Thursday, December 21, 2017

Kazi brand Fire Station 8051 Building set review (not Lego)

 



Hi brick fans!  Four years ago I bought my first non Lego building set and it was a Kazi fire truck set.  That was followed by several more Kazi fire vehicles and subsequently the Kazi Fire station set 8052.    I've reviewed them separately, links at the end of this post.

I finally completed my Kazi Fire Fighting collection with the purchase of the Kazi 8051 Fire station last month.  I got it off Ebay for $19.99 USD with free shipping.  The set has 774 pieces, has 5 firemen mini figures, and several vehicles to complete the fire station building set.

The Fire Station




Here's the instruction booklet and all the parts bags for this set.  There's no sticker sheet but there are quite a few printed parts.


The Kazi instruction booklet tries to compress a lot of steps into each page, making it somewhat confusing when building this fire station set.  Some of the steps are really small and hard to make out.

The fire station consists of 2 garage bays and they are connected by a central 2 storey office.  At the side of the large garage bay, there is a faucet and sink and a collection of tools, like an ax, shovel, broom and saw.  There's also a big palm tree in the front.

Having built the Kazi 8052 fire station, that set had garage roll-up doors that worked well.  I can't say the same for the garage doors from this 8051 set.  They are quite stiff and when I try to move them up and down, invariably some of the door segments separate from each other.

There's a helipad on top of the garage.  The sides of the garage aren't bricked in.

This set comes with 5 firemen which need to be assembled.

Here they are with all their fire fighting gear.  One fire fighter has a helmet and visor while three others have have oxygen tanks, visors and breathing apparatus.  They all wear the same uniforms, but each of their faces is unique.  Too bad they look so funny.   Some extra pieces include an arm, a leg and a hand.

Hey, no pictures!

This is the other smaller garage of the fire station.  It also has a roll up door and a stair case to access the roof.  The garage door works a little better than the larger door of the bay 01.


Now that we've built the two garage bays, let's construct the offices that connect them together.


The center office of the fire station is equipped with a coffee maker and a computer terminal.  There also seems to be what looks to be a weigh scale although I don't know why that's here.

One accesses the lower office through the sliding door at the front.


Here's how the fire station looks with the office attached to both garages.  I noticed that some of the red brick pieces have different shades of red.  The gray plate pieces also vary in colour between a flat shade to a metallic shade.

Window glass is pretty scuffed up and I found this white brick with dirt on it. Ewww.

The second floor office has a computer terminal and control panel.  Someone left their mug overnight without washing it again.


The second floor of the fire station  is enclosed on three sides by windows and there's a cool tilting sunroof.

Here's the sunroof in the open position.

The second floor is installed onto the remainder of the fire station.

Here's the completed fire station.  I added my own 8x16 plate piece (not originally part of the set) in front of the first floor sliding door.



The other thing I should add is that the brick clutch is rather tight and my fingers hurt trying to pry some pieces apart.

Here's the backside of the completed fire station.

The Vehicles


This fire station building set includes a fire chief's car which is also sold by itself as Kazi building set 8057.  It has 83 pieces.

The fire chief's car has a rear hatch for storing extra fire fighting gear.  A walkie talkie and axe adorn each side of the vehicle.  Also on the sides of the vehicle are bricks that say Fire Protection.

The fire chief's car fits snugly into garage bay 02.  It rolls really well but I'm not a fan of the blue tinted glass.

The next fire vehicle is the helicopter.  It's included in this set but can be acquired by itself as Kazi set 8056.  The helicopter is made up of 89 pieces.

It features rotating top and rear rotors.  It has an opening canopy that unfortunately doesn't stay up when you lift it.

 Other features of the helicopter include two storage cubbies and the adjustable water nozzles on either side of the chopper.

The last emergency vehicle that comes with the Kazi fire station is the fire engine with articulating platform.  It is comprised of 244 pieces and can be purchased on it's own as Kazi 8053.

The fire engine has two storage compartments,  two stabilizers that fold down and the rotating and extending snorkel.

The platform stays up on it's own, but once you put a minifigure into it, it collapses.

To rectify this problem, I added an extra lock nut on top of the extender tube.  This stopped the piston from sliding into the shaft.

Here's the telescopic arm in the lowered and closed position.

Another view of the fire engine.  The turntable rotates without any issues.

It should be noted that the fire engine doesn't fit into the garage bay too well.  The top of the fire truck scrapes the garage door, causing it to separate the door sections.

Summary



The Kazi Fire station 8051 is a good sized set with 774 pieces and a decent price of under $20 USD.

Pros


It's a large set with a fire chief vehicle, a helicopter and a fire engine with articulating snorkel.  If you purchased the three vehicles on their own, they would probably cost you $20 USD, so this set is good value.  You get 5 mini figures in this set.  There are plenty of play features such as opening doors and lots of accessories.

Cons


The brick clutch is a bit too tight for my liking which might make it difficult for younger builders to pry pieces apart.  The brick colours are inconsistent on the red bricks and gray plates.  The roll-up garage doors don't move that smoothly and sometimes come apart.  The fire snorkel's articulating arm needs a small fix to allow the minifigure to stand in the platform.  Oh and the minifigures don't look all that great.

However, if you don't mind the small nits about this set, it would make a nice addition to your brick city.   I would rate this set 3.5 out of 5 for the reasons above.  Thanks for checking out my review!


My Related Kazi Fire reviews


Kazi Fire Station 8052

Kazi Fire Chief Car 8057

Kazi Fire Utility vehicle 8055

Friday, December 1, 2017

Lepin Not Lego Movie Themed Building Set List

The Lepin factories must be working all day and all night to churn out as many Lego bootleg sets as they can.  In this post, I've made a list of all the movie themed building sets that are available right now on Aliexpress.  This all started with the giant 4695 piece Ghostbusters Fire House, and was soon followed by the Simpson's Kwik-E Mart knockoff set.

I'm hoping one day that Lepin will knock-off the other Lego Ghostbusters sets namely the  Ecto-1 21108 set and the newest Lego Ecto-1 and 2 set 75828.

You are visiting http://its-not-lego.blogspot.com.



I'll post pictures of the sets after the list.



Set  DescriptionPieces   Lego Set and Status 
16001Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters 469575827
16002The Lego Movie - MetalBeard's Sea Cow 279170810
16003Wall-E68721303
16004The Simpsons Kwik-E Mart223271016
16005The Simpsons House252371006
16006Pirates of the Caribbean - Black Pearl8044184 - Retired
16007Monster Fighters Haunted House214110228 - Retired
16008Disney Castle408071040
16009Pirates of the Caribbean - Queen Anne's Revenge  11514195 - Retired
16010Lord of the Rings - The Tower of Orthanc  243010237 - Retired
22001   Imperial Flagship171710210 - Retired


Pictures below.
its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16001 ghostbusters

Lepin 16001 Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters





its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16002

Lepin 16002 Lego Movie Metalbeard's Sea Cow


its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16003 wall-e

Lepin 16003 Wall-E

its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16004 kwik-e-mart

Lepin 16004 Simpsons Kwik-E Mart

its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16005 simpsons

Lepin 16005 Simpsons House

its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16006

Lepin 16006 Pirates of the Caribbean - Black Pearl


its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16007

Lepin 16007 Monster Fighters Haunted House


its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16008

Lepin 16008 Disney Castle


its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16009

Lepin 16009 Pirates of the Caribbean - Queen Anne's Revenge 


its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 16010

Lepin 16010 Lord of the Rings - Tower of Orthanc 

its-not-lego.blogspot.com, lepin 22001
Lepin 22001  Imperial Warship

I don't have any of these epic sets in my collection yet.  Maybe one day.  

If you are looking for a list of the Lepin modular buildings, you can find on my blog http://its-not-lego.blogspot.com  here.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Lepin 05111 Not Lego Jakku Quadjumper Set Review


Welcome! Here is another picture show and review of my latest acquisition, it's the Lepin 05111 Jakku Quadjumper.  This set is a knockoff copy of the Lego Quadjumper 75178 set.


The Jakku Quadjumper was only in the Star Wars VII The Force Awakens movie for a few seconds.  


The Lepin version of the Quadjumper building set has 482 pieces.  Despite it being one of the newer Lepin sets, this one doesn't come in numbered bags.  There's several bags of parts which you have to manually sort through.


The Instruction booklet.


The sticker sheet which I won't be using.



Funny that the instructions are a complete copy of Lego that does have numbered bags.  You can see the ever present orange brick separator in one of the bags.  I have so many of these now.

The Minifigs



The set comes with four Star Wars character minifigures and a BB-8. The faces and hairpieces on the minifigs are kinda yucky,  especially on Finn and Rey.  You might want to consider replacing the minifigures, especially Rey and Finn.

 Side view.

Rear view.

 The alternate faces on Rey and Finn aren't any better.

The Build


The quadjumper build after Step 10.  The fuselage, so to speak.


Step 20.  The landing gear.


Step 30.  The storage compartment.


 Step 40.  Starting the cockpit.


Surprise!, the cockpit canopy glass is actually decent and not scratched or milky.


Step 50.  The Engine exploders installed.


Step 60.  Completing the cockpit.


Step 70.  Closing off the cargo compartment.

It's a double jointed cargo door for easy access. Inside the cargo area, there's room to seat a minifigure and there's also a gun mounted on a pivot.


The completed canopy is also double jointed.  Seating for two.  Not liking the giant gap between the canopy and the ship though.


Lower Engine one completed.


Lower Engine one installed.



Lower Engine two completed.


Lower engine two installed.


A look from the rear.

 Side view.



 Top Engine completed.  Clutch of the dark orange bricks to each other felt a bit loose to me.


Top Engine installed.

 Final engine #4 completed.  I'm short two little light gray 1x1 tiles.  But there are two extra orange 1x1 tiles so I subbed them for use on the engine cladding.



Last engine installed.


Front view of the completed Quadjumper.


 Rear view of the completed ship.

Rear view with cargo door open and view of the gun.


Front view with cockpit exposed.



Minifigs standing next to rear of quadjumper for scale reference.


Some Extra looks



Minifig sits nicely in the cargo area.



 Lower guns pivot outwards.



Cockpit with Finn  and Rey inside.


Canopy closed with minifig inside.


Size comparison of the Jakku Quadjumper to the Resistance X-Wing Fighter (both Lepin models).


Size comparison of the Quadjumper to the First Order Tie Fighter.

The Verdict

I totally enjoyed building the Lepin Quadjumper.  The brick clutch was good for most pieces, except the dark orange pieces that make up the cladding on the upper engines.  Bricks were not scuffed, nor was the canopy.


These were the extra parts leftover from the set, but as I pointed out earlier, I was missing 2 1x1 tiles, not really a big deal.  Probably the most disappointing part of the set was the look of the minifigures.

I would recommend this set to any Star Wars fan who wasn't able to get the original Lego 75178 set.  It's virtually identical except for the minifigures.  I would give this a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

A big thank you to Jeremy, a private seller on Reddit, who sold me this set at a great price.  My set arrived, super quick, in just over two weeks.