ROKR3D Wooden Puzzle Globe Model-Self Assembled Tellurion Building toys-567 pcs Oversized Mechanical Style Gift Set-Age 14+ for Boys, Girls, Adults

I have quite a few wooden models under my belt and several are from this company (ROKR). This is a beautiful globe with a nicely-designed base following an ingenious and fun model (the secret drawer mechanism with the constellations).That being said, while I would rate the difficulty of this model significantly below that of their Phonograph (that's another story in and of itself for another day), there are several issues with the design and the directions that at some point made it maddeningly irritating to assemble. Examples:*Some parts appear in the part list in a certain page and then they're never actually used during that step (see, e.g., Pg. 23 part K17)*Some design choices are baffling, hard to figure out due to the sheer oddity of them, and the instructions are anything but clear as to what to do with them (see the base of the globe; that design choice is something that continues to puzzle me even in my sleep. lol).*The "secret drawer" mechanism: until ** I ** actually figured out how the mechanism worked, I was not able to make it work by following the instructions alone, as they're not specific enough as to what needs to be done so that the secret drawer is not only assembled properly, but also so it doesn't get stuck when you're putting together the rest of the base (which, once assembled, CANNOT be easily disassembled to fix the drawer.*The assembly of the drawers themselves: the instructions do NOT tell you just HOW MUCH you have to wax and sand (and the sandpaper they provide is not fine enough to do this efficiently, so I used my own) all of the drawers and the box where they go if you actually want to be able to open them. Otherwise, the pressure and friction are too much.*Assembling the "water" and the continents/countries/islands. THIS, is perhaps the part that irritated me the most. They ask you to rely on wooden sticks that are just millimeters long (part F33) to hold the continents/islands to the blue wood (water). First, I have very small hands and it was nigh impossible for me to get the dang sticks to FIT through the holes in the continents and blue wood. They are simultaneously too small to manipulate efficiently and too big for the holes. When I realized I was getting nowhere by sanding the tiny things one by one (I was never going to finish). I decided to just squish them into a smaller shape with my pliers and glue them in place.*That gets me to the issue of glue and structural integrity: Again, the designers ask you to rely on pushing things into place and hoping that this alone will hold them perfectly in place. No. As mentioned, I started assembling the globe part as the instructions noted and once I was done with one square, the one next to it would fall of. When I realized that numerous islands and squares of "water" had just popped off without me noticing, I had enough and decided to glue everything that makes up the "globe" part of the model.*And, one last thing: I don't like to be picky but when it comes to an item geared towards "discovery" and presumably education (or even if you're an adult, for display) I have an issue when the drawers display the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World... and then they turn out to be EIGHT. I get that the designers probably needed an eight-sided octagon for some practical reason, but still. The Terracotta Army, as awe-inspiring as it may be, is not one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World--they were all within Greek territories, which included Babylon and Egypt.And on that note... even though the item displays the Seven(eight) Wonders of the Ancient Greek World, which included Egypt and Babylon, Greece, Egypt and modern day Iraq (and/or their capitals) are completely absent and not marked on the world map.In sum, this is a very beautiful item and there is no denying that. However, it can go from challenging to frustrating to put together and that probably needs a few tweaks from the designers to be as good as it can be and to be friendlier to younger, and less-experienced users.

Well, I jumped from an easier 3D puzzle to one of the hardest to complete. The precision of the laser cutting is astounding for the most part however there are a few parts that I can describe as" trying to place a square peg into a round hole". The finished product is beautiful and makes a great conversation piece in our family room considering it takes 567 pieces to complete. I can not emphasize enough that It is really important to become familiar with the directions and the pictures, noting the positioning of pieces in each picture, and the alignment of tabs on pieces that may hinder progress as you move further through the puzzle if not aligned correctly. I was stumped when joining the top part to the base for a few hours until I reviewed the pictures again and found I had reversed two pieces with tabs on the drawers. This puzzle requires patience, particularly attaching the panels to the globe and the continents and countries to the panels. The small pegs (all 98 of them) require some slight sanding to fit into the round holes. I used fine sandpaper beyond what was provided and tweezers to pick up and hold while sanding.....patience in completing this is important and you will be rewarded when you attach the continents and countries to the panels and the panels snapped into place on the skeleton of the globe. If you are deliberate with all the steps you will be amazed at the precise cuts and fittings of wooden pieces. While it is recommended for ages14 and above it will take someone who has experience with building models and fitting very small pieces together to complete. If you are looking for something easy to build then this is not the one for you. I wanted a challenge and I got one, the result was a great project that I look at each day with pride and wonderment in terms of how everything fit together.

I purchased this as a gift for my mom who loves projects like this and she is crafty. I ended up having to do much of the assembly. The beginning was fine for her constructing the base but the part where you need to attach the contients to the ocean parts for the globe involved using tiny rice like pegs you had to pop out of the wood sheets then push these very short pieces into tiny holes. Even I had to use tweezers to do this many times the little wood piece would break or crush. This part of the kit was very unpleasant. They really should give some alternative for that part the pieces are not very rigid, if they gave little plastic pegs would have been much easier or even something like toothpicks that are more structurally sound and hold their shape. Anyway I would think about who you gift this too considering you want the person to have fun with it. My fingers were hurting after the continents and ocean part but once it was all done it is very nice and she loves it. Not sure if I would get it again if I could go back in time I'd probably get something else. Good luck!

First off, this model is gorgeous!! I bought for my 7th grade World History classroom but will probably end up keeping at home due to the probability of my students wanting to touch it.Some suggestions- use some needle nose pliers (or tweezers) and a rubber mallet to help with the thin rice-leg pegs to attach the main pieces of the globe, just be gentle!! I was thrilled that extra pegs were included but made the mistake of using some of the wrong sizes and ended up short when I got to some of the final steps.My only criticism, and the reason for my 4 star rating, is that the doors don’t open. I can feel the friction when turning the knobs, but they won’t open the doors…even disassembled the globe attachments from the base and reassembled, but no luck. The shelves should be just a fraction less wide so that the wooden gears can better open. I’ve seen pics from other people who were successful, but very few.Anyway, I would definitely recommend this model and will most likely purchase again from this company.

We like it!