IntroHey 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 FH9003the 1044 piece Castle on the Cliff F9005the 966 piece House of Sweets F9009All 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.You can order their sets from their online store or from their store on Amazon.com.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 DetailsBrand: FunwholeSet: F9010 The Ruined Temple of the JungleTheme: Fantasy seriesPiece count: 1242Numbered bags? YesStickers or printed parts? StickersMissing or deformed pieces: NoExtra parts: YesMinifigures: Yes, 3 of themLighting kit: includedBrick Quality and Clutch: Very GoodAge Rating: 8+UnboxingThe 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 bagssection 2 - 3 bagssection 3 - 4 bagssection 4 - 3 bagssection 5 - 2 bagssection 6 - 3 bagssection 7 - 4 bagssection 8 - 3 bagsThere 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.The BuildAs 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?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.GallerySummary/Thoughts
