Review: Sluban Aviation Series Express Car

The past few months have seen a rise in shops carrying brick toys from Chinese manufacturer Sluban.  This has made their models accesible to the general public and a great alternative to Lego.

I am particularly fond of their Aviation series as this set of models are airport themed.  I've always wanted the Lego airport sets but the prices are prohibitive and my priority for Lego right now are the collaborations with other intellectual properties like Star Wars, DC Comics and Marvel comics.

So I started grabbing as many of the Sluban Aviation series as I can.  In the Philippines Sluban fans can get them easily at The Landmark department store and Toys R Us.  For the hard core bargain hunters there are a lot of distributors at the toy section of 168 Mall in Divisoria.

The first kit I'll review is their Express car.  This seems to be a vehicle that serves as a courier delivery van and looks similar to certain Lego models:

Nice little truck with an orange minifig

Yessir 130 pesos at The Landmark, probably falls to about 80-100 pesos in Divisoria.
Much cheaper than a similar sized Lego kit.

Fun indeed. 75 pieces of brick toy fun!

That's a freaking long model code. 

Let me start building this thing:

Stickers, manual, polybag of bricks check!

The Sluban manuals can sometimes be confusing.

Bricks out of the bag!  The colors are somewhat dull.

The Sluban minifig strangely has a spinal column.  And the hands have articulation since they are rounded pegs
 

I always find the legs on the Sluban minifigs somewhat strange.
Fierce expression eh?

To the actual vehicle:

The main plate for the truck has M38 on its pegs.

The fit of the headlights seem off.  One cracked when I forced it to fit.

The wheel guards are separate pieces.  And look at that exaggerated steering wheel

The wheels are disappointing since they are plastic unlike Lego rubber wheels or Star Diamond rubber wheels
The compartment at the back of the truck swings open yay!

Nice hubcaps for the wheels!

Let's add the stickers!

Almost done!  The windshield seems to have scratches.

Back view.

Putting stuff in the compartment

Zoom!

Overall not a bad kit.  The manufacturing process for Sluban is still not at the level of Lego of course but it is good enough for a model that cost 130 pesos (almost 3 US dollars).  Asimilar sized Lego kit would cost between 800-1000 pesos (about 23 US dollars).  Some of the bricks felt rough and if you look at the windshield it has obvious scratches.

I can't wait to build the planes and helicopters from this series :)