This was a great 3d puzzle. It was my first time, and after reading reviews I made sure to take my time. I thoroughly enjoyed building this and it looks great. I did use a little glue to hold pieces together better. This was only for my comfort as it is large. I liked this so much I bought another one to work on over the winter. Fyi this is not a 4 hour puzzle, it's more like 10 to 15 hours.

This is a great puzzle, but it's not Queen Anne's Revenge. It's the Black Pearl based on the mast head and the stern. There is another Cubic Fun puzzle that is the correct Blackbeards Ship. It's called Queen Anne's Revenge and has no leds. Skeleton at the bow and one lantern at the stern. Both are amazing and should be collected.

A nice 3D model, with LED lights included. Lights up well, especially at night a nice effect with the interior lights. I had some trouble with the batteries and the on/off switch. Sometimes it did not work. So I put in a battery to USB cable device, so now I can plug in the power via USB cord, not having to change/replace batteries and not having to switch on/off at the ship, but simply at the usb plug instead. I would recommend the manufacturer replaces the battery setup with a usb cord instead. this is much easier and also saves the environment (less need for polluting batteries).

This puzzle is awesome. My husband put it together over a 3-day span (probably 6 hours total). Each piece is so detailed, and no glue or tape needed. It's now a display piece on our server!

I'll start by saying I'm very much a novice model maker. However, I do large projects that are detail orientated and consider myself somewhat crafty. I haven't built a model in YEARS, until I stumbled upon this one. Spending a lot of time playing AC4 (best game ever), I had to have this.

As said in previous reviews, the pieces are punched out from 14 sheets, gloss printed paper sandwiching a blackish dense foam. No glue required (if you're lucky/good), friction fit, tabs and slots.

The build took me about 30 hours, and here's why - I used a popular black ink permanent marker to color all exposed edges, hoping to hide the fact that it's cardboard a little bit. I thought the copperish shading from the marker would accent the ship as well, but it turned out somewhat reflective, too. I also touched up the edges on some pieces with silver and gold paint pens, but the foam in the middle of the pieces doesn't really want to be painted. You can only do so much. Be careful.

Or slap it together in 6 hours, details be damned! :-P

I took my time, being methodical, but there are some steps that were truly frustrating - especially putting the skins on the hull, and mounting the sails with their design. My big advice is to pinch the tabs and slots a little bit to make sure they connect easier. Don't pinch them too hard or they will be a loose fit! Find an assembly video online if you get stuck. Don't forget to slow it down to .25X so you can see what's going on, if necessary.

I had to spot a few places with quick drying glue to keep things in place occasionally. Use sparingly if you get hung up, but it is satisfying when you finally get that tab to stay in place. Make sure to test fit pieces before using this last resort!

The LED wiring is cool, albeit not exactly a perfect fit. Be prepared to bend them aggressively to make the placements as instructed. The lanterns are whacked - I guess you just run the wires up and set them on the LED's. Kinda ugly. I also had to twist the wires on the aft above the captain's cabin to try to shorten them in order to fit them under the rear skirt piece that covers them. The piece still doesn't lay flat, but I tried.

All in all, for the price, it's pretty dang cool. Sure, I have some tabs poking out - putting together the hull was a pain. My wife says it looks plastic-y when I finished, but hey, it's a $40 project.

I christen thee - the S.S. Shar*ie!!

Now I have to figure out where to display it...

Enjoy, if you're the patient sort. I did overall, but there were some walk away moments.

The finished product is worth it it though, IMO.