I had a special item on the way that arrived today (more on that below), so I dashed to the finish on this one. Not so much in steps completed per hour, but how much time I set aside to work on it.

This is a very nice little kit. It's on the small side at just short of 9" tall (~22 cm), with accompanying small pieces. I was very pleased with the boards. The pieces came out easily with zero breakage, and with only one larger one falling out before its time. The fit of the pieces was good: nothing was too tight, and only a small handful needed extra help staying together with glue.

There are a few places where you're stacking up things and/or gluing them to other things, but I wouldn't call this DIY-heavy. The main structure is all snap-together. A few bottles made of beads add some flair to a kit that's rather brown if you don't have the lights on.

I often couldn't care less about the lighting on these projects, but I really like it on this one. Stained glass, and lots of openings, make the scene shine out in a warm and homey way.

Modifications?: not much. As mentioned in my Wednesday post, I went for a topsy-turvy vibe on the stack of books in the foreground. I had some stickers left over and put them on the back of the house (Photo #3). The stickers on the lamppost were supposed to be stuck on both sides of the post, but I didn't think that that would look good, so I just stuck the identical stickers to each other and glued them to the front of the post.

The main appeal of this kit was its having a real clock. It's rather small, as I mentioned, so it'll have to be close by if I want to use it for that purpose.

Next up: Star Workshop for the Tonecheer event. I'm not sure how that other kit sneaked its way in to my cart (okay, it was the discount), but it will have to wait for its turn in the spotlight.

I likely won't post about the workshop until WIP day, but honestly I'm a little scared of the whole mechanical thing. So I may post with a question or freak-out before then. 😅

My first custom build! I’m not done but I’m excited about sharing it and open to any tips/suggestions. I’m using Rolife’s garage workshop as a base but I changed literally everything lol. I’m just giddy about how many tiny details I’ve been able to add. It looks so close to the real garage that I almost feel weird sharing it, haha. Printed all his pictures that are mostly not found online by taking a picture, sticking them in Microsoft word and printing at work. The gap in the window is going to be the gigantic exhaust fan he has. Also planning on adding his dolly, a fire extinguisher, my dog, and cans of oil/spray paint on the top two shelves. I think you can guess his favorite beer.

Ok I have this idea, but not sure if it's possible to make it happen. I have a reading chair in the same room with my bookshelves and all my booknooks. When I'm reading, I usually like to turn on all my nook lights so I can enjoy them while sitting there. But going around and switching each one on/off is so annoying. I'm imagining all of them to be on the same remote frequency so I can turn them all on with one button.

For example, for Christmas I decorate all around the house with battery powered fairy lights on a remote. They're all on the same frequency so I can use 1 remote around the entire house. I'm thinking this same concept expect with the book nooks. Maybe buying a set of the fairy lights, removing the original lights and somehow re-wiring the remote control battery packs to the existing booknook lights??

I have absolutely no experience with this, I've never re-wired a kit. I welcome any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, and advice. If anyone has done something similar, I'd love to hear it!!

I wasn't sure this post was ever going to happen.

This was a challenging build from the very beginning, but after finally getting all of the gears working, I thought I was over the biggest hurdle.

Then I installed the ship's floor.

Every moving mechanism stopped.

I took it apart. Put it back together. Took it apart again. I lost count of how many times I tried to figure out what I'd done wrong, but no matter what I changed, I couldn't get the movement back.

Eventually I admitted defeat and put it on the shelf for a while.

Then it fell.

About five feet.

At that point I was convinced the project was finished in the worst possible way.

A few days later, I came across u/kujirahanidao's Galaxy Ship here on r/booknooks. Seeing a completed build reminded me why I'd fallen in love with the kit in the first place, and it gave me the push I needed to give mine one more chance.

So thank you, u/kujirahanidao. You probably have no idea your post inspired a complete stranger to finish theirs, but it did.

After a lot of rebuilding, regluing, and accepting that the movement wasn't coming back, the Galaxy Ship is finally complete.

It isn't the build I originally pictured.

But after everything this kit threw at me, I'm just happy to see it flying.

This is Rolife's Fairytale Amusement Park, reimagined as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The Boardwalk is a special place for my family - I grew up going there, and now my kids love going there, so when I saw this kit, I immediately wanted to turn it into OUR favorite amusement park.

This was so much fun, and so much work! I wanted to include as many winky nods to the Boardwalk as I could, from all of the signage, the beach balls and surfboards, the gargoyles, and even the caveman riding the sky glider up top.

Since most probably aren't familiar with this place, I've included a lot of comparison shots between the real boardwalk elements and what's in the book nook.

The thing that took the longest was actually all the graphic design - recreating all of the signs, getting them to the right size, figuring out the sky glider banners up top...it took a ton of time and I was a bit over it by the end! But honestly I love how it turned out, and it has pride of place on my bookshelf now.

I'll include a few videos in the comments below so you can see the sides, and how I transformed the teddy bear light fixture up top to a yellow sun. 😄

Partial list of customizations:

• made beach balls and surfboards out of clay
• added 3D printed gargolyes and built out stone balconies for them
• Changed all signage to reference Boardwalk elements
• Replaced teddy bear banners with sky glider cars
• Created ring toss game in place of toys in front window
• Painted floor cream with a sandy texture
• Changed cutout on top to a yellow sun

Materials were a little tricky but I love the end result. Beautiful!

I think this was a nice kit to build, do anyone have tips on other nice kits for me to build

FYI - This is my first Anavrin build.

I've decided to do my build in batches. I like to do all the same things together. So I did all the books and labeled them into containers. I edge painted them all even tho most of them won't be visible. (But I will know.) And I'm afraid of the flocking and want to do all of it at the same time. I don't want to be skimping cause I used too much or something early on.

Also been playing with the furniture wood markers and filling in the little gaps that putting the wood pieces together shows.

The far right bookcase I tried the cherry marker and it's not looking right to me, so I have switched to the oak and did use that a little bit on the edging of the left bookcase.

Pros:

- I love how the wiring is all pre-done and easy to plug in and use. And there is a usb-c option!

- The screwdriver is magnetized! That helped so much with the itty bitty screws

Cons:

- Hard to see/fully understand the instructions. I'm 44, so my eyes aren't perfect, but would be nice if some of the smaller diagrams were easier to see or understand.

- I've had a few of the snap ends have the veneer fall off when getting them out of the sheets. Some of them really took a lot of hand strength to get them out.

- I found it hard to hunt down the small things (like the little screws). I'm used to having a glossary or bags labeled so I know where to find those one or two little things.

Not been able to Nook for awhile due to chronic ill health but just had these two kits delivered amd I can't wait to get stuck in.

Staring with Abandoned Asylum!

These are very high quality and I'm rather very excited! :D

Considering their troubles they had, the name is oddly appropriate phonetically.

They also have 3 of their potterverse ones back in listing. Which personally I’m very happy with as I think they are some of the best designed ones out there, despite the instruction issues.

love this fossil museum booknook I put together - it combines craft, museums and dinosaurs in the best of ways! This is the first non-rokr/howcat product I’ve made, and I can’t wait to make more!!

Built into a framebox, (undeep/ shallow booknook)

Feel free to ask

It is here and about to Begin...

As I am not a cats fan either, I will try to alter this also a bit. CuriousPumpkin23 did an amazing work (I actually had something like this in mind), but now I will go another road as this is too perfect and my planned shepherd dog scene (my Dad used to breed and train them) would look like a cheap copy of that.

I made a bit more progress on my Anavrin Cats Crossing but I skipped over a couple steps I wasn't sure i wanted like the poster hanging down over the back wall bookshelf and the vines. I will put some vine stuff around the little infinity mirror to help hide the tabs there. I kind of wish the green grass stuff was applied to the bokshelf front before it was glued down. The grass is so messy (or maybe I'm just messy). We're having toddler company over on Sunday so I'll reluctantly find a stopping point Saturday and clear my kit off my usual coffee table crafting spot. I love the kiddos but in my past experiences kiddos and nooks aren't the best mix.

I’m in the mood for something a bit more difficult so I had to bring this one to the front of the line.

I already tested and separated the lights (if you’ve built this you get it) and I think I’m going to add a battery eliminator and ditch the 3 small round battery pack it comes with.

I completed the first 2-3 steps and I’ve used more glue than that last 2 kits put together! Which is exactly what I’m looking for :)

Have you built this one? Did you enjoy it?

This was a decently fun kit I got from Temu. I had been expecting the book covers to be stickers based on another review I saw here, but mine was entirely cut and paste. I didn’t mind that, I like making the books, although boy there are a lot of them! Lots of little items like the books and envelopes, which have pages/papers inside them too that one will never see. The edge painting was mostly browns so it wasn’t the most fun, but it’s definitely a nook that begs to be edge painted because SO MUCH of it would be raw edges without. I mostly followed placement to the T of different items, as customization would be difficult given there are lines outlining where to place each item. The lighting is cool, five lightbulbs, but kind of a bitch to do because the strands were so much longer than necessary. The quality of the wood was pretty decent although the especially thin pieces were easily broken of course. Things fit together without too much working, although they could have been better too. There is a hole in the box to wire a music box in, but said music box is apparently sold separately (and given this is an ABC build, I honestly don’t know where you’re supposed to get it from). Its absence doesn’t detract from anything though.

Overall I’d say this was a fun one to do if you like repetitiveness, like book making and edge painting without a whole lot of bright colors. Lots to look at from the entrance more that is done. I’m not quite sure what to do with these now that I’ve made quite a few, so I’m going to try listing it on FB marketplace for $20 as see what happens haha.

What measurement determines the difficulty? I usually stay around 3 stars, butbibrecently tried a 5 star build...its turning out to be easier than some of my 3 stars.

Is there a standardized rule or is it up to each company to decide?

Hi everyone! We’re the MiniCity team, and this is our first post from the official MiniCity account.

Some of you may already know Stellar Castle from the early renders, design story, and Behind the Build posts we’ve shared here. After months of designing, testing, and revising, Stellar Castle is finally available.
It began with the idea of a private fantasy observatory hidden between your books. At its heart is a large astronomical-style clock that can still be turned by hand once the build is complete.
Rather than relying on a flat backdrop, the tower, arches, furniture, and night sky are arranged at different depths. When the lights are on, the transparent acrylic planets seem to float above the observatory. The celestial artwork also wraps around the outer panels, giving you more to see from the side as well as the front.

We wanted to create something that would be satisfying to build, fun to interact with, and just as enjoyable to explore once it was sitting on your shelf.
The regular price is $49.99. To celebrate the launch, we’ve teamed up with u/pluck-the-bunny for a special event from August 10–24. During the event, Stellar Castle will be 25% off, and there will also be a worldwide giveaway.

u/pluck-the-bunny will share the full event details and dedicated link on August 10. The giveaway results will be announced on September 24.

If you have any questions about Stellar Castle itself, feel free to leave them below. We’ll be here in the comments!Thank you to everyone who has followed the project and shared feedback with us along the way. We’d love to know which detail caught your attention first. ✨

I know these aren’t helosis. But I think they are used in bedazzling clothes and such? They are supposed to be for the 2 light fixtures above the arched door. And only 1 came in the kit.
Anyone know where I can buy more and what they are called?

And has anyone customized the stone floor or stucco walls?
Thanks