I enjoyed building this miniature book store, but it did pose a few challenges. The thick wall pieces, mainly from the J, I, and T part sets, were very difficult to fit. Almost every single one required me to sand the edges so it would just barely fit inside their respective joints or keyholes. I fought for an hour trying to get wall 2 in place, and my only silver lining there was that they definitely don’t break easy. It’s very easy moving the set around without worrying about damaging the foundation at least, even if it’s a pain to put it all together The instructions are concise and well crafted. Aside from my own error in not looking closely enough (often when they tell me to pay special attention lol), I knew exactly what needed to go where, and you can almost always correct any mistakes you make by wiggling it out of place again. Only one section in the instructions is inconsistent—it tells you to stack 4 books during the guided arrangement, but then lists 6. After counting out the rest, just use however many feels right. You’ll have leftover books either way. I think it would help if there were more spare parts. They gave TWO really tiny pieces, and thank goodness since I broke one before I figured out how to best push it into place. I also broke the light fixture while pulling the wires through. Had to patch it up with some elmer’s glue and a binder clip over night, but it’s holding at least. The wiring wasn’t ideal. The instructions showed caps being pulled off both the light wires and the battery box wires, but there were no caps on the battery box wires, only tiny little metal nubs that i could barely maintain a connection for. I’m reluctant about trying to cut some of the protection off to expose more of the wiring on that end, but I might just go for it if the lights keep flickering and going out on me. The lighting was a simple procedure on it’s own, though, even if they didn’t give me enough materials to work with for connecting everything. Have your own electrical tape on hand just in case. They provide a small square of insulating tape, but if you have problems and need to undo it, you’ll likely need fresh tape the more you need to go back and adjust something to make the lights work. There is a lamp shade that was annoying to manually screw a hole into. Use something more efficient if you have it, but it’s possible. I have a love/hate relationship with the papercuttings. Some smaller pieces couldve just been more stickers or their own chipboard pieces. The main “BOOKS” covering was the only piece where I thought the material was perfect for the job. The steps leading to the wooden door on the side (excluding the bottom) involve wrapping a large piece of paper around it. It’s a nightmare. I hated it. I had to cut part to make things line up better because tiny mistakes reflect on the entire section with bare wood gaps underneath. It’s still ugly and drives me mad whenever I see it. Start with the sewer side is my advice, rather than from the seemingly easier large plank on top. And also test the wrap several times, not just once. It was a mistake for me to just line the corner up with the buildings. This will all make sense in due time to those on said step. Some mini potted plants (p61 and p62) are awkward to fix into place with only the double sided tape. I put some glue at the bottom and left it to dry on glass where I could pop it right off and keep it from flowing out in the meantime. P57 and P58 are even worse. They expect you to cut all the branches off of a plant piece and basically stick them together with tape. It was a bit messier using glue for these ones, but I know the tape would never be enough for those either. They should’ve made more plant pieces that properly fit their mini pots like the fern. But it’s workable if they’d at least tell you to prepare glue or something beforehand. The overall building experience was pretty meditative, though. I’ve been greatly enjoying building something like this as its my first miniature, even with all the small hiccups. I definitely still like it with all its flaws.
