Nifeliz Big Boy Locomotive, Articulated Steam Locomotive Building Block Set, Legendary Steam Train Display Kit for Gift Giving (1,818 Pieces)

I am absolutely blown away at the quality of this set. I'll admit I had my reservations about ordering a block building set that wasn't Lego, since I remember being massively disappointed as a kid from certain off brands, but dare I say this brand is even better than Lego itself. The instruction booklet is an actual book with a spine and comes with a bookmark, the metallic pieces are either plated or mixed with metal flake because they feel and sound different than plastic, and it even comes with little cardboard boxes to empty the bags of pieces into so you're not sitting through a pile of junk on your coffee table. All the bricks fit together nicely, and the level of detail on the model is absurd. Do keep in mind that there is no space for a motor and the pistons on the wheels are quite fragile, so while this doesn't make a good dynamic model I'm not sure you could find a better 1:1 detail kit for display. The bricks are also quite stiff to fit together sometimes, so younger children may need help completing the set. You might have to contact support for any missing pieces, I received 2 tubes for the boiler that were the wrong length but I emailed them already and they got back to me within 24 hours. Definitely helped me rediscover my joy, will absolutely be ordering more sets from this brand (namely the Union Pacific diesel-electric and the North Carolina battleship) and will wait with bated breath to see what else they'll come out with in the future

This is a great model! Looks real nice on the shelf.The directions could be brighter, or maybe im going blind.No missing pieces, but i did receive 1 incorrect pieces, need flat 1x2 for a bumper, they gave me a 1sot 1x2 flat lolI had almost no fitting issues, im a fast builder and this took me about 8hrsOnly major issue i have is how the cow catcher and the wheels attach to the body. Front wheel just float! Cannot handle the model without gluing wheels. Honestly the tube detail needs work.Worth it i believe compared to lego prices.

I bought this set with low expectations given the reviews. But I was very pleasantly surprised. The set is well designed and the instructions were far easier to follow than I expected. I think I had maybe one or two very minor detail pieces missing, but I used some older bricks from a different set to fill the gap. The instructions are not always easy to follow, and I had to pull things apart and rebuild more than once, but the bricks held together well and I never had an issue with the set being fragile or not holding together. It's meant to be a static set, so not made for playing with or trying to put on a a larger track. But it makes a great discussion piece and overall looks very nice. Would definitely recommend for an older kid, teenager, or lego adult that is looking for a bit of a challenge.

I've been a lifelong fan of LEGO models, but real LEGOs are so expensive that it is difficult to justify the purchases sometimes. I have tried several of the "knock-off" brands and usually there are serious deficiencies in both block quality and fit, as well as overall quality control in missing pieces and designs that just don't go together well.This is my first Nifeliz model, and I must say I am impressed! I've also always been a fan of the UP 4000 series locomotives, so when I saw this model, I had to get it. The fact that it's not as dirt cheap as other knock-off brands and the overall positive reviews gave me a little more confidence in the purchase, and I am glad I made it. Overall, it took me maybe 12 hours or so to build over the course of an evening and the following morning. It is BIG! The overall dimensions are about 31 1/5 inches long, 5 1/5 inches tall (including the track base), and about 4 inches wide. Block quality is excellent, just about as good as real LEGOs, though LEGOs are slightly more aesthetically pleasing (things like the LEGO logo on top of the studs, where these just have nothing or mold marks). The pieces are packaged in a very clear way, with each bag of parts corresponding to a specific series of steps. No having to dig through different bags looking for the right one. Each bag contains all the parts for the steps printed on the bag. I also very much like the inclusion cardboard "storage trays" that made the build far easier to manage. A few extra pieces, and no missing pieces (though I thought I was missing one tiny piece, but I found it in the next bag).I am a bit disappointed in some design choices. For example, the coupler rods (the parts that connect to the drive wheels and the steam cylinders) only connect to two of the drivers (drive wheels) on each section. The front two drivers on each section are just free spinning. Additionally, the steam cylinders on the rear driver truck basically don't exist, and the pushrod just floats in the open. I don't know why they didn't use a few cam and link parts to simulate the cylinders like they did on the front (see pictures 2 & 3).Overall, I am very happy with this build. It went together quite easily, with the exceptions noted below, and the final model is quite a site. Read on for details on the few problems I ran into.PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE INSTRUCTIONS WHEN DEALING WITH PLATES BOTH WITH AND WITHOUT HOLES! The instructions are not very clear in differentiating these parts, and it's easy to put down a bunch of plates only to find you need to break them all up and start over. The instructions are fairly good, though the choice of colors (making previous steps all the same grey color in the current step) sometimes makes it a little difficult to see what your supposed to do).Lastly, there were a couple of loose fitting parts, one of which makes the build extremely delicate to handle (which is to be expected, but it's much worse because of the loose parts). First, there are a pair of decorative bars meant to simulate the handrails around the front of the boiler. The piece in question is a pair of parts that slip onto the ends of a plastic hose/tube that simulates the rail along the side of the boiler. These two parts simply slip over this tube, and the fit is extremely loose, especially on the right side (there is no grip on the right, it simply falls off if not braced). I added a pair of extra black beam "connector pins" to the build that tightened these pieces a little, but they are still too loose (see pic 4). Also, those plastic tubes were cut slightly too short, exacerbating the loose fit problem. These tubes should have been left slightly longer and let the builder cut them to exact length during the build.The second loose fitting part is the one that makes it so difficult to handle. The Leading Truck (the four small wheels at the front of the locomotive) is built around a rather interesting set of axle (spline shaft) connections. Among these are four gray pieces butted against each other over a short spline shaft (the gray pieces underneath the blue bar in the pic). Unfortunately, these pieces are the only things connecting the front two wheels of the truck to the back ones, and they are both very loose fitting. As a result, if you pull on the nose of the locomotive any, these pieces separate and the forward part of the Leading Truck comes away. It is also extremely difficult to put these back together because all of these parts are free-moving axle pieces meant to allow the Leading Truck a good deal of movement.There are other strange design choices, such as bevel gears being installed on almost all Drivers, but they don't do anything. It's almost like the designer intended to have a gear-drive system inside to link the Drivers together but then dropped the idea. The plastic ribbed hoses on the side were also not thought out well, as the forward one is supposed to be bent, but the piece at the front of the hose only attaches to the train at one point, so it can swivel and the force of the bent hose just pushes it away. I ended up just cutting the hose shorter and connecting it to a different point on at the back. It's not right, but it's better than before.