[Review] Keiji 5005 (Mybuild)

[Mechbuilds]

Here's my humble review of the offbrand mybuild's product: "Keiji" 

First of all, the box itself feels really good quality. 
The parts were packed in plastic bags and the instruction booklet was tucked inside the box. 



The instruction booklet itself also feels very high quality. 



The instructions themselves are clear to read just like your regular lego booklets. Although the colors are very deep and dark. 

Here's a sample of one of the small stud pieces that are used in the joints:


Instead of a paint or a sticker, these things are actually indented. 

Here's a comparison or the technic shoulder joints used compared to regular technic. (Lego = silver and MyBuild black.)


Very close but just slightly thicker than lego. 



Notice how they utilized their original skeleton but modified the shoulders to give it additional articulation. 



It was pretty satisfying to build. All the parts snap on very snugly and feel very tight. The quality is more of like a display piece instead of a toy to play with. 
I felt more like building a moc instead of building a regular set. 






It did leave some additional parts behind. 


The cockpit opens up and it has room for a minifigure:



I used a Lego starwars figure to show off how it fits. 





As you can see, without the helmet, it fits in very nicely. (I purposely angled the shoulder piece a little bit sideways so you can see the figure.)


However, with a helmet it's a different story:



It doesn't fit completely closed with the helmet. 


I did have a little bit of trouble with the sword though. 



The back part is very fragile to fall off. If you accidentally touch it even lightly, it'll fall off. 

However, the same problem doesn't come for the front piece because:



It has a bar inside it which helps with the connection. 


What i didn't like about the sword was the use of this illegal connection here:



Plate on a clip.  The sword itself is very fantasy-like. 
A standard 1x1 clip plate with one of those long plates would have sufficed as a believeable sword.
The proportions of the sword look comically huge. 

The hip and shoulder pieces are just a clip on a bar which leaves them room to slide back and fourth and tilt up and down.








Here's a better view of the cockpit: 

 

It has room for a standard lego minifigure to sit normally and enjoy the ride. 
The starwars pilot helmet was too fat to fit though. 


Here's a picture of the figure standing straight with the sword on the ground just to show the scale of the sword compared to the figure:



View of the back:



And the pose:







My thoughts:

Brick feel:
9/10 - The pieces feel very snug and strong. As good as the original lego bricks themselves. However i had problems with the swords connection to the arm which was kinda loose. The studs that connect to the joints just push in but don't have a satisfying click. However, they're in there very tight. 

Instructions:
8/10 - The instruction booklet is good quality and the instructions are clear to read and understand. However the colors are kinda dark which gave me a problem to distinguish if i need a blue or a black piece. 

The figure itself:

- Looks
9/10 - It looks very beautiful, it's more moc like and good attention to detail. Almost no studs left visible. However, the sword was a part i disliked. 

- Structure
8/10 - It's very sturdy and poseable. However the sword connection is very fiddly. 

- Building the figure
10/10 - It was very fun to build. 

 Overall score: 8,8 / 10 


Last thoughts: 
It feels like a high quality model that sits on top of a shelf. It feels very stiff to move which is a good thing because it's highly poseable.
It's made using injection molding which makes the parts nice and strong. The company was nice enough to send me two of their products to review. (Thank you very much!)
Would i recommend this product? Absolutely. 




Links:
https://www.mybuildtoy.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mybuildtoy/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu8i-dnVpFP0QrULIaQzudA



 

[Mechbuilds]

I discovered that the hand part has a go trough hole in one side and just a stud on the other. After flipping the hand a bit, the sword stays on perfectly. 
The stud side that doesn't have a hole is slightly smaller than the stud with the hole. Also the sideways studs on the legs are slightly smaller too. 
The 1x1 plates do stick well. But when trying a cheese wedge from lego, they don't really stick that well. 

Conclusion: 
The leg and hand pieces should be reworked to have the studs stick better to lego. 

[anothergol]

I've just seen their animation which is pretty well made

 

I'm tempted to buy this one just for the car hoods that Lego has never done in LBG (*hoping* that it's fully color-compatible)

 

Otherwise, my thoughts on their frame:  ....too late!

This would have been amazing before the introduction of Mixel joints and, a bit later, Nexo torsos. Today, I don't see much that can't be done with real parts. Perhaps the knee double-bar-joint is nice, but I've read about it snapping because it's a bit smaller than Lego bars.

Finally: too expensive. I don't know which clone brand they use for the parts, but most likely "mybuild" only designed the frame, there's a clone manufacturer behind. In any case, this might be a 20 bucks Lego set, but for 20 bucks (& even there it would still be expensive), clones generally offer at least 3x more.

 

Btw the sword is tile-on-a-clip, normally not illegal (Lego does it) but the way the clip touches the border of the clip is probably stressing the clip, in this case.

Edited November 11, 2018 by anothergol