Better than LEGO: Medieval Forge House + lights reviewed | "FunWhole" brand
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ต.ค. 2024
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I was very, very skeptical at first, but glad I watched all the way through. The included lighting system (the touch-based connections and wire channel parts are incredible), and the fun recolors I could only DREAM of getting from LEGO really sold me. And of course the price. It’s exciting to see alternative companies like this producing these sets at such a high level, and I really hope it serves as a wakeup call to TLG. You're definitely right - they’ve gone way too long without any real competition, and consumers have certainly suffered because of that. Thanks for sharing, Jang!
considering that one of LEGO’s most famous company stories is the layers of paint on the old wooden toys story, their quality control and overall seeming lack of effort is incredibly ironic and sad, and they are slowly growing out of touch with their audience, more expensive but with lower quality is NOT how you make people like you 😂
@cheeseystudios real recognises real
@@mrmogford8117 how real of your to recognize it
I mainly build custom mocs, but I made the transition a few years ago to source parts from other venders such as Webrick and Gobricks. They offer way more color variants for all parts compared to lego, new part types that aren't offered through lego and it's way cheaper. I feel sorry for those "strictly lego" people.
@@mrmogford8117 🤝
Funwhole is such an unfortunate name.
@@thesmoofers4994 lmao! Can't unread it xd it will be stuck in my head forever lol
It's brilliant because no one ever forgets it! 😁
I have all Sets of FunWhole...much better than Lego
Yeah, their customer service is working with translators to help with the language gaps on their printed pieces. The facebook page is very active.
You ruined it! Thanks! 😂
If lego released this, it would have 2 figs, no lights, and it would probably cost over double the price.
That reads like a cynical comment, but it's actually remarkably close to realistic!
In a licensed set the Lego price would definitely be at least $170. From non-IP, the Viking Village 21343 is pretty competitive with this at $130, but has no light kit, and it is definitely the exception value wise. Hopefully this will help with Lego prices going forward.
don't forget the color inconsistencies in dark red
Like Lego inconsistencies with certain colors?
Absolutely.
I really appreciate these non-LEGO reviews. LEGO doesn't exist in a vacuum despite many fans wanting to believe they do! So it useful to take a look at similar products especially if they're comparable in quality and cheaper in price.
Man, you're like the Bob Ross of the building community....so genuine and calming. The world needs more Jang. ❤ I love your videos so much.
Also, this set looks incredible. As does the lighting system. It's amazing what can be done for a very reasonable cost....
Competition in the marketplace is the best thing as it leads to lower prices that are affordable for everyone as well as an overall upward surge in quality, innovation, and creative fun!
FunWhole sets keep improving with every release. The packaging is superb and feels way more "premium" than you'd expect bearing in mind how much the sets are. As a fan of lights I've battled for years with kits which leave wires everywhere and prevent you lifting floors, but these folk seem to have sorted that. Floor to floor contacts aren't new but the wire management bricks they make are the first I've ever seen. Anyone who is squeamish about buying non-Lego brands should definitely take a deep breath and try FunWhole - you won't be disappointed, and no, I'm not being paid to say this 🙂
I would love to see more reviews like this. AFOLs need to pay more attention to the good LEGO alternatives, especially considering how LEGO has been treating its most loyal customers in recent years. Great review Jang!
Thanks for your honest review. I really appreciate that you're not afraid to move beyond the LEGO brand. I've heard nothing but good things about FunWhole.
“Part quality and consistency is on par with Lego, if not beyond it.” 0:10 I wouldn’t believe it, coming from anyone other than Jang. Sounds like a step up from Ali-bricks. Thanks for the review!
If you haven't built sets by some of the best competitors, you'd probably be shocked at how good the bricks, prints, manuals, packaging, etc. can be. Truly, as good as or better than Lego.
So we're ready to admit Lego's pricing is absurd and only based on brand power right?
No, we'll still have plenty of shills.
I refuse to buy anything from Lego until they fix their prices. I have over 1k sets in my collection but I haven't bought anything in the last 1.5 years.
@@thesonofdormammu5475 same
Ready to? I figured everyone had realized it long ago and just shrugged. Ah well, competition like this can only help.
The pricing and quality of competing brands like this or Pantasy make Lego feel like a rip-off, frankly
This isn't to say LEGO pricing isn't excessive, but there's an important reason this set is so much cheaper. This company didn't need to go through nearly as much R&D as LEGO did on developing pieces. They just copied the pieces LEGO spent lots of money developing and refining. I'm not too worried about a simple brick, but more about specialized pieces--leaves, minifig accessories, specialized bricks and plates, etc. However, I'm sure this company still had to spend some money on developing the wires pieces.
You said what I was thinking of posting. I was worried if I said something critical of Chinese clone/imitation brands my comment would be removed. The set is indeed lovely but it still feels wrong (to me) that they are using exact Lego components right down to the colors (other than that nice cream color). They're website's FAQ also seems a bit tongue and cheek to me. One of the questions was "are your pieces compatible with leading brands?" and they put "yes, of course!" Well of course they are compatible, they are the SAME elements from the leading brands lol. That curvaceous FunWhole minifigure wearing the famous Lego castle helmet is also a kick in the teeth. I don't mean to sound negative and I don't want to worship the ground Lego floats over, but no matter how good these knock-offs are they just feel inherently off-putting. And I can't help but wonder what corners they cut to get those prices down, even after they rip the mold designs themselves.
I'll C&P a response to a similar comment: It's definitely worthy of discussion. My big question is not, "Where is the line?" but "How do we figure out where the line should be?" LEGO directly cloned, knocked off, stole the design for their first bricks, and did not innovate on it at all for nearly a decade as they profited off of another company's product. Their core innovation, the underside tube, lost legal exclusivity over 3 decades ago, making the entire system public domain. In recent years, meanwhile, LEGO has introduced "new" piece after "new" piece that has already been produced in near-identical form by other companies for many years. Meanwhile in the very set in this video I encountered at least 6 part designs (ignoring figures) that LEGO has never made. Which company should get how much grace, and why?
@@JANGBRiCKS A thought-provoking question. I personally draw the line at the designs: all original designs (with proper IP licensing, if relevant) get a pass from whatever company. Stolen MOCs or counterfeit products are an absolute no-go. Lego is no lily-white innocent in need of defending, but any of their bad practices or high pricing don't excuse the Lepins of the world: two wrongs don't make a right. But legit alternative companies like FunWhole, Cobi, etc., using public domain parts, getting proper licensing, and also innovating their own unique parts, get my whole support (and dollars).
Yeah, if we go back far enough many major companies copied and stole from other ones to get to where they are today (and continue to do so). Though Lego "claims" there was no objection to them taking Hillary Page's design. I suppose I give Lego more grace than Funwhole (founded in 2014) as I am biased towards them as they have earned my respect over many years. :)
I'm sorry but you are totally wrong. (1) The alternative brands developing new bricks. (2) They even have their own figures (you can find them ugly, but they are not a copy). (3) The Lego bricks production is already in China, they don't use special expensive plastics.
So lego can produce for the same price like the other brands.
Finally people start to see the amazing quality and affordability of non-Lego bricks. Thanks Jang!
I hope this company becomes more popular. Lego desperately needs good competition so they can improve themselves
Funwhole has some wonderful western sets for those curious. The saloon is a spectacular corner modular.
I have all the current Western sets ready to build, and they have 3 more to be released.
I bought the FO Newspaper Stand just to try it out. I was extremely surprised and had a lot of fun putting it together. Even the lights were easy! I then took a chance and bought the coffee shop/book store. The detail in that is amazing, Jang! You’d love it.
The lights make the whole thing feel cosy and warm.
I'm impressed.
Oh man, Jang's doing Funwhole! I was just looking at their Old West sets a couple of days ago after talking to someone online. They looked great, they were priced well and they were doing a theme that Lego refuses to do again. The other person said they recommend them but it's great to see Jang doing a review of them too
It's certainly very tempting, I've always loved the old western sets but am too young to have got them, so I may just have to pick up some from this company!
This design is genius *and* beautiful. They really put a lot of thought into their light pieces and how to effectively build them in!
Lights and prints and realistic in-world access for figures... this really feels like it was designed by fans doing what they wish Lego would do.
The company behind it, is the one doing light kits for Lege Sets, so they have a lot of experience.
The lighting system is amazing. Lego really needs to up its game.
I’m really glad people are starting to seriously look at alternative brick brands because there’s so much affordable and great stuff out there
Maybe Lego will wake up & start giving the FANS what they want at a reasonable price. Competition is always a good thing. Thanks for the review Jang ! 💕
And we have great products to choose from. Either way
Jang is the realest one with the reviews! Cheers man, thank you!
I’m so glad Jang finally got a FunWhole set. I’ve had a few now and the quality really is surprising as to how good and comparable it is to Lego
Awesome brand! Please review more from them. Thanks Jang
I am currently building my first Fun Whole set, not having strayed from Lego in the past. Like you, I was very pleasantly surprised. They seem to have really done their homework on what Lego users have been asking for. The price is a huge improvement. The embedded light kits are great. I have the cabin. It looks really nice. It is on a baseplate that is as thick as normal plates which I love. The manual addresses every shortcoming Lego manuals have--labeling the longer pieces very clearly in the instructions, zooming in more clearly on both sides of a tricky section, etc. I was very pleased with the manual. I have come across numerous new-to-me pieces that I have never seen in the many, many sets I have built. What I didn't like was that the cabin set has decals which are hateful to put on and rip if you try to take them off for adjustment. I am glad to see that some of the sets are coming out with print pieces. Great video, Jang.
Wow. The electrical contacts and cable management solutions are amazing.
The Minifigures look so cartoony and adorable
Really happy to see those reviews. LEGO really need to do better for the premium price they are charging.
everyone wins when there's competition. the fact that off-brands are now producing better quality parts than lego is kind of incredible. lego has consistently backslid on the one thing it held up as its north star. if anything, this proves that there's no excuse for them. if the off-brands can do it, then clearly lego is able to produce high quality parts at semi-reasonable prices.
Lego, having greater production power, can produce the same sets at even lower costs than their competitors. That's the interesting thing I don't see people mention.
I recently picked up a FunWhole set as a gift to my dad, specifically the Camper Van set. I first saw a couple of FunWhole sets and was a bit skeptical, but when I showed it to my dad he was 100% on board with it so I got it for him not knowing what to expect in terms of quality. I was very impressed by how high quality these sets are, in terms of the pieces and instructions, and I do plan to pick up a couple of their other sets in the near future! It's just a bit of a shame that this brand is considered by many to just be a "LEGO ripoff," and while I suppose there is a BIT of merit in that... is it really fair to call it a "ripoff" of LEGO when it's arguably higher quality than the product it's "ripping off"? I hope that FunWhole is successful enough to eat into LEGO's market space if only so that LEGO is forced to try a bit harder to offer good products at a fair price.
Anyways, I'm glad to see you share your thoughts on one of their sets!
(but damn, FunWhole is a terrible name for a brand...)
Thank you for reviewing this. I will definitely be purchasing from this brand over Lego 9 times out of 10 going forward. I've really soured on Lego over the lack of original and creative themes, increased and overall absurd prices, stickers on high-priced sets, and lower quality pieces.
I've gone down a similar path: 90% of the sets I buy now are from Lego's competitors. I'm sick of Lego's predictable designs, stickers, missing pieces, and crazy prices.
Thanks for showing good quality alternatives, Jang. The latest price reveals for the X-Men Mansion and the Gardens were so bewildering to me that for the first time I started looking out for new brands myself. It's nice to see you review them with the typical care and effort your videos are known for.
Glad to see a non-sponsored review for this brand. The only ones I have seen to this point have been sponsored, which left me dubious still. I am super happy to see good competition in the space. That can be nothing but a benefit to consumers. Hopefully Lego takes note and makes some improvements in response to the growing market of quality competitors. One thing I would like to see with a kit like this would be the option to build it without the light kit. It might increase the price slightly but with the number of extra pieces already present I don't think it is too big a request.
I was thinking the exact same. So many of these non-Lego brands have reviews online but they're usually sponsored. Also agree about the light kit. As much as I appreciate them throwing it in there, I'd also like the option of building it without lights
As a custom job, it realy doesn't take a lot of extra pieces to build FunWhole sets without the lighting installed, but they'll never release sets without ligths. They have a sister brand that does after market lighting kits for Lego, you know the ones that cost 30, 50, 80$… so if they would release one of their sets with and without a lighting kit and the difference would just be 10€ they'd be tipping their hand… why do they ask so much for standalone led lights zhen they sell to Lego custo;ers🙂
A thing I personally really appreciate in some of their instruction booklets: they have these like color guide images- where their rendered building graphics are shown next to actual printed photographs of the same bricks so you know exactly what color of brick the graphics are supposed to be.
As someone who is colorblind, and has struggled through Lego brand booklets having to go back and rebuild sections all my life (which can be tricky enough at times for folks with full vision) that really stuck out to me as a pretty dang fantastic touch.
I had a set a few months ago co-branded XMORK and Mocsage that had reference tiles for brown & tan colors with the color name printed on them. Unfortunately, the instructions didn't make as good of use of those as they could have, but I thought it was a really great practice that I hope catches on.
Being from Germany I always try to keep informed about what other parts of the world think about alternative bricks. I'm building "FunWhole" sets since 2 years and they are getting better and better. Just finished the western theme with station, cargo train and sheriff's office, a blast in my opinion.
"FunWhole" ist the company behind Briksmax and Lightailing. So many may have already experienced this brand without knowing.
I'm so glad to see you review this. Lego needs competition in the worst way. I've been building several of these other brands kits and they are getting so much better. Several robot kits with working displays for eyes, remote control and smooth motors for locomotion. Things Lego won't do. And the prices are so much more realistic.
I really like the figures! I was bracing for and preparing for the worst but it's actually a pretty cute and appropriate design without falling into that trap of 'more articulation = better'. Obviously we're so used to LEGO's minifigures that there's a little shock to get over initially but the printing is great, the colours look solid, the faceprint with those like smaller mouths are adorable and they feel like they just fit in really well with the set and the type of toy it is. I would argue these are better than LEGO's own minidolls easily
I like the minifigures too! We might be a minority though, I haven't seen/read a lot of comments praising them but I find them quite interesting and cute. The only detail I'm not a fan of is the shaping of the lower section of the heads, looks a little awkward to me. Other than that, I find the chubby torso, round legs and curvy arms quite interesting. I already have a bunch of Funwhole sets, definitely my Lego budget has taken a dent over the past couple of years in favour of this new brand.
I like them too. They have a certain charm. They're softer looking than minifigs but not skinny tall like the friends ones. A nice comfy middle spot.
I love both Lego and FunWhole. But the latter has made big strides in quality just from last year. They are very active with the community and listen to feedback and act on it very quickly. Also many people in the FB group are getting messages about them rebranding and voting on a new name. Would love to see you do more reviews of there products.
Awwwwww yeaa. More please! I had fun reviewing their first set a couple years back (I didn't install the lights lol), but they've come along way with the lighting that even I'm surprised. I'm building the cyberpunk/ninjago vibe building from them and I am impressed...I think they just took it to another level. It's like neon lighting all over the place. In fact you should review that next!
Eyyy the legend himself! What's the name of this cyberpunky set of which you speak? Color me most intrigued. I didn't see it on their site.
@@JANGBRiCKS no please, of all legends you are the one 🙌. Oh yea the site hasn’t listed yet maybe not officially released. They finally did reach out to me so I’m halfway through it. There’s some crazy stuff going on but I love those little pieces that look like smiley faces that hide the wires haha. You can find some images floating around by looking up funwhole F9042 the apartment. I’m halfway through it and it already looks like one of those pimped up PCs with flashing colorful led lights all over 😂.
Oh hecccccck yes! AND it's built on a MILS plate, with power distribution ready to go?! And it's just one set of a whole new theme?! 🤤🤤🤤
I have the saloon set from this company. I paid $85 for a 2000+ piece set with lights.
Great value just for what you get in general but when the stuff is high quality and fun, it makes you super excited for the hobby again.
The lighting system with specialized bricks to route wires is literally perfect.
I am a little surprised to see this on the channel, considering it is basically a clone as opposed to ''knock off'' given that a lot, if not all, are almost carbon copy LEGO pieces, but I appreciate the awareness and review. The Lakeside Lodge is a really fun set I'd like to see you look into.
Well you have just convinced me to give these a shot once and for all. I’ve always just kind of been conditioned to ignore anything that’s not Lego but you showcased why that’s just their marketing and my habits doing the heavy lifting.
I used to feel the same way but Jang got me to get into Cobi thanks to his Top Gun review
Awesome! Please more coverage of Lego alternatives! There's so much stuff out now that's as good as or better than Lego,, usually way cheaper.
Very good that finally more (and bigger) channels/people show other brands.
LEGO needs to be put into place and finally improve in so many areas (first and foremost quality and price)
Not to defend LEGO or anything (nor am I associated with them) but I do feel it's important to add some context to the quality comparison. I work at a plastic injection molder in the EU and due to new regulations in the EU plastic parts should be made in part of recycled materials. From experience I can tell that this can be a nightmare for technical parts. Price of raw materials goes up quite drastically, but also the changes needed to make in order to achieve a compareable quality part compared that made from "virgin" plastics are quite substantial. This has massive impact in both part dimensioning, visual aspects but also f.e. colors. I'm not stating that this is the root cause of the differences in part quality from LEGO lately, but I can imagine that a lot of these issues originate from the changed regulations. Non-EU based brands might not need to follow these regulations, resulting in better quality perception. For now at least, because improvements are made quite quickly.
We just built the antique store was our first by them and added to our city, now bookstore and newsstand are on way, but when we finished I literally felt like I had fallen in love with building all over again, I’m always gonna love lego, but this is GREAT competition, that can do nothing but strengthen industry as whole
this lighting system is great, especially with how the floors connect, been looking at buying a set ever since i saw it on stream
I am mostly a LEGO purist (outside of custom printed parts), but I absolutely love seeing these alternative brands become more mainstream! This hobby needs some competition for LEGO.
I‘m so glad to see alternative brands are starting to get more recognition!
Lego has been the monopoly of the brick toy market for far too long and most fans probably can’t even grasp how a wider variety of brands can raise the overall quality of products while also lowering prices in the long run.
Alternative brick brands have come along way, referring to the Best Lock Terminator set you reviewed years ago! I'm glad that there're options available to purchase high quality, good value sets!
I wouldn’t have ever trusted brands other than Lego, but seeing your review, I’m going to buy from this company right now. I can actually get cool sets that won’t cost me my left eye.
I was wondering when you were going to get around to reviewing a FunWhole set! They're awesome! And you're right, the hobby NEEDS this type of competition!
They need to swap the syllables in their name. If it was named WholeFun, this would be 10/10 competition for LEGO. The PRODUCT looks superb and the lighting is such a brilliant idea
The fact I actually thought this was a new Lego set and went looking for it on the Lego store just goes to show how on par it is with Lego, and with the included light system + the phenomenal price make this a thousand times better than Lego. Lego is probably going to see a lot more rivals who can match their quality over time, a quality that we can see declining. They are in danger.
If i had to name a brand that deserves hard competition, LEGO would be first on my mind.
Glad companys are stepping up.
Thank you for your honest review Jang.
You inspired me to order the FunWhole steampunk train that I have been looking at for a long time. I am excited to give this brand a try. Thank you.
That's one of their earlier models, so caveat, it might feel a bit less polished than their later architecture models.
Was talking with a friend recently about how LEGO really needs some real competition to hopefully drive their prices down and he pointed out this company to me. It’s funny to me that I used to be a LEGO purist, but now as long as they are not directly ripping off someone else’s work or infringing on copyrights, I am largely in favor of these alternative brands. Think I’m going to have to take a look at FunWhole and buy a set for myself! Thanks for the review JANG!
That’s a great review from you JANG! And yes the brick world needs great competition like this.
You know what Jang? Yeah. Look more and more into competing brands but familiar themes, I'm so on board because LEGO are both pricing me out AND behaving in consumer unfriendly way. My personal interest in other brands has been increasing more and more lately, I'll happily watch the reviews you make!
This set is what the Ideas Blacksmith would be if it was the same scale as the Lion Knights Castle. Love the overall look! Especially the colors and thoughtful layout. I never got into lighting kits as my OCD with running wires and pinching them between plates & bricks would drive me mad. This however looks reasonable with the cutouts and design.
Wow, that looks amazing!
Thank you for your honest thoughts and your detailed review!
Lego would include a light brick but you’d have to push it in to see the lights. They really need to make a light brick with a switch to keep it on or off
That looks pretty amazing! I can only hope brands like this, that aren't just copycats but actually make such high quality, innovative products do well enough to force Lego to stop being so complacent. And I hope brands like these get the respect they deserve from the brick fan community.
Thank you for this video, I luv Funwhole and now have 13 of their sets and love them all 🥰
As someone who’s been involved in both hobbies, I feel like we may begin to see LEGO’s competition take the same turn that Nerf’s competition has in the last 5 years or so. Back then, a knock-off Nerf blaster meant cheap quality, derivative products, and an overall lousy sheen. But as smaller companies began to innovate and develop, they began to produce products that not only rivaled Nerf’s quality, but began to outdo their products to such a degree that Nerf now has began to copy their competition in the lines they produce! For anyone who wants to get into ‘foam-flinging’ and buy a blaster with a competitive edge, Nerf is honestly low on the list of what you can pick up at the average Walmart.
Sets like this are an indication that we might start to see the same thing with LEGO. It’ll be interesting to see.
I hope you're right. It does feel like we're at the beginning of turning point. It would be nice to see Lego's stranglehold, with their crazy prices and quality issues, loosened and to have them and all the competition equally striving to innovate and to offer the best product at the lowest price instead one corporate behemoth offering a tired, sometimes problematic product at price so high it feels like a slap in the face.
I have a fair amount of pride in being the first person to mention FunWhole to you, Jang. Even more so that you ended up liking the build and building experience. 😁 Really enjoyed the live build!
Unironically, so glad to see LEGO have high-quality compatible competition! When it comes to competition with LEGO, it's almost always either low quality, non/low-compatible, or overpriced. This looks amazing, and looking at prices, it looks nice. LEGO needs this so that they can breed a healthy market. I'd definitely look into buying a few of these, especially if they branch out beyond their existing themes.
They’re one name change away from being a premium brand. Nice review!
I am so glad that Lego enthusiast are embracing other brands. I have many FO sets and they have replace mega as the biggest competitor to Lego.
please make more videos on alternative brand sets! people need to see all the amazing stuff that’s out there!
Thanks for showing this beautiful set with us, it helps to get new ideas on what to buy for christmas without going bankrupt
Competition only raises all tides and serves the customer/enthusiast. For people complaining about the cost of LEGO, it's mainly because they can.
The best thing is to make your voice heard and to vote with your wallet.
I wish alternative brands were more normalised. People think brick based toys are solely made by lego when there are so many brands that are on par with or cooler than lego and they don't get the spotlight because fans see it as inferior because lego told them it is.
This is really awesome. I love seeing you review non-lego building sets. I would really like to see you review some more sets from this company!
I've been looking into this brand lately myself after seeing their line of Western themed kits. Most of the reviews on youtube are sponsored so thank you for providing an unbiased opinion on the quality of the set. I think if they can focus in on the pleasing designs like I see on many of their sets they'll end up being pretty successful. Too bad the minifigs really give a Roblox vibe, but I can see how that might work in their favor with younger audiences.
Same here. Someone told me about the brand and I checked them out. The Western sets were what I really want to buy. They look so good, they're priced well and they're going for a market that Lego is ignoring. I had the same problem as you with most reviews being sponsored so you have to take them with a grain of salt
Great review! Keep on reviewing different brick sets, not just Lego. 😊 there are a lot of quality sets out there that can easily compete with or even beat Lego in production values and price to part ratio and design quality
P.S. honest opinion of yours in terms of competition! This is what the industry of brick-based products needs!
I love this company - have several sets and it's wonderful.
Very cool set! And great value! Glad you had a good time. I find the minifigs cute as well
I purchased the apothecary shop from funwhole and it was a very positive experience (minus the “minifigs”). That set and this one would go very nicely with the medieval blacksmith.
This was an absolute joy to watch be built on Twitch.
It’s pretty impressive, I have to admit. And sure, the figs look a little goofy with their proportions, but they’re properly toy-like, so I don’t have a problem with them at all. The integrated lighting is a very cool system, though they are a bit intimidating for someone who’s never worked with lighting before on sets like these. But compared to the aftermarket kits I’ve seen for some of my sets, the way this one is made doesn’t hurt play value at all, where so many of the kits I’ve seen involve pinching wires between bricks and then stuffing the extra into the interior where you’d normally put minifigs. This is a cool set; it’s not one I’d buy for myself because the theme doesn’t fit the Star Wars village I’m building, but I’ll definitely be checking this company out. It is quite the unfortunate name, though, I agree.
As other brands' figures go, these ones aren't bad, but Sluban's have really grown on me the more of them I get. I especially like that they use hats that go on top of hair and have wrists with tiny ball joints that allow some flexibility in the angles they can hold things.
They have a wonderful news stand set. It looks lovely in my Lego set up. ALL PRINTS!! l love it.
The only thing that separates that and a LEGO set is the lack of a LEGO logo on the pieces which somehow slashes the price!
I forgot to mention in the review that this lack of logos also changes the math. There are non-stressed, "legal" connections you can make that aren't possible with LEGO.
@@JANGBRiCKSAnd, cosmetically, it's nicer. From the awful injection points of modern Lego, to the Lego trademark logo, Lego pieces tend to look poorer at most angles than they used to 15-20 years ago.
I build every different off-brand import brick I can get my hands on and there's one undersung feature that LEGO has and few others can compete with. LEGO is the easiest to disassemble, by far. That's why it's a great children's toy, and I think neglecting that feature allows some competitors to do a better job of serving the grownup market. There are plenty of things I want to build once and never pull apart to build something else.
I don’t know if it’s just me but recently in my new Lego sets (2023/2024) the parts are cracking/losing grip especially on pins after being broken up and rebuilt once or twice.
Lego is losing its quality and in most cases prices are going up.
What is going on?
I just bought the poly bag space jet bike and re-moced it into a space police chase bike. I noticed that both 1×2 brick with axle hole are already cracked up the sides. It would be really nice if some one over took lego in the market.
Never heard of this brand and after seeing this excellent review, I hope to see/hear more about sets by them! Yes, the mini figure things look odd, though well printed, but otherwise, this seems like am amazing set and amazing brand to follow! They do need a new marketing dept to help with their company name though, or at least the English translation. Absolutely love the lighting system, the tiny bricks that help route the wires, and that cream color is out of this world! And all that, and not even talking about value. Wow! I need to take a look at some of their other sets as I may buy one [via your link :) ].
Thank you for looking outside the Lego world and doing reviews like this of other brick built brands. Quality competition to Lego can only help them produce better sets, and hopefully better value.
They also have a steampunk tran station and train in theire catalogue. I myself built the tran station which was amazing, although as one of the earliest sets it had stickers. But they were ransfer stickers, so better than normal ones.
If you think about trying out Funwhole sets and see if you enjoy the cable management stuff and lighting then I can highly recommend the newspaper stand. Fantastic little set that looks really awesome with the lighting and is excellent to get a feel for the quality.
Thanks for the rec. Going to give the holiday themed one a go!
This looks like the Medieval Blacksmith, but a different version.
Thank you so much for reviewing non-lego sets too! You're the best!
A recurring theme in the comments is that competition like this would be great for Lego, and heaven knows that's true. Their near monopolistic stranglehold is terrible. But any company like this, which makes a high-quality product for reasonable price, deserves to succeed in their own right, and I wish them all the best. If Lego ultimately vanished, but the void were filled by a bunch of excellent competitors, I wouldn't mind at all.
Thanks for reviewing that. It's high time Lego got a wake up call
Really happy to see this review!!! I’ve been debating Funwhole for a while. Getting your feedback makes me more confident with trying them out!! Thank you!
This whole thing is just impressive! Like truly impressive!
FunWhole has been blowing Lego out the water
Honestly those are some of the best non-Lego minifigs I've seen, up there with Kreo Kreons imo. My only concern when buying from companies like this is the potential for sets to be stolen fan designs.
I have made similar lighting system (with floor connectors etc) using cheap fairy lights, copper tape and soldering for my Assembly Square. It was a lot of work, but looks amazing. LEGO definitely would profit from similar system, especially in 18+sets - the only thing keeping them from doing it is probably that not everyone would build it with ease, also these thin cables are really fragile.
The wiring system adds a level of complexity I don't care for in a building toy, but this is a pretty cool and innovative set.
Nice to see that some of these knock off "Lego Bricks" are getting their quality to match. I've been thinking for a few years now that Lego is losing it's touch with value and design. Now I'm also wondering why Lego doesn't include lighting kits in their big creator expert sets.
Do FunWhole's Christmas Ski-Cabin for an upcoming Christmas episode.
Hoping that this isn't a stolen moc design. Chances are it probably isn't, but I always worry a bit about these things when I see brands like this.
Great review Jang! 😊
Yep I do the same, and try to do good research to never support theft. No Mould King or Nifeliz for me, for example, and no truly unknown brands. Vetted only.
I heard Mould King does this
@@JANGBRiCKS I'm curious though, what are your thoughts on the majority of these pieces being 1-for-1 copies of Lego pieces? I agree that competition is good, but I personally have a hard time seeing a difference between stealing MOC designs and 'stealing' part designs that Lego has gone through the work of conceiving, testing, and engineering.
@@JANGBRiCKS To be fair Mould King has cleaned up their act recently and doesnt steal MOCs anymore
@@JANGBRiCKSwhat about the stolen design of the actual pieces? I don't mean the brick system, but like every tiny detail of every single piece, down to minifigure accessories and the little bird. This seems... wrong.