Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity model kit review - Brick by brick it started to click

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REVIEW – I have been a fan of LEGOs for as long as I can remember. I used to stay the night at my friend’s house, where we would stay up until all hours of the night trying to use every last brick we had to build as big a city as we could manage. So when the Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity came across my desk, I jumped at the chance to relive some of those glory days. Sadly, I normally can’t make it much past 10 pm these days, so that part of the build had to change.

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $169.99
Where to buy: funwhole.com

What is it?

The Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity kit is a 2507-piece LEGO-style building kit for a distant future cyberpunk apartment building. It includes a lighting kit you don’t normally find on most other brands and a whole heap of nostalgia (for me anyway).

What’s included?

2 huge tomes for manuals
46 separate (numbered) bags of bricks
5 separate bags of wiring and lighting kits
8 mini figs (including a very cute robo-dog)

Design and features

Upon first opening this package, I have to say I was quite overwhelmed. I had never done any off-brand brick builds this large, and the sheer size of the box itself was a little intimidating. When I pulled the instruction manuals out it just added to that feeling. There are over 450 pages of instructions to complete this thing. Not to mention the 46 separate bags full of bricks. The website says 11 bags, however this is a little misleading. There are in fact bags numbered 1 through 11, but there are multiples of each number. I believe there were 3 bags with a #1 on them, and 4 with a #8 on them. All adding up the total 46 bags. Then there is the lighting kit. I have seen individuals add lighting to LEGO sets on YouTube and I was aware that some other brands included said lights with their sets, but have never done anything like that myself. And I am by no means electrically inclined. Keep that in mind for later.

The mini figs have a little more detail to them than other brands and they assemble in a different manner, but they are for the most part what you expect. The way they are designed makes it hard to figure out what way they are supposed to go together though. Are the legs on backwards? Hard to say. Are the arms on the right sides? Hard to say. Are the hands positioned in the right orientation? I think you get the point.

Assembly, Installation, Setup

The Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity instructions are very much what you expect and what you are used to with other brands. Drawn in the same way, and even using the exact same symbols to indicate when you should flip pieces over to attach something to the bottom. But things are just a little off.

The colors are not quite right. You almost have to look over the pieces before you start and see which ones correlate to which ones in the book. To be fair, this is true of LEGO sometimes as well. And the order of assembling things seems a bit strange at first as well. It just feels like some bricks would have been easier to attach before they tell you to do so in the manuals.

The lighting kit is a whole different matter. The wires are very thin. I realize they have to make it that way in order for everything to be able to fit under certain brinks. But I would have preferred the wiring to be just a bit more robust. I felt like I was going to rip some of them out while trying to get them into the position they were meant to be. And one of the lights was glued into place on the piece uncentered. I was supposed to put another brick over it but could not do so because the light was in the way. Not a huge deal for that part, but still unfortunate.

That said, the directions did quite a good job indicating those positions. It was generally simple to see where the wires were supposed to run. They would even show the wires running in place from multiple angles when necessary to make sure you understand how it all goes together.

But it did come together. After you get the feel for how they want you to go about the assembly, it all starts to make sense. Even the lighting started to become familiar after about 100 pages of instructions.

Performance

Normally I would not have anything to discuss in regards to performance when it comes to a brick set like this. However, there is one item to address. There is one section of lights that is not lighting up. I will own up to user error on this, but I don’t really know where it would have happened. I was – what I thought was – meticulous on setting up the wiring, and in the garage section of the build, there should be lights. The lights are there. They just don’t light up. One of the contacts must not be in place, but I can’t for the life of me figure out where the issue is to fix it.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, I think the Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity is a great set, and I had a ton of fun building it. If you are used to other brand builds it is going to take some getting used to as everything is just a hair different. Not bad, just different. The pieces are really good quality as well. Some other brands (outside of LEGO) can feel very cheap. That is not the case here.

With some coffee and quiet, I had my focus locked in and was able to really enjoy the process. If you are thinking about buying this set or any from Funwhole, I would highly recommend giving it a go.

What I like about the Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity kit

The lighting adds so much to the build
High quality pieces
Fun build

What needs to be improved?

Flimsy wiring
Instructions take some getting used to

Price: $169.99
Where to buy: funwhole.com
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by funwhole. Funwhole did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.