Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Cheap way to light-up your Lego/Lepin modular sets

Hi friends,

Today i will show you how to light up your modular buildings in really cheap way. You don´t need to have any special skills. You do not have to worry about any fire hazard. It is kids friendly and my daughter loves it so much when i light up our modular street in the evening. 

I would like to say this option is really cheap way to do it and do not expect much. In long term if you would to like it use on daily basis you have to invest more to regular LED lights which includes some cabling and also some skill in electricity. Let´s start with parts that you would need.



Party balloons led lights
You can get them almost on every supermarket. I have ordered more pieces from Aliexpress. They have manual switch on their side for power on/off and are powered by 2 small batteries. To be honest i do not recommended to buy them from Aliexpress mainly because some of them got batteries near end of life after few minutes. Maybe you will get lucky and get better one.

Then i found out those LED lights got small mushroom gap at the end. I tried few lego technics builds to hold them, but simplest solution is use single brick.

Circle one by one lego brick
I used one by one circle brick. This brick is so common in the sets and fits balloon light easily. You can also use cylinder brick if you want. Works good.


Just choose the right spot and pin up your light. You can try to set up it like it is not visible from windows then it is looking even better.


Here is the result






Pros: 

  • cheap solution
  • cheap way to impress your friends,
  • warm light feels good

Cons:

  • you have to turn on/off manually every light 
  • battery life
  • not bright as LED solutions
Thank you for your time, if you want to share some toughs, feel free in comment section.

Joe

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Lepin 15008 Green Grocer Store review 2462Pcs.

Hi friends,

This is my review of Lepin 15008 set which makes copy of Lego Green Grocer store n.10185. There are some differences from the original but overall feels almost same.  Let´s go trough the process of assembling. Here are my thoughts. 

Price, delivery and packaging. 
Currently as i am writing this post original Lego set n.10185 is not at the market anymore. Few years ago i can not afford this set as student.  Now price for this Lego set is from 800 € - 1500€ at e-bay. Even after years i cannot afford it (sad face). But hey ! there is another option. Lepin or in another words just fake Lego. I bought this set for 54 €. Shipping was included by DHL. As you can read in my previous post delivery was really fast.Whole set comes in one square box 2kg.

Bricks are pretty much mixed and for easier building you need to  make some shorting. Actually i like this more then original. Lego marks bags with numbers and for each building part you only use bags with same number. Personally i have enjoyed get all bags opens and search for parts. Of course you can do it also with Lego bags, but let´s be honest would you?

Colors are sometime confusing.
Manual was included. Divided into sections. One section means one floor.  Lepin should work on color prints. Sometimes i get stuck because colors was not accurate. As you can see on this picture. Brick is almost brown but on the manual it looks more like vine red.

Mini-figures
This set includes 4 mini-figures and small white kitty. Kid and man in a black hat are fine. Problem was with hair pieces for woman figures. Hair pieces just don´t fit. I have tried to use small knife to makes it fit but i gave up. Weakest point of set.

Hair pieces do not fit properly.


Assembly
You are getting 2 green base plates for the set. Green base plates was little bended so I replaced them with original green Lego 32x32 plate. I have different plans with them anyway. Original mini figures are sitting well on those plates. They are quite polished so you can see some mirroring on them. 




It is looking great from every angle.

First floor
Lets start with first floor. It includes grocer store with textured floor. Inside you can find freezer, cashier desk and some vegetables. Next to store is passage to other side and also stairway to upper floor. This section also includes some post boxes. Under the stairs is hidden rat with small chess. I like that idea.

Grocery store and small passage with mailboxes.
Freezer and textured floor.
Backdoor of the store and rat under the stairs.

Second floor
This floor is really disappointment for me. It includes only stairs to third floor and fireplace. No textured floor, no accessories just empty space and few windows. I will try to fill it with some custom apartment stuff later.


So empty. Who should live here?
Third floor
This is much better then second one. Heater, textured floor, and very nice big clocks. Still i do not know for what is this floor supposed to be.

Cloks looking very cool.
Roof top
This is my favourite part. I like the idea to spend time on the roof. Eat, drink and just have some fun. This includes grill party.

Party time
Missing pieces, spare pieces
During building process i get into situation that i cannot find some pieces. Let´s be honest. Quality control in China is not on the same level that Lego. I was expecting this. So i have replaced from my own stock. Surprise at the end i have found them so i just did not search enough. In the end i found some spare parts.

Comparison with other modular buildings.
I was wondering how it will looks in compare with original sets. I own currently 3 original Lego modular buildings. Brick bank, detective office and Parisian restaurant. All those modulars fits great together. Let´s see how it fit with them.


It is really big.
I think best placed between Parisian restaurant and Detective office.
Here is my current modular setup.

Pros: 

- Great replica 
- No missing parts
- Huge building
- Looking good from every angle
- Fitting well with other modulars
- Good price/value ratio

Cons:

- low quality of mini figures
- empty interior
- low quality glass pieces


Bonus
I have added some small balloon lights in to the building.


Thursday, October 13, 2016

DHL delivers Lepin 15008 Green Grocer set in ONE DAY from China to EU.

Hi friends,

If you are wondering how long it takes to ship Lepin set from Aliexpress, here is my experience.

I have ordered LEPIN 15008 Green Grocer store modular set. When i was younger i just doesn't have enough money to buy it. Of course Lepin is not original Lego set and quality of bricks may be lower but I can look beyond this as these sets aren't even made anymore and retail for crazy prices for the originals.
 
How fast could it be ? Fast and I mean really fast. I was surprised how fast can DHL deliver package from China to Europe. Shipment location was Hong Kong and delivery Europe/Slovakia. Seller send tracking number at Tuesday October 11. Thursday, October 13 was package in my hands. Big thanks to seller and DHL. Now I am looking forward to build it. Will post update soon. 

You can see delivery info here:




See you soon friends.