Light bulb replacement size and type

The original model like yours used a maximum 25 watt candelabra base bulb. It states that if a 25 watt bulb is not available, a 15 watt bulb will do.

Lite_Brite_(1993-1994).PDF

Given the ubiquity of LED bulbs available nowadays, a couple of notes might be of interest.

First of all, the wattage limitation of 25 watts in this enclosure is due to heat dissipation, so it's not that you can't have the bulb be any brighter, but rather that if you put in a higher wattage incandescent bulb, it will generate more heat, which can't be handled by the existing design of the Lite Brite enclosure.

However, when looking at LED bulbs, they tend to be about 7 times more efficient at generating light than incandescent bulbs, which means they will generate 1/7th the amount of heat. An LED bulb with the approximately the same light output will only require about 4 watts of power, which is a LOT less than the 25 watts need by the equivalent incandescent light.

All of which means that if you go by the wattage rating as the limiting factor for how bright of a bulb you can use, then switching to an LED bulb means you can get a heck of a lot brighter; in fact, a 27 watt LED bulb will put out an amount of light equivalent to a 150 watt incandescent!

So basically, if you want a brighter and/or cooler light, switch to an LED bulb instead. It will probably cost more initially than an incandescent, but given the much greater lifespan of an LED, it will pay for itself in time.

Note that LED bulbs come in different colors, rated in the K, or Kelvin scale. They are usually called "warm", "daylight" or "cool" colors; "warm" generally corresponds best to incandescent bulbs, but in a Lite Brite I would imagine any color would work reasonably well.