We’re back with another Xingbao review. Last time we dipped our toes into the Xingbao waters with the home furnishings gym, a small set of several hundred pieces with great detail, nonetheless. This time, we are jumping in, and reviewing the $79 USD, 3,320-piece XB-01003 Xinya Palace, which is of a completely different design aesthetic than the home gym, but which comes with lots of detail throughout its two storeys and accessories.

First, a word about (or an introduction to) the maker of this set and its companion sets (Silk shop, Chinese pub, Marital Arts School, and Chinese Theatre) in the Zhong Hua street series (which also has a miniaturised version available!). Xingbao has really made a name for itself among the brick-fan/AFOL community in the last two years. They have all-original designs, made by prominent AFOL/MOC builders, and still sell their sets at a very discounted price compared to LEGO. Over 3,000 pieces for $79 is a steal no matter how you look at it. This works out to 2.4¢ per piece, US. A LEGO-branded set is usually considered fairly priced at 10¢ per piece, though many of their licensed sets come in higher than that now. But considering that many of the pieces of the Xinya Palace are small (several hundred slopes on the roof, for example), we might look to a LEGO set built of many small pieces for a good price per piece comparison: LEGO Big Ben is $250 for 4,163 pieces, many of which are small bits. This works out to over 6¢ US per piece. So even a “bargain” price per piece from LEGO is over twice the cost of Xingbao’s original creations, for which they are paying royalties to a set designer. I suspect Xingbao will do very well, as they are already producing dozens of new designs this year, all original–no clones of LEGO or anyone else. These Chinese buildings are especially unique compared to anything being produced by any other brick manufacturer right now.

To get into our review now, let’s unbox this set. It’s quite a large box (wider than my desk, as the photo shows), and is packed quite nicely. Xingbao is clearly trying to make a good impression and create a pleasant experience from the very beginning:

Xingbao’s box highlights the agility of their minifigures

The mini-figures all come unassembled. As shown above, Xingbao is quite proud of the articulation of their minifigures, dedicating one whole side of the box to showing how these little ladies and men can move. The downside of this articulation is that each shoulder joint must be assembled by the builder, and if your fingers lack finesse as do mine, getting those teeny, tiny arms together can be a bit frustrating–especially when there’s 24 arms in all! But that aside, I experienced very little about this set that I found unhappy.

Perhaps luckily, the people assembly is part of stage 6, so I left it for the end.

Beginning the build, we start with a green 32 x 32 base plate, which I found solid and not too bendy at all. Nor did it have any warping that was noticeable. One thing Xingbao does not do is hold your hands too much throughout the building manual. Building this floor and fairly plain rear wall might be 20 steps in a LEGO manual, as opposed to 11 in the Xingbao manual:

From here, the building gets more fun all the time. The detail in the furnishings of this set mimic traditional Chinese furnishings, such as nature paintings (on printed tiles), furniture including a fully-furnished tea room and bedroom, and a waterfall in the palace courtyard. Each of these comes together from fairly basic pieces (except the waterfall rock, which is a specially-molded element). The red and gold painting of the lady is a decal which spans two tiles. This is one of only several decals in this set, all of which were very nicely printed, with vivid, even colours and on nice, semi-transparent film.

All of these furnishings are attractive, and come in a colour palate based on important colours in Chinese culture, which have worked their way into expressions in many media, including architecture.

One issue I had with the building instructions is one that will come as no surprise: it is hard to tell what colour some bricks are. Sometimes I wish manufacturers would just make obviously different pieces brighter than they are in real life. Even though this set has dark blue and dark green elements, using regular green and regular blue in the instructions would help discern between not only these colours but also between black, which occurs a lot in this set. The same problem exists between the dark red and brown in this set. Several times I found myself using brown pieces, only to later realise I needed dark red.

This problem first became evident for me in the step noted below, in which I have highlighted the coloured pieces for the benefit of you, the dear reader:

Building the front porch was an interesting experience–not unpleasant, neither was it difficult, but just different, as Xingbao has a different way of showing how it’s built. It was a bit tricky doing it entirely their way, just because building the porch and awning on its own requires lots of parts to stay together despite being rotated, jostled, and inverted. I had to attach the posts to the ground first, then build the rest on top, to help keep things stable and together. The result is very attractive and instantly recognizable as something straight out of old China:

Here you can see the forecourt, with the waterfall to the left and a small bamboo garden to the right. A larger bamboo grove will grow alongside the right of the building later on, which really adds to the character and ambiance.

The second story starts with a pile full of plates and–once again–a single step of the instructions showing the placement of the entire floor and sub-floor plates:

Make sure to place close attention to the exact locations all of those arrows are pointing to.

The upstairs features the bedchamber, and an outdoor balcony. The floors are designed throughout to look like traditional hardwood, with smooth and shiny brown tiles. For playability, your minifigures might have a hard time squeezing between the railing and the corner table holding the flower vase!

One of the nice things about Xingbao sets is the level of detail, which is evident on both the exterior and interior of the Xinya Palace:

One minor complaint about this part of the build, which will also apply a bit later (in the small gift kiosk shown at the end of this review), is the decal that goes across three 2×2 tiles that go above the upstairs door. It doesn’t look too bad, but I think the small breaks between the tiles are noticeable if you look closely. Not a big deal, overall, though.

The completed upper storey as viewed from above:

Now, having completed the main portion of this build, with only the roof and accessories to go, I was left with tons of extra parts. That always makes me a bit nervous, but I double-checked and hadn’t missed anything!

Luckily, the spare parts included two 1×6 grey plates, which were a good substitute for this 1×12 grey plate that’s suffered a molding deformation during production:

The roof really was a lot of fun to make, and see it take shape. Again, TONS of plates, and then topped off with about 400 cheese slopes in dark green and gold. It makes for a very nice effect. Finishing the roof are some custom-molded dragon finials that make an impressive touch.

The instructions for the roof were, as one might expect, a bit repetitive and I lost my place a couple times. Once I finished, I was a bit nervous to find out if my roof would fit the building correctly. Luckily, it did!

Now, on to the accessories and minifigures! After many trying minutes putting shoulders together, I did end up with twelve perfectly formed minifigures, and their hairpieces. The women’s hair were of several different styles. The one furthest to the right in the photo was a bit more rubbery and flexible than the others, which were all molded of a more usual rigid plastic.

We also get to build a horse in this set. The horse is quite similar to the LEGO horse element that’s been in circulation since the early 1980’s, except here we must put it together ourselves. That was kind of a cool thing to do, especially since as a kid I was always curious about the construction of the LEGO horse, but never so curious that I would’ve risked breaking one by attempting to disassemble one! As a kid especially, LEGO came very dearly to my boyhood budget!

We also get to build a sedan chair and a small gift stand. The total effect once the entire set is assembled is very pleasing.

With 12 minifigures, there’s ample opportunity to create various scenes and lots of play potential with this set. The colours combine to make a very attractive scene, too, I might add.

I knew I would like this set when I bought it. I expected good things from it. I was still pleasantly surprised at just how nice it looks completed. It is beautiful, honestly. The printing of all printed tiles and minifigures is perfect: crisp, vibrant, and aligned precisely. The quality of all of the bricks, aside from the one malformed plate (shown above), was top notch. As my first large Xingbao set, I can honestly say it will not be my last. I am excited to build more of the Chinese streetview series, which has grown by two sets already this year, and which I suspect will continue to grow and be popular in years to come.

I can positively recommend this set to brick fans who want to try something a little different to anything they’ve bought before, as well as fans of LEGO modular buildings. If you have a LEGO or Lepin modular city, the Chinese-style buildings–and this Xinya Palace in particular–will add a unique element that is sure to be a conversation starter. The Xinya Palace will instantly bring an element of old-world Chinese class and culture to your home, office, or wherever you display it.

Xingbao has found a good market for value-priced brick sets with original designs. From what I can tell, it seems the majority of Xingbao sets are designed by brick fans around the world, including some who have submitted ideas for consideration by LEGO. This is a great platform, and I look forward to seeing what great ideas come forth from Xingbao in future.

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