Another Cottage? Thankfully, This One Has a Pumpkin

LUMIBRICKS Autumn Farmhouse 16013

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I've built a lot of Lumibricks sets now and one of the things I've come to appreciate is just how different they can be.

The Manga Shop had that slightly grubby cyberpunk city look. The Film Studio Tower was huge and all about presence. The Dutch Windmill brought a mechanical element into the mix.

The Autumn Farmhouse is something completely different again, and I really enjoyed building it.

At 1,557 pieces it isn't huge, certainly compared with some of the Lumibricks sets I've reviewed, but there's plenty packed into it. You have the farmhouse itself surrounded by crops, pumpkins, animals, trees and loads of smaller details. It's basically a pumpkin spice latte in brick form.

Packaging

Lumibricks packaging is consistently good. Everything is well presented and organised and feels like a quality product before you've even started building.

My usual criticism remains the amount of plastic. There are a lot of bags left over at the end of one of these builds and I'd still like to see Lumibricks, and other brick companies, moving towards paper alternatives where possible.

Packaging: 8/10

Instructions

I've given Lumibricks 10s for instructions before and I'm doing it again.

They're clear, easy to follow and well produced. The lighting installation is incorporated into the build rather than becoming a completely separate job at the end.

I can't find much to criticise here.

Instructions: 10/10

The Build

I really enjoyed this build. It has tons of what I call “delight moments.”

Anyone who watches my videos or live streams, reads my posts or has talked to me about this hobby will probably have heard me mention these before.

Building can be a really enjoyable and mindful experience. It can also become repetitive, arduous and sometimes just boring.

Delight moments are those points where something comes together and you stop for a second to appreciate what you've just made. It might be an interesting technique, clever use of a piece or simply something that looks far better than you expected.

They're what can take a build from simply passing the time to something I genuinely enjoy.

The pumpkin was one of my favourites here. I loved building it. It's only a relatively small part of the overall set but it's fun to put together and looks brilliant when finished.

The roof of the cottage was another. It was a little tricky in places, but I enjoyed figuring it out and seeing how it came together.

There are plenty of these moments throughout the Autumn Farmhouse.

Build Experience: 8/10

Brick Quality

Brick quality really does deserve some focus with Lumibricks because, at this point, they've nailed it.

The clutch is excellent and the bricks feel consistently good. I've built enough Lumibricks sets now that this isn't really a surprise anymore.

Something I've noticed, not just with Lumibricks but across some of the better alternative brick companies, is a move away from creating bespoke elements simply to resolve one particular area of a build. I much prefer this.

There's more emphasis on using traditional building elements creatively to achieve the same result. That's much closer to the building system we're all familiar with and, for me, far more interesting.

Part of the enjoyment of this hobby is seeing how relatively simple elements can be combined to create something you wouldn't necessarily expect. A bespoke mould might achieve the same result more easily, but there's far less satisfaction in discovering how it was done.

It's a direction I'm really happy to see Lumibricks taking.

Brick Quality: 9/10

Design

The design is nice, and sometimes it's a welcome change to build something that isn't another modular or something quite so structured and formula based.

I like the angles, the little touches of over-design and the amount of detail they've managed to get into a fairly traditional building.

The colour palette is probably my favourite part. As I said earlier, it's a pumpkin spice latte in brick form.

The browns, oranges and warmer autumn colours work beautifully together. Autumn is my favourite season, so I'm always going to be fairly easily won over by a set that leans this heavily into that look.

I am slightly conflicted though.

Coming so quickly after some of the other cottage and farm-style releases, I'm not entirely sure another farmhouse was necessary. How many cottages and farm buildings do we really need?

Lumibricks does have a theme dedicated to Farm Life, so more farm buildings obviously come with the territory.

The autumn styling gives this one enough of its own identity to win me over. Without it I'm not sure it would have grabbed me in quite the same way.

If you've already bought several of the other Farm Life sets, whether you need another is a fair question. If this is your first Lumibricks farm build, you really can't go far wrong.

Design: 6/10

Lighting

Lighting is always going to be a huge part of a Lumibricks review. It's one of the things they've built their reputation around and I probably judge them more critically here than I would most brands.

The lighting in the Autumn Farmhouse is good, but I wouldn't call it a standout. I'd actually go as far as saying they could have done more with it.

There's nothing wrong with what's here. The quality is good, it suits the model and the whole thing looks lovely switched on. I'm just at the point where I'm hoping each new Lumibricks release will show me something a little new or fresh.

This doesn't. 

One thing I really appreciated was the standalone lighting connection for the pumpkin.

If it had been tethered to the cottage with a cable, I would have been very critical. It would have restricted where you could position one of the most important parts of the design.

Thankfully it isn't.

Lighting: 6/10

Display

This is a nice display piece and the colour palette does a lot for it.

The oranges, browns, greenery and lighting all work particularly well as a seasonal display. It's not going to dominate a shelf, but I don't think it needs to.

It's a set that will come into its own during autumn.

Display: 8/10

Value

Value is great.

Ultimately, any company producing genuinely good quality brick sets that don't require you to remortgage the house immediately is going to get some extra credit from me.

And I'm only half joking.

Brick building needs to remain accessible, particularly if we want kids to continue discovering the hobby and developing an interest in building.

There's obviously a place for huge, complicated and expensive display sets. I own them. I build them. I love plenty of them. But increasingly high prices shouldn't become the price of admission to the hobby.

With the Autumn Farmhouse you're getting 1,557 pieces, excellent brick quality, integrated lighting and a build I genuinely enjoyed.

I've said this before about Lumibricks and it continues to apply:

Cost. Quality. Value. None of those things feels sacrificed to make the others work.

Value: 10/10

Final Thoughts

The Autumn Farmhouse is an interesting one because I enjoyed building it more than some of the individual scores might suggest.

The delight moments are a big reason for that. The pumpkin and the roof were particular highlights and I generally had a really good time putting the whole thing together.

Brick quality is excellent, the instructions remain superb and the value is extremely difficult to argue with.

Where it loses points for me is in what it brings that's new.

The Farm Life range has already given us plenty of this type of building, and although the seasonal treatment works, the underlying concept feels familiar.

The lighting is similar. It's good and I had no issues with it, but I've seen what Lumibricks can do and I'm wanting more now.

In some ways Lumibricks has created that problem for itself. They've raised my expectations.

As a standalone set there's plenty to like here. If this is your first Farm Life set, it's a great place to start. If you've already got several on the shelf, the decision becomes a little harder.

For me, the build experience, quality and value still make this a very easy set to enjoy.

Scores

Packaging: 8/10

Instructions: 10/10

Build Experience: 8/10

Brick Quality: 9/10

Design: 6/10

Lighting: 6/10

Display: 8/10

Value: 10/10

Overall: 8/10

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Review Disclaimer: This set was provided to me free of charge by Lumibricks for the purpose of review. They provided no instructions, requirements or editorial input regarding the content of this review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.