Building a Lumibricks set: what’s it like?

Following our unboxing of a Lumibricks set, we’ve now had chance to assemble it – but how does the building process shake out, and what’s it like putting all those lights together?

If you’re unfamiliar with Lumibricks, it’s well worth starting with our unboxing feature, but to offer a bit of context here: this is a construction toy brand whose unique selling point is integrated lighting in each and every kit, using a series of wires and connection points with specialty elements to ensure a relatively seamless building experience.

At least that’s the idea: but what is the building process actually like? Let’s find out.

Lumibricks lighting

As discussed previously, one of the first things you’ll notice on opening the box to any Lumibricks set is the separate package full of lighting components. The instruction manual invites you to test these are functioning correctly before assembling the set, presumably to avoid having to take the whole thing apart again if one of them isn’t working.

If this is your first experience with incorporating lighting into a build (with any brand), it might seem a little daunting to begin with. It certainly makes for a much more complex assembly process than just clicking bricks together (how could it not?). And installing the lighting as you go is pretty fiddly in places – the wires are mostly exactly the length they need to be, which is impressive, but occasionally there’s a bit too much or not quite enough slack for comfort. Those occasions are rare, mind.

For this feature we’ve put together 17005 Game Stack, one of Lumibricks’ cyberpunk neon city sets. 

Its lighting components consist of a variety of bricks, plates, and strips, with relevant connection points to integrate them into the build. And while it takes a little extra effort, the effect is genuinely satisfying – especially because the entire set is designed and laid out in such a way that a single switch controls every light source simultaneously.

There’s some real ingenuity in the design and engineering to make that happen, even if the lighting effects don’t always match what’s on the box – some of the individual modular sections (more on those soon) are illuminated by a single spotlight, so you don’t quite get the room-filling glow you’ll find in other areas.

It’s all pretty impressive to behold when the lights are all functioning, though, especially given some of them are animated or change colour.

Lumibricks pieces

The part selection (at least in 17005 Game Stack) is interesting in all the right ways, particularly if this is your first Lumibricks set. There are elements you’d expect but also plenty you might not, such as double-sided 1x1 and 1x2 plates that allow for new connections. In some ways you might consider it a shortcut that sidesteps what could otherwise have been a more novel technique, but it’s really just a matter of perspective.

Pieces are distributed across numbered bags, plus a couple of bags with letters – S and F in this case – which mostly contain the elements related to lighting, such as 1x4 tiles with ridges cut into them to allow the wires to pass through. Best practice is to empty those elements into a small container if you’re building this across multiple sessions, as once the bag is open they’re prone to spilling out.

One thing worth pointing out is that the characters are a bit of a pain to assemble. The heads, arms, hands, legs and in some cases the hips must all be assembled, and the curvature to the arms and hands can make it a little tricky to recognise which way round they should go. Some of those connection points are also small enough to prove fiddly to the point of frustration, so maybe don’t build them all in one go like the set suggests. 

Lumibricks build

So there are a lot of lights to wrestle with and some interesting pieces to check out. But what about actually putting it all together? On the whole, it’s… pretty good. The pieces snap together fine for the most part, but larger elements do require a bit of force to attach, and that crops up more than you’d expect as there aren’t a tremendous amount of tiny sub-assemblies to get bogged down in here (in a good way).

There’s a sort of intangible difference in the clutch power here that’s hard to describe. It does the job, and it’s not like the pieces come loose from one another or are a real pain to connect in the first place, but it just doesn’t feel completely satisfying.

The instructions and build flow are about on the same level: fine, adequate enough for putting the thing together, but you never really get into the sort of zen flow state you might be searching for from a construction toy. Obviously that’s partly down to how much you need to concentrate when installing the lighting, but it’s also driven by the way the instructions communicate certain building steps: occasionally you might find yourself flicking back and forth to ensure you’ve placed elements correctly.

At the same time, if you’re looking for a more challenging building experience, you’ve come to the right place. And there’s a lot to be said for the design of 17005 Game Stack in particular. It’s quite clever with how it integrates the lighting, for example – there are various modular sections that can slide out of the set and shift around, and each one has a connection point on the back to supply power when it’s in place. But they’re not permanently attached, and there’s no convoluted mess of wiring to deal with when swapping them around.

Are Lumibricks sets fun to build?

In short, based on our experience with this one… yes. For the price you’re paying here you’re getting a build that’ll keep you occupied for far longer than you’d expect, a finished model that’s pretty hefty for the piece count and – of course – the magic ingredient that is seeing it all light up at the end. That it all just works out of the box at the first time of asking is genuinely very satisfying.

17005 Game Stack is available now for £123 / $164.99 at Lumibricks’ official website. Keep an eye on Brick Fanatics for our full review of another Lumibricks set very soon…

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your Lumibricks sets using our affiliate links. Thanks!