HEYZLASSMini Strandbeest Model Kit (Wind Power DIY-Beast), Interesting and Creative Gift for Birthday Holiday

I couldn’t believe the price of this toy. It’s so cheap for such an elegant, well thought design. It certainly takes some patience to assemble. Be careful and note the details in the instructions to ensure you don’t assemble it in the wrong direction. I did at first with the second half of the beast and when putting two halves together it didn’t fit. My bad. Took like 10m to disassemble one half and put everything back together. It works well. It’s made of plastic and joints so it’s not the most bulletproof in the world, hence play with it carefully (just don’t throw it around lolz). I’m sure your kids will enjoy this toy.

Evidently there are a lot of knockoffs of this model, and this is one. However, the pieces are sturdy and it works just fine.The instructions are...well...not great, but if you study the diagrams, they eventually make sense.I will point out two specific instructions that are not clear.At the bottom of Page 3 there is a diagram showing how to use a cutter to remove the plastic pieces from their injection molding spines. It clearly shows a “correct way” and an “incorrect way” and warns of cutting part F carefully. Here’s the thing: both pictures are identical... and there is no real way to cut incorrectly. So this warning is odd.When you assemble the twelve “legs” (Step 5), they will keep falling apart (where part A and C meet). You are going to be convinced you have a bad kit. Do not despair, as part F will eventually keep them together. That takes place much later in the assembly. Trust me, the kit does stay together by the end.Finally, the first step of inserting the rubber feet can be difficult. Don’t force it. Be patient.The kit is truly amazing as nothing “snaps together”, and no glue is needed. You could disassemble the beest pretty easily.If you are forcing pieces together, you are assembling it incorrectly.

This was a slightly challenging, fun and rewarding build. Has to be one of the best values on Amazon!!!

If you’re an expert model / puzzle builder, this version of the Strandbeest probably won’t be a challenge for you, but for us newbies who need explicit instructions, putting this together was almost impossible. The instructions were the biggest problem I had with this kit. The first few steps were straightforward and presented no difficulties following them. Once you get to the main part of the build though, the legs, the instructions are almost completely worthless. There’s simply too much information to convey about pieces which have to come together simultaneously for paper instructions to suffice. Fortunately, I found a very helpful YouTube video demonstrating the process of putting the legs together. It does cut out at kind of a key moment, but enough was shown that I was able to get it together. Without that video though, I am confident I would have ended up tossing the whole thing in the trash out of frustration. Luckily, once you make one set of the twelve legs, the rest are a simple matter of repetition. All of the pieces fit together very well, with one exception. The rubber feet are difficult to slide into their slots without absolutely destroying the rubber. Oh! Almost forgot, be very careful when cutting apart the rubber feet. They come in one long strip and appear as though you can just rip them apart since they are scored and already cut through halfway, but if you just tear them (like I did to the first one), you’ll end up with an anusable half of a rubber foot. Fortunately, I think the makers realize this and so they provide 13 foot pads even though you just need 12, so you can mess up one time.I don’t see a need to include the link to the instructions video because it’s very easy to find on YouTube. Just type in "mini strandbeest instructions" and it’s one of the first ones to pop up. As simplistic as this model is, I would say it’s not really for anyone under 12 years old, unless they’re precocious and have a knack for mechanical processes. Having said that, it isn’t very rewarding to assemble this model and it’s fascinating to watch it in action. Blowing on it to make it move gets tiring fast though, so have a small portable fan on hand to power it when you finish putting it together. You can get a fan that plugs into your smartphone for a couple dollars on eBay or a few more dollars on amazon, but the cheap ones from eBay do take a month to arrive.

This model has excellent engineering. The fan turns easily, and the gearing actually drives the mechanism. I expected the overall friction of the mechanics to overwhelm the ability of the fan. As for the construction, the pieces were easy to remove from the sprues, though I would recommend having a hobby knife on hand. Some have said that the instructions weren't clear, but I would argue that the instructions were quite clear and accurate IF you take the time to read them, look at the illustrations, AND use your brain. If you only put together Lego sets, this might be too hard for you. If you put together Gundam models, you'll have no problem. Last, but not least, this model includes some extra parts. Some of these are duplicates of parts you actually use, and some of the parts are never mentioned in the instructions at all.

This is a very cool bio-physics teaching machine. The manufacturing and materials are high quality. However it is very complex, like life itself, and the instruction manual is needed. The instruction manual is well written in multiple languages with helpful illustrations, but was missing Pages 4-7 and there is no Online Instruction Manual. We ordered a second kit hoping for a misprint, but the second kit was also missing pages 4-7.