What a wonderful build this was. The mirror effects are awesome when finished. There are a lot of books, and I've seen several posts from folks who don't care for that. But I don't mind, esp when they are stickers. Plus the kit breaks up the books with other things to build, so that helps with the tedium.

Not a lot of painting opportunities. I did paint a few things differently (like the hats) and edges (mostly variants of brown). The one mod of which I am most delighted is the inclusion of a mini-Falling Library booknook on one of the right-hand shelves. Picture-within-Picture, if you will. I took a close up of it in one of the pictures, 4th or 5th one, I think. To do this, I snagged an image of the finished nook from straight-on perspective and reduced to 1 inch tall (while still keeping same aspect ratio.) Printed it. Then I built a wood box of same dimensions to glue it onto. Wrapped the box in a custom-printed wrap, then built out a tiny frame around the edges of the image and painted it bright blue to stand out. Lastly I put a tiny cut piece of acetate to fit within the frame, simulating the dust cover. Took like two hours. I'm sure no one looking at my nook would know the depths I went to in order to get this in, and if I did explain they might give me a bit of side-eye. But thankfully I have this community to share with, who not only will not judge....some might even nod their heads thinking they have spent more time on smaller details.

Perhaps a break for a day or so, and then I will join the throngs doing Stella Castle.

This is a puzzle type kit by FiFi Joy that is well-made. The pieces fit together well and they do not splinter or split or break when punched out of a wooden frame. I would go out on a limb to say that if something doesn’t fit with this kit, you possibly have it facing the wrong direction or it’s inserted the wrong way I made this kit as is, and it was quite satisfying to do. The wiring is well done with secure connections in little tunnel like area areas to secure the wires. I did not customize this kit. I usually edge paint, but there are so many off color little connections, and tab insertions that it kind of looks like part of the design of a building and I decided that I might mess it up more to try to paint them to blend in.
To me, the drawbacks of this kit is the actual lighting. It’s very mellow with reds and yellows and I don’t think they show the house the best. There is a cool flickering fire in the way back on the first level, but I could not get a decent photo of it. The stained glass windows don’t light up very well as stained glass. They light up as mostly red/yellow, which seems weird. If I were to do this kid again, I would definitely change the lighting.

This was a fun build, overall. I had to trim some tabs so they’d fit into the slots, but I didn’t break anything. 😆 The lighting was fairly easy, but the instructions were a bit confusing and hard to figure out by the pictures. But if you read ahead it helps. It has a touch panel to turn it on/off.

Not my best work… And I forgot to connect like half of the lights or something 🤡 (they definitely function, I tested them). My husband’s going to try and fix it and solder the wires together because even the working ones flicker weakly. Not sure if it’ll succeed, but I’m considering this one done for now. Some parts I really enjoyed - I like 3D kits more for sure! - but certain parts I was like you want me to do WHAT?! First time using the pen knife that much. I obtained a Xyron at the very very end of this build and that thing is magic, it’ll definitely make future builds easier! But it was a FEAT not to make this thing just look like one giant glue smudge. I have two other kits from this series and I’m letting myself do some easier ones before I touch those, lol. I’m glad I at least finished it!

I'm a bit slower at these due to health reasons, but I love being able to sit down and work on a kit for 30-60 minutes when I can. I intentionally have held off on most of the grass/leaves/vine additions and plan on doing modified accents toward the end, a point I am rapidly nearing. First, though, are more of the details, like book pages along the open edges, and (next) repainting some of the cats to look more like ones I've known over the years.

This is my first Anavrin kit, and I finally understand why they cost more. Outstanding details that aren't just copied and pasted - so many books are just slightly different sizes - and most pieces are already double sided and don't need me to make adjustments there.

Take 2. Made progress and finished the tower. Thinking of adding some greens to cover the messy tower. What do my book nook pals think? The kit is much easier now that the tower is done! Hope this works with the picture this time...

I got this kit as a birthday present. I have built a few miniatures before but this is my first booknook. This looks so much cooler than I thought it would be and I can't wait to make more such booknooks.

It wasn't as time consuming as I expected it to be, I managed to finish it in the weekend itself. I really like the openable door and the sliding bookshelf secret pasage.

I can't stop staring at it. It just looks so good. I feel like I can stare at it for hours.

Which was your first booknook?

Now that I finished my current nook, my goal is to fix up all the building collapses and escaped objects. I did not know enough when I started this hobby to glue things so they would hold through moving them around and showing them off and trying to figure out where the heck the light switches for this one or that, which that is one thing that drives me crazy. All of mine are in different places, some even underneath the nook. anyway, I have several to fix up.
I can’t for the life of me figure out where these strips of windows go. It should not be that difficult, but it is alluding me. I have all of the other manuals I need except for this one for Library of Wonders. Can anyone help me out with where these go?

I get that it creates a little iluminated alley or room between novels on a bookshelff which looks kinda cool in short videos. But how does the lighting and power actually work when its shoved between heavy hardcovers? Do you have to pull the entire thing out every time to flip a switch? or do most people just leave the LED off after week one?

So I got into the hobby about a year ago now and I haven't been able to stop! Since I'm still a student I don't have the budget to buy a bunch of them at a time but maybe that's a good thing because otherwise I'd never leave the house 😅 I wanted to share my thoughts on the three companies I've bought a kit from so far to maybe help others decide on one.

1. ROLIFE BOOK NOOKS

Like many others i started out with these. I only show five of them here but I have one more in a different room. Each one took a few hours to build.

I started out with the sakura densya nook, which i think was one of their first, and I've enjoyed watching them update their methods in the following ones: changing from glue to easy-to-use double sided tape and being more clear in their instructions are some examples of this. The instructions are usually clear and easy to follow and I've very rarely had any issues building these. I think they're great for entry-level builders!!

1. ANAVRIN GINZAN ONSEN

Oof... sadly i have less good things to say about this one. It took me around 40 hours to build I think but I took a big break in between so I'm not sure. While the final product looks great, there were a number of issues I ran into while building it. The instructions were very unclear and riddled with mistakes, the pieces were ordered just by a number and nothing else, which meant that it would often take a very long time to find the piece that you were looking for, and I ran into so many issues with the servo that I eventually gave up on getting the rotating scene to work. It feels like the people who made this kit built the final product and reverse engineered it instead of making the kit with the builder in mind. Sadly I wouldn't recommend this one. Unless you're a really big fan of the final product, I would look for another kit.

1. TONECHEER WALKING CASTLE

Wow. Boy am I exited to talk about this one! Sadly I bought it before finding out about the event so this doesn't count as an entry! I finished this one yesterday after 4-5 full days of building and I enjoyed every minute of it!

My experience with this kit was the polar opposite of anavrin's. Everything seemed as if it had been made with the builder's experience in mind. The instructions were the most clear out of any others in this list; from color coding to explanations and even reminders to test the servos now and again, it left almost no room for error in the best way. It also looks the best out of any kits and it felt the smoothest to build. The inclusion of wax for the cogs made it easy to work with and everything in the kit just seemed very thoughtful. I can't recommend this kit enough and I'm looking forward to buying kits from them in the future!

This brings me to a question for the community: I've grown tired of rolife's book nooks now and I'd like to build more challenging kits like the walking castle. Do you guys have more recommendations on some larger/more challenging kits you really enjoyed? Thanks in advance!

Is this a collection? It’s a collection of backlogs.

Yes those 5 on the right are tiny Temu rooms begging for customization (yes please).

What’s your backlog like?

Pieces not coming out easily and I’ve broken a piece on step 2. Anyone have a suggestion? X-Acto knife is not cutting it. Pun intended

Reference: William Castle

New here, first time poster! Just finished Oxygen Oasis, which is maybe my 7th or 8th build. TONS of paper pieces!

This was a cute and easy build with lots of little elements to build in your own way. The display case is yours to design as you like for example and plenty of flowers and greenery are included to fill it up. The build was a little too brown for me overall so I painted the furniture to add some color. And I couldn’t resist dropping a little butterfly on the kitty’s head. I was originally coloring all the paper butterfly edges with acrylic markers but by the end I tired of it. There were dozens of them.
Otherwise built as designed. I really enjoyed it!

Not my first nook, but my first post. I love the false perspective on this one with the mirrors. (Supposed to be Joohour, dammit)

This is my second booknook and first Anavrin build. I have to say I was a bit skeptical of the higher Anavrin price tag but consider me a convert because everything about this build felt premium, from the detailed, full-color instructions to the tools (a magnetized screwdriver!) and the 3d elements. The 3d tree is what sold me on the booknook in the first place - it is such an unusual design I haven’t seen anywhere else before. I know the bookshop is based on a real place but the twisty tree gave me fantasy vibes, so I knew I had to adapt the booknook into a magical library. And since I wanted it to fit neatly on my shelves between books, I decided to replace the open side with a large window to flood the room with a natural light effect. I underestimated how long all the modifications would take - especially covering all the books in leather with gold decorations - so I’ve definitely been working to the deadline with this one! I had a lot of fun with coming up with all the customizations. I even added a few nods to the original design via a couple of books and a cat statue since I’d removed all the original cats and branding.
Thank you again to Anavrin and to Pluck for organizing the event! It’s been a pleasure to build alongside the community.

I posted a few hours ago with my resin water and just went ahead and went full out today I’m finishing this build so I can start on something else. Let me know what you think about it. Always love to get any feedback since I am still a newbie.

This one has more little details to it. I love it. I find this so calming 🥰.

(Reposted so as not to have the ugliest picture as the first one!)

This was quite a ride! I'd wanted to try making a book nook for quite a while and had my eye on this kit in particular, so when this contest popped up I figured it must be a sign. Cats! Books! Trees! This one has it all!

I really liked the wood texture of the original pieces and used transparent acrylic paint to stain them a warm, slightly darker brown and to paint in additional texture. I went a little more literal with the texture on the floorboards by attacking them with a file to add some weathering, and I was really happy with the result!

I wanted to play up the moss-covered tree vibes and used preserved moss for the greenery. I'm pleased with how it came out, but it was definitely time-consuming and I'd probably still be gluing in more moss a month from now if not for the imminent deadline.

The cats were repainted to look like my current and previous cats: two tuxedos and a void. My construction assistant was a little camera shy but greatly enjoyed the building process.

I had a lot of fun with the outside of the case, which I painted following the outlines of original artwork but once again going for a mossy tree sort of look.

Overall, I'm really happy that this was my first kit. It was very straightforward and the only challenging part was pulling myself away from it to call it done! I haven't decided on my next project yet, but I'm very much looking forward to another adventure.

One final note: when my kit arrived, the white plastic connector that should be on the end of the battery pack wires was rattling around at the bottom of the box. It turned out that it was severely misshapen (almost certainly a manufacturing mishap) and when I inserted the wires back into it the terminals weren’t aligned properly to connect to the circuit board. I felt a little silly writing to Anavrin about replacing a tiny crumb of plastic, but they immediately sent out a full replacement of the whole lighting package (battery pack, circuit board, and LEDs). A+ customer service!

Finished book nook #2, and this was a cute one! Learned why tweezers are always recommended for these, though… the amount of stickies and small precise placements were a time!

I have had a few non booknook laser cut wooden kits, but this was the best quality and incredibly value for money. I really enjoyed putting this together and I made a point of playing with book placement so I had a few left over to make random stacks or leaning sets. Quite a mess!

Finished Serene Izakaya, a third-party kit I picked up because I apparently cannot resist an aggressively detailed tiny restaurant. 😂

There is SO much packed into one floor, especially behind the bar, and I love that the architecture continues all the way around instead of stopping at the façade.

And, naturally, the tiny dog waiting outside owns the establishment. 🐕🏮

This is a MONSTER.

Tons of fabric. Fabric frays. Very frustrating.

Another complaint is that the outer layer of the cover is slightly too big so it sticks out on the sides.

Horrible battery box management- I won't show it but it's just placed on the other side of the build and the cables are all there, outside.

I am also not used to such big builds anymore, something half or a third of this would be perfect.

I must admit, shells and pearls and sea stars are fantastic. It's also very original and unique as a concept.

I skipped two things: slippers (I don't know any mermaid who wears slippers) and paper fish. There is no way I can cut them well out.

I made some sea stars from polymer clay and placed them in various spots. I think they are better than paper ones. I also made a squid to cover a bit the cable mess inside.

Added two pics from WIP.

I am not happy with the result but oh well.

Husband and I assembled this ROKR dino lab pinball machine. It doesn't scratch the book nook itch in terms of textiles, it's 99% plastic. But it went together quickly and is super sturdy.

See the other post for more photos but I was turning the thing over constantly and upside down. I'm used to sneezing and the nook can fall apart 🤣

Definitely a fun time to do something easier with a non book nook partner.