Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have to say that this was quite a challenging build. I consider myself an advanced Lego builder, but this took time, patience, steady hands, and ample room to complete. I spent 13 hours, spread over 2 days 3 nights, building this magnificent set. The attention to detail is truly amazing and neither video or pictures can do it justice. This is why I drove 2.5 hours to my Chicago area Lego store to see it built. I wasn't expecting any to be in stock, but there were a couple and I purchased the one with the least box damage. Now on to my review...wow where to start. Let us start with the sheer amount of pieces in various size, color, and shape. I truly enjoyed the plethora of pieces and building types. Mind you I'm a bigger guy, with large hands, and the fine detail work with 1x1 tiles and such was tedious. The building breakdown and illustrations were all easy to follow and didn't overwhelm you on any given step. The pieces come in bags from 1-14. The extremely thick manual and stickers come packaged in plastic without cardboard. The pieces themselves are tucked in one white flimsy box or placed alongside said box. I was surprised to see that there were fewer stickers than I had anticipated. The stickers are of really good quality. The exposed brick stickers are laser cut and not just bricks printed on a larger gray background sticker. I was very concerned about the stickers being big and ugly. The set really is not complete without them. The illustrations do a good job of placement suggestion as well. In the end, I'm happy with my sticker placement. The set utilizes most of its surface area well. I think there were some missed opportunities to incorporate more Disney easter eggs here and there. The archery area could also have used a little more detail as well. The addition of a rack for bow and quiver would have been nice. The room details are well thought out. I like all of the Disney films presented in model. I think there is some area for Disney characters to maneuver within. I do wish the set had come with more characters. Cinderella would have been nice. I didn't mind having Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Donald as I skipped those in the mini figure collection. The best figure of the bunch though is Tinkerbell. Now I'd like to talk about what I didn't like in the set. I thought the piece count is a little misleading as there are so many tiny pieces utilized here. The price per piece is on point, but it would have been nice to have more of the larger pieces when able to be used. Many times, as with most Lego sets, multiple 1x1 tiles are stacked when unnecessary. I'm not sure how the designers could have avoided stacking methodology. My other main complaint is structural integrity of the set. This set CANNOT be easily moved without breaking down into 3 sections. I would avoid moving it at all costs for children under the age of 7. If they would like to play with the set, then I suggest placing it on the floor in 3 sections for ease of play. The final tower construction has the weakest structural integrity. I was assembling, with both hands, and the tower buckled/shot out of my hands and onto floor. Luckily only a few pieces came off, but the area between Snow White Mirror and above the mirror is extremely fragile. I'm not thrilled with the sets ability to teeter from tower up. The base is very very solid, but the jump plate usage above is lacking. I would be very careful about the handling of tower sections as well. Too tight of grip and one could buckle on you. Overall I'm satisfied with this as a display piece. I highly recommend it for Disney and Castle Enthusiasts alike. Pros: Piece shapes/colors, premium laser cut stickers, overall building aesthetic, detailed manual, display function, variety of extra pieces included Cons: Structural integrity, misleading piece count Thank you for looking at my review