From - http://tatikprice.com/help-we-seem-to-have-developed-an-addiction-part-2

OK, it sure has been a while since I’ve posted a Part 1 of our addiction to a certain Ukrainian wooden puzzle making company’s products. Due to various reasons we had to postpone the fun hour of assembling our new UGears combine harvester puzzle, but in the last week we have finally been able to spend a quiet afternoon of pure enjoyment of teamwork, away from the TV, Internet, smartphones, Xboxes and other trappings of the 21st century’s advanced technological miracles. Well, except for our good old Canon DSLR, because I was taking pictures of the progress we were making, so I could eventually document it here on my blog.

So, we have set ourselves up in our dining room as it is good to have plenty of space to spread out, I made some tea to keep us going (Simon, a true Englishman, loves his tea with milk, whereas I opted for a cup of rooibos tea as I was trying to avoid caffeinated drinks) and we have started to put the parts together.


The beginning… just one gear and tea

I was mostly helping Simon with applying some candle wax to all the moving parts, pushing the parts out of the boards or cutting the sticks to the correct lengths, but we were a great team! Kitties were taking turns in coming to “help” us – headbutting, purring, walking in circles all over the table re-arranging the parts whilst we were trying to concentrate on the job.


Steady progress – the combine head and a few more gears are assembled

Slowly but surely the number of assembled gears and parts was growing, we did take a small break to go and feed the kitties as they kept coming to see us with more regularity, and we had to make some more tea, of course!

The combine harvester was already starting to take shape, to me the process seemed to be a bit less complicated than the one with the tram assembly. Maybe it felt easier as we both had some experience with the similar kit, we kind of knew what to expect, but the combine harvester was coming together nicely.

Once all the parts have been inserted into the body of the combine harvester, a rubber band was connected to the gear so it can be wound and making the combine harvester move by itself whilst making the combine head move too!

The finished combine harvester looks the part – it has a cute little cabin with the seat, a little box on the top (for secret notes perhaps) and the headlights :)

We have played with it for a little while, it is just as much fun assembling the model and as is playing with it afterwards! The process of assembly of such puzzle does educate as it makes you aware of the way parts fit together so I would recommend it as a present for kids too! Once again, well done UGears for designing this cute model!

Hmm, Simon is already looking for the next puzzle to order! I think UGears have announced that their model of 3D Safe puzzle will be available in the UK this April. Wow, it looks amazing, I will be looking forward to April!