Not Lego set
I was lucky enough recently to be gifted with a Hsanhe set - these are based on rejected Lego ideas and turned into actual products albeit with non-Lego bricks. In this case it was a suggestion for a Mini Shop series with small sets of high street names. The set I got was 6410-2, the 7-Eleven. I was a little wary because I've had a knock-off Lego set before and the quality was appalling but this set looked quite nice so I thought I'd give it a try.
The contents of the set.
The opened bags.
The bricks looked kind of strange without the little LEGO stamped on each of the knobs. They also had these weird indented bits every so often which looked like they'd been broken off a strip in the manufacturing process, like with Airfix kits.
The instructions came as one large sheet of paper, but the pictures were clear and easy to understand. The images had bricks from the previous steps in a pale shade of grey so it was obvious which were the next ones to be added. It would have been nicer for them to be a pale shade of their actual colour rather than all being grey.
Very early on in the construction it was clear that the bricks weren't Lego quality at all. Although they felt solid enough, they didn't snap together in the same way and they also didn't fit snugly together either. I also thought that the edges were much sharper and less comfortable to hold.
The construction continues! One of the things I liked about this set was the how colourful it was with the different pieces representing products on shelves. The grey strip on either side of the wall was odd, I couldn't work out what it was supposed to represent. The hole at the bottom of each side was bizarre too, there didn't seem to be any reason for it.
That's quite a gap in between the door and window there. And the 'glass' is filthy!
There were some fun details that I quite liked such as the air conditioning unit over the door...
... the ceiling lights (which were a pain to stay put, they fell off at the slightest movement) ...
... and the street lamp on the corner. Although the sizing is a bit off there, it comes up to the minifigs waist!
The set came with two minifigures which are supposed to be sales assistant and customer. They were supplied completely in pieces, right down to having to put the hands in the arms which was incredibly fiddly and difficult. The figures don't move at all well either, they're really stiff.
I had all these pieces left over! That never happens with Lego!
There were four stickers provided but none of them fitted properly at all. These ones for the sign are supposed to cover the white section and leave the black border visible but they were far too wide and tall.
The one for the till was similarly too wide. I'd actually expected that it would be a 2x3 brick going off the size of the sticker.
The completed set from the front - there's supposed to be another sticker on the section over the door but that would have made it impossible to take the bricks apart so I left it off.
And the back. The ceiling looks incredibly high!
A close-up of the interior. There's very little room behind the counter for the minifig to stand, particularly if they were to be fixed in place on the floor. I used some of the leftover pieces to make the customer's purchases. She appears to be buying a burger without a bun (perhaps it's gluten-free), a bag of prawn cocktail crisps and a can of 7-Up or Sprite.
It took me about an hour in total to build, although that is including all the time it took to take the photos as well. Overall, it's quite a nice little set but the difference in quality really made me aware that it wasn't Lego. However, it would be possible to buy the individual bricks from Lego and make it up properly - it would be interesting to see how that compares actually, although I'm sure the cost would differ greatly! The range includes a Starbucks coffee shop which looks rather nice, as well as a Dunkin Donuts one! I think Lego did miss out on rejecting these ideas, they are quite fun.
The contents of the set.
The opened bags.
The bricks looked kind of strange without the little LEGO stamped on each of the knobs. They also had these weird indented bits every so often which looked like they'd been broken off a strip in the manufacturing process, like with Airfix kits.
The instructions came as one large sheet of paper, but the pictures were clear and easy to understand. The images had bricks from the previous steps in a pale shade of grey so it was obvious which were the next ones to be added. It would have been nicer for them to be a pale shade of their actual colour rather than all being grey.
Very early on in the construction it was clear that the bricks weren't Lego quality at all. Although they felt solid enough, they didn't snap together in the same way and they also didn't fit snugly together either. I also thought that the edges were much sharper and less comfortable to hold.
The construction continues! One of the things I liked about this set was the how colourful it was with the different pieces representing products on shelves. The grey strip on either side of the wall was odd, I couldn't work out what it was supposed to represent. The hole at the bottom of each side was bizarre too, there didn't seem to be any reason for it.
That's quite a gap in between the door and window there. And the 'glass' is filthy!
There were some fun details that I quite liked such as the air conditioning unit over the door...
... the ceiling lights (which were a pain to stay put, they fell off at the slightest movement) ...
... and the street lamp on the corner. Although the sizing is a bit off there, it comes up to the minifigs waist!
The set came with two minifigures which are supposed to be sales assistant and customer. They were supplied completely in pieces, right down to having to put the hands in the arms which was incredibly fiddly and difficult. The figures don't move at all well either, they're really stiff.
I had all these pieces left over! That never happens with Lego!
There were four stickers provided but none of them fitted properly at all. These ones for the sign are supposed to cover the white section and leave the black border visible but they were far too wide and tall.
The one for the till was similarly too wide. I'd actually expected that it would be a 2x3 brick going off the size of the sticker.
The completed set from the front - there's supposed to be another sticker on the section over the door but that would have made it impossible to take the bricks apart so I left it off.
And the back. The ceiling looks incredibly high!
A close-up of the interior. There's very little room behind the counter for the minifig to stand, particularly if they were to be fixed in place on the floor. I used some of the leftover pieces to make the customer's purchases. She appears to be buying a burger without a bun (perhaps it's gluten-free), a bag of prawn cocktail crisps and a can of 7-Up or Sprite.
It took me about an hour in total to build, although that is including all the time it took to take the photos as well. Overall, it's quite a nice little set but the difference in quality really made me aware that it wasn't Lego. However, it would be possible to buy the individual bricks from Lego and make it up properly - it would be interesting to see how that compares actually, although I'm sure the cost would differ greatly! The range includes a Starbucks coffee shop which looks rather nice, as well as a Dunkin Donuts one! I think Lego did miss out on rejecting these ideas, they are quite fun.