My sister Shari is a big fan of 3D wooden puzzles. I’m not talking about those wooden jigsaw puzzles a lot of us had as children, either. You’ve probably seen some of them around- elaborate models with laser-cut pieces that all fit together to build recreations of buildings, vehicles, and musical instruments. Some of the more advanced kits even have moving parts, so that you can build things like a working miniature Tilt-a-Whirl.
With my sister having built a few over the years, I was understandably interested in trying one out myself. Thankfully, Robotime, one of the major manufacturers of these wooden puzzles, was happy to send me one of their kits. For better or for worse, I chose the ROKR Pinball Machine, one of the most challenging sets Robotime makes. Wood Ferris Wheel
The ROKR Pinball Machine 3D Wooden Puzzle is a 482-piece wooden puzzle that builds a working, USB-powered pinball machine. According to Robotime, it takes 12 hours to assemble. It took me closer to 20 hours total assembly time. While this was my first wooden model kit, I am quite experienced at assembling models and electronics, so you should likely expect to also spend more time putting together the puzzle.
The ROKR Pinball Machine 3D Wooden Puzzle retails for $199.99, but it is currently on sale both at the Robotime webstore and the ROKR store on Amazon for $158.99. Robotime is also currently offering a Valentine’s Day coupon, where you can save 15% off of orders over $120 with code LOVE15, or 10% off of orders of $50+ with code LOVE10.
Robotime packages a lot of pieces into a relatively small box. When you first open the box, you’ll be greeted by a stack of laser-cut wood sheets, along with some other assembly items.
Below the wood sheets are an instruction book and several plastic components on sprues. At the very bottom of the box, you will find all the hardware and electronics that you’ll use to not only help assemble the puzzle but transform it into a working pinball machine. There are metal balls, ball sensors, lights, a speaker, and more.
Here’s a look at the plastic components. You can also get an idea of just how much wood is included in the puzzle, by looking at the thickness of that stack:
The first part of the puzzle that you’ll assemble is the Backbox. This is the back of the pinball machine, which also includes the Marquee.
For assembly throughout, wooden pieces are first carefully punched out of the plywood sheets. Parts are numbered, and each wood sheet has a different letter, to make it easy to find the appropriate pieces for your stage of assembly.
The majority of wooden pieces are “push to fit.” If you’re unfamiliar with that term, it means that you won’t need glue—rather, the pieces are sized so that they will slot into each other and stay connected via friction. That being said, there are other stages of the assembly that will have you using nuts, bolts, and screws, all of which are labeled and included in the kit. There are even wooden tools that you will punch out of the sheets and use.
Here’s a look at the stages of assembling the Backbox:
Next up, you put together the sides and front of the Cabinet. This stage of the assembly also has you using the red plastic pieces, which you attach to the interior of the side panels via double-stick tape.
As part of the front of the Cabinet, you’ll also build the ball plunger assembly and a sliding tray that will hold the spare balls.
Here’s where things start getting trickier. Not only will you be dealing with the bulk of the electronic components during this stage of the assembly, but you’ll be putting together the most familiar parts of a pinball machine: bumpers, ramps, and flippers. You’ll also be placing electronic sensors in these components, such as in the ramp below:
As you can imagine, this stage is the bulk of the wooden puzzle’s assembly.
At this stage, you’ll put the sides, front, and Backboard together to fully assemble the Cabinet.
From there, it’s time to finish connecting the wires, plug in the pinball machine, and make sure everything is plugged in correctly.
I had a lot of anxiety at this stage, but thankfully, my careful following of the instructions meant that the electronics all tested perfectly. The music and lights came on right away when I plugged in the USB cord, and a check of all the ball sensors went flawlessly.
Once the electronics check out, there’s a bit of final assembly. There’s one last ramp to assemble, which was actually one of the hardest parts to put together without breaking. Robotime obviously knew the difficulty level as well, as they provided duplicates for all the pieces for that ramp. Of course, I still managed to break both the original and the duplicate of one of the parts, as the flexible side pieces are very delicate. Thankfully, a bit of wood glue saved the day from what could have been a disaster, and I was able to finish the ramp.
Once assembled, this ramp was quite easy to get into place on the playfield.
Perhaps in acknowledgment of how challenging that final ramp is to put together, the very last bit of assembly is fairly simple: two elephants that sit atop the Slingshots.
And just like that, the ROKR Pinball Machine 3D Wooden Puzzle was complete.
Here’s a video from Robotime, showing the pinball machine in action. I’m sharing this and not a video of my own play, as this is a much better shot than what I could pull off (and my pinball machine functions identically to what you see, anyway):
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this kit. On the one hand, I had a tremendous amount of satisfaction after I’d fitted the last pieces into place, and was able to turn on the pinball machine and play. But, on the other hand, there were a lot of little frustrations during assembly, which can add up and made me want to step away from working on the kit. I actually did step away periodically, which is why I didn’t finish assembling it until a few months after first receiving the set from Robotime.
To start with, I wish that I’d had a large table that I could have dedicated to the assembly, where I could have spread everything out and stayed organized. I was dealing with limited space, which obviously was still workable, but not ideal for putting together a kit of this magnitude.
The wooden pieces generally punched out of the sheets very easily, which was both a blessing and a curse. The downside is that often times I would inadvertently punch out other pieces from a sheet at the same time that I was punching out the one that I intended. This would leave me with a pile of random wooden pieces which I’d have to keep track of for future stages of assembly.
As I discussed earlier in regards to the final ramp you build, some of the components are especially fragile, especially the ones that are designed to bend. Robotime is aware of this, which is why there are multiples of many of the pieces in the kit. But that doesn’t lessen the frustration you experience when you do accidentally snap a piece in two.
While the instructions don’t make any mention of it, I suggest having some wood glue handy and using it occasionally during construction. While most of the puzzle pieces fit together well, there are times when it’s difficult to get pieces to line up. I especially found this when trying to get all the ramps to line up on the Playfield. A little glue at spots can help hold precarious pieces together.
Another bit of advice, if you’re planning on assembling this, or any other, kit from Robotime. Thanks to U.S. Customs, Robotime has to leave out the wax stick they would otherwise provide in the kit. This stick is used to coat wood pieces that will be moving back and forth, to reduce friction. Thankfully, you can use any regular candle wax, such as from a birthday candle, to replace the missing stick.
Ultimately, the ROKR Pinball Machine 3D Puzzle is a challenging kit to build, but the results speak for themselves. As I’d previously stated, this is one of the most difficult sets that Robotime sells, so you should keep that in mind before picking it up. If this set seems daunting, Robotime offers many other puzzles that are easier to assemble. But if, like me, you’d like to build a working wooden pinball machine, then I recommend this wooden puzzle, but with the caveats I listed above. Just be patient with the assembly, read the instructions carefully, and keep a swear jar handy. When you finish the kit, you’ll have a great sense of satisfaction in a job well done, and that swear jar may even end up paying for another puzzle from Robotime.
If you’re interested in the ROKR Pinball Machine 3D Puzzle or any of their other kits available, head over to the Robotime webstore. And don’t forget the Valentine’s Day promotions currently running!
Robotime provided a kit for evaluation but had no input into this review. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a small commission on qualified purchases.
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