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

The Big Boy!
This is a big kit. Having built several of these types of models, in my judgement this is an advanced-level kit. It has 6 major build stages. Each stage took me about 1.5-2 hours. Completion was 10-12 hours. It’s a good challenge, and well worth the effort and enjoyment. I did it over a 3-day weekend. The model is very intricate with lots of very small pieces, which add really nice detail. I had no missing pieces, however – don’t loose anything because there are no extras included. My kit came out to the exact number of pieces. Everything went together just fine. It makes a very nice display.

Very good kit, no missing parts, just a couple of loose fitting parts
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.

Un modelo a escala muy recomendable si te gustan los trenes

First off, let me say I’ve been building with Lego since 1966 when a German friend sent me a box of Lego before Lego even launched in North America. Then my family had $1000’s in Lego blocks and kits which have long been passed along to a younger family. I needed a hobby to keep me occupied in my old age and have come back to the brand so this is my Third Lego Life! What I’ve learned is Lego has put too much effort into movie brands and not enough into interesting builds. And the prices! OUCH!!I’ve been wondering about Nifeliz. The kits are certainly ones I would like to try and I finally decided to try out the Big Bad Boy!I paid $85 Canadian (after a $10 coupon) for a 1608 piece kit that is a very nice representation of the Big Bad Boy Locomotive. The blocks seem of high quality, and they are fully interchangeable with OE Lego blocks. The instructions aren’t quite as good. The smaller size makes it harder to puzzle out what exact colour block you need, and it’s harder to spot the differences in the images. But my eyesight isn’t as good so maybe that is more a me problem! LOL The build isn’t quite up to Lego engineering. I can see many areas that could have been improved and made stronger. The linkage for the drives is very fragile and can fall apart with an errant glance. I can see why some people have ended up gluing pieces together. I didn’t have any missing pieces, and even have a few left over. That being said this would have been well over $400 if it had the Lego brand on it.Will I stop buying Lego? No, they still have some kits that interest me, but the price tag is off-putting and it will be much harder to justify the difference for similar kits. Thank goodness there isn’t a huge amount of overlap! I’ve already purchased the Leopard tank kit! And I have many more Nifeliz kits in the wish list!I wish Amazon had more options for the ratings. I giving it 5 stars, but I want to take off 1/2 star for the small instruction booklet.