Windstorm Dragon

Still haven't finished assembly but nothing to complain

I just received this for Christmas and spent the past few days putting it together, taking a day or two between times since these kinds of puzzles always hurt my fingers. I managed to snap one of the wing pieces by dropping it, but glued it back together no problem with a bit of wood glue. The movement is beautiful, though the gears bind quite a bit. I'm not sure if that's due to me not waxing them enough or maybe I tightened it too much, but beyond that, it's an amazing model and was a lot of fun to assemble. Definitely not something I would recommend for less experienced builders, as some of the sections are quite difficult. It's marked a 4 for a reason!

I've assembled at least 6 uGears models now -- easily the best brand out there. The dragon is one of the coolest-looking ones I've built, and it sits really nicely on top of its "roost" (my wifi router, which has enough antennas to look like a proper dragon nest). My one wish is that they might redesign it with a spring drive like the newer models use, instead of rubber bands since those break as they age.

A hint for folks who have issues with the mechanism binding: I recommend using paraffin-based tea lights for waxing the gears, since it's more slippery than the wax that ships with the model. Make sure to run the gears manually 5-10 times during each major step of assembly to make sure the model runs smoothly when it's built. And keep in mind, these are wood puzzles and wood isn't a low-friction material.

I echo all of these reviews. The shaft of part number eight sheared off, and it is from one of the very first steps of the model. Also, the ratchet gear broke on my first winding. However, I glued the ratchet into the bigger gear and I reconstructed the shaft of part number eight, then I opted to take out the winding guts and used a 60 RPM N2 miniature 6 V motor to motorize the model. It worked until the shaft on part number eight sheared off again due to the friction within the model, even after lubricating it all with graphite. I will come up with a solution, because it looks amazing when it is flapping its wings. I have contacted CustomerService about this.

My son absolutely loved it! Some sections were tricky and we had to watch a YouTube video to check the instructions. This was the 3rd ugears product we had built and every time I have been pleased with the quality of the product.

Fun to build, but it doesn't flap its wings. I followed the instructions exactly, but once I did the instructions on page 13, the gears no longer worked. Still looks cool, though.

I’ve bought three of these and every time the inside gear shaft that gets wound up breaks or it doesn’t turn or one of the supports that the rubber bands goes on breaks. The rubber band directions are confusing. A video on how to put the rubber bands on would be super helpful. Trouble shooting videos when some doesn’t turn when you are supposed to test the turning would be helpful too. I also didn’t realize you could ask for replacement parts. However if you have to take the whole thing apart because the central piece broke that is not helpful.

Got this last year. Its a fun build. But don't buy it for the flapping gimmick. It doesn't work unless you have a ton of soft wax which they don't provide enough of. Mine just sits on the shelf looking good.

It looks nice, but the gears are so tight and just don’t rotate and the mechanism doesn’t work. Also when putting the wings on, one of the legs broke.

It is too flimsy and it doesn’t move.

A beautiful model, but the gearbox fit together so tightly while I was building it that it never really moved correctly. Now I'm wondering if a piece in there broke because the gears connected to the wings don't move with the rest of the gearbox. I wish I'd gotten to see it move correctly just once, but I'll have to stick with it being a pretty static model. Still a fun build either way.