefully not as noticeable in my pictures.

Some of the technic pins and pieces are lacking clutch and tend to fall off (see second pic above).  If I get the pieces to stay on the mechanism to unload the garbage can works fine.

Also, the wheels on the garbage truck do not turn at all.  The problem seems to be with the protrusion going into the back of the rim, it's too tight.

Lastly, there is no interior in the cab of the garbage truck.   

I saw on Aliexpress that the Xingbao brand also has a garbage truck.  I think it's set uses the same unloading mechanism in their truck.  The set is listed as XB-18017 and has 550 pieces.  This model seems to be a bit more detailed and probably the bricks used would be better quality than the C5333 MOC.


If you are thinking of getting this garbage truck MOC, hopefully your set will be better than mine.  I would only recommend it, if you have replacement parts to fix the deficiencies.

Update!  I fixed the Garbage Truck!  See my fixes here:

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Sembo Blocks Hong Kong Flats Building Set Review 601095

Hello not Lego fans!  Today, I'm reviewing the Sembo Hong Kong flats set number 601095.  This set consists of two building facades representing some small shops with apartments above them.  There is another set 601096 that has the same theme but with buildings that have tan and white building facades.  I chose to buy 601095 because this set is more colourful with the sand green and dark orange bricks used.


On the back cover of the instruction manual, you get an idea of how both sets 601095 and 601096 would look like side by side.

There are supposed to be 570 pieces in this set and comes with five minifigures.

There are six bags numbered as 1.1 through 1.6.

Then there are 4 bags numbered 2.1 through 2.4.  There are also 3 unnumbered bags, containing the baseplates, minifigures and a bag for a light strips and battery.

Here's the stickers Sembo provides to adorn the Hong Kong flats.  I didn't use any of them on my set yet.  I also didn't use the LED light strips because I plan to deconstruct this set pretty soon.


Here are some of the leftover pieces that were extras or that I didn't use.  The technic pins are used to attach 601095 and 601096 sets together.


There are 5 minifigures included with the Hong Kong flats consisting of a police officer, two male pedestrians and two female pedestrians.  The torso prints are bright and properly aligned, however there's no leg printing.  With the exception of the yellow hoodie guy, everyone else looks like they're scowling, which is pretty much on point if you've ever walked along a busy street in Hong Kong.  The green shirt guy has a strange gray mark on his lips. That would be the only defect I could find.

The completed shops and apartments. I guess I would have to recommend using the provided stickers otherwise these buildings do look kind of bland without them.

Here's the backside of the set.  There's just enough room to allow a minifigure to pose there.  Interior accessories include a cooking area with woks and sauce bottles for one shop and a counter for the other.  Three of the four apartments above are each furnished with a table.


The sand green building is 5 studs deep, with the shop below being a mere 4 studs deep.

The dark orange building is only 4 studs deep overall.

The building facades look ok if you were to just display this set on it's on or with the 601096 set.  But when you display it with other Lego style modular buildings, you definitely notice that the design of these flats are a lot small in size.  The three floors of the Sembo flats equals the height of 2 storeys on a standard Lego style modular building.


Here's the final look at set 601095.  As mentioned earlier, I will probably re-build this set with extra bricks to increase the height and depth of the two buildings.  They will also be placed on a regular sized baseplate as well so I can put a sidewalk in front of the buildings.  At that point, I may entertain putting some of the stickers on the buildings to make them look more realistic.

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Here's all the Not Lego sets I bought in 2020!



 Here's all the Not Lego sets I bought in 2020


Hey there brick fans, welcome to my first post in 2021 on my blog Its Not Lego.   As the blog post title indicates, this is just a quick list of all the not Lego building sets I've purchased last year.  


Some sets are knockoffs of existing Lego sets such as the Bela brand 11053 Yacht or 11342 Harry Potter Bus.   Other sets are unique China designs such as the Sembo 102348 SWAT truck or the Urge 10180 Bakery modular building.  I also added a couple of MOC design sets to my collection, including the Jerac TIE Bomber and the Kristel Cast Iron modular building.


On the topic of MOCs, I customized a lot of my own sets too last year.   I converted the King 84008 Green Grocer into a cool police station for my not Lego city.  I used the original Zhe Gao QL0935 set and transformed it into a fully furnished modular building.   You can find more example of my MOC builds on my other blog Bricks and Figs.


Here's the list of sets which I bought in chronological order throughout 2020.   I haven't gotten around to reviewing each building set, but if I did there will be a link next to the set name.



Sembo 102348 SWAT truck


Bela/Lari 11053 yacht


Sluban B0780 Recycling truck   (link)


Sembo 601070 Crab Shop   (link)


Lepin 45012 Rexplorer


Qman 1132 Bun shop  (link)


Bela/Lari 11342 Potter bus (link)


King 84008 Green Grocer


Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern    (link)


Sembo 107007 Troop Carrier


Sembo 601075 Sakura Tree


Sembo 601303 Ambulance


Lepin 05145 X-Wing


Sembo 601078 Japanese food stalls


MOC 13952 TIE Bomber  (link)


Jack JJ001 Central Perk


Decool 2113 Osprey Chopper   (link)



Bela/Lari 11429 Snowspeeder


MOC C4228 Cast Iron modular


Rael 10004 Bike Shop (unbuilt)


Urge 10180 Bake Shop


Lele Bros 8613 Food cart


Hsanhe 31001 Train station


Xingbao XB01013 Urban village (unbuilt)


Total of 24 sets - average of 2 sets per month during 2020.   As you can see, 2020 kept me pretty busy building with not Lego.   Hopefully it will continue in 2021!


That's it for this quickie post.   Thanks for looking and see you in the next blog post,