IKUPER Ideas Lighthouse Building Kit, Display Model Set
IKUPER Ideas Lighthouse Building Kit, Display Model Set for Adults to Build, Office Home Décor, Collectible Gifts, Creative Activity for Men, Women, Boys and Girls Ages 8+ (1016PCS)
From the brand
Mini Castle Building Set
| Dimensions: | 21 x 14.5 x 31 cm; 1.03 Kilograms |
| Model: | I92197 |
| Material: | Plastic |
| Colour: | multicolour |
| Pack Quantity: | 1016 |
| Batteries Required: | Yes |
| Batteries Included: | Yes |
| Age: | 8 years and up |
| Assembly: | Yes |
| Dimensions: | 21 x 14.5 x 31 cm; 1.03 Kilograms |
| Material: | Plastic |
| Quantity: | 1016 |
We enjoyed building the lighthouse. Some of the ways in which pieces are put together are a little “non-Lego” but it was an enjoyable build and the finished lighthouse looks great.
An affordable take on Lego kit 21335, about half the size and without the motorized revolving light – the light on this one is electric, but it is revolved manually. The manufacturers here have also changed the design by introducing a faint fantasy element to the whole shebang, a treasure chest incorporated and the lighhouse emerging from a storybook. It also has half of the pieces of the original.
Weighed against that, of course, is the fact that it’s less than a fifth of the cost of the original, whilst remaining a challenging and interesting build and an attractive display piece: Some of the parts are a little fiddly, and there is a block I’ve never seen before that functions differently depending on which way it’s used, but the instructions are clear.
Takes about 5-8 hours to build, and a good choice if you are on a budget.
Unfortunately I don’t own Lego set 21335, the Motorised Lighthouse, but it’s blatantly obvious that this is an imitation version. It’s not an exact copy, at all- it’s far simpler, with around half the number of pieces, with plenty of differences around the base. But the lighthouse itself, and the light on the top, are clearly “influenced by” the Lego set in a way that Lego’s legal department has certainly taken an interest in, I’m sure.
As imitation Lego products go though, this is actually one of the better ones. From the box itself, which is quite classy, and the unboxing, the bag labelling, the instructions and so on, it’s reasonably impressive. The print quality of the instruction manual feels cheaper than the main brand, but the quality of the diagrams is generally good.
Assembly is nicely straightforward, and child-friendly, if a little bit fiddly at some points, as many of the pieces are small. With the exception of a handful of steps involving double layering, which official branded instructions from Lego might have split into a couple of separate instructions, the process is generally logical. There’s none of the “is that a grey piece or a black piece?” confusion that other compatible sets sometimes have. The presentation of the set itself is more professional than the current product photos on Amazon (with their spelling mistakes and poor Photoshopping) may suggest.
The end result is rather nice, visually. The way the island base stands a little bit proud makes it feel like a proper ‘art’ piece, better than even Lego themselves sometimes manage. There’s a lot of different colour involved, and the ground, the house, the lighthouse and of course the lamp itself combine to make something that’s really quite interesting to look at and inspect. It looks great on a mantelpiece. It may not have the vast scale of some Lego builds, but you can be proud of it nevertheless, for the details rather than the scale.
The glowing light is a rather nice touch, and if the brand sold those as individual brick parts, I think they’d be rather popular. It’s bright enough that you could put it behind coloured semi-opaque pieces to give other colours of light, and the design possibilities are quite broad. I’m not willing to disassemble this lighthouse to take it out though, as it looks too nice where it is!
Yes, it’s not as good as a Lego set, and yes ethically it’s a bit dubious how close to one of the official sets this is. But at the current asking price of under fifty quid for a fun building experience of more than a thousand pieces (albeit a lot of them very small), I think this is a generally impressive set. It avoids some of the problems of other cheap compatible brands and ends up being a rather nice building experience.
Over 1000 pieces and taking around 4 – 8 hours to build depending on if you don’t just dump the bags out and scramble round looking for the pieces.
Some of the instructions can be a bit confusing as the colouring of the bricks is similar and not immediately obvious in the manual. There are also some bricks that have an upward pointing pair of circles and some with downward that can cause issues if you don’t notice that bit in the instructions (although easily rectifiable if you miss it)
The kit looks great, the light works and rotate (manually, clunkily and slowly but it rotates)
Overall a great kit that an older child (or adult who like to Play Well) will love to build and a family can build together. Could spread this build out over a week if you did an hour a night.
Bricks click together well and all colouring is correct throughout.
A very inexpensive version of a very expensive similar product.
Come on You know what I want to say. Am I allowed to say it? You know exactly what I am talking about when I talk about the similarities between this particular set another very well known building block set available on the market.
In fact, this is incredibly similar to one that that particular well-known building block set manufacturer makes under its own name, only a heck of a lot cheaper.
On opening this box, you can see that even the book instructions are also extraordinarily similar to that particular brand that I am talking about without mentioning.
So The blocks look the same, the book looks the same, the actual product looks very similar. The only thing you are not getting here is the name of that product on the box, maybe a slightly nicer design? And the premium price ticket associated with that particular brand. If you are after a set that’s fun to construct, uncannily similar in many regards to that brand which we do not speak its name and can keep you or your intended recipient busy for a few hours, this is extremely easy to recommend.