Intro
Hey brick fans! Welcome back to my blog where I review the latest building block sets coming out of China. Last month, I was contacted by Funwhole asking if I'd like to review their latest set, The Ruined Temple of the Jungle.
At that time I had only seen a single picture of the set, but it looked pretty intriguing, so I jumped at the chance to check it out.
As you can see from the picture above, the set depicts the ruins of an ancient temple. The temple gates look menacing and there looks to be several large man-eating flowers nearby. The centerpiece is the mysterious large blue crystal that rises up from a pool of red hot lava. Looks like a scene right out of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Let's first review the details of this set and later, I will give you my thoughts, rating and recommendations.
This new Ruined Temple in the Jungle set is part of Funwhole's Fantasy Series which is also comprised of:
- the 824 piece Ocean Adventure Ship FH9003
- the 1044 piece Castle on the Cliff F9005
- the 966 piece House of Sweets F9009
All Funwhole sets are affordably priced and come with included LED lighting kits which make the sets a great value. They are comparable to Lego quality but at a much cheaper price point since Lego sets don't include any lighting.
If you order from their online store, use my code itsnotlego to save an extra 10% off your purchases. Funwhole provides free shipping and free replacement parts too.
Set Details
- Brand: Funwhole
- Set: F9010 The Ruined Temple of the Jungle
- Theme: Fantasy series
- Piece count: 1242
- Numbered bags? Yes
- Stickers or printed parts? Stickers
- Missing or deformed pieces: No
- Extra parts: Yes
- Minifigures: Yes, 3 of them
- Lighting kit: included
- Brick Quality and Clutch: Very Good
- Measurements (approx): 11"L x 10"W x 9"H
- Age Rating: 8+
Unboxing
The boxes that Funwhole uses for their sets are quite heavy duty and I cannot bear to throw them away. I use them to store my instruction manuals and spare parts. The photos on the boxes are printed on top and underneath with some manufacturer information on the sides.
I noticed there's a date stamp on the side of the box that reads 20230109. My package was shipped out on January 13 and was delivered to my door on January 18 according to the tracking info provided. Could it be that my package was prepped only 4 days before shipping out? Anyways, that's like 9 days between manufacture/assembly date and it's arrival to me. Truly incredible!
The set came well packed with a thick, high quality instruction manual, a sticker sheet, a 16x16 std baseplate and special black package that contained the lighting kit.
There's some nice artwork inside of the manual.
There are numbered bags based on each phase or section of the build. The Ruined Temple set has 8 different steps, so there are bags corresponding to each section, as follows:
- section 1 - 4 bags
- section 2 - 3 bags
- section 3 - 4 bags
- section 4 - 3 bags
- section 5 - 2 bags
- section 6 - 3 bags
- section 7 - 4 bags
- section 8 - 3 bags
There is also a bag marked number 9 for the minifigures and an unmarked bag of extra/supplemental parts. That makes a total of 28 bags of parts with a total of 1242 pieces, more or less.
There are a total of 6 bags pertaining to the light kit. There are 3 bags of LED light strings and separate bags for the he battery pack, the USB plug and expansion board, and the brick separator and tweezers. The metal tweezers are really useful for manipulating the wires and also for applying stickers for the set.
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.
The Build
As mentioned earlier, there are 8 sections of the build and the pictures that follow are just some snaps during the progression of the build process for each section.
The set's baseplate is constructed from the brick pieces in
section 1.
Section 2 will add the blue crystal and lava pit. Lighting will be added to section 2, so it's very important to test out the lights and components first before you install them.
All of the lighting wires are fed out to the what will be the back of the display.
Section 3 adds some more lighting, this time around the perimeter of the display highlighting the plants and stone column relics. I got a bit sloppy with the wiring here, but went back afterwards and tried to hide them better.
Here's a closer look at the back of the display in
Section 4. You want to make sure all your lighting is working and tucked neatly out of sight because this is where the raised platform for the gates is built. You don't want to be disassembling the display at this point.
A small stone archway is constructed from the pieces in
Section 5.
The large gates are built in
section 6. They are hinged and can swing backwards, but sadly there's nothing in behind to see. The depiction on the gates according to Funwhole is that of a giant monkey face. Hmm, what do you think?
Wow, now the Ruined Temple set is starting to look like something! We added the columns on the side and some vines and plant growth in
Section 7. We're almost done but not quite.
If you've read any of my other building block set reviews, you'll know I'm not a huge fan of stickers, mostly because I have shaky hands and I always end up messing them up, so a lot of times I don't even bother to apply the stickers. But with the tweezers that Funwhole provides in each kit, I have no problems lining up the stickers just right on the part. Is that perfectly lined up or what?
Here's some views that most Youtubers and Reviewers of this set won't bother to show you.
As mentioned earlier, here are the gates in the open position. Ok, last step, here we go.
In
section 8, we find a giant mysterious object in the back. Is it some kind of alien spore? Is that why those scary looking flowers have grown so large?
There's a decrepit bridge that leads to the giant blue crystal. Anyone who loses their balance on the bridge will fall into the boiling pit of lava.
Well, there you have it. We have finished building the Funwhole Ruined Temple in the Jungle.
But wait, who is that figure in front of the gate? And why is there a monkey hanging around?
In bag number 9, Funwhole has included three uniquely designed minifigures with this set but they don't look to be compatible with Lego minifigures.
The minifigures do have back printing though.
Here are the Funwhole minifigures pictured with some original vintage Lego minifigures for comparison. They look alright to me, but if you don't like them, you could always substitute them with your own minifigures.
The floor is lava!
So overall, I thought that this set was a really fun build. If this were a non-lighted set, I might say that the Ruined Temple of the Jungle set was ok, but with the LED lighting it looks amazing, especially the big blue crystal and the lava pit as the centerpiece. You definitely have to turn on the lighting for this set and place it in a darkened room.
I love the way the accent lighting on the side tower and over the gate illuminates the scene. I forgot to mention during the build that one of the plant lights is colour changing, but you don't even notice it with all of the other lights.
The design of the gate gives off a Mayan/Inca vibe and I like that it swivels open, but unfortunately there's nothing to see past it. As far as the build is concerned, it's not too difficult and the steps are broken up for each task so it's easy for kids to build. I would add that running the wires for the light is pretty finicky though, if you are anal like I am. I tried to avoid showing the wires but in doing so I made some subtle but not too noticeable changes to the baseplate and walls.
Brick clutch and quality is consistently good as with all the Funwhole sets. There are a few brick pieces that have slight scuffs but nothing that would be an eyesore for me anyways. I didn't have any missing or deformed pieces but did get lots of extra parts instead. Probably a few pieces which I neglected to add here and there.
Having built some of the other Funwhole sets like the Wood Cabin and the Lakeside Lodge, I lamented that there weren't any minifigures included with those sets, so it was a nice surprise to see that the Ruined Temple in the Jungle set had three minifigs. I think they are ok looking, but an Indiana Jones type character would have looked even better with the set. I think having minifigures in a set adds a sense of scale and life to an otherwise static set.
If Funwhole is reading this, here is my recommendation. Do a part two for this set. I'd like to see something else on the other side of the gates, like a cave or tomb with smaller crystals embedded in the walls. Maybe there could be skeletons or more of the giant spores inside. The new second set could butt up against the gates or something.
Anyways, the Ruined Temple of the Jungle makes a great display set and I had a blast taking pictures. There are many unanswered questions about the blue crystal and why there is a lava pit in front of the ancient gates, but that's where one's imagination can come up with their own story.
My rating for this set? 4.8 out of 5. I wish there was something on the other side of the gates. The minifigures are bonus though.
This set becomes available for sale in mid February according to Funwhole. Don't forget to use my code itsnotlego to save 10% off your purchases from the Funwhole store.
Thanks for looking and see you in my next post! Bye!
Corresponding to each step are also numbered bags of parts. Total number of parts bags is 30 broken down as follows
Here's a couple of nice printed tiles I found amongst the other parts.
Found this parts bag in Step 1 with a strange message reading "All use of this white accessories, to this package shall prevail". The bag contained the extra pieces pictured above which weren't needed at all to build the flower shop. Weird!
Baseplate and plant stand under construction. And before you know it ...
... the first step is completed! In addition to the plant stand which is now adorned with lots of greenery, there is a shelf, maybe it's a resource centre? The flower shop gets a patterned yellow and blue floor which is surrounded by walls of several glass windows. 
