Lightailing lighting kits

drdavewatford

After Huw reviewed the Mini Cooper lighting kit I placed an order with Lightailing.co (that's .co, not .com) and it never arrived. When their website disappeared I feared the worst, but they've now refunded me.

Has anyone managed to successfully obtain a lighting kit from these guys?

Huw

Glad to hear you've been refunded, although I can still reach https://lightailing.co/.

brickmatt

I recently was gifted one for my birthday; my parents purchased it from amazon, and apparently quite a few of the kits are available there. I also noticed that the website listed on the packaging was lightailing.com (instead of co).

drdavewatford

Huw said:

Glad to hear you've been refunded, although I can still reach https://lightailing.co/.

Good to see that the site is back up - it was down for at least a week.

brickmatt said:

I recently was gifted one for my birthday; my parents purchased it from amazon, and apparently quite a few of the kits are available there. I also noticed that the website listed on the packaging was lightailing.com (instead of co).

While the site was down I stumbled upon lightailing.com and they directed me to lightailing.co (which was down) to chase my order. It's inconceivable that these aren't part of the same operation, but that's what they told me to do which was bizarre.

I'd feel more confident ordering through Amazon but the kit I want isn't being sold there unfortunately. Maybe I'll try again, via lightailing.com this time....

;-)

nmualumni

I bought some lighting kits off AliExpress and they have all come with Lightailing instruction manuals. (Detectives Office, Fire Brigade, etc.) so I'm not sure if they are actual Lightailing Kits or not.

NickF22

Both sites are up now, with different pricing - does anyone know which is the best/right one to order from?

NickF22

https://lightailing.co now redirects to https://gameofbricks.eu... which is "under construction". I guess I'll give lightailing.com a go.

Switchfoot55

For anyone with the know-how, realistically, what would the cost difference be between buying a pre-done set like this and putting together a DIY version? I know these producers have to make money...they aren't selling out of generosity of spirit. 

I'm just trying to weigh options between building my own system customized to my needs, or investing what I perceive to be a significant chunk of money into pre-built systems. 

datsunrobbie

https://forum.brickset.com/discussion/comment/595165#Comment_595165
https://forum.brickset.com/discussion/comment/550908#Comment_550908

The lights I picked up from Amazon are $22/dozen, powered by a pair of watch batteries, and the batteries are included. I chopped a $0.75 USB cable from Monoprice to convert a set to USB power.

NickF22

Update on lightailing.com - my #10249 order arrived today. Seems to be the same packaging as my original #10228 lightailing.co order - only difference I've spotted so far is that this one seems to feature true LEGO bricks, not knock-offs!

msanders

Glad I came across this thread. I have been looking to get some lights for the last month but I`ve been waiting. I saw some strange things with the website going down. I`ll take another look at the .com site. 

drdavewatford

After having my Lightailing.co order cancelled I then placed it again at Lightailing.com and the item has now arrived. I've not installed the kit but I have tested it and everything seems to work fine - quite impressive for the price. If you do order then you'll need to allow for a few weeks for shipping as the kits are shipped from China (or at least mine was).

msanders

I`ve been meaning to post on here for a while. I bought a number of different light sets from Lightailing. They arrived super quick by DHL. The packaging is OK, but likely I won`t keep the boxes since they are not the best. The lights come with the instructions, although they are difficult to make out sometimes because of the lighting (ironically) of the pictures themselves!

The major problem I have is that of the 5 light sets I bought, 3 had faulty lights (including the Hogwarts Castle and Disney castle). The company were fairly quick in responding to my initial concern but it took well over 1 and a half months to receive the replacement lights for the Disney Castle. I`m still waiting for the replacement lights for the Hogwarts Castle even though I ordered in December!!! (since they send by snail-mail). The major problem is that they were not very open and communicative about the replacements. They just kept saying, please wait, but no more information. For example, they never explained to me that they have to wait for parts to make the replacements - well this is my inference since they never actually said this, just that they are not available just yet but `soon` (not date given). Not sure why they can`t just take the lights out of stock sets that they have and then replace those ones once they receive replacements. 

The worst part is that I waited so long for some replacement lights and no response to my emails for weeks. I got an automated email from them to ask to write a review (since it had been 35 days since my purchase). I put a negative review on their website - only after this I got an email (the following morning) saying that the replacement lights are on their way. Plus they removed the review from their website since the reviews are audited! This means that I don`t really trust their reviews on the website since they can just not put the negative ones on there. 

So be careful! 

Its not quite a fair comparison, but I also ordered 2 sets of lights from Light my Bricks and they arrived really quickly (again by DHL). The packaging is really high quality and all of the lights worked!!!! YEAH! 

I must admit that the companies use very different lighting systems. Lightailing modify real Lego parts with their lighting system. This is great because it can integrate into your models a lot better. However, the only downside is that the wires and connections seem my more flimsy, so likely prone to breaking (?). When you are spending a good amount of money on lighting your large Lego sets, it would be a shame for the lights to break. 

In contrast, Light my Bricks stick the lights to bricks and twist wires around bricks for lighting. The quality of the wires is much better, but they don`t really modify Lego bricks for the models. The lights are, however, a lot more expensive - although at least they all work and you don`t have to wait months for replacements. Certainly I will only buy from Light my Bricks from now on. I will just have to accept that the higher cost also means better quality. 

OK, that was a long post. If you have any questions, then I`m happy to talk more about my experience with the two companies and two different lighting systems. 

Cyberdragon

Learn to solder, fix them yourself. It's likely nothing more than a bad joint/loose wire. Though I wouldn't trust a company with bad manufacturing quality anyway.

datsunrobbie

https://brickarchitect.com/2019/review-battery-powered-led-christmas-lights/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190216-Exclusives-Lighting

@BrickArchitect's website just started a series of articles on lighting. First is my favorite option, cheap battery powered "fairy lights". The ones I linked above run on watch batteries, his review shows ones running off larger batteries. USB conversion is a 10 minute job if you are handy with a soldering iron.

Tozis

Hey guys,

Week ago i search for LEGO lights on google and found gameofbricks.eu page. The page looks really nice. Order one light kit from them, and it arrives two days ago. Very happy with the quality and shipping time.

Previous sets i bought on lightailing.com but sometimes the shipping time takes too long for me.

If you know any other good sites where i can find more lego light kits let me know. I am always updating my lego city and want to try them all.