>>8764787Okay, so far I'm about 70% through. The quality of bricks is good, though I do have two that are broken (too much plastic, won't fit). I'm sure I'll get them replaced soon enough, but first I want to check the build itself. The bricks hold together good, a bit stronger than Lego I guess, though not as strong as for example Cobi.
... and that's a good thing, since there are a few rather questionable design decisions in there which only somewhat work because of the clutch power. Like the decorative elements for the outer walls - 1x8 plates with rail and some decoration on them - being held by about one stud-on-side each. And there's no real reason for it, there's enough space to incorporate one or two more studs for them, easily. Or even brackets.
The other annoyances:
* There's one physically impossible step so far (48), but that's easily solved by loosening a few bricks first.
* The stairs inside hold on goodwill and spittle; but it looks like it should be easy to modify them to work better with a few plates.
* The doors are purely decorative. They won't open, no matter in which direction. I think I have an idea how to mod them to do so though.
* The (PDF, downloadable for free from their site after registration) building instructions spread the build across way too many steps, but on the other hand don't use any callouts or simple arrows to show what goes where exactly. It's like whoever did it couldn't decide if the set is 6+ or 16+.
The other good things so far:
* The main tower is very stable. And it opens nicely to show the interior.
* I like the reduced colour palette. It's dark tan for the tower, dark (blueish) grey for the rock, brown (light brown, I think?) for the wooden parts. There are some accents here and there, but nothing too egregious.
* Surprising lack of Technic elements to hold it together. Not even a single blue pin anywhere!
* Panels are okay. Not perfect, but they're supposed to be rock and weathered, so ... okay.
