Customer Reviews

Mega Bloks - ProBuilder - 9775 - Sea Wolf

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an extremly realistic and fun model to put together. I found myself building it for hours at a time and it still took a great deal of time. My recommendation is that when building this model, you put a white towel or bed sheet on the ground and then dump the 2450 pieces on this towel/sheet to make it easier to find all the pieces! Also you may find that watching TV while doing this makes it a more enjoyable experiance. Although Mega Bloks says that this model is suited for childern 7+, I think this would be too difficult for a 7 year old to put together by his or her self. Even my 14 year old self had to retrace my steps and see if things were done right. This model also includes a really cool control pannel for produceing life-like sounds that would normally be heard on a nuclear submarine. This model is a joy to put together but does require many hours (for me about 12) of your time. Really neat model, highly recommended!

Pretty neat.It has 2,450 pieces.I put it together once and I am now doing it again!I have a craving for these models!The front of the submarine shows how to create a half circle onto a edged straight.The gray part of the hull is built by itself(mostly)on one step.In between is great!12 decks on 3 floors.One,the missile room,takes up all the space where 3 decks could be(going up).This is a toy I recommend for not 7+ like it says,but 10+.Exceptions could be made!When finished,it is not to rot in the garage(did I do that?).It is to be admired(VERY gratefully)in a see-through case in the living room on the fireplace shelf.

The Sea Wolf was alot of fun to build. I have built many Mega Blocks before but this one is the best I have ever built. It was definetly worth the money and I would recommend it to anyone. It stays together great and the remote makes it even better. It looks very relistic. The directions were very easy to follow. It is a great addition to the rest of my collection.

My 5½ year old son saw the Sea Wolf while I was surfing Amazon and fell instantly in love. I told him he was too young for it, but he insisted he could do it, so I ordered it for him as his only Christmas present. His biggest Lego accomplishment so far was the Lego T-Rex (700 pieces), but I figured the Sea Wolf would just take longer.

Christmas morning came and I started my son out sorting the pieces. (I always sort out Lego chunks into a utility box for my son so that he can find them easily.) The T-Rex took me 20 minutes to sort, and since another reviewer said about half of the Sea Wolf is made out of the standard 2x4 blocks, I thought I should get the sorting done in ½ hour, with my son's help. Well, there were only about 400 standard blocks and many other different pieces. As a math teacher, I must confess I forgot that sorting difficulty increases exponentially rather than linearly as the number of item increases. It took me 2½ hours to sort the chunks according to size, shape and color into 2 utility boxes, 8 Gladwares, and 3 gallon ice cream buckets, all of which I arranged in a U-shape around my son. (Please see my customer upload pictures above.) It still beats spending 3 days locating pieces for my son, like another reviewer did for his. My son had no trouble finding pieces himself.

Before he started, I made my son promise that he would not cry if something went wrong, but rather call me over to fix it. Not that my son is great at keeping promises, but I thought it should prepare him psychologically for the guaranteed problems ahead. I also made him gather all the pieces of a step into a Gladware first, according to the parts chart, before he did any building, and he could not proceed to the next step until all the pieces were used up. He was unwilling and forgetful to do so at first, but after several mess-ups and admonitions from me, he became converted to the idea. I also told him to have me check his work every time before he turned the page. (There are 97 steps, 68 pages.)

My son can't read, but he can count to 30 and recognize numbers up to 20, so he easily understood the picture instructions.

As it turned out, the Sea Wolf was harder in ways I did not expect. The entire bottom layer was nothing but grey pieces, and as it grew longer, it became visually challenging to position a new piece in the vast grey expanse. Since the pieces frequently were placed together rather than interlocked, the procedure was difficult and error-prone, like searching for your yellow car among ten yellow cars. In particular, the bottom half of the tail was 100 grey pieces put together upside down, which is always more difficult because you can't see where the bumps are. During the first day, my son spent 10 hours and finished page 11 (out of 68), partly because he paused frequently to look ahead in the instruction book, admire the Sea Wolf picture on the box, or talk about what a big job it was. He needed my help about every half hour, and I fixed some 20 mistakes.

The second day went much better, as I expected, because the sub is divided into different compartments with different colors, so visual reference was clearer. My son then needed less help from me except that I still checked his work before he turned pages. I also made sure the pieces were all the way in, as Megabloks don't fit as easily as Legos. By the evening of the third day, seeing that the sub was almost done, my son worked frantically to finish the job but couldn't. He got done at noon the fourth day, with a total of 40 hours invested. Except for my occasional help, he was able to do almost all the work by himself. He admired the sub for hours, and he packed it around with him. (It isn't too heavy for him, but he has to carry it carefully so the rooms don't slide out.)

Now that my son has finished the Sea Wolf, I realize that it makes an excellent intellectual challenge for a kindergartener or First grader. The project reinforces many skills taught at that level: counting, sorting, shape/color recognition, number recognition, and hand eye coordination. It also teaches patience, perseverance, concentration, problem solving, and working towards a long-term goal. Most importantly, it builds self-confidence and enlarges the child's spatial conception, which I believe will be beneficial towards learning higher math such as geometry later. It removes the awe one might receive from technical-looking drawings, knowing that they are merely pictures that show how to do something. A 14 year old can gain from building the sub too, but it's unlikely that he/she will get much out of the counting practice.

I recommend this toy for kindergarteners on up who can count and recognize numbers up to 20, though they should have experience with easier Legos and Megabloks first. Even if a child isn't fond of building toys, he/she can be asked to do it 10 minutes per day as a math project and get the Sea Wolf built in a year. (It'll impress the eyeballs out of the relatives.) Interest will readily spark when children see the sub emerge before their eyes, and confidence earned from such an achievement will be beneficial for a lifetime.

I got this unit thinking it would be smaller. But upon completion, this model is HUGE. I mean massive! About three feet long and 8 to 10 inches high. This model of the Sea Wolf was a joy to build. I even glued every pice in place so it wont break. This model comes with 9 decks to build and a missle section. Its got some fancy lights to light up each level and a cotroller to boot. This is definitely a toy for Dads. Glue it all together and it will take you 16 hrs to build. Have fun!!!!

I am just a boy who has built this fantabulous Sea Wolf all by myself. After I had finished it, I had a debate with my mum and dad to where I should put it. In the end we put it above my baby brother's changing table.

I was SO happy about buying this model that I got started right away. I think that this is a REALLY GOOD model!!!!!!! I advise everyone who is willing to face the challenge of building this model to find a very long space to put it on since it is 101 cm long!

I think that the best part of this model are the sliding out decks. You can always take out the decks and swap them around!!

For my next project, I am looking into the Kittyhawk.

I have built a lot of the Pro Builder toys, but this one was the most time consuming by far. Its well worth it after you see it take shape. Its not to durable. The fins can come off very easly but over all this is a great project for parents to do with their kids.

I have purchased many Mega Block sets for my 8 year old son. He spends hours on them and enjoys collecting them. He has enjoyed every one he has and displays them in his room. The instructions are very easy for him to follow and sometimes he messes up but he can also fix it himself. He has put all of these together by himself and is very proud of this. I think it is a real confidence booster for him. Thank you for building something he can do and something I can afford.

This thing is amazing! It lights up when you press buttons and is very fun to build. I think you would be a lot better of a builder after building this. It was very easy for me to build cause I have a massive collection of megablocks/legos and I could build just about anything. If a beginer, you'd have trouble making this. It is fun to play with when done with the making of this too. It makes cool sounds and it's like a real submarine. It won't fall apart if you take care of it. Get this!

My son (9) and I did this together. I located the parts and he put most of it together. Finding the pieces can sometimes be a pain as there are SO many to look through -- especailly when searching for a little used or one of a kind piece. (This might be too frustrating for a kid working alone. I don't know any 7 year old that could do something like this by themselves.) We worked on and off for 4 days to get it finished. It's very fun to see it come together. Just make sure you have a place to put it when you're done as the final model is ~41 inches long! A bit pricey perhaps, but worth it as far as I am concerned. We're looking into getting the Space Shuttle next.