Several weeks ago, I was sent a Brickstuff LEGO LED lighting evaluation kit.  I had spoken with them several times via e-mail, and offered them some suggestions for improving their marketing and explaining their products more clearly on their website.  I enjoyed our discussions, and loved the look of their product, so I was very excited when they offered to send me some of their products to review.

Around the same time, I picked up Jabba’s Palace and decided to test the lights on it.  You can see the results of my LED lighting in Jabba’s Palace on Flickr.  You can also read more here.

Brickstuff LEGO LED lighting kit

The LED lighting kit I was sent contained:

• a battery pack
• several micro LED lights
• several 2-light LED strips
• numerous extension wires
• several wire connector/splitters
• lighting effects controller

The battery box holds 3 AA batteries and has two connectors; one that will power the Lighting Effects Controller (LEC) pictured above.  The other supplies power to the little splitter boards.

Pictured above are:

• 2 2-light LED strips
• 2 splitter connectors
• micro LED with connection wire

When power is supplied to one of the splitters, two individual micro LED lights can be connected on the other side.  This is how my Brickstuff LEGO LED lights were connected in Jabba’s Palace.

The various length cables are quite handed for getting your LED lights exactly where you need them.

As you can see in the picture above, the connectors are very small.  So small that they easily pass through the standard hole in LEGO pieces as shown below.  This makes routing wires extremely easy.

While the LED itself is too large to fi through these holes, the board can be sanded a bit and made to fit.

The way I used them was to stick the LED into the bottom of a 1×1 brick with side stud with hole.  I then used a trans orange bulb to give a nice warm orange glow to Jabba’s Palace.

The wires are very thin, and while they cause a gap, they don’t really impede construction.  If I were to install them permanently, however, I think I would slightly notch the bottom edge of the brick for better concealment.

A single micro LED is surprisingly bright.

Below is the simple setup I played around with.  All the Brickstuff LEGO LED products are intuitive, and easy to use.  I must admit, I wanted to see if I could make them work without reading any of the manuals, and I was successful.  This is impressive for a guy with absolutely no electrical knowledge.  All the connectors are sized so they can only be used one way.  I’m not sure if this was their intent, or a happy accident.  In any event, I appreciate this fact.

1. I plugged the battery box into the Lighting Effect Board.  The holes seen on the LEC are the size of LEGO studs, and are there so you can easily mount the LEC to LEGO bricks in your creation.
2. From the LEC, I used two extension cables to power two splitters.  One splitter was then connected to two individual micro LED lights used in the wall sconces in my Jabba’s Palace test.  The other splitter was connected to a third micro LED used to light the fire pit behind Jabba’s throne.

As you can see below, all the Brickstuff products are quite small, and easy to tuck away in your creations.

Here’s a quick down-and-dirty video I made with the help of my lovely daughter showing the various effects available in the Lighting Effects Board.

In a nutshell, I think the Brickstuff line is really excellent.  The products are well thought out, well-built, easy to use, and nicely packaged.  My only concern would be price.  They are a pricey alternative to other LED providers I have seen, but I can’t speak to the quality of those competitors.  I can speak to the quality of Brickstuff, and I firmly believe you get what you pay for.  Just like LEGO!  When life slows down a bit for me, I plan on lighting all my modular LEGO buildings, so I’ll be needing more Brickstuff LEGO LED products myself!

If you want to learn more about Brickstuff, visit their website.

If you want to purchase Brickstuff LEGO LED products, check them out on Amazon and Tindie.

Brick

I am an Adult Fan of LEGO (AFOL) and an active member of the Michigan LEGO User Group (MichLUG). I have loved LEGO for as long as I can remember. I am currently working on the following models:
– UCS Millenium Falcon
– Emmett’s Apartment Building
– Gringott’s Bank