Block Tech From Walmart: Lego Compatible Bricks

Recently, I saw Walmart selling some Lego compatible bricks in a cheap price (much cheaper than Lego's). My first question was... Lepin? Actually, they weren't made by Lepin or other knock off brands on Aliexpress.com.

Surprisingly, the quality is pretty high. Bricks can be firmly joined with each other and with original Lego bricks. The large plate is only $3. The size is 20 x 20 studs. It's not a base plate and you can build things under it. The most "valuable" pack to me is the doors and windows set. Doors and windows are not always available at the wall of Pick-A-Brick at Lego store.



The most interesting thing is the transparent parts are very clear like original Lego's. Each of them is sealed separately to avoid scratches. This set comes with two special 3 sided window with "glass". Those tall bricks are very useful for building houses. Worth to get one as back up.

Lego DC Super Hero Wonder Woman Minifigure vs Chinese Copy

It's another comparison of Lego minifigure with Chinese copy. First of all, look at the shield. It proved that Chinese copy printings were re-drawn by the factory. Not just a scan. I wouldn't blame staffs of Lego couldn't find out which is knockoff. You have to look very close to find out. Someone in a Facebook page asked me if they had weight difference. I didn't weight it with those I used in chemistry lab. 99% of people wouldn't be able to find out with hands.

This minifigure came with the set of Batwing (Batman vs Superman). It was half priced last month. I expected another sale of Batman sets very soon. You would get real Lego's Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman at the same time.

Lego Star Wars Death Trooper Minifigure vs Chinese Fake Copy Minifigure

Another example of Chinese copy's sharper printing (sharper than original Lego minifigure). The helmets of the knockoff Death Troopers are very loose. The cost is also about $1. The should pad is not as good as Lego's

Lego Star Wars Shore Trooper Minifigure vs Chinese Fake Copy Minifigure

Recently, I got a few Chinese copies of Shore Troopers (~$1 each). From a distance, they looked exactly the same as Lego's. Let's take a look closer...

Other than the "dot" at mouth area, they are very similar. Most people would think Chinese factories just scan and copy the original design from Lego but they were wrong (I was wrong too). Look closer. This factory hired someone to draw the body printing from scratch (in Illustrator). The printing of the copy is even sharper than Lego's. If the person who drew it even carefully, general public would think the copy should be the real one. Interesting...

My R2-D2 Collection Including Lego Star Wars R2-D2 UCS (10225)

I think I've never done a photo shoot for my R2-D2 UCS set (10225). It was a gift from my wife before this set retired. The structure inside the body was quite amazing. Most of the building time was spent in the inner body structure. The way Lego designer was quite complicated. Surely, consumer would learn a lot from the process.

Although you can't buy this set with a reasonable price now, you can buy the Chinese knockoff versions (Lepin and LeLe) from Aliexpress.

Batman's Armor MOC

This Batman Armor MOC is based on Lego set 70901 which is The Batman Movie's Mr. Freeze set. The new body part from NEXO Knights series saves a lot of space for building this kind of armor (like Hulkbuster with Ironman inside it). That new part helps people to build a reasonable size model with the small ball joints bricks. It avoids the size problem that Hulkbuster has.

When I have time, I may come back to fine tune it.

Star Wars Y-Wing UCS (Lepin Version)

It's a pretty nice model. Lepin version comes with some grey tubes for the 8 engine sticks. I don't put them on and let the white technic bars show. Then it is better than with wrong color.

LEGO Star Wars Krennic's Imperial Shuttle (75156)

Rogue One's Krennic's Imperial Shuttle is well made... the look is good. However, when you open it, it's quite ugly (in my opinion). Basically, the storage/seats of Deathtroopers is just the "by-product". Locking the walls of the shuttle in place is hard; then, I guess the designer(s) just make it like they are intended to make it like this.



I don't like using the ball joints as the wing joints. It saves space for the wings' folding part but the problem is... the strength of holding up the wings is weak.

It has a very nice landing gears. Way better than Kylo Ren's Shuttle which was one of the worst models recently.



The back is really close to the actual model. Nice.



Krennic's and his useless Deathtroopers (LOL) is cool when they walk together on grass field

LEGO Marvel Red Skull's Car MOC - Stage 2

I put aside this project for a while. Next stage may be changed into a 4 seats vehicle like the one in the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger.

LEGO The DeLorean Time Machine Modification (21103 ) - Update

Small update made to the roof. From 4 studs wide to 6 studs wide.





My 80's classic Sci-Fi display case :-)

LEGO The DeLorean Time Machine Modification (21103 )

This Back To The Future's DeLorean has been sitting inside my display case since 2014. I've touched it for years although I don't like the shape that Lego designed. The 2 steps design of the front bothers me a bit. Today, I took it out and did a simple modification.



I took this photo of 1:1 DeLorean at Osaka's Universal Studios



Look at the original structure of the front. Because of the 7 studs front end design, Lego did it like this. It was pretty bad for someone that building Lego 8 hours everyday as a job. I have no idea what happened during the product design process. My bet is cost controlling people changed this.



I did a painless modification on it. I rebuilt the front from 7 studs wide into 8 studs wide. At the same time, I extended the front plus I took out the annoying two steps thing. Actually, I wanted to add the slope at the front but it would take too much time to take things apart. May be later...

Time To Pack Up Some Lego In Storage

Once in a while, I packed up figures and Legos into my garage. It was how I packed my stuff in boxes. They will be displayed again when I win a lottery (Seems not too possible).

The Recent X-Wing Models from Lego

Chatting with Dennis, the web radio show's host, about Lego X-Wings recently. He asked me if I could show him what I had. Then, I found my UCS version in garage. At the same time, he made me considering to build the blue X-Wing.

The recent models of X-Wing are really way better than before. From shape to structure, the improvement is obvious. You may find a lot of places to modify the 9493 original trilogy X-Wing but the two X-Wings from The Force Awakens are almost perfect. Maybe, you can update the engine a little bit and cover the grey parts with black tiles.