Review on Line UGears Models Wooden Puzzle Puzzles: Crafting Your Way to Enchanting Mechanical Masterpieces by Joshua Sharma

This horse is striking in appearance. Looks wild and energetic. It's quite a talking point just for its looks. I would give five stars for that alone. The movement isn't that spectacular, but it moves. There is an elevator key and start/stop control lever. The horse cannot take more than 5 steps without stopping or simply falling over. This is similar to a horse's final moves before it is killed by an arrow strike. The kit is a real buildable bear. Instructions must be followed. You may find that sometimes you have to flip a few pages forward to see what the subassembly you are working on is and where it belongs. I knew from the start that I had to sand down the parts and use the wax that came with it. There's not a lot of wax in there. This is a 1 inch piece of candle, but the important thing is that this is enough for the horse. The wax is a bit soft, like beeswax. I haven't had any issues with missing parts. There are six boards with laser cut details. If you don't see anything, you have all the parts. The assembly is a little tedious and a little painful. As the model continues to take shape and become more horse-like, all modelers experience an adrenaline rush towards the end. After assembly is complete, the key will start and the switch will move. My model just sat there. Come on horsey, let's go. So the recoil of the key overcomes the initial friction, and the horse begins to demonstrate movements with a stutter. Repeated back and forth movements of the wrench will help spread the wax and the horse will become more supple. After many of these massages you can get the horse to take 4 or maybe 5 steps. The maximum is 9 and is rarely reached. He usually falls to announce that he's finished running. OK Good. It's still a cool model and I would build it again. I give 5 stars but 4 would be appropriate. I wish it ran a little better and had some explanatory text in the instructions. This is a worthwhile model that will take 8 hours of your life to assemble. This is genius. I have a few notes on this horse: Mine got stuck once when fully raised. I couldn't get it to work at all. I tried to move my legs and tap my ankles against my body. Nothing! My horse was dead. Only when I grabbed the horse by the neck and started rocking it back and forth did the gears unlock. This only happened once but it was very frustrating as I wanted to open the entire model to fix it. First of all, understand that this horse cannot run for long. If you watch smart videos, the horse seems to leave its stall and go to a pasture or something. If you look closely, the horse only takes a few steps in each scene. Skillful editing gives the impression that the horse could go on a shepherd's journey. Don't really complain because all the advertising and literature says a horse can't go far. This is only a problem if your expectations are too high and unrealistic. That's it, a mechanical horse model. So enjoy like me. My rubber band broke. I think there was a crack that grew over time. I was able to cut out the broken piece and retie the rubber band, but working in the body of the assembled model is not easy. Therefore, before assembling, check the length of the rubber band. Update on the rubber band 5 days later: The rubber band broke again. No, I didn't rewind it. I'll have to see if I can get a replacement somewhere. Rubber bands for the horse's mane and tail are awesome. Looks great and the strips fit perfectly when cut. I was concerned that I would need hair styling skills to keep the horse looking good. It wasn't a problem. Seriously, polish everything. Knock off the edges of large pieces to make them lose their painful edge. If you later have to climb into the model, you will not regret it. Some parts seem impossible to squeeze together with human hands. I ended up using a small soft-jawed furniture clamp to increase the strength of my fingers. I think pliers or a small clamp would work as well. The soft work surface helped support the board while I broke the piece off the board. I used the towel I use for assembly. It really takes 8 hours to assemble this model without a break, no matter how experienced you are. Unless you try to be extra careful and do some extra sanding, I think you can get it done in about five minutes. On page 13 of the instructions I was confused. The diagram seems to indicate that the elastic should be folded in three. After thinking about it, I was convinced that the double band was the thing, and it turned out to be the right choice. Check the correct function of the parts during assembly. A few steps will "tell" you to press the button and see if the pieces move freely. It is very important. Once the horse is fully assembled it will be difficult to get back in as the gears need to be synchronized. There is a downside to using wax. Your hands will become coated in wax, and when it is transferred to the horse, discolored patches will appear. Try to keep the wax where you don't want the wood to darken. I washed my hands often and still got a horse, more crooked than white. There are no troubleshooting tips in the guide. If you can't find help on the site, you're on your own. I have the impression from Ugears that they are helpful and I think that if you have a serious problem, you can correspond with them and get help.