Bela 10871 Pickup and Caravan Set Review (not Lego)

Hey brick fans, here's a cheap set I found on Aliexpress back in December 2021, but just got around to building it now.  It's the Bela/Lari Pickup and Caravan set 10871, which is a near perfect knock off of Lego 60182.  Now that the chinese brick companies are starting to design and develop their own sets, these old clone sets are getting harder and harder to find.  Anyways, let's start the review!

In the past, this Lego copy has previously been cloned by Lepin and Sheng Yuan as well.  This latest clone by Bela has 344 pieces and comes with one instruction manual, one sticker sheet and three reproduction minifigures.   My set came wrapped in the standard white plastic bag and inside there are seven bags of parts.

Here's the sticker sheet.  Check out the license plates that use the Bela set numbers instead of the Lego set numbers.

This being such a small set, I just opted to rip open all the bags and dump them together.

Here's all the parts that make up the mini figures and their accessories, separated from the rest of the bricks.

You can judge for yourself on whether you think the quality of the mini figures is on par with the original Lego versions.  The torso and face prints are pretty decent, imo.

So typical of the knock off sets are the scratched transparent pieces, and this set was no exception.  Hard to tell from the pictures, but yes, the windows are scuffed.

Instructions are clear and easy to follow.  Aside from the window pieces, the other bricks are good quality.  I encountered one or two bricks that had less than adequate clutch, but once assembled together, the pieces were solid.

Here's the pickup truck, looks to me like a ford F150.  I feel like it could have been improved by adding opening doors, seats inside the cabin, and maybe some offroad lighting on the roof.

Here's the caravan section under assembly.  There appears to be an oven, a cabinet with coffee maker, a table and two chairs that can swivel.  His and her mugs complete the interior accessories.

Can you tell that the Mr and Mrs are ready for a road trip?

Only one problem though, you might be able to squeeze two people into the overhead bed, but there are three mini figures in the set.  Where is the third person supposed to sleep?  May be the two swivel chairs could be replaced by some custom chairs that can lay flat?

Most caravans have a small washroom, but the Lego designers decided to omit it on this set.  I think that they could have easily extended the caravan by about 6 studs to put a washroom in it.

The completed pickup and caravan set complete with all the accessories, including a sailboat, a propane tank and frying pan, with crab and fish.  You also get a net and a camera.

The pickup truck has a trailer hitch in addition to the fifth wheel.  It could probably be used to tow boats or dirt bikes and such.

The dual axle caravan can be parked on it's own, when the pickup has to go get gas or buy groceries.

The normal way to get into the caravan is via the door.  It has a handy step rail to make it easier to get in.

The top canopy can be removed to access the sleeping quarters.

The other side of the caravan opens up to allow playability.  There's a sticker that's supposed to represent a TV.  To get the TV signals, there's a satellite dish on the roof.

It's time to leave the campground.  Here's a first, I actually used the stickers that came with the set.  Makes the caravan look more authentic, although I still suck at sticker application, as evidenced by the crooked license plate.

For my review, I will give this set 4.5 stars out of 5.  It loses half a point because of the scuffed windows and a couple of minor brick clutch issues.  No extra parts in this set. Fully worth the little bit of money I spent for this set, though.

If you are interested in getting this set off Aliexpress, you can use this link to search for the original Lego set code 60182 or you can try this link to search for the Bela 10871 set code.  In either case, the links should let you find the Bela 10871 pickup and caravan set on Aliexpress.

Here are the Lego stats from Brick Economy.  Set 60182 was released in 2018 and retired in February 2020.  The average price of a new set goes for approx $80 USD.

And this is what I paid for Bela 10871, the knockoff version of this set.

Not Lego Sembo 601111 Magazine Kiosk Review

Hey brick fans, I'm back after a bit of a hiatus!

I've moved out my house for the next few months until renovations can be completed.  As a result, I haven't been buying as many brick sets as I normally would.  In March and April, I only bought four new sets off Aliexpress.  I got the Leji clone of the boutique hotel, a couple of MOC clones, 60s batmobile and an imperial troop transport.  I'll try to review those soon.

In this post, I will be reviewing the Sembo 601111 magazine kiosk or newstand.  Sembo calls the set a newstand, but there aren't a lot of newspapers included.  They look more like magazine covers to me IMO.

The set consists of 119 pieces and includes one minifigure.  

Here's everything you get in the set:  A two sided instruction sheet, four bags of parts, a couple of plates and a sticker sheet.

The mini figure comes completely disassembled, so you have to put it together yourself.

Here's how the kiosk lady looks like when assembled.  I guess she's better looking than a crusty old guy.

I was hoping that this Sembo set would include printed pieces, but no, I just got a sticker sheet.  On the bright side the stickers aren't skimpy or thin, and they have a sparkly texture to them. They were easy to affix to the tile pieces.  As mentioned previously, the stickers look like magazine covers.  Only one sticker says Sembo news. Some of the other stickers are for products like candy and juice.  I can probably reuse them in my 7-11 store in future.

Other than the stickers, this set doesn't use any special pieces, so if you have the spare bricks laying around, I'm sure you can make your own news stand or kiosk from the instructions above.

Here's all the pieces after you empty the four bags.  The brick quality is quite good, and I didn't find any scuffs or scratches.  I did find that the brick texture was softer than Lego bricks.  Other than that, no clutch issues and building the set is effortless and could be managed by little kids too.

Simple back wall and floor.  Regarding the base, it has little wheels for rolling the kiosk into place.  It also has a bracket that I guess could be used to attach to the back of a vehicle to pull it around.

Accessories include a tilting chair and a small table for the coffee mug.

After assembling the kiosk frame, it's time to place the stickers!  The chair and table just fit next to the built-in magazine racks.  Not much room for anything else.

I tried my best to match up the coloured tiles to the stickers as per the instructions, but I'm sure you could just use whatever you wanted as well.

Here are some of the stickers applied to the tiles, then put onto the side panels of the kiosk.

Here's the other side of the kiosk wall.  Both walls can fold in for ease of transport, I guess.  Kind of a mixed bag for the stickers, but they do have mini figure characters on them.

These are the stickers that go inside the kiosk.

Tada, the kiosk is complete!  Well, not quite. I need to put the roof on.

On the ceiling you get a ceiling fan and a light.  Good for tending the kiosk on those hot nights.

Normally, you would have the side doors open to display the magazines, but here they are folded in and ready for travel.

Before hooking up her kiosk, the lady always does a walk around to make sure everything is intact and stuff hasn't fallen off.  Looks like she has given the A-OK.

Here are the extra left over parts from the set.  Yours might vary.

This set is part of a 4 set series, the others are food stalls on wheels, which you might like.  I got my set delivered to Canada in approx 3 weeks.

This was a small set that doesn't require too much skill or time, but looks nice by itself or in a Lego style city.  I give it 4.5 stars.  If it had printed tiles instead of stickers, it would have gotten 5 stars.

Well, that's it!  Hope you enjoyed this review of the Sembo 601111 News stand.   See you next time!

A year in review, all the alt Lego I bought in 2021

Hey brick fans, thanks for dropping by to Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com!

Now that we are fully into 2022, I thought it would be fun to review all of the alternative Lego sets and minifigures I bought during 2021.  In addition to the lists below, I also bought a lot of loose bricks and accessories to make my own custom modular buildings, but they are too many to list here.  

I've broken down my buys into three major themes: Modular buildings, Sci-fi/Star Wars, and City themed sets and vehicles.  I curtailed my spending of minifigures this year, but still bought some Star Wars Clone troopers and Mandalorian figures. 

I also calculated how much I spent on alt Lego in 2021. On average it was about $150 CDN per month.  How does that compare with what you spend on a monthly basis?  Please feel free to let me know in the comments below!

Modular buildings I bought in 2021

Panda 10201 Bookshop

Happy Build YC20006 Photo Shop

Happy Build YC20008 Music Shop

Sembo 601143 Coffee Shop

Modular MOC C4903 Flower Shop

Modular MOC C4226 by Kristel 

Juhang 86012 Garden Street

JieStar 89100 Jazz Cafe

Sci-fi themed sets I bought in 2021

MOC 20383 Blade Runner Spinner (x2)

MOC 56363 Rey's Speeder

MOC 53017 AAT

MOC C6937 Rebel Landspeeder

MOC C5518 Probe Droid

King 19046 Republic Gunship

Pantasy 81101 Spirit Cage Incarnation

MOC 35960 AT-RT

MOC 42421 Demolition Man car by RollingBricks

City sets I bought in 2021

Wange 3625 Fire Truck

Xingbao XB3027 Offroad Vehicle

Qunlong QL0319 Train (x2)

Gudi 9222 Fire Truck

Sembo 601095 Hong Kong Streets

Winner 5027 Truck

MOC C5333 Garbage Truck by Mochimaster

Qihui 5804 Technic Offroad truck

Happy Build YC-QC009 Food Trucks

Bela 10871 Camper

Bela 10992 Arctic Exploration Team

Bela 10997 Arctic Mobile base 

Decool 22034 Mini Vehicles

Minifigure sets I bought in 2021

Bela/Leri 11389 People Playground

WM6095 Bad Batch minifigures

WM6092/WM6085 Mandalorian minifigures

KT1034/KT1035 minifigures

How much I spent in 2021

I spent a total of $1815 CDN this past year, up from $1265 CDN that I spent in 2020 which is about a 30% increase over the previous year.  I have been tracking my yearly expenditures of alt Lego since 2013 and I spent the most ever in 2021.

Total spent: $1814.85 CDN averaging about $151.23 per month

Month with the least spending: Nov - $0.00

Month with most spending: Mar - $443.39

What's ahead for 2022?

During the month of January 2022, I will have only spent less than $5 on alt Lego. For the remainder of the year, I foresee that will be spending a lot less on alt Lego. 

 Firstly, there haven't been many new sets that have piqued my interest at a price point that I'm comfortable with.  Since the pandemic and supply chain issues, there has been a dramatic price increase in alt Lego over the past few months.  Before, I could find many modular buildings selling for under $100 CDN, but these days the average price seems to be around $140 to $150 each.  I suppose that reflects the joint cooperation between the designers and alt Lego brands.  

Another reason I'm cutting back is due to the fact I have run out of room.  All of my modular buildings, spaceships and city vehicles take up a lot of space and I don't have any more room to grow.  I will probably have to start deconstructing some of my existing sets.  

I plan to focus more on building MOCs or enhancing sets I already own in the coming year.  As a result I will probably be posting less about new sets on Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com and posting more pictures of my MOC builds on BricksandFigs.blogspot.com.  Please be sure to check it out if you get a chance!

How about you? Are you spending more on alt Lego these days or cutting back like me?  I'm curious to know!

Anyways, bye for now!