A Light-Up Building Set for this cheap?! | Funwhole Newsstand Review 

I think that's a very common opinion. I still think LEGO is the best in town but healthy competition is great and I like to see what's out there. Thanks for watching!

Sadly Funwhole sets aren't that much less in price, and the pricing is all over the place especially for people outside of the US... Which is definitely something that they could look into addressing to tap a wider market.

Glad you like them! Just like to help show what's out there. Wouldn't review something I'm not interested in myself.

Yes! It's all compatible.

Thanks for watching :) Glad you liked it!

The parts are good quality, they don't feel identical to lego but some of the best I've found. They are less snappy but have a tighter clutch, if that makes sense

Glad you like it! I haven't tried the Old West theme but it looks really cool.

Im with you solely because more competition means lego has to try more. I personally dont like mixing brands, with the exception of custom order pieces like on Bricktactical and Brick Arms, but thats more an ocd thing, for me at least.

Great comment! LEGO fandom is especially crazy. I get a lot of weird comments about people mad at the fact that I try other brands. I just like to see what's out there, I can't afford to buy every LEGO set.

Oh, I'm certainly jealous. I want so much LEGO but just can't afford it. But luckily I'm in a position to do these reviews and try some new things out, hoping to show others that there are cheaper options out there if you just have a passion for building, like me. Thanks for your awesome comment! This is a great first Funwhole set.

I am curious on brick quality. How would you personally evaluate it, compare if original Lego would be 10 out of 10 reference. How much would you give to FunWhole? By bricks quality I mean how they connect together

@@Brick_Reporter I’ve built about 12 Funwhole sets. Apart from a few of their earliest sets, they now mainly use GoBricks, and a few custom moulds they’ve designed themselves for holding the wires. GoBricks is (much) better than Lego when it comes to color consistency, especially in colors like Tan, dark Red, dark green,… Lego can have many slightly different shades of the same color which can be very ugly in a set. Some GoBricks colors are a slightly different Hue than Lego, but within the brand, the colors are very consistent. GoBricks and Lego fit together without problems, again I’ve had Lego sets were I was less satisfied with the accuracy than with Funwhole. GoBricks have a bit of a harder haptic, and the stud/anti-stud grip is tighter. This helps with some more advanced building techniques where bricks are angled and only connected in 1 or 2 studs and you know they’ll hold. So the tightness doesn’t feel like inaccuracy; it is consistent along the brand and a design choice that differentiates it as more of an adult building brick, where Lego keeps in mind that easy disassembly by a 3 year old is paramount. There are a few mould designs, especially in this set, where they have purposely opted for a notable design difference from Lego elements. For example a 2x2 jumper tile always has an engraved frame (Lego is enforcing a protected design on the 2x2 jumper tile in Europe, among many other pieces) Some of the larger rounded plates in the roof designs have Extra gaps at their edges, some of the 1x2 plate modified clips have a weird shape etc. All of this seems like it is FunWhole doing their best to jump through all the hoops that Lego is imposing on the competition, because while they don’t have the patent for the “system”, they try to patent/trademark/designprotect individual parts. It’s of course also the reason why the minifig is so differentiated from the Lego design. (not all of those laws are enforceable in the USA, but Europe, notably Germany, is an important market for Funwhole, and Lego has aggressively litigated and blocked the import of some brands over very minor design issues, not plagiarism mind you) The main advantage Lego has is the shiny quality of their tiles. In this set the tiles are definitely OK, but not as flawlessly high gloss as Lego. Also worth noting is that the single color prints (newspapers) in this set are Pad Printed, whereas the multi-color prints like the larger posters are probably UV-printed: more grainy like an older inktjet printer, you can see it in the closeups of the video. Another thing I like less is that the bird is single color and unprinted. This is a great set to try as a first Funwhole sampler. If you like cars better, the tiny steampunk car is even cheaper and has absolute top quality chrome and printed pieces

Definitely worth it! Thanks Larv :)

Hey, THAT is a veeeeery interesting combination. GG! Don't ask me why, but I imagine a petrol station next to it. Or even better: the diner. Like in the old days: 'just imagine'.

@@KrissFighta2Thanks for the tip! A diner isn't a bad idea...

Thank you very much!! It may go near my bugle too. What did you put in the extra 8x16 section of the MILS plate?

@@NewBrickerton for now nothing...but I'm working on a raised trainline!

@@bomber_cost Noice! I would have gone for a couple of bushes and a tiny fountain, but your idea is so much more interesting.

Wow, thanks for the kind words! That means a lot. Thanks for watching!!

@@NewBrickerton I mean it man; I really do! Happy building and cheers to a new year!

Awesome! Let me know what you think!

We had already built three FO sets (the 'Kraken', the lodge, and the wood cabin), this fourth one, smaller, did not disappoint. Like you said, it is a gorgeous set. Still have the medieval marketing boxes, waiting to be built, and the 'Indy' temple coming tomorrow. Thus, nice hours incoming.

Btw, it is partly thanks to you: your videos lifted many of my doubts about alternative brands. Have tried quite a bunch of them. Still searching for the Nickbuild building you presented (not to be found in Western Europe). So: THANKS, Michael. Viewers and brands owe you big time. *** Peace.***

I appreciate this comment, I do think I was a bit harsh. At least they are unique! I just built another Funwhole set and I think they will grow on me.

Yay! Congrats!!

It's worth it, at that price it's a great for a trial run!

Good to know! I saw that when I was testing it, but wasn't sure if everyone got that. Glad you snagged it for even cheaper!

Thank you! :)

@@NewBrickerton 👍😎👌😁

I think i was a little harsh on the minifig, you make some good points. Original minifigs is better than no minifigs!

@NewBrickerton I just got Assembly Square before it sold out and am building it now. I'm replacing all the MF heads because using only the original smily face heads in a city setting makes them seem kind of creepy. Like they sold their souls and have been programmed to obey on command. 😆 The large dark eyes on the Funwhole MF are what throw it for me a bit.

Funwhole Steampunk Ore Train, I also did a review on that one and you can find it on their website

@@NewBrickerton awesome, thank you so much!

Yes, very compatible! The pieces are the same size.

I picked this up before Christmas and thought it was great! You really did justice to the set, great review! I only would add, give the minifigure some time, he will grow on you 😂. Especially when paired with the little old lady from the current Dreamzzz sets! 😂

Your question has already been answered but allow me to add one thing: FO sets are not only full compatible with LEGO ones, but they integrate and complete them perfectly. If you can, do not hesitate to try one (this one is perfect as an introduction - small and very affordable), you won't regret it.

@@KrissFighta2 i will defenitly try these ,i have already buy 3 of the fake modular that he show before

That's fair, I don't think I was dishonest with the framing of the video as it says what I'm reviewing in the title. Honestly, I tagged lego so more people would see it. Part of my goal is to get people to think about LEGO alternatives. To me this is akin to tagging Kleenex in a video about tissues. But, I see your point and I will definitely be more thoughtful about this in the future!

lol it’s basically Lego so chill 😂

Which ones do you mean? It's certainly a grey area. In a legal sense, the patent to the basic brick LEGO brick design expired, and LEGO was denied universal protection for a compatible block system. Whether or not you think it's ethical to "copy" a product is up to your own interpretation, but this is something that is not unique to the LEGO world. It is a ubiquitous product at this point, not much different than all the other products made by various companies. I give more of my thoughts and info about this topic in my video called "I almost promoted a STOLEN Lego Ideas set" if you want to check that out and let me know what you think! For what it's worth, Funwhole has created some cool elements that LEGO doesn't even make to help attach their Light kits.

@@NewBrickerton Ignoring the obvious rectangle bricks and plates that you would expect from any knock off brand that is compatible with LEGO, there are some more detailed elements here that look like they literally used LEGO pieces to make a mold. There are so many, like the decorative gold elements on the top of the news stand and the weapon piece at the top. The flowers and the leaf piece they are on, the grates in the street, the lamp pole, the bike etc... It would be easier to list the few elements that are not complete 1 to 1 exact copies of LEGO molds. It's surprising to me that they stopped short of copying the LEGO minifigure. The reason Funwhole's minifigure can't fit on the bike is because that is EXACTLY the bike design that LEGO uses for their minifigures. I imagine that it is not worth it for LEGO to fight this in court because this is probably a Chinese brand and China is not known for enforcing any protection of IP, especially when it comes from foreign nations. I don't use court decisions to guide my own opinion because they are just as imperfect as the humans who make those decisions, but I do imagine that the ruling did not imply that other companies can make exact replicas of LEGO designs. LEGO is greedy and deserves more competition but I would hope the competition would not completely steal designs, not just for ethical reasons but also for losing the chance to innovate with new concepts and designs.

In recent years, Lego has been copying molds created by other companies, too.

Parts is parts. The car industry goes the same way, keeps everything cheaper. Keeps the playing field somewhat levelled. Otherwise, Lego will just continually come up with "rare new part" of the month and scam you that way.