A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed my first proper Lumibricks set (the Homestyle Italian Restaurant). The restaurant set was a wonderful, large set, as you can see from my review. Today, I'm here to review a smaller Lumibricks set: #L9082: Sunset Stopover.
After building the Homestyle Italian Restaurant, it was clear to me that Lumibricks knows how to create wonderful, large sets with lots of printed pieces and lights. But can they work equal magic on smaller sets with lower piece counts? Let's find out together!
Note: If you decide to give Lumibricks a try, please consider using my affiliate link. This particular set was purchased by me and is not sponsored in any way.
The Sunset Stopover set contains 455 pieces and retails for $29.99 USD. The set consists of a small diorama of a cracked road, a phone booth, and a lit-up sign, plus an orange truck.
The set contains two minifigures, either of which you could pretend is the driver of the truck (and, I presume, the other is a hitchhiker or simply someone trying to use that phone booth like they were from the early 1990s). I like the prints on both of the figures, though it's worth noting that the LEGO Company uses extra pieces for things like bandanas, while Lumibricks simply printed the bandana on the blue cowboy figure.
The build experience for this set wasn't nearly as good as it was for the Homestyle Italian Restaurant. Some of that is probably personal preference, but what is undeniable is that this set is much, much more fragile when trying to assemble it as compared to the chunky restaurant set. In fact, even when the Sunset Stopover set was complete, it was still fragile in several places. For example, the orange doors on the truck are only attached by a single stud.
As someone who has been completely loyal to the LEGO brand since I was a kid (so nearly 40 years of brick-building), Lumibricks has blown me away with their value for money. Every set of theirs has tons of printed tiles, an embedded light kit (or kits, in the case of this set, since the truck is on its own battery box), and great part selection. Even better, the Lumibrick bricks are completely compatible with LEGO bricks - so much so that, unless you look for the little LEGO logo on top of the studs, for the most par,t I can't tell a Lumibrick from a LEGO brick.
My son helped me build this set, and he did have fun driving the truck around. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess depending on your thoughts on this), he is only seven so he has no idea what a phone booth even is (and if you don't understand what it is, it's kind of hard to do much play with it)! That said, even for someone who knows what a phone booth is, there aren't a whole lot of play features here. Even worse, it's nearly impossible to get the minifigure out of the truck (or back into the truck) without taking a lot of the cab apart. Finally, as mentioned before, the set is fragile in many spots and won't hold up to rough play at all.
In the end, I was impressed by the final model in terms of it being a lovely, retro display piece. The truck is undeniably awesome in that you can drive it around with its self-contained lighting system. I enjoy the look of the large sign, and the fact that the ads on the sign reference other Lumibricks sets is a nice "insiders wink" to the Lumibricks universe of kits, which I appreciate. The cracked bit of road adds character, plus it serves as a place to park the car if you are planning to simply display the model.
Overall, I've been super impressed with Lumibricks sets thus far. I did make a second order for two more large sets. One of those is another city building, but the other is from their medieval line of sets. As someone who absolutely loves LEGO Castle sets, I can't wait to try Lumibricks' spin on the genre. Look for a review of that set once I get it built!
Note: If you decide to give Lumibricks a try, please consider using my affiliate link. This particular set was purchased by me and is not sponsored in any way.
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