r/lepin

Could not be happier with this set. Looks fantastic, rock solid for playability, Vader’s Tie Fighter, Bacta Tank, Qabbrat, and good mini figs.

It’s a tall set, but does not have a big footprint, so it’s pretty easy to display.

Quick shipping from AE like usual with no missing parts.

Received mine today, so excited to built…the manual book well printed 😁

All right! here is the first floor of the Detective Office build, which doesn't include the Detective Office. He's on the second floor.

Top view

In a way, this resembles a building complex, or, in HK terms, an Arcade. So it is now called "The Arcade". On a 32 x 32 baseplate, there is a variety of buildings and uses, and they share that footprint.

A lot of people already have the set, so I will mention the changes made:

1. "The Highlander Pool Hall" converted to a Police Station. A lock-up cell extended the depth considerably. And the large amount of empty space in the back made it possible. The main station is 2 additional studs in depth.

2. Added a planter box in front of the Police Station.

3. Beefed up the spindly street tree with a thicker trunk and more leaves.

4. Al's Barbershop/Beauty salon also benefited from the 2 stud increase in depth. It's now spacious enough to have a second chair, a Salon Chair with dryer (design mooched from a LEGO "Friends" set). Al has expanded his skills to do ladies hair too.

Inside Al's Barber/Hair salon

5. On the back side of the baseplate, Al's Barbershop still has that hidden smuggling grate cleverly hidden with a scooter, and also has a very important facility- a Porta-Potty (by BrickPanda). It also has scooter parking, and I illegally modified the scooters with a standard stud on the underside so they can be parked.

Back view of \"The Arcade\"

6. These changes threw off the design of the black roof tiles over the back of The Highlander (Police Station/Pool Hall) so I had to revise it and inadvertently made a more stable build than the original LEGO design.

7. Tiled the entire back side with sidewalk tiles, so no baseplate is visible. The original design went "on the cheap" and left 1/4 of the baseplate uncovered.

I saw an advert on FB for this site (allegedly based in the US) and while the sets aren't cheap, they're appealing (to me, at least).

Of course, not being able to find reviews is a big red flag but of course, they have what I would like when no one else does. Genuine start-up or AI slop, designed to scam people like me?

https://fayesso.com/collections/building-block-kits

I was pretty stooked when I came across this sub. I got this pokemon set from AliExpress. Took about 35 days to get to me, and it is perfect! Not a single piece missing, everything fit. My son and I put this together, I was shocked that the bags were numbered, the instructions were perfect and even included an updated page for the shell instructions. Now that we dipped our toes in this version of our favorite blocks, we’re shopping for more. Next is going to be the Millennium Falcon once I find a good one. Thanks to this subreddit!

Quick alt brick review here of “Black Hawk Castle” (mountain fortress) set. This will be focused on the alt brick aspects and not the set itself.

Alt Brick Review:

Packaging and instructions: came in 12 ziplock type numbered bags with several plastic brick bags in each. Came with printed instructions that were good quality and organized around the 12 numbered bags and part omissions (I think) where appropriate. I used the Lego builder app for instructions though on my iPad and didn’t have any issues. Each numbered bag is equivalent to about 3 normal bags I just dumped each one into a big plastic tub. It was very manageable and everything was on order between the numbered bags.

Brick Quality: Good. Most bricks click together well. As with many alt brand bricks the injection mold spots can be big and the plastic feels slightly soft (hard to describe) or light but overall good quality. I had one or two pieces that weren’t fully formed but I was able to hide those bits in the build. Plates seem a bit more flexible than Lego. Didn’t have any issues with bricks clicking together

Brick Color: most of the colors are very close. Some of the accent colors like sand green and the lighter browns are slightly off but it doesn’t impact the overall aesthetic and isn’t noticeable unless comparing pieces side by side. Silver accessories like swords and fish are like a metallic silver that is not the same as Lego brand though as above it doesn’t impact the overall aesthetic and for the coat of arms is actually a great look.

Minifigure quality: they are just ok. One or two looks identical to ones I have in my collection and all are passable for play and display but overall they aren’t that great. I wouldn’t buy this alt brick version for the mini figures but they are totally fine to get the experience and to display and inhabit the castle. The accessories are ok too but as mentioned above have some color variation from real thing. The shield prints are not very clean on the edges and the print is less metallic than the real thing but you can’t tell unless up close. I thought I would replace the shields and minifies with the real thing but im gonna pass on that… mainly because im not as in love with the set itself as I would like to be.

Piece Substitutions: there are some reasonable substitutes that do not impact the overall build:

chest with flat top is substituted for a regular chest

1x2 oval plates are substituted with 2 1x1 semi oval plates

There is a transparent ice block that in the official model is sloped to sit flush with the wall but the piece provided is pyramidal. This is obscured and very minor

1x2 bricks with single stud on side are substituted with a 1x2 brick with hole on side and a half technic pin… this works just fine though you can see the hole and pin on the backside though those are all interior

A 1x2 brick with 2 studs on each side is absent as there is only one in the entire build. It is replaced with a 1x2 brick with 2 studs on only one side. this brick is used on a wall and holds interior details up and on the exterior side holds some stone work. it made sense to prioritize the interior detail to me as the exterior side is a minor detail in a place that would hardly be noticeable

Missing: transparent blue splat. Very minor detail

Overall the build comes together as intended and with good quality with the substitutions made being trivial.

I would say that if you have your eye on this it’s worth picking up. Im gonna build adventure in Transylvania next.

If you’re into Hollow Knight, you probably know the feeling of wandering through Hallownest and stopping just to take in the atmosphere.

Queen’s Gardens, City of Tears, Crystal Peak… each area has such a different mood, and that was the inspiration behind this build.

So we thought we’d give one ABYSS KNIGHT set away here to someone from the community.

How to enter:

1️⃣ Like this post

2️⃣ Question: What was the very first game that completely got you hooked? Drop its name in the comments! 🎮

⏰ Giveaway ends August 24 at 23:59

The winner will be selected randomly using redditraffler and announced in r/BarweerMOC after the giveaway ends.

Good luck, Knights! May your needle stay sharp. ⚔

👀 The seats can slide back and forth

just like the real thing

My very first AliExpress set, so mostly an experience report for people who are new to altbricks as well or are on the fence or nervous. I do have a couple questions for the experts, (you can skip to the end if you don't want to read my novel here ;)).

I've lurked this sub for a while, read a whole bunch of reviews and couldn't make up my mind last year (was also when all the Tariffs craziness was happening), but just went for it after seeing prices drop super low in June '26 and after reading all the Starter Guides and FAQ's here again.  I just picked a choice store with over 95% positive rating and close to a thousand items sold and just went for it. Got the UCS Razor Crest for $79.31 ($85.46 was my total to the US West Coast). It was the right time for me to give it a shot.  It took about a month to get here and I was impressed with the AE tracking along the way. Once you get used to their 'packed' app layout it's actually good and nothing shady about it. It shipped within a week and then it just takes time.

Now that I've finished the build after 3 weeks, I have to say my mind is blown and I'm super stoked! It was mostly as expected and a few things better than expected. A box with 3 big numbered bags, full of small numbered bags, plus a couple extras. You just have to figure out how it works, mine was easy. Actually lined up with the Lego numbering (often broken down further into 2-3 bags per number), except some big part bags and printed parts/techy/minifig bags.

I was curious to see which of the 3 known versions I got  (T5331, 60088 and 87025 is what I knew, read about here and seen in YouTube reviews). Well I got neither of those and instead mine has one of those black and white renderings of the piece on the booklet, same style which I'm increasingly seeing on AE, no number. And this is one of the main things that I did not know or understand beforehand. Reading or watching reviews only helps you to gain a general understanding of what is out there, because asfaik there is no way of knowing or choosing on AE which knockoff you are ordering and listing and shops change often on AE. So with a month of shipping time and however long someone takes to build a set and posts a review, a long time has passed and that specific listing is often not current anymore.

Onto the set:

AMAZING! The thing is absolutely MASSIVE. And what a Badass Ship!

Pros: 

-Not a single piece missing! I had that usual 'Damn, I've been searching for a long time and I think I'm missing the piece!' Only to have the 'Uups there it is, I'm just blind' feeling about a hundred times and I've found that comes with a bit higher anxiety with altbricks, because you are thinking the chances are higher.

-No bad or deformed pieces either. Clutch was good. I used a tiny drop of Elmer’s Glue on about 4 small pieces that were a little loose.

-My printed pieces are great! The cockpit glass is not perfect, but clear and print good enough

-My plague sticker actually says STAR WARS, which was nice. 

-There is no bad smell or anything either (which was a concern of mine, since I'm a little sensitive to that kind of thing)

Cons (and these are all minor imo) :

-Minifigs are just ok, well known fact that this is often the case, so it was expected. I did not get the 'good' real head Kuill, but I would've been really surprised at this price (Kuill used to be exclusive to the real set and therefore an expensive Minifig to replace, $40-60, but now it is in the new Sandcrawler Mudhorn set, so prices might come down). The Mando is ok, no arm prints. Have an extra Mando in Beskar from a small Lego set, which now gets to sit in his ship! Grogu not bad either.

-The grey/yellow stickers that go on the ship are bad, way too dark. Also expected and I'l probably just pull them off and do something else.

-The Hydraulic struts of the back gate were the only pieces that gave me trouble. Too tight, will try some sanding. 

-Small print build manual, this is also well known and really not an issue at all imo. Actually funny, since it said SFAR WARS which I thought was smart because it is easy to fix with some whiteout (which for some reason I felt I needed to do ;)), whereas SpaceWars would be much tougher. Used the Builder app, no issue.

 

There is a little bit of a quality difference (some pieces more than others) but to expect any different would be unreasonable imo, but once you get over that it's pure building fun, just like the real thing. And what a blast it was to build this beast! I was surprised at some of the design choices Lego did on this though, since it is quite brittle, for example the Cockpit top piece is not attached at all, it just sits on top and most of the side panels are attached by very little. So this has nothing to do with it being altbricks.

Overall I'm super happy and in disbelief I got this for a mere $85! Fun to pair it with my Slave 1 which was the most expensive Lego set I had ever bought (for myself, kids excluded ;) )  back in 2015. 

They are at opposite ends of the MiniFig Scale (Slave 1 on the small end, RC on the big), but with the right angle and some AI quackery ;)

So given this good experience I'm of course already considering my next purchase, which will be the Falcon. These are the 2 UCS sets I always wanted, but never willing to spend that kind of money. 

As for my questions for the experts:

1. Is it true that it is not possible to know which version you are buying?  I have so far not seen anything on AE that gives that info in a listing. My understanding is that you don't know which one you will get and if you want to avoid the risk you would have to buy from sites like Herotoyz or Joooooy and pay the premium. 

2. Do you have a strategy to get the best quality possible on AE? Is there one? One of the struggles on AE for me is choice overkill. Just pick one of the more expensive ones, even if just $5? I did the opposite for the Razor Crest, picked the cheapest and hoped for the best and it worked this time. But my guess here is that the risk is just part of the deal and it'll always be luck of the draw and if you get a really sucky one you go the refund route, right?.

Appreciate any insight and thanks for reading.

Been eyeing this thing for awhile on Amazon but saw it on Temu for 100 bucks less. Can’t wait to put it together. It’s going to be huge at 40” long

Got this Peter Parker’s apartment on AliExpress, Youmko is the brand but is crazy how detailed this is and half the price of Lego, added the lights and I got those from Temu 😂, but saw this after being disappointed with what the other Major brick brand dropped.

So I'm in the middle of Building a DK set with over 1000 pieces. This is my first real rodeo with an alternative brand. My fingertips do normally hurt a tiny bit with LEGO sets, but I find I'm getting to this level of pain with this DK set a lot faster. The bricks feel a bit more sharp and are more stubborn and tight compared to LEGO. I'm building this set over a period of a few days in order to avoid hurting myself, but does anyone else have this issue?

The set I'm building is there brand new model of Flying Scotsman, no. 80100 (you may see me give a review on it here in a few days time when it's finally done).

(LEGO minifigure for scale)

The bags are numbered from 1 to about 15-16

But stage 1 has bag 1-1 to 1-4.
But bag 1-2 has blocks that will be used in stage 2.
I am confused because the instruction manual handles the official set instructions.

Does somebody have the same set?

I have to say, it's a pretty simple design, but it's very fun and beautiful. It's a classic! I'd never pay €500 for the original so it's nice that the alt brick version is still around. Another great addtion to the collection.

Wow, what a fantastic build. Tony Stark's mansion in Malibu with the Iron Man's workshop. Super fun to build and it's an amazing display piece. Came with light kits and they really make the place come alive. Lots of details both in the mansion and in the workshop. I recommend it for Marvel fans but also for fans who just like cool buildings.

Someone described this set as their new favorite LEGO-style car, and honestly, I have to agree with them. This is a fantastic brick representation of a Mercedes 300 SL, and the details just made me smile ear to ear almost the entire time I was building it. I really wish every car set had this level of thought and detail in them, and the even more bizarre part is that Mattel is selling these for $50 cheaper than the new Jaguar set from LEGO that's a similar scale. They're really raising the bar on this stuff.

5/5