Bulldozer - Daiso/Ligao Review

[crossmr]

Set name: Bulldozer can't find a number

Price: 3000W ($2.50 USD)

Pieces: 92

size: 13 cm long, 7cm tall, 5 cm wide

construction time: 10 minutes

I've been passing by the dollar store and occasionally seeing these. I've been curious what their quality was like. I finally picked one up today. Prior to opening it the only company markings on it are "Daiso". This is a Japanese Dollar store that operates in Korea. I could tell from the box it wasn't an oxford clone because the figures were Lego style.

Box

Seemed normal enough. Korean writing on it. Colourful solid cardboard. The tape looked a little off. Good picture showing a bulldozer and 2 minifigures.

instruction book

It's okay. only a couple pages, small pictures, grays out the old pieces. A couple intricate things were hard to see.

Pieces

Bit of a smell. A very obvious smell. Still is an hour or so later. Can't imagine what I'm going to do if it doesn't go away. Couple unique pieces which is why I picked this one. A chrome exhaust pipe and a dozer bucket. also some unique hinges. Clutch is not bad. Most of the pieces clutch well, but in 2 or 3 spots the clutch is shot. it might need a spot of glue if I expect to keep it together.

Construction

Fast and easy. Nothing complicated here, the clutch caused an issue with the canopy but I got it straightened away.

Minifigures

Horrible. Look at the real minifigure. Now look at the box, back at the real guy, back at the box. back at the figure, back at the box. Now look at me.

You can't see me but that's my unimpressed face. The box clearly shows 2 different minifigures. One with a hat, one with a construction hat. Different hands and arms. There is only one in the box and his color doesn't even match. He's red. His arms are very loose. His legs are tight, but only because his pegs are bent slightly. It was very difficult to pull his legs off. The hat is garbage. It sits so high on his head. it doesn't come down like a Lego hat. The sticker looks ridiculous on him.

Design

Design is not horrible for a small cheap set. The canopy could have been better. I'm not sure why it needs to completely come off like it does.

Playability

here is the really important thing. Could you play with it? sure. it isn't falling apart. On it's own. it isn't much, but what $2 set is? Very few. As part of a city, I'd say he's got pretty decent playability. Bucket goes up and down (it's a click connection so it's solid and doesn't flop around) The wheels come off so you could have a mechanic scenario going on.

Completed model

here it is.

Conclusion

Minifigure - 1/10 he's there, he gets one point for showing up and being a bad guy for my army guys right now. He's the closest thing I've got.

parts - 4/10 a couple unique parts, but smell and clutch hold it back. if the smell goes away, I might bump it up 1 point.

Playability - 7/10 nothing really on its own, but I think it'd fit into a city set well, it rolls very smoothly

Design - 5/10 the canopy is not great and the wheel wells site a bit high.

Price - 6/10 given the other flaws, this should have been 2000W or 1500W, not 3000. Double this price and I can get an army jeep. Two of these are not worth an army jeep.

Total: 23/50

This is not a great set. If you need a bucket or exhaust pipe, it's a cheap way to get those. Almost nothing else from this is really great. This is actually part of a series. They also have a cement mixer, steamroller and a train. I'm not sure if I have the stomach for them or not. I already feel like I got cancer from the smell of this one.

I can now see why some people might be scared of Oxford because it isn't genuine Lego. Let me tell you that Oxford is nothing like this. Oxford is head and shoulders above this. I don't see any clutch issues with any of my Oxford sets (except that one windshield on the jeep, but the truck is tight!) there is no smell, and the figures are solid quality.

[RohanBeckett]

Horrible. Look at the real minifigure. Now look at the box, back at the real guy, back at the box. back at the figure, back at the box. Now look at me.

You can't see me but that's my unimpressed face. The box clearly shows 2 different minifigures. One with a hat, one with a construction hat. Different hands and arms. There is only one in the box and his color doesn't even match. He's red. His arms are very loose. His legs are tight, but only because his pegs are bent slightly. It was very difficult to pull his legs off. The hat is garbage. It sits so high on his head. it doesn't come down like a Lego hat. The sticker looks ridiculous on him.

You REALLY need to add: I'm on a Horse

at the end of this paragraph....

RB

[Rick]

Thanks for posting this. We should really all think back to this first if we ever think of blaming TLG for coming up with bad model designs.

Oh, and the construction is 'illegal' because those click hinges are definitely not 'in click'.

[VBBN]

You paid 2.50$ at a dollar store?

Thanks for the review,

Though a very pathetic looking set,it's only worth it for the Chrome exaust pipe.

On that note, is this thing part of the police force? Whats with the red and blue lights on the canopy?

[KimT]

You paid 2.50$ at a dollar store?

Thanks for the review,

Though a very pathetic looking set,it's only worth it for the Chrome exaust pipe.

On that note, is this thing part of the police force? Whats with the red and blue lights on the canopy?

And where's the two minifigs depicted on the box?

Not everything in a dollar store is one dollar only.

Perhaps it's like that in the US, but not here in Europe and it seems that it's not like that in Asia as well.

[Sisco]

Wow, that is one bad clone. I've never seen a set that doesn't have everything on the box, actually. Chrome piece is definitely the only attention grabber here.

And where's the two minifigs depicted on the box?

Not everything in a dollar store is one dollar only.

Perhaps it's like that in the US, but not here in Europe and it seems that it's not like that in Asia as well.

It depends on the store. I.E., Dollar Tree- Everything is one dollar. Dollar General- Everything is not one dollar.

[Peppermint_M]

Oooo Liago are a bootleg brand (I have a set) The main signs are the very Lego wheels, the design is not often copied 100% by clones. The next is if it matches a TLG set, but I am not an expert of sets (only minifig parts). I wonder if it is a copy of any set?

[Sisco]

Heh. Liago. Lego. Notice any similarities?

I don't think it's a copy of a whole TLG set, maybe part of one of the construction sets.

[crossmr]

You paid 2.50$ at a dollar store?

Thanks for the review,

Though a very pathetic looking set,it's only worth it for the Chrome exaust pipe.

On that note, is this thing part of the police force? Whats with the red and blue lights on the canopy?

Yes, this particular store has quite a few things for $1, but has some stuff for a little more. While not a pure dollar store, it's the closest thing you'll find here in Korea.

The bucket is nice too. It's nice and sturdy. As I'm mainly focused on military, and they sometimes use heavy equipment to do things, the bucket might come in handy.

Wow, that is one bad clone. I've never seen a set that doesn't have everything on the box, actually. Chrome piece is definitely the only attention grabber here.

Piece wise, they were all there. I'm not sure if they genuinely intended to have 2 minifigs or what. There seems to be a warning in Korean on the box that says the picture might differ from the content.. I think. My korean is only so-so ;)

I wonder if it is a copy of any set?

I had a look through brickset for both cement mixers and bulldozers and can't find anything that matches these. It might be original. A crappy original.

Heh. Liago. Lego. Notice any similarities?

Ligao ;) I'm not sure how that is actually pronounced though. I've got a friend here who is from china studying, but she's back in China right now, when she get's back I'll ask her what it's pronounced like.

I don't think it's a copy of a whole TLG set, maybe part of one of the construction sets.

I just looked through all 3 construction subthemes. Nothing seemed close at all. Lego has many bulldozers and front end loaders, but they all usually had bigger wheels, and buckets that were on arms. No body styles matched at all.

here we are about 16 hours later.

Smell is significantly less, but if you take a good whiff you can still get it. The clutch problem hasn't resulted in any popping off, but I'm considering giving a couple key pieces a shot of glue just to increase stability. Other than the pipe and the bucket I'm unlikely to any of the other pieces for anything. I don't entirely hate this design. A couple of tweaks and design-wise it's far better. For me 4 improvements would make this a pretty decent set:

1. Replace the minifigure

2. improve clutch

3. redesign canopy

4. the smell really needs to go away

other than the unique parts, it could all be replaced by Lego (but not in the construction orange) and a Lego minifigure. Take the basic design in construction yellow, maybe take the bucket and exhaust pipe and design a new canopy and it'd look okay I think.

I have decided to hit about 5 or 6 pieces with a dab of glue, like crazy glue. It's significantly improved the clutch and overall sturdiness of the model. I was careful to not glue too much so I can still disassemble most of it and get at the bucket and pipe.

Edited July 12, 2010 by crossmr

[crossmr]

I just thought I'd mention that 1 week later the smell is still noticeable. It has gone down quite a bit, but if you give it a whiff you can still get it. The smell does seem to be much stronger on the wheels. It could be some kind of rubber smell that permeated into the rest of the pieces while in package. I'm wondering if washing the set would help, but at this point I've put stickers on and glued a couple pieces. I noticed today that they had a 4th set in the series in the shop, a dump truck.

If these didn't smell so bad and have random clutch and minifig issues, they'd be a great supplement for a city set.