Brickstuff Product Introduction

Brickstuff Product Introduction

Welcome to Brickstuff

Welcome to the world of Brickstuff hobby electronics, the easiest way to get started adding light, sound, and motion to your LEGO sets and scale models.  Since 2011, we have been working hard in our Minnesota-based factory to make products anyone can use to enhance their creations-- no electronics experience necessary.

Getting Started

The most common question we get from customers is, "how do I get started?"  The easiest and most cost-effective way to begin is to use one of our six Starter Kits.  Rather than make a light kit for every single LEGO set, we have created these Starter Kits to work with any LEGO set.  This allows you to light up almost any type of set quickly and easily, and then to expand with add-on accessories when you're ready.  Most importantly, you can also re-use the lights from one LEGO set to another, so you're not locked in to anyone else's design for how a lighting setup should look.

Our Starter Kits were made to address most types of LEGO models:

  1. Aircraft (including special aircraft lighting effects)
  2. Vehicles
  3. Space ships (including special space ship lighting effects)
  4. Buildings
  5. Medieval buildings
  6. Winter Village buildings
Each of these kits includes everything you need to get started: lights, connecting cables, adapter boards, and a battery pack.  We've also included a quick start booklet unique to each kit with tips and information for having the most success with the included parts.

If you are new to LEGO lighting, our Starter Kits are the easiest way to begin.  Of course you can also begin with a Light Pack and Power Pack, if you want to start with something smaller (see the next section for more information about these packs).

Taking the Next Step

When you're ready to go beyond the Starter Kits (or if you've already used lighting in your LEGO sets before), we offer a full range of unique lighting and expansion accessories designed to work with your models and expand upon the lighting parts you already have.  All of these parts work together, and they will also work with parts from many other lighting manufacturers (see the next section for more details about interoperability).

Power: The Core

Every lighting setup needs at least one power source.  We've designed our Power Packs and Mini Power Packs to allow you to connect up to four lights right out of the box, so if you're buying a pack of lights, you just need a Power Pack or Mini Power Pack to go with them and you're all set.

The difference between a Power Pack and Mini Power Pack is that Mini Power Packs can power up to five lights total-- they're designed to fit in smaller spaces like vehicles.  Power Packs can power up to 100 lights or more, so if you have room for them or if you're looking to use more than five lights, a Power Pack is the way to go.

We offer a range of power options to meet any need, allowing you to power your setup from small coin cell batteries, AAA batteries, USB, LEGO Power Functions, 9 volt batteries, larger rechargeable batteries, or even a model train transformer.  You can see the full range of power options on our website.

Lights

Once you have your power source in place, you're ready to add lights!  We offer a number of Light Packs, many of which include four lights (to match the number of available connections in our Power Packs and Mini Power Packs).  All of our lights use the same connecting plugs, so you can be sure that any lights you purchase will work with our power sources.  Some specialty lights, such as our LED filament lights or high-power lights, require a Power Pack and will not work with a Mini Power Pack.  You can see our full range of lights on our website.

Lighting Effects

Since our founding, we've always focused on more than just basic lighting.  We love creating mesmerizing lighting effects, and we offer a full range of lighting effect controllers to make your lights do more than just turn on and off.

Control

Based on customer requests for the ability to turn groups of lights on or off, make lights turn on and off randomly, or have lights on timers, we've created an assortment of Control products you can use with your lights.

Expansion

Once you have power and lights, you're likely to need some expansion accessories to connect everything together.  As mentioned earlier, our Power Packs and Mini Power Packs provide the ability to connect up to four lights right out of the box, but when you need to connect more than that, you can use our expansion accessories.  Below is a list of just some of the options you can use to enlarge your setup.

  1. Connecting Cables.  We offer connecting cables in packs of four in several lengths (5cm/2", 15cm/6", 30cm/12", and 50cm/20").
  2. Adapter Boards.  We offer adapter boards with different numbers of connecting plugs-- you use these like plug strips in your home electrical system to allow multiple lights to connect to one power source.
  3. Special Connectors.  We offer special connectors such as horizontal and vertical power connectors, which allow you to connect multiple buildings or floors within a single building without needing to run wires between them.  We also offer magnetic train coupler connectors that allow you to light your train cars without worrying about plugging and unplugging wires-- the electrical connection is passed inside the coupler when train cars are connected.  These special connectors enhance the playability of your models without needing to worry about wires getting pulled or broken.

Working with Other Brands of Lights

The LEGO lighting world has expanded significantly since we created the first modular lighting system in 2011.  Many companies have copied our plug, wire, and adapter system for their products, which means you can use your Brickstuff parts with products from many other manufacturers of LEGO lighting.  If you already have some LEGO lighting products from other companies, we want to make it easy to use anything you buy from Brickstuff with parts you already have.

To learn more about specific companies and how to make their parts work with Brickstuff products, we've written a detailed article.

Thank You!

Once again, thank you for your interest in Brickstuff products.  We're a small, family-owned business based in Minnesota that works hard every day to bring you fun, easy-to-use products that are handmade as much as possible right here in the USA.  We love seeing all the amazing things our customers do with our products, and if you have any questions about getting started, we urge you to check out our User Forum, subscribe to our blog, or send us an e-mail!
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