I bought an Alt Lego Republic Gunship from a Zero Feedback Seller on Aliexpress!

 

Hey brick fans!  I was looking through Aliexpress the other day and a Star Wars Republic Gunship popped up in my feed.  Perfect, because I happened to be looking for one!

The listing was for the replica of the Lego Republic Gunship 75021 (2013),  but it says the model number was 05041.  This is the set that has about 1175 pieces.

05041 is the old Lepin numbering system for the Republic Gunship.  According to brick4.com, there are several alt brands that make the 2013 republic gunship.

Not sure why but 91046 doesn't show up on brick4 but I'm told that this is the King brand, which shows up as 81043.   Confused?  Me too.

And if you search Aliexpress for 91046, nothing comes up.  Nada.  But if you search for 75021 or 05041, you get a ton of listings.  Here's a screenshot of a search for 05041 on Aliexpress.

Anyways, the promoted item showed the price of the Gunship being a lot cheaper than the other listings.  As you can see from the screenshot below, the price of this set is that it's about $20 cheaper than all of the other gunships listed on Aliexpress, however a big red flag for this listing is that the seller had 0 feedback!  Normally, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy from these listings because most times these will be fake listings, where the seller will try to scam you.

I've been using Aliexpress for many years, and sellers have tried to scam me many times, but luckily I've always been able to raise a dispute and get my money back from Aliexpress when that has happened.  

At the time of this listing coming out, it was during one of those periods where sellers and Aliexpress were having their coupon promotions.  So the price I would pay would actually only be about $56 CDN after discounts.   

I decided to take the plunge and hope for the best.  At the worst, I would rely on the Aliexpress dispute process to bail me out if the transaction didn't complete.

After a few days,  I actually got a tracking number but sometimes the scam sellers will simply make up a tracking number that doesn't work and string you on.   A few days later, I checked the tracking number which showed an update on the shipment.

So it was a pleasant surprise when the package actually showed up!  In fact, the package arrived within two and a half weeks, so it was even faster than most of my other Aliexpress packages.

Anyways, just wanted to share this little deal with you.  I can't guarantee how long this seller will have this deal, so if you're looking for a republic gunship set, you might want to consider it.  If the transaction does go south on you, you should be covered by the Aliexpress dispute process.  Don't forget to always exercise your due diligence when dealing with zero feedback sellers and prices that seem too good to be true.

Here's the Aliexpress listing showing the price of $46 USD in case you're not familiar with CDN currency.

Watch for a full review of the King branded Republic Gunship soon on my other blog Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com.   Let me know if you were able to snag this deal and what you thought of the set in the comment box below,  Bye!

I bought a not Lego off-road truck for only $5.44!

 Hey fans of brick toys and Aliexpress!  I just wanted to let you know about this secret deal I found on Aliexpress.  I was hunting for building sets to make a monster truck.  I found this listing from a store called QIHUI Block Store.

Above is the screen shot from the Aliexpress store.  The item is a pullback offroad vehicle.  It has 199 pieces according to the box art.  The brand is Qihui and the set number is 5804.

This yellow truck is supposed to have working suspension too.  The model is comprised of mostly technic style bricks and comes with the large balloon tires. I'm not sure if it is Lego minifigure scale or not.

Anyways the listed price of the offroad vehicle was $17.84 CDN but the price has been lowered to $15.43 now.  When I added  the item to my Aliexpress cart, I checked for any vendor coupons and the store offered a coupon for $12.40 off.

Usually, this sort of coupon requires a certain minimum price before the coupon is valid, but when I checked out, it still worked on my small purchase.  

So far, so good, I got a tracking number and looks like it is shipping out.

I'm not sure how long the coupon will last so I recommend you jump on this deal right away before it goes away!   The link to the item and store is below.

Aliexpress: Not Lego Cargo and Passenger Planes

Today, let's look at some Aliexpress deals related to aircraft related building sets.

Gudi 8913

Here's the Gudi large passenger airplane.  The set number is 8913 and it has 856 pieces. The plane has 4 engines mounted to large wings.
It comes with 6 Lego style minifigures, a pilot, co-pilot, flight attendant, aircraft mechanic and 2 passengers.   This plane is 8 studs wide and can house both the pilot and co-pilot comfortably in the cockpit.   There are a total of 16 windows on this plane if you don't count the cockpit.  
There's room for 6 passengers and even more room in the cargo hold.  You could turn the cargo hold into a passenger compartment if you need extra space.   Access to the passenger compartment is from the front door of the plane and access to the cargo hold is on the back of the plane.This set is great because it also comes with a control tower and 2 service vehicles.

Gudi 8912

The Gudi 8912 Passenger plane is a smaller version of the 8913 plane.   This version only has 2 engines vs. the larger 4 engine aircraft.  There are 652 pieces in this set but it still includes an airport and control tower, a service vehicle and 6 Lego style minifigures.  It has a total of 16 cabin windows.

Sluban M38-B0371

Next up is this large cargo plane.  This model is the Sluban Cargo plane, set number is M38-B0371.  This cargo plane is comprised of 383 pieces.  The plane has 4 propeller type engines and is serviced by 2 vehicles.  It comes with 4 Sluban designed minifigures.  With such a large cargo hold, you can easily convert it to a passenger plane by adding seats to it.   You can access the interior via the front door or the rear cargo hold door.  What's neat about this plane is the tail swings away for large cargo.

BZDA 82031

Finally, here's another large passenger jet from the BZDA manuafacturer.  This set not only comes with this awesome jet but also includes the airport and flight deck.  There's also a luggage delivery vehicle included in this 718 piece set.  There are 6 minifigures included in this set which is model 82031.  This jet has 24 cabin windows and 2 rear mounted jet engines.
You can find the sets above by following the links.  If you want to find more Aliexpress stores that sell these search Aliexpress using the set brand and model number.