Modified Lepin 15010 Parisian Restaurant Modular (Not Lego)

I bought my first Lepin 15010 Parisian Restaurant in 2016 and then bought another Lepin Parisian Restaurant in April 2017, because it was on sale.   It's since been built it and re-built it several times, and here's how it looks today.

The second Parisian restaurant is now the new home of a recording studio on the main floor and a music store on the second and third floors. 

Before we look inside, let's review the changes made to the exterior front facade from top to bottom.  The clamshells on the third floor never closed properly for me, so they have been replaced by round tiles.

On the second floor, the center doors have been replaced by another bank of windows.  My spare brick stash didn't have another arch so I just added some different detailing over the windows.

Leading from the first level to the second level, I changed the external staircase colour from brown to gray and bricked in the front windows.

On the back side, not much has changed on the third level, but the on the second level, the door has been relocated to the side of the building.  The veranda is still there sitting atop the enlarged first level.

The most major structural change is on the main floor, where the back wall swings open to reveal the interior of the recording studio.  Sorry, the yellow bricks above look really crappy due to different brick brands and quality.  Hope to change those out one day.

I designed the rear walls to swing open yet still have enough support to hold up the floors above.  The swing walls make it so much easier to access the interior spaces, if I need to move brick pieces around.  It helps for picture taking too.  The old restaurant's interior of kitchen and dining room are long gone.

Inside the recording studio, we've got a band with 2 guitarists, one on keyboards and another on drums.  The music sheets have butterflies on them because they come from a Friends set (fake lego of course).   Green hair girl does the vocals as evidenced by the microphone.

Here's a closer look at the drum set-up.  I googled Lego drum sets to get the inspiration for my own drum set.  Hopefully it looks acceptable.   Unfortunately it's hard to see the keyboardist in the back corner under the stairs.

The other side of the recording studio has a really annoyed sound engineer being disturbed by one of the members of the KISS band (maybe Peter Criss?) who decided to come over and hang out for the day.

Those uncomfortable chairs need to be replaced with a nice sofa set.   Gene and Ace agree.

The last member of the KISS band, Paul is outside donating money to the guy who's down on his luck.

A few days ago, the new music store had it's grand opening and here's all the peeps that showed up to check everything out.  On the second floor, I got rid of the murphy bed and fireplace and moved the door to the side wall.  New black and white flooring was added.  The music store has a piano, a selection of guitars (thanks Coco!), and a small set of drums.  I took out the front wall so it would photograph better.

With the front wall added back on, the music store feels really claustrophobic, but hey, the rent is cheap.

Here's a closer look at the drums for sale.

An upright piano at the far end of the store.

Surplus musical instruments are stored on the top floor, where the artist's studio used to be.

Well, that's it!  Please let me know what you think of the recording studio and music store.  What do you like or don't like and how can it be improved?   Let me know in the comments, thanks!

GBL KY98216 Minifigures set Review

Hello again!  

I'm reviewing another Lego clone set I bought during the Aliexpress 11.11 sale in 2018.  I just got the set recently so it has taken about 2 months to get to me.  This is my first encounter with the brand GBL which is short for Gao Bo Le.  Is GBL is a sister brand of Kazi?  Not sure.   Anyways the set number is KY98216 and consists of 8 train themed diorama minifigures.  

Each minifigure comes packaged with a little 20 piece accessory set and a two sided instruction sheet.  Let's check them all out now.  (Warning! this post has lots of pictures.)

KY98216-1:  White collar woman (all minifig descriptions courtesy of Aliexpress).

The female minifigure sports a pink blazer and white pants.  Her hair isn't plastic but rubber, similar to the hair found on Lego Friends minifigs.

There's no backside printing on the woman minifigure.

The white collar woman pushes a luggage cart consists of an orange parcel and 2 suitcases.  I've seen this cart used as a baby tram before.  In the diorama, there's two green seas and a recycle bin with lid.

Nice touch on the printed bin.  I got an extra hand too.  

KY98216-2:  Little Boy in Park

The little boy minifigure has a light blue tunic and is wearing overalls but only on the frontside.

The little boy's diorama consists of a brown park bench and a pair of green and pink balloons stuck into 2 brick pillars.

 KY98216-3:  Bizarre Doctor

This set is truly bizarre.  We have this weird faced minifigure who's supposed to be a black suited doctor carrying a printed briefcase.

The doctor comes with a dining room set that has a circular table, two pink chairs, a mug, a newspaper and a bowl of something.  Unfortunately, the pedestal for the table doesn't fit into the hole.  And what's with the pink chairs?  This is my least favorite set of the series.

KY98216-4: Station Announcer

The station announcer wears a white jacket and blue cap.  He's got a headset as well.  His facial expression looks confused.

While the announcer isn't the best minifig of the bunch, I really like his accessory set. He's got this control center with telephone and microphone on 2 small desks.  It's hard to find these type of Lego like accessories.  All the control center parts are printed too, not stickered.  Announcer also gets an extra headset and hand.

KY98216-5: Station Inspector

Although this minifigure is called Station Inspector, I'd call him a maintenance guy, based on his accessories.  He looks to be wearing an orange jumpsuit with lots of straps and pockets.  He wears a blue cap and sports glasses on his face.

His diorama/accessory set is a platform ladder, a beige tool box with a drill, some bits and a wrench.  He gets an extra hand as well.

KY98216-6: Steward

This minifig is called the Steward, but I'm not sure what his actual job function is.  He's wearing blue pants, a white suit jacket with a blue shirt.

The accessory is an automatic gate.  I can probably use that in my Lepin 02015 Train station set.

KY98126-7 Stewardess

GBL calls her a stewardess, but she looks

KY98126-8:  Train Conductor?

This minifigure looks like the guys who stand on the train platform to make sure the trains show up on time, based on his vest which has a pad and pen in the pocket.  I didn't like his vehicle accessory, whatever it was, so I stripped it for parts and didn't bother featuring it here.

Thanks for checking out this review.