I'm a fan of the POTC films, so when I stumbled upon this, I bought it, along with the model of the Flying Dutchman. I already have a Hamilton collection model of the Black Pearl, and these buildable models are in the same scale. So, I wanted to create a collection. I took a pic of the two ships together for illustration. Let's just say that the Hamilton model looks slightly better than the one I built. Of course, it was about 20 times more expensive too, so there's that. The box says 4+ hours to build. It took me about 15 hours to put this together, working about 4 hours per day for 4 days. I did take extra time so as to make sure I put it together properly. Measure twice, cut once as they say. Still, I'd say it would've been 10-12 hours even if I hadn't taken extra time. It was also severely frustrating in many spots. The instructions were not always 100% clear. Putting together the masts and sails was a perfect example. For the 2 main masts, the instructions are all on one page, in a blown up diagram! It is not intuitive as to what order to go in, and they give no hints as to how to proceed. I had studied it a long time, before proceeding to make sure I got it right. Even then, you kind of have to put multiple things together all at once, while hoping you don't drop what you're working on! The instructions have smaller pictures for detailed work on specific parts, but it's only minimally helpful. I've put together quite a few models so I had a good idea of how to do it, but less experienced people could have issues. It says no glue needed, and mostly that's true, but I had to break out the glue in a few instances because it simply would not have held together otherwise. It was also frustrating that as you're assembling multiple things at once, it's inevitable that something else will come apart. Ughh! I had the most trouble with the sails. There's just no easy way to put them into the masts without it popping out. Some of the sails I just sort of jammed into place, and every time I move the ship, I have to fix them. The other bad spot is the lights. It's cool that the ship lights up, but there is just no room to hide the wiring on the back as the instructions say. I cheated and stapled the back wrap-around piece to the ship body, because I couldn't fasten it down due to the bulky wiring. I'll display it with the "bad" side facing the wall! I admit, there was a few times I wanted to throw the ship into the garbage disposal. But, I prevailed. And, I only found 1 piece that I forgot to assemble when I checked everything at the end. Unfortunately, it's an inner hull piece so I'd literally have to tear the entire thing apart to fix it. Since it seems fine without it, I think I'll skip that part. Also, the battery box is held within the ship stern. That's cool, but in order to change the two AA batteries(not included), you have to disassemble the back of the model! Not cool! Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. It looks cool lit up, and cool from 10 feet away. As long as nobody looks too closely at it to see the obvious flaws with the "ahem" construction, it makes a nice addition to my collection. I'm very much dreading putting together my Flying Dutchman now though. Last word of advice, be patient! Several pieces need perfect alignment to assemble, so go slow. Also, they give a handy tool to "pop out" the pieces to the puzzle, but sometimes they get hung up. On a few occasions, I used my hands to free them the rest of the way, only to cause damage, and I had to break out the glue to fix it. Have fun!