Spending about six hours constructing this, I am left with a pleasant, though not overly striking, model. The parts come in five sheets of seemingly laser-cut wood, barely held in place by a few tiny connectors. This makes popping the pieces out rather easy, and with the exception of the outer wing bones, everything feels very sturdy despite being light wood. I generally fear breakage with wooden models like these, but in this case, all but two parts felt solid, making the construction of it quite relaxing. The instructions are mostly clear, with only a few steps needing a close inspection. However, some parts of the instructions seemed slightly misprinted, giving them a blurry look that is inconvenient. When the mechanism moves (more on that later), it is set up to make a rapid clicking noise as one part of the mechanism flicks back and forth, which gives it a pleasing, chunky mechanical style, though the key to wind it up is placed on the dragon's chest. This makes winding it a little annoying for someone with larger hands, like myself. I also pinched myself between the rotating key and the dragon's neck on multiple occasions well testing, so beware of that . This model isn't flawless though. The feathers are disappointingly made from thin, matte paper, unlike the preview images which show them with a glossy paper or card stock, making one of the most striking parts, that was advertised front and center) an outright fabrication. As well, the instructions ask you to test the mechanism multiple times through the construction process, and it worked flawlessly until the final test, just after stringing up the dragon's neck so it actuates. After winding the full, recommended twelve times, the mechanism works until the wings reach their lowest point, only to lock up. After half an hour of troubleshooting, the conclusion I came to is too much stress on the mechanism. As you know, wood flexes slightly, and the tolerances on the parts, while tight, are just loose enough to combine with the natural flex. This results in the gears consistently binding up, even with every point of contact being buffed and waxed. Due to this happening at the very end of the process, I am unable to disassemble the model without fear of breakage, and the nature of the material leaves me doubtful it would even fix the issue. Overall, while a fun model to construct, and rather pretty, I feel misled by the pictures shown on Amazon (where I am writing this review, in case it gets copied) and on the UGEARS website. The mechanism's poor function greatly tempts me to rate this product at a 3/5, but it is still a pleasing static model made of decent quality materials. If this product interests you, you will likely be pleased, but temper your expectations
