REVIEW: Lumibricks - Barbershop - #19012

It's hard to believe that November is here; only yesterday, I swear it was still the end of summer! However, with cooler weather comes more time for indoor activities, including building more sets with plastic bricks!  Today, we will take a look at Lumibrick's Barbershop, a set that I purchased with the intention of adding it to my growing custom brick city.  Let's see if the set holds up and makes the cut, or if it's one that's best reduced to a pile of pieces for future projects.  

Note:  If you decide to give Lumibricks a try, please consider using my affiliate link.  This particular set was sent to me by Lumibricks as part of their creator program.  For more Lumibricks content (plus board games), check out my Instagram account.

The Barbershop is the second large set that I've built from the Street Fusion line of Lumibricks sets (the other was the Skate Shop).  The Barbershop is quite a bit larger than the Skate Shop, both in terms of total pieces (2557 for the Barbershop as compared to 1573 for the Skate Shop) and the footprint of the set itself (the Barbershop has a 32x32 stud footprint; the Skate Shop is quite a bit smaller with a 26x32 stud footprint).

One of the great things about Lumibricks' design philosophy is that the company seems committed to constantly trying new things.  The Barbershop is a perfect example of that design ethos.  The entire set unfolds to reveal the interior for both viewing and play purposes.  Of course, this does mean that designing a custom MILS base for the set ended up being a bit more challenging, but with ample use of flat tiles, I was able to build a full plate for the building that still allowed it to open up as designed!

The worst part of Lumibrick sets is assembling the minifigures, but at least the finished models all look nice in this set.  I love the variety of torso prints, especially that of Beard Bob, the Barber.

Lumibrick sets consistently offer good value when compared to the other major toy brick brands (*ahem* LEGO).  However, now that I've purchased and built several Lumibrick sets, I'm shifting my "value for money" category to specifically compare against other Lumibrick sets.  Even with that more stringent comparison, the Barbershop still earns five stars for the value category.  The set looks great; it has lots of lights, including the amazing sign at the front of the building, and there are even some play mechanisms built in, such as the "working" TV.  

It's hard to build a lot of play value into a set about a barbershop, but this set does feature several fun features (and the fact that the set opens up to make play even easier helps a lot).  Plenty of people will probably argue that the stated age range on the box (16+) indicates that "play value" shouldn't be a category to consider, but if you are like me and have a young child at home that likes playing with sets, I still believe the rating has some value!  That being said, this is certainly more of a display-style set as opposed to a proper play set.

Overall, the Barbershop is one of the best Lumibrick sets that I've built.  In fact, it's one of the modular-style buildings that I've built from any brand! 

So many lovely prints and fun details, you can't go wrong with the Barbershop (just check out all of the fun details in the photos above)!  

Note:  If you decide to give Lumibricks a try, please consider using my affiliate link.