I built this kit while watching season 4 of Stranger Things, and a piece of a Russian show called “Better Than Us”. This both turned out better than some of my other miniatures, and was the worst to build. Before I get into it, some facts about this kit!

Details

I bought this kit at Hobby Lobby. My experience with their kits has been pretty hit-and-miss, but I figured they’re cheap and this one looked kinda cute and easy enough to build. I wanted to do one that had a couch in it, because I weirdly love doing couches.

While I was working on it, I was cruising Amazon for more (because I have a problem) and I came across one by the manufacturer Flever that is identical. Literally the same one, only theirs is called “Romantic Nordic“, which I assume is because this looks like Ikea furniture. It’s slightly more expensive, and it comes with a dust cover and a music box. My version doesn’t include either of those things, but it did still have holes at the back where the music box was clearly intended to go.

The reviews for both brands are pretty bad, and I found out why quickly.

So, first of all, the instructions are only about half there. Sometimes parts didn’t have any instructions at all, just some kind of vague assumption that you’d know what to do with the pieces, and arrow pointing on a diagram that was much too tiny to read. For example, here is the entirety of the instructions for putting together a flowerbox:

Not Pictured: Instructions

There weren’t instructions at all for certain parts, and I had to guess at where they belonged. I’ve done a bunch of these so I survived, but I could imagine this being really frustrating for others.

The fabric and wire included was pretty stingy – you can’t afford mistakes – but I didn’t end up having a problem.

Wiring it up was a real pain because the light cables weren’t nearly long enough to reach the battery box. I did have to splice some longer wires together from one of the other light fixtures, which is always nerve-wracking because it can come apart really easily.

The end product, though, was cute enough and justified the $23 I spent on it. I just wouldn’t do this one again, and I wouldn’t recommend it for newcomers.

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