Review by John A. MacInnes
John is a Book Nook enthusiast with 40+ completed builds and a growing collection still waiting on the shelves. He particularly enjoys atmospheric street scenes, creative lighting, and immersive miniature worlds packed with storytelling and detail.
Haunting Relics Review: Ghosts, Gore, and the Best Instruction Manual Known to Humankind.
Minicity Design’s Haunting Relics is one of those book nooks that stares at you from the shelf as if to say, “Go on then… I dare you.” And, like every seasoned book nooker with more confidence than common sense, I accepted the challenge.
Containing approximately 390 pieces spread across 14 MDF boards and four plastic sheets, this is not a kit for someone who thinks patience is a medieval torture method. Minicity class this as an intermediate build, and I’d agree wholeheartedly. There are enough tiny parts here to launch a full-scale panic attack if you so much as sneeze at the wrong moment.
Straight out of the box, this thing screams premium product. Full colour packaging, crisp presentation, and absolutely no sense whatsoever that someone assembled the instructions using a crayon during a tea break. In fact, the instruction manual deserves an award of its own. It’s a full-colour, A4-sized, 76-page book and quite honestly the best manual I’ve ever encountered in this hobby. Yes, you read that correctly — I’m praising an instruction manual. The apocalypse is clearly upon us.
What makes it so good is that Minicity actually appear to understand where builders lose the will to live. Helpful hints and warnings are inserted exactly where disaster usually strikes, and the colour-coded wiring system for the nine LED lights is nothing short of genius. No sitting there measuring wires like some sort of electrically confused tailor. No muttering “where in the name of sanity does this one go?” while surrounded by tiny plugs and mounting frustration. Just simple, logical assembly.
The lighting system itself is straightforward, the routing is well explained, and the touch sensor works perfectly. Honestly, if every manufacturer adopted colour-coded wiring, book nook forums worldwide would become 70% less angry overnight. And here was where the manufacturer put some real thought into this element. A mix of white and warm orange leds lit up the scene bringing it to life, as well as the flickering orange above the coffin on the upper section of the tower. The only thing missing from this build was a tiny speaker playing creaking door noises every time someone walked past it. Preferably loud enough to make visitors spill their tea and question whether the house is haunted or I’ve finally lost what little sanity I had left after piece number 347.
The MDF boards are 2.5mm thick, laser cut beautifully, and most pieces pop out with a satisfying thumb push rather than requiring the strength of a medieval blacksmith. Printing quality is superb throughout — sharp, crisp, and detailed enough to make you stop and admire bits before inevitably dropping them on the carpet and hunting them down like David Attenborough on a jungle quest!
One particularly nice touch is the inclusion of 3D ancillary pieces and small display boxes for the various “skull-ptures.” Yes, I’m calling them that because if Minicity can lean into gothic horror, so can I.
The spiral staircases are especially impressive, featuring pre-printed plastic handrails that bend neatly into place. Of course, I then spent ten minutes trying to peel protective film off them before finally realising there wasn’t any film there at all. So if anyone heard muffled swearing coming from Scotland recently, that was me battling invisible plastic.
Build-wise, my only real issue involved the tower structure sections. Some joints are awkward to pressure-fit because human hands apparently weren’t designed to reach inside tiny gothic towers. Patience is essential here. In my case, a wooden spatula became the unsung hero of the build, proving once again that random household objects often outperform specialist tools.
Minicity estimate the build time at 6–8 hours, although I completed mine over three days between work commitments and occasional staring contests with complicated sections. Realistically, this is not a one-sitting build unless you enjoy lower back pain and questioning your life choices at 2am. Certain glued sections need time to set properly before continuing, and rushing this kit would be a terrible idea.
What surprised me most was how engaged I became with the theme. Gothic horror isn’t normally my thing, but Haunting Relics has enough variety, detail, and clever engineering to keep even reluctant horror fans entertained throughout.
The ghosts printed onto the clear plastic and located on staircases worked ridiculously well once backlit. In the daylight they look subtle and eerie but switch the lights on and suddenly it’s less ‘decorative bookshelf insert’ and more ‘Victorian spirits are absolutely charging £14.99 a séance in the basement.
At around £40, it’s not bargain-bin cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for here. Excellent materials, thoughtful design, outstanding instructions, quality lighting, and genuinely enjoyable construction make this one of the better premium kits currently available.
In short, Haunting Relics is spooky, stylish, cleverly engineered, and refreshingly free from the sort of chaos that usually leaves book nookers lying face down on the dining table questioning their hobby choices.
Highly recommended — just keep the wooden spatula nearby.
See today’s price on Amazon UK here
Leave a Reply