REVIEW – I’ve built “bricks” since I was a kid in the 80’s, ranging from the smallest of sets to a life-consuming 11,000 piece custom Star Destroyer model in 2020 (which was a blast). I haven’t had time to build as much lately, but when I had the opportunity to review the Funwhole Steampunk watch tower kit I happily volunteered. The process of building bricks is calming and satisfying for me, and this set was no exception. It didn’t hurt that I’ve been watching Arcane lately, which has a similar Victorian steampunk aesthetic.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $179.99
Where to buy: Funwhole or Amazon
What is it?
The Funwhole Steampunk watch tower kit is a 2,744 piece brick building kit (just don’t say the “L” word, these are “Funwhole bricks”). The kit includes 19 LED lighting pieces (including bricks with embedded LEDs) to create a display piece that looks great in daylight and at night.
What’s included?
- 2,744 bricks in bags labelled for building steps
- LED lighting kit (including two battery packs and various strands of wires with LED-embedded bricks).
- Screwdriver and tweezers
- Two large building instruction manuals
Assembly, Installation, Setup
The build process for the Funwhole Steampunk watch tower kit was very similar to the many other sets I’ve built over the years. The build is broken into 14 sections, with hundreds of individual steps overall. The LED lighting elements are included in the build process (and cleverly hide the wires and lights). There were a couple of steps that were difficult to understand, but for the most part, the whole build was intuitive and satisfying (I’ve had builds – custom builds especially – that have been frustrating or very repetitive). Here are some photos of some of the phases of building with notes included throughout:
The full build took about 6 or 7 hours (though I was multitasking while building for portions of it). I only have two gripes with the build (which are minor). First, the long chain for the central elevator is built earlier in the build, and I had a feeling it would be important so I carefully counted the number of links that the instruction book called for, as well as the specific placement of pieces that would connect to the elevator platform later. However, when I later finally got to placing the top gears and elevator platform itself, the chain wasn’t long enough, and didn’t go quite as far up or down as I’d expect. I added an extra link to allow it to actually loop over the top gears, but the placement of my extra link may have impacted the elevator location. In addition, when you do crank it up and down (via external crank arm) a gear inside the elevator shaft pops off after a few uses and is difficult to get to in order to reattach it. I wish they’d made these components a little easier to access in order to fix these issues (by the time they cropped up there was enough structure built around the elevator shaft that I’d need to disassemble a fair amount to change the chain length and modify the gear setup at the bottom).
My second gripe is that the lighting on the bottom two thirds of the tower is done via a battery box with AA batteries, or a USB-C connector (provided), but the top third only has the option to use the smaller 2032-coin-battery box. In addition, this box is under the roof piece so to turn the lights on or off you have to remove the roof (which isn’t too hard, but it would have been nice to be able to at least get to the power switch with a finger without needing to remove the entire roof). I bring this up because I have a similar LED lighting system on my LEGO UCS Millenium Falcon model, and it’s powered by a USB adapter connected to a smart plug, allowing me to turn it on and off through smart home controls (and even set it to timers) without needing batteries or manual on/off switches. I wish they’d figured out a way to run a cable connecting the top portion down to the bottom instead of having two separate circuits.
Design and features
The finished Funwhole Steampunk watch tower kit looks fantastic to me. Exterior details and unique design elements result in a visually impressive display piece, with all sorts of interactive elements that are fun for kids and adults alike. Just to name a few, the top portion of the tower fully rotates by spinning a wheel, the telescope retracts and deploys on rails, and a gear-driven lift on the lower levels is fun to play with as well. The interior is detailed and accessible via removable panels or even large, hinged walls that can be opened up.
The shape of the mini figures is a bit different than I’m used to, but for the most part different it’s not bad, just different. The only functional thing I really noticed is that the figures don’t lock to other bricks in a sitting position, just a standing one.
Final thoughts
The Funwhole Steampunk watch tower kit was a great build, despite the minor issues I mentioned previously. There aren’t any glaring weak points in the stability of the kit, it’s as sturdy as any of my other similarly sized brick kits. The greebling (visible decor elements) is also on par with my other builds, and flexible pieces fit perfectly (I’ve had issues with other builds where the flexible pipes or long pieces aren’t quite the right length and have to be cut or they look weird). It’s a tall kit when built but takes up a pretty small footprint compared to other ~3k piece kits, so displaying it is easy on my crowded shelves. I may have to get some of the other kits in Funwhole’s Steampunk collection in the future, so the watch tower isn’t lonely.
What I like about the Funwhole Steampunk watch tower
- Excellent quality bricks throughout
- Artwork and text printed directly on bricks instead of stickers
- LED lighting adds a fun element
- Love the design and theme
What needs to be improved?
- Upper portion of the tower can only be lit by the included coin battery pack (the lower can be connected to USB-C or uses an included AA battery pack)
- Elevator platform incorrectly aligned despite careful counting, and one gear pops off and is hard to replace when used.
Price: $179.99
Where to buy: Funwhole or Amazon
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.
Check out these other reviews!
- Funwhole Cyberpunk NeonCity model kit review
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- JMBricklayer Steampunk Marble Run review
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