YEECHAO The Great Wave Building Set for Adults, Japan Kanagawa Surfing Micro Mini Building Blocks for Kids Aged 8+ to Build, Ideas Display Toy Model for Home Decor (2296 PCS)

This series is great and looks amazing but I'm missing key pieces and due to their size I can not easily replace them.

Love that this The Great Wave Building Set for Adults (2296 PCS) is both an entertaining puzzle & art piece that can be displayed after completion. This set is based on "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", a woodblock print by Hokusai from the Edo period--one of my favorites (although my ult version is the one where someone added in Godzilla)! Would make a great gift for anyone age 8+. (The label on the bottom has a warning that it's a choking hazard for anyone under 3 years, so I would definitely keep this away from toddlers & pets since these are micro mini blocks.) Too bad these aren't compatible with LEGO blocks, but it doesn't really matter since this is not a set you'll need to break down again as you'll definitely want to display it on a desk or bookshelf. (Personally, I think this version is better than the LEGO one, since it's more dimensional & dynamic looking, and way more affordable.)

Like all lego or puzzle games, you just need a bit of patience and workout things bit by bit. The instructions are reasonably clear and the set comes with plenty of extra pieces of all different types to make it easier. A couple of advises:1. Be very careful when following the assembly instruction, make sure you get the right color of the pieces (esp. distinguish white vs transparent, dark blue vs blue vs cyan colors).2. For each step, I recommend gathering all the required pieces first (there is always list given on the instruction for each step) before starting the step. That way you can always verify whether you are doing the step correctly at the end of the step by looking at whether you are exactly exhausting all the pieces needed.3. Looking very careful at the instruction when assemblying the piece, especially the boundaries to tell exactly how things are put together when there are potentially multiple ways to get to the same shape.4. If you start to get frustrated, step away for a bit and come back later.It takes some time to get everything together, but the end results is quite awesome. Great lego 3D depiction of one of the most famous japanese art, great decoration.

If you like Lego’s…you like this. But that’s the downside. These are not Lego bricks so they will not fit with them, which would’ve been nice. So that’s the only really negative. So far…the puzzle is coming along nicely. I didn’t share a pic of the finished version because I like taking my time with these. Everything is pretty straightforward. Bags are nicely numbered and the instructions are well illustrated. Keep in mind that’s these bricks are much smaller than legos so I wouldn’t recommend this for young children. But the small pieces allow for better detail without having to make the brick art too big. I only hope that as I get closer to finishing that there aren’t any missing pieces but none so far. Can’t wait to finish this and display it.

In my opinion, the Great Wave set that LEGO released recently should have been much more 3D like this set that features lots of depth that really shows off the Great Wave in its glory. So while I really appreciate the design of this mini block set, it is a frustrating set to build. I am a big LEGO fan and thought I would give this set a try because of my disappointment with the LEGO version.Mini blocks are just plain annoying. There, I said it. It feels like I need tweezers to sort and pick up pieces with my pretty average sized hands. Because the pieces are so small, the plastic is not super sturdy. And the pieces are hard to find when dropped on a dark carpeted floor. I dropped my share of pieces, that's for sure, especially the 1x1 plates that are tiny.Right out of the box the 30x30 plate was quite warped. Eventually, placing pieces on top of it helped to flatten it out but I was worried that it might negatively affect the build when I first saw it.The instructions are just ok. I have lots of experience building LEGO sets and some experience with non-LEGO so I am used to so-so instruction books. I imagine someone new to mini blocks would find parts of the instructions quite puzzling. It also doesn't help that the colors in the instructions don't match the actual pieces. Thanks to the set having few colors, I was able to wade through the steps but did make a few mistakes. The brick separator tool does work well, thankfully!Much of my frustration comes from the sheer number of pieces to sort through for the first portion of the build. The bags numbered 1 have hundreds of pieces in them. In my opinion, it would be better to have fewer pieces spread across more steps to avoid having to sift through hundreds to, say, find a 1x1 plate. It also doesn't help that there are single height, double height and triple height pieces that look similar and it is not always obvious the version that an instruction step requires.Ultimately getting through the first set of bags took way longer than I had anticipated. As I write this I am stepping away from the build and may pick it up after some time, or not. I think the set does look really good, if on a smaller scale, so that should be enough incentive to pick it up again. That said, I never would have ordered this set if LEGO had actually released something like this instead of what they did release. Might have save myself some frustration :)Mad respect to folks who enjoy mini block builds. I'm afraid I'm going to stick to larger bricks.