One of the most interesting things about the Chinese brick market is the willingness of manufacturers to be a bit more experimental. Today’s review is of a set that is unlike any other from any manufacturer, at least that I’ve seen. Xingbao’s XB-05001 is an automaton with a working music box, based on the legendary Hayao Miyazaki film “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” (or simply “Castle in the Sky” in North America). This fantasy film–the first to bring Miyazaki to a mass-audience in North America, via Disney’s Studio Ghibli–is centred on the adventures of two children who join forces with a band of ragtag pirates to find a legendary floating castle, Laputa.

If it sounds like an intriguing idea for a brick build–a levitating city seems a tough idea to implement convincingly–what adds to the allure of this set is a wind-up mechanical music box, playing the melody to film’s theme song. Wind the key to the music box, and in turn, the music box’s mechanics will drive the gears of the brick-built automaton, which will rotate the hovering city whilst floating two clouds underneath the city’s orb. Cool concept, right? Let’s see how the set lives up to its potential!

First off, I was very impressed with the premium look and feel of the packaging. The box is embossed and slightly holographic. It’s hard to capture those two traits in a photo, but I’ve tried:

Opening the box, the instruction book is nestled inside a tray that hides the many bags, full of nearly 1200 pieces.

Underneath, the pieces are bagged according to stages, and the music box was wrapped in bubble wrap for protection. I couldn’t wait to finish the build before checking the music box and found it to be sturdy, with a beautiful sound. Quite unique as an element of a brick-building set, for sure.

Once we open the instructions, we see a brief biography of the designer of this set. Since Xingbao works mostly off AFOL/MOC artists’ commissions, they typically include a designer’s bio and autograph on the instruction book. I think it’s a cool touch, to see whose work I get to enjoy. This set is designed by Hwang Byeong Jun (“Bangoo”), who hales from the Republic of Korea. I think it’s not only cool that he came up with this design, but that Xingbao could be persuaded to do something as unique as incorporating a music box.

The build is made of two main components: first, the automaton portion, constructed of many gears, pistons, rods, and machine works that will be attached to and powered by the music box. This part of the build is mostly technic-style elements. Second, the castle in the sky itself, which is built of more traditional Lego-like bricks and plates. The castle is topped with a tree and circled by a tiny aeroplane. With that overview done, let’s begin!

First, we build the baseplate and lay the foundations for the automaton. It’s not readily apparent how it will all come together and how the mechanics of it will work, just yet. Throughout the construction of this phase, I had to be careful–as with all technical builds–to not push things together too tightly. The gears need room on the axles to freely move, so unlike regular bricks, they should not be squeezed tightly up against any nearby pieces, typically. Whilst building, take care to note the difference as well between the typical 4×2 plates and the 4×2 plates with three holes in the top. The latter is critical at the beginning, as it will be the resting spot for the large axle that will hold and drive the castle in the sky. I didn’t notice the instructions calling for the holed-version and had to backtrack a lot later. Oops.

Also, you’ll want to take care to see that your gears and pistons are aligned exactly as the book shows, at each step. This will be critical to the operation of the machine, and the free movement of the pistons which will float the clouds later on.

We also will now build two clouds–one large, one small–that will just rest onto technic axles that will just rest on top of pistons, within the cylinders. There’s no clicking of anything into place with these features. Some may not like the free-floating nature of these clouds; it actually kind of grew on me as I would see the clouds slightly tilting or rotating from time to time as the music box operates. The cylinders themselves are moulded of transparent plastic, which I thought was really cool. If the technic axles that hold the clouds could’ve been moulded of clear plastic, that would’ve made them recede into the background a bit more, but at this point that’s more or less a nit-picky detail. I’m quite pleased with how it looks even with black axles holding the clouds.

The hardest part of this portion of the build is working with the metal axle that connects the machine to the castle. It comes greased, as one would hope, so be careful not to get the greasy parts into contact with lighter coloured bricks along the way into its resting spot (or have a rag handy to wipe them clean). It all connects up quite nicely and is held in place with a combination of those 4×2 holed plates with technics pins through which the rod is threaded. This part can be a bit tight, but be patient and take your time, and it’ll go just fine.

The music box is a custom-built deal, with a base that snaps onto tube-and-stud bricks. Clutch power and gear integration seemed perfect throughout this stage. The music box drives the gear system perfectly. So far, so good.

The most unusual piece, aside from the music box, is a large black semi sphere which will go on the vertical drive axle and form the base for our city to rest upon. Take care when attempting to slide it down the axle, as it’s a bit sticky getting it down into position. You’ll end up with what looks like a black cereal bowl hovering over a grey machine. Splendid!

Next, we begin the circular castle that will hover above the automaton. In order to make the ring base on which the castle is built, we will use dozens of two-part 2×1 hinge plates. These are probably my least favourite element of brick building, owing to the pain they cause my fingers whilst snapping them together. But, they are the best piece for the job, so I got to work and snapped together dozens of them throughout the next three stages. Here, you’ll want to mind the instructions and make sure you connect the hinges in the correct pattern.

There was one part where I was feeling a little unsure of whether the clutch would be sufficient. This was not because I doubted the clutch power of the Xingbao bricks themselves. I’ve built a handful of Xingbao sets and clutch has never been a problem. But, this set uses several 2×1 offset plates in a fairly important structural location (see photo), though they later are built around, so the offset plate is not the sole source of support for the city itself. But it takes a while to get there, and I was not sure that the foundations of the city resting on a handful of offset plates would work so well. But it did. I experienced no difficulty whatever in that respect.

Though the build from here is mostly symmetrical, there are some variances along the way. Watch to make sure your hinges alternate correctly. It’ll be difficult at this point to keep things in a very good near-circle shape, but that gets resolved in just a bit when we place inside it a large octagonal plate that gives it shape.

There are a few more steps along the way where you’ve got to get some plates situated into the city to give it more shape and structure. In one step, it bears being patient as you try to rest the second level of the city onto several pillars that consist of 1×1 round “can” bricks. That was one of the trickier manoeuvres of the build.

Finally, having completed the city, with its little bridge to the top level, we build a beautiful tree and a tiny plane that sticks off to the side on a transparent rod, which will circle the city.

Now, for our last step, we must rest the city on top of the black semi-sphere. It has four tabs protruding from its top edge, which correspond to four somewhat defined slots on the bottom of the city. As long as you can align those tabs and slots as you lower the city, Bob’s your uncle! The joining of my city with my machinery went off without any difficulties whatever. The result is, I believe, stunning.

In the end, we have a brick build unlike any other commercially available as far as I know. It’s beautiful, it sounds lovely, and I know it will make a good display piece and a conversation starter, perhaps even more than other sets I’ve got on display in my home or office.

Without question, I can recommend this set for any fans of Miyazaki, technical builders, and anyone looking for something fun and unique. With a number of clever building techniques in making the circular city and such astounding results, I’m absolutely delighted with the building experience (save for the finger-killing hinges) and the final product.

I must confess, I had not watched the film or even been aware of the film prior to learning of this set. I have seen a number of Miyazaki films of later vintage but was not aware of his entire back catalogue. This set, like many brick builds, therefore has also enriched my life culturally by introducing me to non-brick pursuits worth my time. I love it when I learn something fun or fascinating as a result of building a set, whether it be building techniques or historical information, or here, about a film by an amazing director. And, in researching the film, I also found out that parts of the film were influenced by mining communities in Wales (a country I dearly love and in which I try to spend significant time each year and in which have lived the second longest amount of time after my home country of the USA). So I’ve discovered a strange Venn diagram in which my interest in Wales, anime, and brick-building all overlap. What were the chances?

Sadly, the film is not available in a digital form (with subtitles in a language I can read) that I can get my hands on immediately, so I must wait to get Blu-Ray before I can watch it and then truly appreciate my new XB-05001 build. But I look forward to watching another great Miyazaki creation that I am now aware of thanks to this brick set.

Get it today from our friends at BuildingToyStore.com. At 63 USD, it’s a fun build at a great price, with an outstanding final product. You’ll be happy you did!

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