Teddoo Lego Component Lighting Kit 08L1X4-20 on Aliexpress

 

Hey brick fans!

This component lighting kit popped up in my Aliexpress feed the other day and I bought one to see if it would satisfy my requirement to light up some of my modular buildings.  I think it looks like a great deal!

I paid $18.68 CDN for the Teddoo lighting kit which consists of 20 LED light strips, 20 1x4 white bricks , 20 LED connecting wires and 3 USB plugs.   I checked how much each of the components would cost if one were to buy them individually on Aliexpress and this is what I came up with:

1 LED light strip costs about $1 each.

1 LED connecting wire costs about $1 each

1 USB plug costs about $2 to $3 each

The cost of all of the components in the kit would cost about $40 to $50 CDN in total, so it makes sense economically to buy them together in this kit.

Here's the Store link:  https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DeBg6Sd

The superfast shipping from Aliexpress only took 8 days from order date to delivery.   Let's unbox the kit and see what we got.  

There's a detailed multi-lingual instruction sheet that shows you how to connect the lighting components together, along with a list of the part specifications.  The name of the kit is 08L1X4-20, not the mostly user friendly name, from Teddoo, Light Up Your World.

There are four pouches in the box.

The pouches contains exactly what's described in the kit.  20 pieces of 1x4 bricks, 20 led light strips, 20 connecting wires and 3 USB plugs.

Each of the LED light strips comes with an adhesive backing which you can stick to one of the white 1x4 bricks.  The LED light strips come with 2 ports to which you can attach the wires.   You can attach one of the USB plugs to one of the LED light strips and then chain other light strips together with the wires.

Note: While you get three USB plugs in the kit, you have to provide your own power source.  You can use any USB compatible source, such as a battery pack, power bank or household USB outlet.  In the picture above I'm using a battery pack to verify that all the components work properly.

FYI, When choosing the light kit from Aliexpress, I had the option to choose between warm white LEDs and bright white LEDs for the same price.   Mine are warm white.

I didn't encounter any problems with the parts in the kit, but I guess you'd have to reach out to the seller on Aliexpress for support because the although it's branded as Teddoo, there is no official website to get parts replacements.  The seller's name on Aliexpress is Teddoo store but I'm not sure if it's official or not.

The LED light strips are easy to attach.  Here you can I see I've stuck two of them on the underside of my modular building roof.  I also chained these strips to another one on the first floor.

I've got a total of 4 LED light strips connected for my modular building, two inside and two outside.

And here is the final result of using the Teddoo light strips in my modular building.  The LEDs are very bright and using just one strip on each floor lights up the entire interior.  I was very happy with how the LED light strips worked and I've just order another kit from Aliexpress.  They are easy to install too.

To improve this kit, I would add a few more USB plugs, and have some longer connecting wires (maybe a combination of short and long wires).  Probably the price would have to be a bit higher but I'd be ok to pay another $5 for 3 extra USB plugs.

If you are a fan of lighting up your Lego modular buildings or other sets, you should consider getting this LED lighting kit from Teddoo.

Thanks for looking and hope this helps you decide on whether to choose this kit to light up your Lego sets or not.

Bye for now!

I got a Fake Lego Holiday Camper Van 60283 From Aliexpress!

 

Hi ya brick fans, I'm back to show you another set that I bought from Aliexpress.  It's an obvious knock-off of the Lego Holiday Camper Van 60283 and it comes complete with the van and even copies of the minifigures in the set.   I paid around $14 CDN (which is about $10 US) which included free shipping from a store called AooA Lucky Store.  It's another of those fly by night stores that has the listings one day and then they are gone the next.  Let's review this set and see if it meets expectations.

I ordered the Camper Van on Feb 11, right in the middle of the Chinese New Year Holiday, so I wasn't expect to get the fake Lego set for quite awhile.  On Feb 14, Valentines day, I decided to check on the item status and found that it was already shipped!   And it landed on my doorstep on Feb 20, with an insane shipping time of just 8 days from China to Canada!  I think this is one of the fastest shipments I've ever received from Aliexpress!

I got the standard white package from Aliexpress and inside I got this brown envelope with details about the set.  It indicates that there are 218 pieces but no mention of the brand or set number.  I even checked brick4.com which is a database of every Lego and not Lego set and this one doesn't even show up there.

Unpacked the brown envelope to find a cellophane bag of parts and a thin instruction booklet with no branding other then the City logo.

The parts for the Camper Van are broken down into 7 bags, one for the minifigures, two bags marked with the number 1, two bags marked with the number 2, and two bags with no markings at all.

Inside the instruction booklet I found this sticker sheet with the license plate stickers showing the proper Lego set number.

Here are the two minifigures and the baby in a carrier.  The mom?  also has a second sleepy face on the other side of here head.  Do you think they look like the original minifigures from the Lego set?  One thing I noticed right away is that the tan coloured part all have a pinkish hue.

Here's a sample of the brick pieces for closer inspection.  The bricks seem to use a softer plastic than regular Legos.

Brick clutch was decent though and the brick finish was quite good.

The set also comes with printed parts.

I haven't seen this instrument cluster piece before.  I'm assuming the Lego version has this same part.

So the instructions don't have any numbered sections that refer to the bags numbered 1 and 2.  I simply opened the first two un-numbered bags and then bags number 1 and followed the instructions.  When you get to step 32, you realize that those parts are in the parts bags numbered 2, so the despite the numbered bags, they don't really match up to the instructions.

Fortunately this set isn't that big nor complicated, so the lack of numbering during the build isn't really a problem.

While the opaque glass window pieces are relatively unscuffed, the windshield glass is a whole lot darker than the side windows. In fact, it's almost black.

The roof comes off the Camper Van and the side wall pivots open to display the interior.  I don't know if the original Lego set has that small gap in the roof fairing, but I find it a bit annoying.  I checked the instructions and it doesn't look like I missed any steps.

Extra accessories include a croissant, a camera and a portable stove with frying pan and printed egg.  The trailer hitch in the rear will be handy for hooking up future trailers or watercraft.

Removable roof top.

Not much room for three of them to sleep methinks.

Sleeping at the wheel is dangerous!

And here are the extra parts that were leftover ,which begs the question: why do I have an extra arm?

This was a fun and quick low cost replica build of the Lego Holiday Camper Van.  

I was pleased about the price I got the Camper Van for, and the free shipping was super fast.  I think whoever did the knockoff of the set, at least did a good job of reproducing the minifigures.  Not a fan of the pinkish tan bricks or the super dark windshield, but overall it's a nice little set which rolls well.

• Brand and Set Number: Unknown and unknown
• Copies: Lego 60283 Holiday Camper Van
• Piece Count: 218 pieces
• Numbered Bags: Yes, but they don't matter
• Minifigures: 2 adults and a baby
• Stickers: Yes, but not used
• Printed Parts: Yes
• Brick clutch and quality:  Great except for the aforementioned tan bricks and windshield
• Price paid:  $14 CDN/$10 USD

Where to get it?

The listing for the Holiday Camper Van is already sold out, but search for the term "Camper Van Blocks" to find other similar listings on Aliexpress.

I hope you have enjoyed this quickie review of the unbranded bootlego copy of the Camper Van.   Bye for now!

Here's my latest purchase off Aliexpress - 12 Arcade Game machines by Forange

 

It's a set of 12 video game machines that are made out of bricks and on a scale similar to minifigures. I've included some larger pictures below.  The brightly coloured machines are all approximately 100 pieces or so.  At an average price of $4.50 each, I think they are a pretty good deal.

I'm hoping to make a game arcade modular building to house them in, after I've built them.   I was thinking about a building that is modelled after the Oxford Blocks Game Room set BM35227.

I think the brand is Forange and the set number is FC8282.

Thanks for looking!

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!