KidKraft Majestic Mansion Wooden Dollhouse with 34-Piece Accessories, Working Elevator and Garage, Gift for Ages 3+

Bo FlayUnited States

Military wives, single moms, etc... Here's a review for YOU!

As it always seems to work out, my husband is deployed for my daughter's third birthday. I'd like to call myself a "pro" at putting together children's toys and furniture at this point. So I'm going to break this review down for all you military wives, single moms, wives whose husbands travel for business, and the ladies who just want to do it themselves! Why I love Amazon.com - They almost always have the best price! They offer free super saver shipping on many items. They ship things out very quickly and offer tracking on all of your packages! Why I love KidKraft - Almost every big item we have for our daughters is made by Kidkraft (kitchen set, various kitchen accessories, table and chairs, bookshelves, toy box, train set and table, wall shelves, and now the dollhouse!) The packaging of the hardware is excellent and easy to find pieces. Everything is always VERY sturdy. It's a much more eco-friendly option than the big plastic pieces you can find by other companies. The price is right for the quality item you recieve. The customer service is one of the best I've ever come across. They even have a place on their website where you can order missing or broken parts without the hassle of having to call. (I've only ever needed a part once out of all of our items! They shipped it quick, even around Christmas time.) I suggest ordering ahead of time if you can, just in case you are missing a part or something is broken. That way you're not disappointed! And remember.. mistakes happen, we're all human! Why I love this dollhouse - It IS HUGE! The children in the display photo are not scaled down. Some people may not like this, but I however; love it! We have two toddler girls, and needed something that would be big enough for both of them to play with to avoid future temper tantrums. For the price, you get double the dollhouse you get from other models that are just a small amount cheaper. It will accomodate Barbie dolls once my girls start playing with them instead of their other dolls. This is something we will have for a long time, and I am confidant that the girls will be able to grow into it, and that the construction will last! Some tips for construction by yourself, ladies! - 1. You will need a big (+) screwdriver and a little (+) screwdriver. You may need a (-) screwdriver to hold in some pieces at points. Kidkraft supplies the allen key. If you need a glass of wine, I suggest white, just in case it spills ;) 2. You will need a large space to build this, since there are points when the house will need to be on its side. 3. Unwrap all of your pieces. Read through all instructions before beginning as well as check and count all of your parts. I personally go through step by step and place the parts I will need in bunches. 4. Make sure you have the time to do this all. You will only get frustrated if the kids are awake, or you set a time limit to get this all done by! I did this during naptime and once the girls were in bed. All in all I think it took me about 2.5 hours to get it done, but this is also coming from a woman who can do this stuff with her eyes closed at this point. 5. Take your time to really look at the photos in the instruction manual. Plan it all out in your head first, then do it. 6. If the screw's paint doesn't match the spot it's in.. it's in the wrong place. 7. If something needs to be forced, it's probably in the wrong place or you need a new part. Kidkraft's items usually go together seamlessly. This is another reason I am a huge fan. 8. The wall makes a good "partner." If you need to hold something up, just put it against the wall. 9. Take your time, and don't get frustrated. You'll be SO proud when it's all done! Some more fun facts - I am 5'1", and the house is almost as tall as I am. If you are short.. get a step stool to screw the roof on! The box is 70lbs. when shipped. If you can, get your delivery man to place it right where you are going to set it up.. especially if you're a pregnant momma! I hope this helped! Overall I would recommend this dollhouse to all of my friends and family. My daughter has not yet played with it, but I just know that from the moment she wakes up on her birthday that this house will be played with daily for years to come!

ChrisNorthJerseyUnited States

Great quality excellent toy - Daughter loves it!

We purchased this doll house as a Christmas gift for our daughter. She'd played with these huge doll houses at a local place where they host birthday parties, but never had anything like this at home. Having ordered it a few weeks before Christmas, it arrived and I moved it to the basement to put together, knowing she would be down there. It goes together fairly easily. Here are a few observations. * There is a lot of attention to detail: Some of the screw heads are actually painted different colors so that they blend into whatever wall they're going into. You have to decide for yourself when to use painted screws or silver, but it's a nice touch. * There are a lot of screws included, but don't let that scare you - they all make sense once you get through building * It's not difficult to put together. You don't need to be a professional handyman. Some moms have posted here about their success in building it and I would wholeheartedly agree and encourage any parent to order this with the confidence that they'll be able to assemble it. It's more like a 3d puzzle than a construction project. * I put it together in 2 separate one-hour assembly sessions. I was extra careful not to damage any of the wood or scratch anything. It helps to have an extra person around to hold it up while you're still getting the basic structure of the 4 floors put together. * The elevator is cute, but the track is pretty tight, making it hard for our toddler to move it up and down. Good news is, she doesn't care. * The garage doors can flap open by themselves... nothing that can't be fixed with cheap magnets * The overall quality of how all the pieces are made and how they fit together is very high - this is a well made toy and not a carelessly mass-produced kit. * I've already ordered some cheap LEDs to add some actual light inside the house. * There's an impressively complete set of wooden furniture included, which really adds to the fun. The thing to keep in mind - it's really a giant thing. My daughter can only see/reach as high as the 3rd floor. The 4th/attic floor - which is supposed to be the baby's room - is unoccupied at the moment. She's fine with it because a large part of the fun is rearranging the furniture. Also, being so large, getting it up the basement steps was pretty tricky. We had to experiment with a few different angles and my wife had to help carry it. It's too heavy and large for one person to do steps with, but I could lift it a few inches and move it across level floor pretty easily. * Speaking of lifting it - use the side windows of the main part of the house as handles when lifting and you'll be in good shape. Don't lift using the garage/porch section at the left! On Christmas morning, our daughter came down the stairs in complete amazement when this was under (actually next to) the tree. It's found a permanent spot in her toy room and actually looks great. It warmed up the room and added some height in what was pretty much a room full of toddler-size toys. She loves it and it's part of her everyday routine already. Hopefully she'll get years of mileage out of it as she grows into it and discovers more ways to play with it.

epmUnited States

Awesomely Large Fully Furnished Dollhouse

This dollhouse, at 4½', is huge and heavy, so you definitely want to assemble it in the space in which it is to remain. I gave it five stars because of its large 9 room size, weight, well-made furniture, and nicely decorated wall surfaces. Parents should take note, however, that its height and weight may pose risk of serious injury to a young child should little hands pull it down, so the most important step upon assembly for me was to secure it to a wall with the two included wall anchors. Assembly Two allen hex key wrenches were included, which I supplemented with a medium Phillips head screwdriver and a mini snapoff utility knife. The first thing I did upon unpacking was to group the parts according to the numbers affixed to each. This proved to be extremely helpful during assembly. The manufacturer, for some unfathomable reason, chose to forego written instructions for illustrated instructions. Not the easiest to understand, but doable. The parts illustrated, including the hardware, are numbered to correspond with the number affixed to each part. Additionally, some of the hardware is also color coded thereby further easing the assembly somewhat. All in all, it wasn't a terrible experience, just one where I found myself occassionally frustrated by all the flipping of both the illustrations and the actual pieces to ensure the proper alignment prior to screwing pieces together. I also found the pictures of the house posted on Amazon to be extremely helpful during those times I found myself totally stumped. I set aside four afternoons, spending about 7 hours in all on assembly. I also affixed a strand of battery operated mini led lights to the ceiling of each level to better illuminate the play areas. This proved to be a big hit with the grand who loves flipping on the switch each morning. Materials The house is accented with solid wood framing on its front and thin strips of wood trim baseboard running along the rear of the floors. The floors and walls are composed of some type of composite material. The floors are decorated to resemble hardwood flooring; the walls are decorated with appropriately themed furniture and fixtures. The included furniture sets are a very nice bargain as similar wood sets run upwards of $30. Most of the furniture pieces are made of sturdy wood. The tub, toilet, and refrigerator door are plastic. The only small downside that I can see is that tips of the garage door paper finish lifted in the upper corners a tiny bit during assembly. Not too surprised given that the boards are overlayed with glued decorative sheets of paper. A dot of gorilla glue took care of it. The house is divided into nine living spaces, including a bathroom, patio, and garage, and has a manually operated elevator. My grandchild absolutely loves this dollhouse and enjoys many hours rearranging the included furniture and moving her doll family throughtout the nine living spaces. It is an awesome dollhouse which will grow with her through the years. One of my best toy purchases ever!

CandaceUnited States

Dollhouse take 3.5-4 hours for assembly

I have been debating whether to give a 4 star or 5 star rating. After carefully thinking this through, I feel like it deserves a 5 stars on the COMPLETED dollhouse. The only reasons I considered giving a 4 star rating is simply because the directions were a complete nightmare and the paper laminate on the roof has already began to pull up on the edges. It would have been very, very helpful to have the instructions in color, or to shade the images or even better to label each item with a part number as it had, but also to list each side as A or B. Each panel has double images on the walls including the floors and roof. Had the pictures of the Dollhouse not been available on Amazon as a reference I would have to return it- it would be just impossible for an average person to figure this out without images. The box was carefully packed and had no damage. The hardware was in blister packs and labeled well. Trying to figure out a yellow bolt vs a blue bolt was easy enough. The elevator assembly was another very difficult task. After screwing the elevator box together, it’s quite the task to line up the predrilled holes in the elevator to the plastic slides because you can’t see them due to having assembled one side. Patience and being very careful is needed as the house continues to grow larger and larger, it becomes difficult to handle and you can’t just tip it over to get a better angle. Any additional stress on the partially assembled house could cause the panels to break. Once it’s all together it is strong and not flimsy. The dollhouse is quite large as you build it and you have to be crafty at trying to manage the bulkiness and securing the bolts and locking nuts in place. This dollhouse is wonderful once built. My granddaughter adores it. It’s a lovely dollhouse that seems sturdy and much better than the plastic ones. But be warned that this is a 3.5 - 4 hour project. I consider myself very experienced from building retails displays to home improvement. Would I volunteer to put another one together again- definitely NOT. But seeing the joy and happiness of my granddaughter was all worth it.