I purchased this toy for my 9-year-old son for Christmas. Long story short, his assessment is "Best Toy Ever"! Oh the havoc I could have wreaked on my army men as a kid with one of these.
We have worked together (me holding parts in place while he "welds") and built the plane kit so far, and are halfway through the car kit. I would guess that we are going to use 10-15 of the welding rods by the time we build all three kits. Since our kit came with 50 rods, that leaves plenty for the "bust 'em up and rebuild 'em" phase, which I'm sure is not far down the road. The couple of mistakes that have been made so far have been undone with little hassle with the (adult) use of an X-acto knife. For the most part, the welds are secure enough to hold up to a moderate amount of force. Enough force will pop the parts apart at the welds, which is better than the parts themselves cracking. The X-acto knife comes in to clean the "weld" residue off before attempting to weld the parts again.
It's too soon to know how much this toy will stretch my son's creativity like other building toys (Lego, Erector, etc.). Once the kits are complete, we'll see if they get taken back apart and customized or rebuilt. I get the impression that my son sees the kits as "build it and look at it" model kits, but even at that he is having an absolute blast "welding" like Dad does to build his own stuff.
Two thumbs way up from a Dad who wishes he'd have had one as a kid. And, two thumbs up from my son as well.
