Review: Sluban Space R15 Patrol Craft

Ok time for a quick review.

Sluban, one of the many brick toy manufacturers from China has a line of "Space" kits.  The series includes everything from Space ships to transformable mecha.

You'll be seeing me get more of these kits.  I already have the transformable robot Red Spider in the pipeline.  But to get the ball rolling on the Sluban space series let's start of with a smaller kit:  The R-15 patrol craft.

At first glance I didn't notice it was a Space set.  I thought it was some cool looking speed boat.  Upon closer inspection I saw Space on the packaging and the techy stickers on the model.

Are you sure this is a space vehicle?

The price point is not shabby at  69.75 pesos.  That would mean about 500 pesos for a similarly sized Lego model.

Still looks like a speed boat to me hehe

Off to building it!


Here we have a good assortment of bricks.  The colors are good enough.  It has a sort of glossy paint to it.

The manual is sparse but details well how to finish the model.

Here are the bricks again.  A good pile.  The colors don't feel all that spacey to me.

The sticker sheet.  I wonder why it says fight.

Fight?  Fight who?

The minifig.  Lego-like until you hit below the waist :)

Fierce Expression!

Partially built patrol craft!

Some problems:

The plastic quality of most of the China brick toys are way off Lego quality standards.  The best of course in my opinion is Star Diamond brand.  One of the pieces in this Sluban set had excess plastic on the side

Tsk Tsk!

All done!

Overall not a bad looking set!  It still gives me the speedboat vibes though.

With the stickers applied.  Really nice looking set.

Cruising along the Pasig River heheh

My love affair with Lego

I have always loved Lego.  As a 3 year old way back in1978 my parents gave me my first Lego set.  It was a police car and it had a policeman minifigure that you had to attach a sticker to.  It was meant to be a set for a 5 year old but I remember fondly that I gamely went ahead and built it.

And thus began my lifelong love affair with this toy that can be any toy.  My parents would indulge my love for Lego by rewarding me with the brick toys for school work done well or as gifts during special occasions.  I would look forward to mom's business trips to Hong Kong because that would mean a new box of Lego for me.

Fast forward to 2013.  For a few years I was detached from Lego in pursuit of other things.  But I never completely forgot the brick toys as occasional sales at Walmart and Toys R Us would see me buy small sets.  Lego had encountered a few problems of its own and was now back as the world's premier brick building toy.  It was also partnered with famous properties like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Strangely its patent on the brick manufacturing process had expired.  Manufacturers from other countries were now free to create factories of their own to produce acceptable facsimiles of Lego.  The "fake" Lego toys came in all shapes and sizes and would also range in quality from near Lego quality to almost crap pieces of plastic.

And so we come to this blog and its whole point for being.  I want to share with the world my experiences with Lego as well as with other brick toys out there.  I want to provide people with options to indulge their brick building hobbies.  Lego is still the best but not everyone can afford their sets.  there are good options out there and I hope people find those options through this blog.

Photo from image.businessweek.com