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

The media could not be loaded. Es un poco complejo de armar para principiantes, pero le agarras el truco en 15 minutos. Una vez armado es increible

I've been mesmerized by videos of Theo Jansen's Strandbeests "walking" gracefully down beaches for years. How are the linkages put together? Now I can inspect my own.Took an hour to build from opening the box to powering it with a hair dryer (on cool). Great design - needs only a diagonal cutter (pliers) or a wire cutter or just a hobby knife to pull the pieces apart. No glue, just snaps together or press fits together. Instructions were very clear for this kind of thing.Assembly advice for those who are daunted by negative review here: There are 12 legs to assemble - all the same. They then get slotted into a frame-with-crankshaft - 6 pairs, all the same. In each case the _first_ one can be tricky - take your time, really _study_ the instruction diagrams, make sure each piece is oriented correctly _especially which side is "up"_. Then do the rest the same way. After putting the first "leg" on the first "frame" try rotating the crankshaft carefully - it should work. Then put the second "leg" on the first "frame" and again rotate the crankshaft carefully - it should work very nicely - though it is delicate at this point. In each case once you've got the first one (or first pair) done _all the rest are done the same and you've got a physical example to look at_.Surprisingly low friction for a bunch of plastic parts rubbing against each other: The thing really walks nicely. As I said above: power it with a hair dryer on cool.I was able to do it easily even with my big fat thumbs. I'm going to get a second. I think with a couple of supplementary steel wires I can easily make it double length...

I went to a party where there would be a lot of engineers. I opened the box and put the pieces out on a table. A few hours later, there was a Strandbeest, and indeed blowing on the fan would make it walk.I'm pretty sure that bulding it was the most fun anyone will get out of it. Blowing on it is interesting, but gets old.

looked like a really neat toy to put together with Grandsons so I bought 3.Still trying to assemble the first one. The instructions are 95% worthless.Legs keep falling apart when try to assemble. Don't know how it happens but when you are trying to put legs on body. some of the connecting rods will fall off. Magic.... because you have to put it together and line up the slots and like magic. another one is fall apart. (none of the pins are broken)Seemed to work best if you never let the legs touch table when you are trying to assemble.After 2 hours, decided not worth my irritation. Grandsons totally lost interest the umpteenth time the legs fall apart.First project My grandsons and I did not complete.If you want to spend hours upon hours of your and your grand kids time, irritating yourself, this is the toy for you.Spend some more time on the toy. The instructions are worthless.Changed how assembled legs and put both crank shaft connecting rods on the legs this time.Assembly the 2 leg triangles with the 2 straight leg rodsPut both crank shaft connecting rods on leg (straight and curved connecting rod)The large body triangles make sure male pin side is pointed the same direction male crank shaft end.I found it easier if male end is pointed away from you while assemblingPut a leg on the lower right pin of the larger triangle and clip top straight connecting rod to crank, than curved rodPut a leg on the lower left pin of the larger triangle and clip top straight connecting rod to crank, than curved roddo not cross connecting rods. the legs will offset by design. if you lean the main crank downwards all the crank connecting will kind of just lay line up.after making those assembly changes, only took about an hour to assemble.I would give the toy a 5 star rating if the instructions were better.Now to find 2 small stepper motors and mount in center to drive and turn the toy.

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.

The media could not be loaded. Just like most puzzles, looking at all the pieces as you get started may look like it's impossible but as soon as you get started putting one piece at a time together it will be over just as fast. Instructions are inside the box and if you want a visual step by step, you can youtube almost anything. We used a portable personal fan to move it around.Lots of fun.

Lack of friction is extremely important for this model, so one slightly malformed connector meant I was out of luck, since no spare parts (except one extra rubber foot) are included.