Lego Compatible Funwhole F9006 Steampunk Ore Train Building Block Set Review

Happy 2023 brick fans, hope you all had a great holiday season! Today, I'm sharing my review of the new Funwhole Steampunk Ore Train, which Funwhole kindly provided to me for this review.

Here are the details of today's set review:

• Brand: Funwhole
• Set number: F9006
• Theme: Steampunk/Train
• Number of Pieces: 1056 pieces
• Stickers: Yes
• Minifigures: No
• Extra parts: Yes
• Deformed or missing parts: No
• Brick clutch and finish: Excellent
• Age Rating: 8+
• Size: 18.35 inches long and 5.48 inches high
• Lighting: Yes!
• 
  

Where to get the set

The Funwhole steampunk train building set can be found on their website here.

👉👉 Use my special discount code ITSNOTLEGO to save an extra 10% off your purchases from their website.

It can also available on Funwhole's dedicated Amazon store here.

Here's the direct link to the Steampunk Train set.

Unboxing

Let's take a look at the boxed set.

The large Funwhole train set comes in their recognizable black box.  The artwork/photo on the box is stunning.  Inside it is jammed pack with goodies.  First off is the comprehensive instruction booklet, a separately packaged sticker sheet, several numbered parts bags and a mysterious black bag.

Opening up the black bag, we find the special lighting kit that comes included with the set.  There are 6 pouches of specially sealed lighting kit components.  

I think that Funwhole makes lighting kits a standard feature of their building block sets which they allude to in their slogan, creating "Whole Fun, Day and Night".  This is a nice feature that Lego sets don't come with.  

If you wanted to light up a Lego set, you would have to buy a third party light kit at extra cost.  Here, the lighting kit is already included in the very affordable price of the set.

The first 4 pouches numbered 1 thru 4 contain the LED lights, wires, connectors and specialized plates to mount the lighting to the train.  If you are unfamiliar with lighting kits, it is highly recommended that you review the section about lighting in the manual before you begin.

In the final two pouches of the lighting kit, we find a battery pack that uses 3 triple A batteries (not provided) and a tool kit providing a brick separator and a set of metal tweezers.  

In terms of powering the lighting, you have the option to use the supplied battery pack or plug the provided USB plug into a USB power source.  The tweezers are really useful in handling the fine wires in the light kit and I'm glad that Funwhole thought of this.

Funwhole uses the same lighting system as Briksmax.  For a detailed primer of how the lighting kits work, please check out my blog post here.

Moving on to the parts for the train set ...

The parts bags are numbered as 1, 2 or 3, each bag corresponding to a section in the accompanying manual.  We find that there are 5 bags for section 1, 5 bags for section 2, and 6 bags for section 3.

Building the Train - Section 1

Ok, let's get building!  I found the brick parts to be very high quality and nearly indistinguishable from Lego bricks.  No scratches or scuff marks on the Funwhole bricks unlike some of the other lesser known brick brands.  

The parts fit very well with just the right amount of clutch.  The manual is easy to follow and the steps clearly laid out.

Now, to add the lighting!  Remember to always test the lighting just in case there is an  unlikely component failure, it's rare but it does happen.  If any problems, contact Funwhole and they will send you replacement parts for defective or missing pieces.

Time to add the lighting!  In the above pic I have threaded the wire for the lighting under the axles and have tested them using the provided battery pack.  Even though you might not use it, it's a good idea to test that the battery pack works as well.  

FYI, you might notice that the battery pack is different than the one that comes with the set.  That's because I couldn't find any triple A batteries in the house, but I did have a double A battery pack from my other Funwhole sets, so I used that one instead with no issues.

The train axles are installed through technic bricks and do not use turnable trucks like other train sets I've built.  

Oh, you should know that this train is not internally powered so it doesn't come with a motor to drive the wheels.  Nor does the set come with any train tracks, even though it is Lego track compatible.  I already have train tracks from my other sets, but you may be disappointed if this is your first Lego style train set.

Building the Train - Section 2

Moving on to section 2 now.  Time to finishing building the engine.

Here's one gripe of mine.  I had a hard time trying to attach the roof to the cabin.  I ended up putting some of my own tile pieces around the top of the cabin to make it easier to remove and attach the roof.  I think Funwhole could have done a better job on the design here.

Speaking about the cabin, save for the interior light, there are no features inside of it.

Here are all the lighting details on the steam engine.  Don't forget that the under carriage is also lit up.

There are a few spare parts leftover after completing section 2 of the Steampunk train.  While this building set doesn't come with any minifigures, you do get an orange cat which you can place on your train.

Building the Train - Section 3

The last part of the Steampunk train is this fantasy hybrid passenger car and colourful ore on top.  The interior is empty.

Although the passenger car is small, there are three access doors.

The bottom and top of the car has lighting, as well as the interior and rear coach lights.

I found it was easier to attach the lighting wires from the passenger car to the expansion board on the steam engine first before joining it using the technic pin.

The different coloured transparent bricks gives it a nice lighting effect!

The finished model!

So although the Funwhole Steampunk train came with stickers, I didn't put them on my model.  I think it looks ok with or without them.

Day time.

Night time.

Summary

I think that the Funwhole Steampunk Ore train set represents great value if you are a fan of steam trains or just building great Lego style sets such as this one.  The piece count to price ratio is very good and the added light kit really does make it a nice display model.  And it looks great in my not Lego city.

There were no missing or defective parts and everything fit really well.  The lighting installation was not an issue for me, but I think that some of the younger builders might need a bit of help from an adult.

If you are wondering if this train is scaled to display with minifigures, here's a picture of the train with some of my own minifigures.  Let me know what you think.  

I feel that the Funwhole steampunk train is larger than other my other Lego compatible trains, but it does run OK on my train tracks.  I'm not sure if you can integrate power functions and motors into this set to make it run on it's own, as I don't have any experience in that particular arena.

I'm not a fan of stickers for the most part, but probably Funwhole wanted to keep the price point down and using printed parts would increase the cost of the train.  That's probably also why they chose not to include any train tracks with the set, although I think that three or four pieces of track wouldn't really make much difference.

Finally, I have one question, is this a Steampunk train or just a regular steam train with a couple of gears on it?   It's definitely a fantasy steam engine with the colourful ore on top of the passenger cabin, but I don't feel you can really call this a Steampunk train.   Having said that, I'm going to give the Funwhole Steampunk Ore Train a solid 4.50 out of 5.  

Here's my reviews of some other Funwhole building block sets:

Funwhole Retro Wood Cabin FH9001

Funwhole Lakeside Lodge FH9004

Don't forget to save an extra 10% on all your Funwhole purchases using my code ITSNOTLEGO.

Thanks for looking and see you next time, bye!