Awesome Review of Lepin 15007 Market Street

 

Name: Market Street

Set No.: 15007

Pieces: 1,236

Release Year: 2015
Theme: Factory
Time taken to assemble: 4 hours

Price I got this for (without shipping): ¥124.56 / USD$ 18.06

Finally got this after a week of waiting. 

This is how the packaging looks like, about 15 unmarked bags:  

 

 

Unlike Lego, the pieces are sorted by type and color rather than by area. This means the building time will increase up to three fold with all that searching and scuffling around. 

 

Design 

(Since Lepin is a VERY accurate clone of Lego, my critic on the design is more to Lego than it is to Lepin)

Market Street is a modular set that has a four storey apartment complex and a market place. It might surprise some to say that this is my least favorite Modular set, but that’s like saying a Benz is inferior to a Ferrari.  The build itself is not too complex, some floors are rotatable, and the light blue exterior looks very nice and artsy. 
However, there are three major design flaws in my opinion: 

 

Similar to Café Corner, the lack of interior space limits the playability of this set. Only the staircases are present in each floor.

The market stall itself is a weird protrusion, it actually feels unfinished. No matter where you put this thing, it doesn’t look good combined with the other modular sets.It is even excluded from the picture at the back of the box.

And what's with those technique pieces on top? I still don't see a strong resemblance to a chimney...

But most importantly, if you ask a person who didn't know this set, to take a look and describe what this set was about, he/she couldn't do so accurately. Basically, the design does not capture the identity of a market street. Where's the bustling stalls? The busy shoppers? This set should be renamed to apartment block instead.

Quality 

Minus the minifigures,it’s a known fact that the quality of Lepin bricks is fantastic, and Market Street is no exception. The bricks feel slightly "soft", but otherwise can be easily mistaken for Lego without the logo.   

 

Minifigs 

There are three mini figures included with this set, each having a different printed face instead of the standard Lego smile. This set is unique in that it is the only modular set to have different faces. 

 

Quality wise, Lepin figures still have a long way to go, especially when compared to other Lego bootleg companies. Whilst the facial and torso prints are great, the minifig proportions are not quite Lego: the necks are slightly longer, the hands feel rough and sharp, and overall the pieces feel too loose. A figure from this set had one hand that couldn't fit into the torso socket. 

Price  

Currently the price fluctuates around 20~30 US dollars, not bad for a 2007 discontinued Lego set which can cost upwards of 8,000 dollars!!! 

Taking the quality of this set into account, the price is undeniably fantastic. 

 

Fun 

The third and top floors can be rotated to provide a different look, the second floor is rotatable too but it wouldn't make sense. The top floor has a sizeable balcony section that is very nicely designed. The lack of interior space limits the play factor somewhat. The build on the market place is also prone to falling apart from a light bump. Like all modular sets, this build is more suited for display rather than play.
 

And now to... 

 

The Lepin Problems List 

Since Lepin is a bootleg of Lego, there are bound to be inconsistencies and/or (gulp) missing pieces. Below are all the faults I observed while building this set. (Since this pertains only to the set I received, people may or may not witness the exact same issues listed) 

 

Major: The Balcony sections on this set uses rubber tubes that are WAY too thin, which means the Lepin droid arms  that serve as railings cannot clip onto it. The overall build is extremely flimsy, so I left it out.
 
Slightly Annoying: The right hand of the person standing on the 3rd floor balcony cannot fit into the torso socket, so i had to raise her hand to prevent it from falling out. 

Minor: Some sloping bricks on the roof are rough while some are polished, whereas the Lego version is all rough. This leads to a slight inconsistencies, but nothing too big to worry about. 
 

Minor: The Lepin bricks feel "soft", they don't "click"  when you stick them together, it just kind of slides in. I guess the molding machines have a tolerance of 10um instead of Lego's 2um. Despite this, the grasp is still strong for the most part. 

 

Minor: The flower pieces are even worse then Lego's, they don't fit well into the stem piece, and will fall out if you turn it upside down. Again, this is probably attributed to larger tolerances in Lepin pieces. 

 
Conclusion
As a Lego clone, the overall quality and accuracy of Lepin is unreal. However, minifigs as always is hugely inferior to Lego. In addition, Market Street itself is pretty bland when compared to more recent modular sets, so only buy if you're hell bent on constructing a complete Modular Town
 

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