Lunar Space Station

Last winter I got a good deal on the Lego Lunar Space Station 60227, it's a nice set, and would have been better if it was bigger, in April while browsing in AliExpress I found an unbranded copy of that set for less than 30 CAD$ shipping included.

I placed the order and waited, waited, waited... four months later the package was still "delivered to the airline", I offered to extend the buyer protection, but the seller never answered, the protection expired and I got a full refund. Three weeks later it was delivered to my mailbox! I found out that the store no longer exists, it might explain why they never answered.

The instructions booklet is way smaller than the Lego one, but it does the job, I was able to follow it without issues. The bags were not numbered, I had to sort all the parts previously, as I had to do as a child, and I like to do so.

It comes with a good quality stickers, however the white is a bit darker than the pieces, Lego stickers are almost a perfect match in comparison.

There is no indication on who the manufacturer is, but the plastic looks like the Bela blocks. When assembling the minifigs I found out that the torsos design was a mirror copy of the original ones, so I decided to build a mirrored space station too...

There is no way to attach the visor on the orange astronaut helmet, it's larger and keeps falling, the Lego visor fits perfectly. Lego astronaut is at the right.

Here are the other minifigs and the robot, Lego ones are on the right side. The blonde scientist eyes disappear under the hair piece, not great... the robot eyes are the same size, I will replace them by a Lego spare eyes that I have somewhere.

The finished build, and the Lego one on the left side this time.

I will probably modify both in order to assemble them and have a bigger space station.

Lepin 02012 - Deep Sea Exploration

By the end of December my son asked to browse through AliExpress, I showed him how to look for the best deals from reliable sellers. It didn't take him too long to find the Deep Sea Exploration set from Lepin (Lepin 02012), based on the Lego Deep Sea Exploration 60095, he has been saving money for a while, and tries to get the most value for his pocket. He paid 51 CAD$, shipped via ePacket, the package arrived three weeks later to the mailbox.

Here's the original listing from AliExpress: Lepin 02012 - Deep Sea Exploration

I was gladly surprised with the seller, everything was properly packaged and protected inside a box.

The build was long but simple, the bags were numbered, so it was easy to follow the instructions, however there were some parts spread in other bags. There were no missing, or damaged parts. Transparent pieces came in separate, and sealed bags, no scratchs.

Lepin minifigs arms and hands had to be assembled to the torso. These are the first Lepin minifures I have had in my hands, I am gladly surprised with the quality and detail. I have an original Lego captain, below is a picture of both minifigures (Lepin at left, Lego at right).

The finished build...

I am almost certain that I will buy more Lepin sets in the future, the quality is far above what I have seen on other brands (Bela, Enlighten, Kazi). In fact there are some in my wish list for soon.

Lepin 20033 - Technician Green RC Tracker Racer

It's been a while since my last post, in the meantime I have bought some items but didn't take time to write about.

My 8 year old son wanted an RC vehicle for Christmas, instead of a standard RC car we thought it would be a good idea to introduce him to more advanced blocks and construction techniques, so Santa brought the Lepin 20033. He built it in a couple of hours and has been enjoying it for the last three days. It's a copy of the Lego RC Tracker Racer 42065, and it costs half the price, it arrived in less than three weeks via DHL. Here's the AliExpress original listing: Lepin 20033 - Technician Green RC Tracker Racer

He went throught the construction steps with ease, he just made a couple of mistakes that I had to help him solve, mostly because it was his first time building with these techniques.

I am positively surprised with the Lepin Power Functions, these are not IR, but 2.4 Ghz, no need to point to the sensor. My son has the Lego Blue Cargo Train 60052, I never liked the IR controller behavior, we tested the Lepin receiver and controller with the train it worked perfectly! I'll be looking for more Lepin Power Functions to use my own vintage Lego Technic.

The brick quality is excellent, great fit, no missing parts. When the build was finished the car falled from the table and a 3m axle broke, fortunately I had a Lego spare one that fits perfectly, I can't blame Lepin on this, the drop was hard, and nothing else was damaged. I haven't had the chance to have the Lego original model in my hands, but I have lots of Lego Technic from the 80's and 90's, I liked the Lepin, I will be looking for other models from them.

Here are a couple of videos, my son took it to the outside to try it in the snow, the tracks blocked with the ice, but on compact snow it behaved fine. After drying it continued working perfectly at home.

DIY - Lego play table

As a kid I never had a dedicated space to play with Lego, usually I used my desk, with the disadvantage that I had to clear everything at the end of the day or earlier.

I introduced my kids to Lego at a young age, almost three years old, at first they used an old Ikea center table, but quickly it became clear that they needed a bigger platform:

It was time to build a table, the main idea was to have a place where they could build and play, but also be able to let everything in place so they could continue at any time (the same day or any other day). They were young and I didn’t want to deal with bricks all over the floor, or at least minimize the quantity of bricks laying around, so the table had to have raised borders to stop the parts from falling.

I had a chipboard panel with white melamine, 26”x66”, and some ½”x2” pine for the borders, so I started with that. It went directly over the Ikea table:

After a couple of years my son was in need of some storage space, he had grown up too, it was time to raise the table and include a drawer. I integrated the drawer in a way that the outside panel would be raised and be at the same level the platform borders were, this way it would be easy to push all the bricks from the platform to the drawer without making anything fall to the floor:

Since then the table and bricks moved to the basement, and just last week a friend gave them a big industrial desktop, 35"x75", the cargo train is no longer on the floor.