Afobrick.com's December Promotion - Extra 8% Off Everything!

 

Afobrick.com's  December promotion now on, thru Dec 24, 2022!

The details:  All sets reduced from their already low pricing by another 8%.  The price will automatically be adjusted at checkout. No coupon code required.

Check out their latest selection of Lego compatible building block sets.

Free worldwide shipping and free missing parts replacement.

Shop now!

JMBricklayer Pre-Christmas Promotion Dec 10 thru Dec 20

JMBricklayer's Pre-Christmas promotion has started!  From Dec 10 thru Dec 20, save up to 25% off selected building block sets on both their website and their Amazon.com store.

They also have weekly and monthly contests and giveaways so keep checking their promo page for the latest details.

https://www.jmbricklayer.com/upcoming-sale-promotion/

Funwhole's Black Friday Sale Now on! 15% Off Storewide!

 

Here's the details which I found on the Funwhole Facebook page.

When:  Now until November 28, 2022

Discount: 15% Off Storewide, No coupon code required.  Discount applied automatically at check out.

If you want to find all the deals from my partners, just search for Black Friday 2022 on my blog.  https://altbrickdeals.blogspot.com/search?q=black+friday+2022

Pantasy's Black Friday Sale! 20% Off All Brick Sets!

 

Pantasy's Black Friday 2022 Sale has started!

Enjoy 20% off their exclusive sets using code BLACKFRIDAY20.

Sale on from Nov 23 2022 thru Nov 29 2022. 

Don't miss it!   Check out all of their sets here.

If you want to find all the deals from my partners, just search for Black Friday 2022 on my blog.  https://altbrickdeals.blogspot.com/search?q=black+friday+2022

Barweer's Black Friday Sale now on! Get 11%off!

 

Barweer.com and Youmko.com are having their Black Friday sale Nov 25 thru Nov 30.  Get an 11% off discount using code BlackFriday11 on both sites.

If you want to find all the deals from my partners, just search for Black Friday 2022 on my blog.  https://altbrickdeals.blogspot.com/search?q=black+friday+2022

Barweer.com

https://www.barweer.com/pages/1111-shopping-carnival

Youmko.com

https://www.youmko.com/pages/2022-black-friday-shopping-promo

Please check it out if you get a chance!

Afobrick's Secret Black Friday Sale 2022, Get 10% Off

 

Hey brick fans, it's Black Friday today!  If you are looking for Lego compatible sets, today is the day!

If you want to find all the deals from my partners, just search for Black Friday 2022 on my blog.  https://altbrickdeals.blogspot.com/search?q=black+friday+2022

So one of my trusted sellers seems to be pretty low key about his Black Friday sale and I thought I'd give them a boost.  Afobrick.com has an on-line store as well as social media accounts for Facebook and Instagram, but they don't seem to be screaming Black Friday sale like the other brick brands.

Here's the promo for Black Friday.

All orders get an automatic 10% off between Nov 25 thru Nov 30, 2022.  Because it's automatic, you don't need any coupon code when you checkout.

They've got a great selection of products and their prices are pretty reasonable. They offer free shipping on all orders too.   

That's it for now, I gotta get back to Black Friday shopping!

JMBricklayer's Thanksgiving Sale Nov 24, 2022 thru Nov 28, 2022 - 30% Off

Hey Lego and other brick fans, just letting you know about JMBricklayer's latest promotion which is right around the corner.   I spoke with the reps at JMBricklayer.com about their latest promo for their building block sets.  Here's all the details:

👉 https://www.jmbricklayer.com/new-launch-t-day-giveaway-sale/
 

JMBricklayer Online store Promo

Sale period: Nov 24 thru Nov 28, 2022

Discount:  30% off for selected items from their website,  JMBricklayer.com, no coupon required during the sale promotion period.   Here's an example of one of the sets on sale: The Medieval Remarkable Ancient Machine (3-in-1) which I just finished building and reviewing.

ITSNOTLEGO discount:  15% off all sets in the JMBricklayer.com store that are not already discounted.  Please note that you cannot stack two discounts together.  

The ITSNOTLEGO discount CAN still be used after the promo period ends, up until Dec 30, 2022.

The discount code is ITSNOTLEGO15%.

Shipping:  Free worldwide shipping all the time, see their website for details.

JMBricklayer Amazon Store Promo

Sale period: Nov 24 thru Nov 28, 2022

Visit the JMBricklayer Amazon store for the latest deals. 

There is a special promo for their featured product: the Remarkable Ancient Machine (3-in-1) set 30001 which is also valid between Nov 24 thru Nov 28.  You can find my very comprehensive review of this cool set here.  

The discount is 30% off the featured set.  Normal price of the set is $39.95 USD.

Use coupon code: VIPJMB30.   Free shipping for U.S. customers only from their Amazon shop.

If you want to find all the deals from my partners, just search for Black Friday 2022 on my blog.  https://altbrickdeals.blogspot.com/search?q=black+friday+2022

Amazon Find: Double Sided (Stackable) Baseplates (Strictly Briks Brand)

 

So my plan is to convert all of my existing modular buildings to use the MILS system.  To make this happen I need to replace all of my existing base plates with the thicker double sided plates.   

These Lego compatible baseplates are sold in 12 packs for under $40 CDN, or around $3.50 per baseplate, which is a really good value.

Inside the package is a glossy two sided sheet showing some of the other Strictly Briks products.

The studs say Briks instead of Lego.

These are the colourful baseplates in the 12 pack set. 

Here's an underside comparison of the Strictly Briks baseplate and a classic baseplate.

As you can see, it's possible to attach bricks to the underside of the baseplates.

Here's the base plate used in the MILS base.

As I mentioned earlier, you can get these baseplates from Amazon.  Here's the direct link:  https://amzn.to/3NjiNnc

If you are looking for less colourful base plates, Strictly Briks also carries an 8 pack with the following colours:  blue, green, gray and beige/tan here:  https://amzn.to/3NkgJvf

Aliexpress Find: Unbranded Utapau Clone Troopers (212th Battalion), Not quite a copy of Lego 75036

Today's post is in response to some questions on Reddit about where I found the 212th Airborne troopers.

Last month, I was searching Aliexpress for some clone troopers using the search terms of 212th and Utapau and happened to come across a single store that actually had a clone set of the Lego Star Wars 75036, the Utapau troopers battle pack.  

This was a really cool find because as far as I knew there had been no alt Lego copies of that particular set.  I immediately checked brick4.com and this was the only entry, ie only Lego and no other knock off sets  have been made.

I immediately put in an order and within a couple of weeks I had this set in my mailbox.  The alt Lego set consists of the tri-droid as depicted in the first picture above along with the four 212th battalion clone trooper mini figures.  In my excitement I tore into the little cellophane packages of mini figures and forgot to take pictures of them in their packaging.  Here's some more pics of the tri droid instead, lol.

I'm guessing that the number of pieces is approximate to those of the OG Lego set which is 83 pieces.  The instructions to build the droid come on this single sheet of paper.

It should be noted that the droid legs use slightly different pieces than the Lego version, and the colours of the droid head and legs is also different, which is why my blog title says, it's not quite an exact duplicate of Lego 75036 set.

Here's a closer look at the 212th Battalion clone troopers.

How do they look?  Are they comparable to the Lego versions or are there any glaring differences?  The airborne figures might be by the brand Duo Le Pin under the set number DLP9018 with a manufacturer date of 2016, according to Herobloks.com

Included are 2 212th Battalion clone troopers ...

... and 2 212th Airborne clone troopers.

Front and back side.  You can really see the details of the helmets. 

I had two other 212th battalion clone troopers, I think they might be World Minifigure brand, but I could be wrong.  Please let me know in the comments if you know which brand the other two minifigures are.

Anyways, here is the Aliexpress store where I found this exclusive set.  The store is called Block Model store and there are two options to buy.  In the first option, you only get the tri droid, whereas in the second option you get the tri droid plus the 4 212th battalion mini figures.  If the store had the option of only buying the minifigures without the droid, I would have been up for that.

The price of the droid set and the 4 clone troopers now almost equals the $15.99 retail price (CDN) of the Lego 75036 when it first released back in 2014.  As a knock-off set this is super rare and I didn't mind paying the price to get the 212th Battalion figures, especially the Airborne clone troopers.

If you just want to build your 212th Attack Battalion, you could just get multiples on Aliexpress as well.  

What do you think, did I pay too much for this set just to get the clone troopers or was it a deal?  Let me know in the comments below!  See ya!

Barweer.com Deal: Super 18K Star Warship MOC model K105

Hey Star Wars and alt Lego fans!  Barweer.com has this new midi/micro scale Star Destroyer building block set on their website.  From what I could find out on the Internet, it is 1:2700 scale Incursor class cruiser, an original MOC by Marius2002.

The Super18K branded blocks are Lego compatible. It features 796 pieces and measures about 32.9 cm in length, and 24.7 cm in height. As a bonus, it also features a stand for displaying your newly built model.  The model number is K105.

This would be a great model to be shown next to the larger executor class starships.

More pics of it here:

https://bricksafe.com/pages/Marius2002/dasdads/incursor-class-cruiser

Check out more pics of this and other Super18K models at Barweer.com.

"Their Big Europe & USA Warehouse Ship from China arrive in 10-20 days (Most country)；Ship from EU & US warehouse arrive in 2-7 days"

What makes Barweer.com stand out?  Free shipping worldwide and tax free!

Get yours here:

https://www.barweer.com/products/k105-super-18k-star-warship-explore-the-universe-put-together-building-blocks-796pcs-bricks-ship-from-china

Save an extra 7% off by using code itsnot5 at checkout!

I Just Bought: The Mos Eisley Cantina 75290 knockoff set!

Here's my latest buy from Aliexpress, not sure if it's going to go through.  The seller has a really low feedback score and rating, so I guess we will have to wait a few weeks to see if I actually get a tracking number that works.

So far, I have had zero success trying to buy a cheap version of the Mos Eisley Cantina from Aliexpress.  I think I've tried to buy it about 3 times already, each time resulting in me having to raise a dispute to get my money back, either due to the seller not sending the item or giving me a fake tracking number.  I mean you can find a fairly decently priced knockoff set for between $150 to $200 on Aliexpress, but I'm always on the hunt for the best bargain.
 

With discounts, the total cost of the set including shipping is $133.24 CDN which works out to about $102 USD at current exchange rates.  Not bad for 3187 pieces. Or about 0.03 cents per piece.

This is what the retail price of the Lego 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina sells for, about $450 CDN + tax.

The Lego 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina set was released in September 2020, and one would expect that it's retirement date should be sometime this fall.  As a result, the OG set should go up in value.  The website Brick Economy suggests that the value of the set will increase to around $700 or more.

Brick4.com lists the knockoff set as 60016 but with no brand.  Hope the quality and the minifigures are decent.   Guess we will roll the dice again and hope for a good outcome! Look for an update in a few weeks or so.

Aliexpress Find: Chaobao 5632 Sanitation Truck (clone of Lego set 4432)

I wasn't plan on buying anything on Aliexpress today, but then this listing popped up on my computer screen.  It looks like an exact replica of the Lego 4432 Garbage truck set but it's by an unknown chinese knockoff brand called Chaobao Renren.

While the Lego version of the truck has long been discontinued (it made it's appearance back in 2012), this latest clone version of it has just surfaced.  According to the Aliexpress listing this set has 369 pieces whereas the OG Lego set only had 208 pieces.  

In the picture I can see that the knockoff set comes with some garbage bins that the Lego version didn't come with.  Also it is unknown at this time if the Chaobao set comes with mini figures or not.

Anyways, I decided to pull the trigger on this one, and see what the quality of this unknown brand is like.  I'm assuming it will take approx 3 weeks to one month of it to get to me, so look for a review of this set in late July or early August

Update:  Review of the Chaobao Renren 5632 Garbage Truck has been published on my blog!

Here's all the not Lego sets and minifigures I bought in the first half of 2022.

 

Hi brick fans!  It's time for an update on my new not Lego purchases for 2022, from January through to June.  Most of my purchases were from Aliexpress.

In January, I bought a couple of World Minifigure Spiderman-Noir WM6052 minifigs, mainly to get the capes to enhance my Blade Runner custom minifigures. I paid three bucks CDN for the pair of them, which is the going price at the moment.  Not much of a deal.

In March, I wanted to get a small new stand for my not Lego modular city, so I found this Sembo 601111 set on Aliexpress.  This one came in at a whopping $10 CDN.  I think I paid too much for this small set.

I have most of the not Lego Batmobiles, except for the classic 1960's version so, in March I ordered this MOC set from Aliexpress: Product - MOC-24651 1966 Batmobile.  Paid about $15 CDN for it, but I haven't built it yet though.  For an approx 300 piece set, the price is OK.

I'm still trying to complete my collection of Lego style modular buildings, so I finally picked up the nearly 2500 piece Downtown Diner from Aliexpress for around $90 CDN.  It's on my backlog of sets to build at the moment.

To round out my March purchases, I ordered this Imperial Troop Transporter for my not Lego Star Wars collection.  Product:  MOC 38045 on Aliexpress.  Price was mid 30-ish CDN.  Still need to build this one as well.

My lone purchase for the month of April was the Boutique Hotel Lego clone. I think this one is by Leji.  Also from Aliexpress.  Price was on the steeper side at around $130 CDN from Marstoy store.  Bought but not built yet.

For the month of May, I decided to get a few more random minifigures for my not Lego city.  It was only $5 CDN for the entire set of 8 minifigs (works out to about 63 cents per minifig). I think that they are from the theme set PUBG (Players Unknown Battle Ground) game.  These minifigures are pretty limited on Aliexpress.

Also in May, I couldn't resist buying this cool retro style TV set from the Top Toys Aliexpress store. With discount coupon, this cost me around $20 CDN.  Building this soon!

In June, I made my first purchase of some Star Wars and other minifigures through Marstoy.net.  A few but not all from the Xinh series XH0323.  Price per minifigure ended up being about $2 CDN, after shipping costs, and paypal currency exchange fees.  I don't think they are up on Aliexpress yet.

Back on Aliexpress, I bought one lone goat.  Why? Just because.  In my Funwhole wood cabin set, there is a gated area off the side of the building, so I figured this would be a good place to keep a goat.

To round off the month of June, I bought a clone version of Lego's new 12 Grimauld Place.  I really only want it for the front facade so that I can convert it into a full modular style building.  It's around $65 CDN.  Not cheap for only under 1100 pieces, but I expect the pricing to increase in step with Lego's anticipated price increases.

Happy building and see you next time!