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

Review: Star Diamond Ice Cream Truck #82108

So my dad is recovering from his heart bypass and after visiting him in the hospital my girlfriend and I decided to unwind a bit and do some malling in Greenhills.  We found this small shop in a corner of Shoppesville on the second floor called Regina.  It was awesome!  They had a good selection of China brick toys that I've only ever seen in Divisoria.  Their prices were also very reasonable being only about 15 pesos to 100 pesos more than the Divisoria pricing.

So tempting!

So I thought I would get out of the shop with almost zero damage to my wallet when I got the following minifigs for 60 pesos each:  A Hulk knock-off minifig and a Chima knock-off which said Ghima on the box.  Both were pretty sweet minifigs!

That Chima knock-off had awesome build quality, almost Lego levels

Before I dashed off to pay for the two minifigs I decided to wade into the stack of boxes at the back.  I saw a ton of Star Diamond school buses (which I actually also want but the sticker price was 700 pesos) and then at the very back we saw the Ice Cream Truck!  Yeah that 200 peso price difference with the school bus and the Lego Friends color scheme made both me and my girlfriend yelp with delight and caused my wallet to groan. :)  It was the last box there (as opposed to 3 school buses) so I grabbed it and bought it.

So yes this nice brick set is 500 pesos or about 12 US dollars (at the 43 peso to a dollar rate).  The same sized Lego set would have cost me anywhere from about 1,500 pesos to 2,000 pesos.  The set itself was manufactured by Star Diamond, what I personally think is the closes to Lego among all the China brick toys (see my previous article about alternative brick toy brands: List of Alternative Brick Toy Brands)

Sweet colors! Even sweeter sticker price at 500 pesos!

Well let's get down to the set:

THE BOX

Star Diamond as I've said is what I'd like to think as top of the totem pole for China brick toys.  Their box has some of the best quality I've seen in brick toys not named Lego.

Although I don't understand what "The first car of carve the dream!" means...

Yep MADE IN CHINA alright...

At the bottom we can see the other sets from this series.  It seems to mimic the Lego City line of vehicles that normally cost from 1,500 pesos to 2,000 pesos in shops here.

The minifigs that are in this set are some of the nicest City type figures I've seen .  The guy on the bench look somewhat like the Harry Potter mini fig.

Yes shine bright like a STAR DIAMOND!

Sweet detailing!  In the truck there is an ice cream machine!

Model no. 82108

And just like Lego they brand this line of sets as CITY!

BUILDING THE SET:

Minifigs in Pieces!

The minifigs are something you totally build including deconstructed arms and legs!  HAHA!

Did I open a Friends box?

The bricks have a nice gloss to them and gives the overall feel of opening a box of Lego Friends.

Looks like a Lego instruction sheet!

The instruction sheets also gives that same Lego feeling.  Top class!

Yep you have to really ASSEMBLE the mini fig including arms and legs!

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

Nice stickers!  Kinda like Gundam sticker sheets!

The stickers looked like water transfer stickers.  Very nice!  Easy to peel off and easy to apply

Somewhat bothersome and nice at the same time!  The minifig is fully deconstructed so you can build it yourself

Help someone disassembled the minifig!

The minifies!  Is that you Harry Potter?

The grey minifig bears an uncanny resemblance to the Harry Potter minifig of Lego.  There was a minor deviation from the box art as the Ice Cream guy had blue arms in the box art but had white ones here.  Again it is a minor deviation.

Promotion for their Transformers like line found as a box insert

GAH!  ambush!  This was an insert in the box!  And now I want them!  Robot sets that look better and seems much much better than the Kre-O transformers line!

Rubber wheels!  Like Lego!

Wheels with their axles!  Nice!

Not so apparent but the pegs have Star embossed on them like Lego pegs have Lego

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

And here we have the truck fully constructed but without the stickers yet.  Looking sweet there Mr. Ice Cream Man!

Awesome!

And here we have the Ice Cream guy in the truck with stickers applied!

A closer look!

My girlfriend is pleased!  In her opinion this is a much better building experience than the one she had with Kre-O.  Her only complaints were the lack of real ice cream pieces (like the popsicle accessories in Lego) and the seeming tightness of the bricks.

Sweet KISS Lego shirt!

Harry Potter seems to be taking someone on a date here!

On an Ice Cream date!

So yeah if you get a chance grab some Star Diamond brick sets!  They are without a doubt the closest thing to Lego at a fraction of the price!

Review: Racing Championship - Wange model no 040917

I knew I had done this post before but can't seem to find it for some reason.

I also lost the original shots I made when building this.

The set was a commission from the officemate of my girlfriend.  She had bought a Wange Formula Race set and then after opening decide that she doesn't have the patience to build the whole thing.  So I ended up building it.

Well on to the set!


Here's a top view of the Champion's platform!

I had a tough time with this since the instructions were off by about two pegs.  I had to do adjustments to fit the platform on to the supporting structures at the bottom.

Still turned out well.  Minus points to Wange for the confusing instructions and the wrong brick length for the portions you see below.  Again off by 2 pegs.

This is the first time I've encountered a brick set that had the wrong length.  Very strange indeed

Here's a view of the finish line!

So from this picture you can see the three major structures included in the set:  The crew pit on the left,  The finish line and the Champion's podium on the left.

In the middle of course is the Formula race car with the pull back motor.  The car looks very sweet from here.


The podium.

Sweet since it has the weird laser looking spotlight on top! I found it ingenious to use the alternating black and white bricks to form the checkered background.

Another complaint I have with this set.  The minifigs totaled about 3 race drivers.  But the box and instructions also showed a reporter and one pit crew.  Apparently there were only 3 minifigs.  Again its the first time I've had a problem with a set like this

Another view of the podium.  Very nice!  Notice that the foreground support beam (the white brick beneath the platform) is set about two pegs back.  This was what I was mentioning earlier about the instructions being wrong or the supplied bricks being wrong.  That white support strut is supposed to be two pegs forward.  I adjusted it backwards because the red platform bricks were short by 2 pegs.

A better view of the whole set.  Not bad looking at all!

The Crew Pit:

Finishing the race

From behind the podium:

Winner!

Overall not a bad set.  Just two major complaints: 1.  The red platform plates were lacking 2 pegs in length. 2. The minifig count was less than expected.

But it was nice to look at when done.  And the Race car has a pull back motor!  Awesome.