Safe Vault

Genial, es más grande de lo que creí, además el sistema de la clave me parece muy chévere

After completing a bunch of ROKR wooden pieces, I decided to give another brand of wooden puzzles (UGEARS) a try. I picked up the Model Safe Kit to compare its build quality, instructions, latch mechanism, and final product to the ROKR safe. Note that these aren't actually puzzles, there are step by step build guides. You're not meant to figure it out. In fact, if you can figure it out without the instructions, then wow! :O Total time of this build: 4 hours 45 minutes Difficulty: 4/10 (would've been 2/10, see notes) Overall Rating: B+ (up from C- in the first few pages, see notes) I started this build and immediately noticed the quality compared to ROKR. The wood is a lot less refined (read: more rough), and when popping pieces out you tend to end up with some splinters on the table. By the end of the build, there were lots of splinters. The frames in which the pieces were set also broke easily, which actually made getting some of the smaller pieces out a lot easier, so that was a plus, despite the small mess it made. I rated the difficulty of this a little higher than normal due to the first about eight pages of the instructions. While not actually difficult, fitting some of the really small support pieces in place inside the box was actually quite difficult to push them into place. I ended up using a thick sharpie to help press them down into each hole. Given there wasn't much leverage, and I didn't want to break the large wooden pieces, this turned out to be trickier than I expected. The first seven pages took about two hours due to carefully making sure the right pieces were in the right place and putting in all those darn support pieces. Once I got to step 8 and the build of the door and locking mechanism, things went a lot smoother. The steps were clear and the mechanism was well designed. At this point, the only annoying part was the toothpicks that served as the central shaft of some of the turning pieces. It would've been nice to see metal shafts provided for this like other brands do. The toothpicks did NOT fit the holes as provided and each one needed to be sanded a bit to be able to slide through multiple pieces. Once that was done, though, everything came together. The instructions for setting a code on this piece were just as confusing as first as the similar ROKR piece. However, for this one I picked the default 321. I ensured the door opened multiple times using this combination (very detailed written instructions are provided at this step) before moving on. Once the entire piece was assembled, I was quite happy with the result and bumped my personal rating up. Sure, some of the initial instructions and getting things to fit were annoying, and the toothpicks were a minor setback to sand, but in the end it's quite a nice fit and finish of a piece, minus a few splinters sticking off that I sanded. It even has a little slot in the top for coins and money to be dropped in, as well as "emergency opening instructions" should one find themselves locked out. Quite a nice touch! Final verdict - early in the build I didn't think I'd buy another UGEARS piece but now I think I will if I find something that interests me. It's a large "puzzle" that provides a good amount of enjoyment to assemble and a satisfying mechanism to play with to unlock and open the door. Quite pleased! Addendum - I actually lost whatever wax block they may have provided me (cleaners came, so I moved all the pieces to my office), so I used all natural saxophone cork grease. While not the same, it still allowed for fairly good lubrication. We'll see if it holds up, and if not, I'll wax the pieces that need it later on. Addendum 2 - No pics included since there are plenty in the reviews already from others. :)

I assembled this constructor easily and with pleasure. Quality goods are made in Ukraine.

I bought this as a gift for someone who is a professional engineer and loves a challenging puzzle! He really enjoyed piecing it together. It took him just under 4.5 hours. Our set was missing a piece that was supposed to be for punching the pieces out and assisting in placing them... but at least it wasn’t necessary for completing the safe! The instructions call for using wax (such as from a candle), sandpaper and a razor blade. I feel like the company could have included a small square of wax and like a 1 inch piece of sand paper. We ended up using the side of a large candle for wax and a nail file for sand paper. All in all, this is a really awesome gift. A lot of people are asking if this is a good gift for kids and maybe with parental help/supervision but it IS difficult and requires precision with placement and the force needed to place the pieces. The safe is super cool looking when finished!

Love it! Took me about 4 hours to assemble it and it's my first puzzle. (Science major college student) It's reasonably challenging and you can see it's well-designed. It has a lot of decorative designs to make it look pretty. The pieces fit absolutely perfectly. I was misguided by some review saying some pieces don't fit well, so I forced two pieces in, and they turned out very loose and kept dropping out. You need to be patient and find the correct angle. Be very careful with the two axis, each is formed by 2 bobby pin shaped pieces. When you assemble the two pieces together, they tend to break, but most likely functional. The more annoying part is forcing the disks on the the axis, which tends to chip the end of axis. I wish they were made of metal, not wood. Please note that the instructions doesn't give you the option of choosing whatever code you like, you only a few options. But you should be able to figure it out by playing with it. (assemble it once so you know what's involved) It can be difficult to disassemble the thing and start over, but certainly not impossible, as long you don't do it more than ~3 times. A note for the ladies and the first-timers, you don't need sand paper. A nail filers is actually quite easy to handle and I think it would outperform sand paper. Nobody says you can't use scented candles or wax cubes for waxing. It is helpful to have a craft knife, but if you are careful, box cutters or even steak knives(you need to be extra careful) are just fine.

This thing rules! The whole set is extremely well designed, with very tight tolerances and good machining. It comes with ikea-style directions, plus an outline of how to read the instructions in many languages, and it's very easy to follow. The pieces come laser cut out of flat thin plywood. It seems at first like it'd be easy to break a lot of the pieces, but I didn't manage to break any. You actually have to press pretty hard to break some of the smaller pieces out of the template. Some of the pieces come with extras, though I felt intuitively they weren't the ones that were easy to break. One warning, make sure, on each page, that you didn't miss any pieces! I missed piece 51, a cosmetic piece on the door that goes through four layers, and it was a major major pain to pry things apart to get it in. Most pieces would be easy to get in if you missed them, that one was especially not. I really like that the combination lock is actually functional, and it comes with a variety of different combinations you can use with it. I put it on my desk where my coworkers can see it and play with it, though many are scared to break it since it is wood and looks like it might be delicate (it's not, at all). Definitely going to try other UGears stuff. I hope they're all as good as this one.

The design is ingenious and the finished product looks good, but the assembly process is painful, both physically and mentally. Here are a few problems I encountered: 1. Most parts are too tight and requires huge force to push into position, so I don't think it's a good gift to kids who's not strong enough. Sometimes I use too much force that I worry about breaking the parts themselves. My fingers still hurt from building this safe. 2. The safe uses toothpicks as the axle of moving parts. Again, the holes are way too small for toothpicks so I have to apply sandpaper to tooth picks to make them thinner. Toothpicks are also fragile and easy to break during assembly. 3. Moving parts require wax as lubricant which has to be purchased separately. 4. Once you push parts into position, it's also difficult to take them out. This means if you make a mistake and have to take a part out, you risk breaking things. 5. There's a mistake in the instructions. The dollar sign inside the door is in the wrong direction. Overall, making these toys out of wood is not a good idea, especially when parts are small and delicate. Most parts can't be directly used and need some sandpapering. You'd be better off with Lego, which is easier and cleaner to build.

This kit was fun and easy to build. I’d say a medium level. Wax the toothpicks before inserting. Once done it works perfectly like a real safe with a combination lock.