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

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.

Some of the instructions were confusingly worded and pictures were unclear, how ever it functions well after it's all put together. parts snap off their place holders fairly easily and once you see how the parts connect it's not too difficult to assemble. I did have to glue one part that holds the fan because it kept falling off. Overall this is a fun project to put together, it shouldn't take very long either. The movement is mesmerizing to observe, probably my favorite kits that mixes engineering with art.

I love watching videos of Theo Jansen's strandbeest sculptures, so I was excited to see a model kit available at an impulse purchase price. The finished kit lives up to expectations, moves flawlessly, whether the source is a fan or just blowing on the blades. This is an inexpensive kit, so some of the pieces needed a little help to bend them into proper shape if they were slightly deformed during packaging / shipping, especially delicate pieces like the armature for the turbine blades. This only requires a little patience to bend them gently without breaking. The instructions are translated, and not necessarily well, however again with a little patience and thought it is not difficult to figure out how to assemble the frame and legs, and once you have the pattern it goes very quickly. Overall, especially for the price, this is a good project, and a good result.

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.

I thought this would be a fun activity for me and my eight year old to work on, and it was. She was able to help, but as you can see from the other reviews - it probably isn’t realistic for an eight year old to complete it on their own. Even with guidance, you’ll likely find that you do most of the model - or you could just spread the process out more. For most of the steps, the model is easy to take back apart if you make a mistake. It seems very fragile while putting it together but holds together very well once assembled. The instructions are okay. I felt the image for one step was poorly represented and I ended up looking to a YouTube video as other reviewers have suggested. That quickly took care of things. These models are cheap, high quality, and a nice launching point to talk about art and mechanics.

The parts are well molded and of very good quality. I'm very impressed by the product and it works great once finished. The instruction booklet has a both English and Chinese, but it's not the random gibberish google-translate trash. It's actually well written with decent diagrams that are very helpful. It is not comparable to Lego bricks, but it's still very impressive for the price. The only improvement I can suggest is that the plastic molding could be a bit less brittle, but it's only a small issue. I would highly recommend this as a gift for someone (even without experience building kits). I think most people over the age of 13 would be able to build it, especially with some guidance. I enjoyed the project and would buy this again as a gift. 5/5, would recommend. Difficulty age 13+

First, the complaint: The kit was missing the second sprue tree for part E. Instead, they sent six too many of part D. Luckily, I was able to make some replacement parts out of thick plastic shim stock (the orange bits in the photo), but I wouldn't expect many people to be all too happy about having to do that. In general, the instructions are a bit confusing and not well enough illustrated to be easily understood. It says recommended ages eight and up, but it would probably be better for someone at least teen-aged who really likes to problem solve. The good points: For the parts that ARE included, they're well made and strong enough to take being assembled and disassembled to correct mistakes from the poor instructions. Since the pieces are repeat assemblies, it gets easier as you go on with building it. Once you've got the legs and drive put together, the rest is intuitive and pretty easy. It really is well designed as far as functioning and moving goes...if you get enough parts to complete one. You'll need a stronger wind source than just blowing on it, but a strong fan works well to get it moving. For the price, maybe buy two kits and hope there are enough parts to make a complete Strandbeest or an extended one with the spare parts. Not a great gift for someone who is easily frustrated.

The instructions were complete, and reasonably easy to follow; it's a complex gadget, so the instructions were complex, but it was fun figuring things out, and all the information I needed to make it work was in the instructions. I did find that putting on the last frame actually pushed things out of alignment, so I left it off (I may have done something wrong). But it walked very nicely and surprisingly quickly when I put it in front of my big floor fan.

Muy divertido. Buen producto

Easy to assemble and a really nice result

Not hard to build and works amazing!

Un excelente rompecabezas, interesante y una vez armado es impresionante el movimiento. Muy recomendable.

Very cool!