I tried improving the Lego Ideas Garbage Truck MOC C5333

Hi brick fans, thanks for stopping by my blog Bricks and Figs!  Hope you enjoy today's post!

The other day, I acquired and built the Garbage Truck MOC C5333.  I posted some pics and a review on my other blog Its Not Lego.

I wasn't very happy with the inferior bricks that were used in the set, so I wanted to see if I could make this set better.  Let's take a look and hope you can let me know if it was a success or not.

The original set had a white cab but a lot of those bricks were yellowing.  I thought about simply replacing those white bricks from my own stash, but got to wondering if I should make my version of this MOC a bit more unique so I made it entirely green.  There's still a few colour inconsistencies in the green bricks I used vs. the ones from the set, but not much I can do there.  I don't have a lot of green bricks in my parts stash, so thankfully I had enough to modify the cab.

The original cab from MOC C5333 didn't have an interior.  I don't believe that the original model, from which this MOC is based, had one either.  I ended up rebuilding the entire cab so that I could include a steering wheel, a dashboard, and two seats.  I added a driver's side door so that the driver can get in and out.   

A couple of bonus items I added to the cab include the obligatory red mug that you see in most Lego truck sets, and a dog who happens to be the driver's pet.  The dog likes to come along when his master is on the job.

I also extended the cab so that the garbage man had a place to stand instead of hanging off the side of the truck.  In case of inclement weather, he can duck inside the cab.  Unfortunately I only had one green cab door part, so this side gets no passenger side door, but you can still get inside via the ladder.  I realize that I have no side mirrors on the cab, so this is something I'll have to fix in the future.

As a result of the extended cab, I also had to lengthen the truck chassis.  In the original garbage truck model the designers included a broom and shovel but the C5333 MOC only had a stick and an axe (don't ask me why).  My version restores the original tools to the truck.

To further differentiate my re-MOC of the C5333 MOC, I used decided to use yellow as an accent colour instead of making the truck only green.  The yellow accents can be found on both sides of the truck, on the back door and also inside the truck as well.

I replaced all of the axles and wheels and now my truck rolls freely.  I also replaced some of the technic pieces so that the garbage can loader now works more consistently.

My version of the garbage truck includes a driver minifigure and a garbage man minifigure.

Anyways, that wraps up my custom modifications to the Garbage truck C5333 MOC. Let me know what you think of the changes and any other improvements you can think of.   Thanks and see you in my next post, Bye.

My Custom Gudi Ice Cream Monster Truck!

Hi and thanks for visiting Bricks and Figs, my blog about my custom not Lego creations and minifigure reviews.   In this post, I will show you my latest custom build, the Ice Cream Monster Truck!

Just a bit of background, Lego recently released their Burger Monster Truck set31104 and it looked really cool.  Then, when I was checking out the latest not Lego brick sets on Aliexpress, I happened to see more Monster food trucks.

Lego Burger Monster Truck 31104

Sembo 5000 - 5003 Food Trucks

There are four different food trucks in the Sembo series: A burger or sub truck, an ice cream truck, a fried chicken truck and a coffee truck.  They all look great and I wanted to buy them all.  

I had narrowed my choice to the ice cream truck and was ready to buy it.  But at the last minute, I held off because I already have two ice cream trucks in my brick collection, the Enlighten 1112 Ice Cream truck and the Gudi 9603 Ice Cream truck.  

Then it dawned on me, that instead of spending another $30 on the Sembo monster food truck, I could simply make my own.  I already have a set of giant balloon tires and rims, and I could use and convert one of my existing ice cream trucks for it.

Gudi 9603 Ice Cream truck

For this monster truck project, I decided to use the Gudi Ice Cream truck.  As you can see it's a pretty bland truck, but has lots of windows and is easily modifiable.  The original wheels are begging to be replaced.

I pulled off the existing wheels and spindles and replaced the original 2 piece chassis with this long thicker 4x16 Megabloks part.

Next, I used 2 16 stud long technic beams and attached a couple of right angle brackets to them.  I also mounted 2 exhaust pipes to the frame. Those are real Lego balloon tires and rims.  

Here's the wheel assembly.

Here we have attached the frame to the body of the ice cream truck.

I typically don't use stickers in my builds but made an exception in this case.  Did I over do it?

One thing that I'm still missing is a ladder to get to the window.  Right now, you would have to throw your money at the ice cream lady and then catch the ice cream cone when she throws it to you, lol.
 

Rear view of the truck.

In addition to the stickers, I made some minor roof enhancements, nothing too noticeable.  I added an awning on the street-side of the truck.

More pics for your viewing pleasure.

Had those funny eye pieces, so figured I'd use them here.

Modified Enlighten 1120 Happy Camper Truck (not Lego)

Hello and welcome back to another post at Bricks and Figs!  It's mid April 2020 and we are still practising social distancing, which means we shouldn't go outside unless it's completely necessary.  That means we have lots of time to build some brick sets or in this case, we can modify an existing set that we already have.

Let's time travel back to April 2017, four years ago.  That's when I first blogged about the Enlighten 1120 Camper Truck.  In that post I complained that the truck was too wide at 8 studs, instead of my preferred width of 6 studs.  Yup, that's the camper truck above, in all it's 8 stud wide glory.  Ok, now let's return to present day and here is the modified Enlighten camper truck.

I decided that we wouldn't compromise the utility and play value of the set by making the living quarters smaller.  In fact, within pretty much the same footprint, I've managed to add a bed to the interior, but I'm getting ahead of my self. Let's take a look at the exterior before moving to the inside of the truck.

Here's the newly modified front cab of the truck.  I've decreased the width to 6 studs and it kinda has a retro ford econoline look to it.  The eight stud windshield has been replaced by the six stud equivalent, maintaining the transparent blue tint of the original.  I didn't have a 6 stud wide slope brick in lime green, so I opted to use the original roof blocks as part of the hood.  I'd much prefer the cab roof to be match the rest of the truck colour, but white is all I have in my brick stash.

Moving around to the side of the cab, you can see how the profile has changed.  There was a toss up about how big I should make the cab portion. I opted to go for the longer cab and use the side window pillar there.  The other option is to shorten the cab by one stud, which will necessitate a different roof over the cab.

Behind the cab, everything else is pretty much the same.  The axe is still there and so is the window.  I added some amber lights where the cab roof meet the rear box.

I got rid of the roof mounted shovel and antenna and moved the solar panel array from mid roof to as far forward as I could.  This gave me enough room to carry two bicycles.  I did manage to retain the roof racks, however.

The bikes are held in place by a clamp, so they don't go flying off during highway driving.  The solar array also helps to deflect the the wind up and over the bikes.

Here's the right side of the truck with retained window and fire extinguisher.

The back of the camper truck sees some significant improvements.  There's a license plate and extra marker and brake lights for safety.  The space that used to be occupied by the bike now has a gas can and spare tire.  The ladder to the roof has not changed.

Enlighten's original concept for the back of the camper was that it was split down the middle and both sides could swing away to access the interior.  In my design I opted to go with the complete removal of the box instead for structural support.

Seating has been reduced from 4 seats to 3, but I did manage to keep the freezer and stove/grill.  Since there's no passenger seat in the cab, I removed the computer screen that came in the original design.  There's now enough room for a decent sized bed and if necessary I could extend the bed width by another stud to comfortably sleep 2 minifigures side by side.

I tossed the minfigures that came with the set into a large box, so I just grabbed some random ones for this photo shoot.

Here's how the camper looks with shell removed looking forward.

As in real life, storage space is at a premium, so I added under the bed storage, accessible by two doors in the back of the camper.

Here's a few extra pictures I took of the modified Enlighten Camper.

Hope you enjoyed the pics!  Thanks for looking!   The original set is available on Aliexpress if you search for Enlighten 1120.

Sembo 6064 Not Lego French Fries Concession Stand MOD

Hi Building block fans!  Today our featured build is the French Fries concession stand that is part of the Mini Food Shop series of buildings.  The brand is Sembo and the set number is 6064.

I'd like to point out that the majority of these mini shops are a lot smaller than than the normal minifig scale shops like Lego or Hsanhe.  If you look closely at the top picture, you will see quite a difference in the scale of the French Fries shop compared to its neighbouring shops.  I was curious to see if the Sembo set could be used in my modular town.

I was pleasantly surprised that my set was quickly delivered after 2 weeks of ordering it off Aliexpress.

Although there's no mention of the number of pieces for the concession stand, I counted a total of 141 pieces from the 2 sided instruction sheet. 

Here's all the pieces unpacked and ready for building.  Oh I almost forgot to mention that there's a sticker sheet with the word Fries and a small menu.

I completed the build in no time flat and here's the finished french fries stand sans stickers.  Er, those line-up stands look a tad small.  There's pegs on each side of the building which I assume allow you to connect this set to the others in the mini shop series.  I think those french fries on top of the roof really make the building pop.

In case you were wondering what the interior holds, there's a computer screen for taking orders and a couple of small canisters on the counter, maybe they are for the salt and vinegar?  On the floor, I think one side holds a sink and tap and the other side is a box with a paddle.  I have no idea what it's supposed to represent.

Here's a look at the side of the concession stand.  There's 2 windows and some masonry bricks which is repeated on both sides of the building.

The French Fries stand does not come with any minifigures, so if you decide to get this set, you'll have to provide at least a minifig or two, to represent an employee and a customer.   In the pic above you can see that the scale of the building is not too bad and scales well to the minifigure.  This set is pretty good as it is, but I wanted to reduce its size so it would match the scale of my other concession stands.

I think I was able to reduce the size of the building by about 20 to 30%.  Here's a look at all the parts I was able to strip away.  That includes the sink and the mystery box.  Fortunately I can reuse those 4 windows in my other modular buildings.

I substituted the white windows for some brown window frames and lowered the counter height.  I had some extra french fry block pieces so I put one on the counter.  I don't normally put the stickers on my sets, but I thought in this case, the french fries stand looks a lot better with the menu.  Too bad they X'd out the prices though!

Here's the Sembo french fries stand next to some other concession stands.  The two stands immediately to the left are from the Lepin Roller Coaster set 15039 which you can find here on my other blog Its-Not-Lego.blogspot.com. 

Hope you enjoyed the pics and quick review!

Brand: Sembo

Model: French Fries Stand 6064

Number of pieces: 141

Number of minifigures: None