Rowood 3D Puzzles for Adults, Wooden Model Kits for Kids, DIY STEM Toy for Teens Boys and Girls Ages 8+ - Pumpkin Cart (182 Pieces)

Item is small and difficult to work with

My daughter received the pumpkin ("Cinderella-style") cart/carriage puzzle for Christmas. This is a beautifully ornate tiny puzzle with real moving parts, and that alone makes it so cool and worth the trouble, though at many points throughout our attempt to piece it together and correct mistakes, I had my doubts. For people who like building models, working with their hands, or accomplishing the near-impossible... this one's a charmer.Feedback for the manufacturer: The directions would be better if they were black and white photographs of the parts involved in each step, rather than sketches of the parts. Words would also be helpful, but if you are sticking with picture-only instructions, photographs would be better.Here are some tips for builders:1. The pegs that fit into the tiny holes like little nails are so, so tricky, but we found a way to work them into the holes. You press and twist them and once you twist it in like they are screws, then you can press them the rest of the way through the hole with your fingertip or the flat handle of a knife or something until they are level with the surface (like a nail). Don't bother trying to use toothpicks as substitute pegs; the toothpicks we had (standard round) were too narrow and fell right through the holes.2. Also, I inadvertently broke off little curly-Q wood embellishments on parts of the carriage frame and was able to use a tiny drop of super-glue and hold it together for a minute and it stuck and was strong. Tape does not stick to this wood, but super-glue works great.3. Another tip: when you are looking at the side of the carriage -- like the profile -- from back wheels, to carriage, to front wheels, there is a panel on either side of the carriage which is wider than all the other panels. Just as you might expect on a real carriage, because these wider panels are like the "doors" where someone would get into the carriage. (But they do not open on this puzzle.) I say this because when my kids first put the top of the carriage together, with the frame pieces, they did not have the wider pieces opposite each other, so things did not line up right. Once we realized the error and corrected it, things came together.4. Also: the tiny pegs at the top of the frame pieces that plug into the very top of the carriage are quite fragile. We broke a few, and now have a hair band applying pressure to the top "ceiling" of the carriage, though super gluing the panels to the frames would permanently fix that so I may do that and apply pressure for a minute or two using my hand as a clamp.I am not a big person but felt like a clumsy giant trying to work on this; it takes patience, but my daughter was thrilled with the results, the wheels really turn, and she immediately made a tiny polymer clay princess for it, using tweezers to set the figurine on the nice seats inside the carriage. Some miniature 3.5" posable skeletons (Re-ment, amazon.com) are the driver and footman at either end of the carriage and fit perfectly on their seats. We have made homemade reins for a small hippo as a reluctant stand-in for a horse. It's really cool looking and very detailed. We also tried the ferris wheel and merry-go-round, but the pumpkin cart (carriage) was by far the most involved.

Kids are loving these puzzles and great toys to keep forever.

This is my first time building a puzzle like this, and it was enjoyable but took a good portion of time to complete. However, the result at the end was very satisfying to see!Instructions:The instructions were relatively easy to follow: they included close-ups for more finicky steps and the images were clear enough to understand. It is a bit difficult at the beginning, but once the first few steps are complete, the rest is just adding pieces onto other pieces.Pieces:The pieces themselves are fragile, so it's important to be careful when snapping them out of their mold. I noticed some of the pieces were more difficult to put into place than others, and I had to be careful to ensure that they wouldn't break. A few times I had to try multiple times when putting pieces together, which left the connective part of the respective pieces somewhat damaged, but still doable.At one point a piece broke, which seemed to be expected by the manufacturers as there was an extra piece included in the event this happened. Most of the thinner or smaller pieces seem to have an additional one just in case, which is good as I had to use some of the extras multiple times due to breakage.There was one particular piece that was tricky: it was a sort of stretchy/bendable wood that was supposed to wrap around another piece. The first one broke, so I used the extra to attempt again, this time with more care. Yet again, the piece broke, so I had to just leave it as it was since I couldn't glue it together without resulting in more damage. It seemed this wood wasn't built to be stretched/bent, even though the instructions showed otherwise. It was disappointing, but thankfully the error didn't interfere with the overall result too much.Result:The hot air balloon itself is very beautiful and intricate. The prints on the wood are pretty to look at and hold up well to make it appear that the balloon is more detailed. It's a good size to put on display on a desk. Overall, this was enjoyable to build, but the fragility of the pieces themselves hinder the enjoyment of building this.

The end result is just like the photo. My daughter has loved all of the 3-D puzzles have bought her. She loves this one because it is so pretty and detailed. Will continue to buy these puzzles. Perfect gift for middle school age and up. The first one i bought my daughter kept her busy for 6 hours.

I have experience building wooden models, I've built quite a few. However, this one had a part shatter into 4 pieces while I was *carefully* putting it together. It was very surprising. There was no replacement part, so the entire model was unusable, unfortunately, and I had to throw it away. My advice would be to buy two, so you have replacement parts! Or, try to be gentler than I was, but I'm not kidding when I say I was being very ginger about this piece, it was delicate. I was disappointed.

Up front, you should know that you can request replacement parts from the company, and you will likely need replacement parts. Or get some wood glue, although some pieces won't be easily fixed with wood glue. I put two of these together. The first one I threw away after breaking so many parts. I was unaware that I could get replacement parts, but I would have had to order half the pieces anyway. The second time through, I still broke two pieces and I was being so gentle, but I did finish it.Hint: If you think you're being gentle enough, you're probably not. Be especially careful with the long, outer pieces that make up the round part of the carriage. I broke those both times either trying to put them into the round pieces or adding other pieces between them.

This is my daughter’s first 3 D puzzle, Some tiny pieces were hard to fit . Need good patience, some craft glue is good have have on the side, in case you broke them accidentally. Good luck and have fun !

It's a really cute piece not a lot of moving parts so you don't have to worry about breaking Pieces

Les morceaux cassaient. Il faut être prudent pour les enlever. Déçu.

Good value

So this things is actually super cute, takes a lot of patience to build though and you'll need a good few hours. The pieces can be a bit fragile (I broke 3, the I needed to super glue back together), so be careful as you build. The instructions are easy to follow, and the pieces are a good tight wedge fit (obviously, because if they were loose it would fall apart). Couple of the instructions are a bit dumb. For example, they wanted you to put the two wheel pieces on top of each other and then force the wood pin through. Don't do it that way, put one half of the wheel down on a flat surface, push the pin in half way, then put the second half down and push them together. I added photos. Otherwise, overall I had a lot of fun building this and I stole to little figurines from my niece to put in the carriage. I think it's adorable!

Très fragile car les pièces brise facilement(je ne peux terminer le casse tête).Je suis très déçu de cet achat.J'ai gaspillé mon argent.Lucie