Stranger Things not sticking together / compressed

[revel68]

Hi. I got the Stranger Things Upside Down Lego set. Its super cool and loved putting it together.  In the end though I noticed there is some stress with the model.  Namely the roof doesn't like to stay on nicely. Also at the back middle it kinda pops open.

When I look online I do not see this anywhere.   I am curious if anybody might know where I went wrong? I feel like I put it together correctly and that if I didn't it wouldn't work at all.   

The image I attached should help. I'm curious if it could some how be in the foundation. Like something was offset in there or something ended up in there.  From what I can tell no though because I can kinda push stuff together and also see in there and i'm not sure what would bend and puff this thing out. 

I might take the trees off and bust the 2 houses apart and double check everything and then put it back together. A bit worried about doing that though for obvious reasons heh.

Thanks

 

 

[Pseudoty]

@jaisonlineis your man for this one. 
 

 

[jaisonline]

I sent mine back.  Wasn’t happy with it despite the cool design for the same reasons in @revel68  post.

[revel68]

Thanks!
Yeah I was mega excited about this thing and it was going so well.  Then near the end I could just tell something was off.  Especially the Upside Down structure. Right away it just wanted to split in half at the door and things were oddly shuffled and a bit off. I did what I could to push things together and I can get it to look good from the back except for the puff in the middle and from the front I can work on it to get perhaps the top roof lining to be ok but the bottom is just about impossible and in a way it seems to be getting worse.  

The upside down home is pretty arced.  It really has a curve going on to it.  If something was truly off I think it would be blatantly obvious and about impossible to pop together in the end. So it feels like the foundation on one is not right.  On one side things line up really good but on the other side you can see a bit of shuffle. Like the normal grass and upside down grass are not perfectly mirrored.  juuust a bit off.  

In the end the compression makes it so there is enough arc to pop some things apart.

I might pull it apart in large pieces and investigate a bit. But tbh I recall even the houses (or atleast hte upside down one) was curved before I even attempted to put the 2 together!  I was pushing down on it on my desk thinking "Well perhaps all the lock stuff will force it in to place."

 

 

[revel68]

Here is an image showing what I mean about it being a bit off in some areas. But its not like that everywhere!

Also I should mention it was really hard to put the trees on! The instructions have you put lock pieces on to one side of the kit. After that the other side for me was very V shape spread out.

In order to put the tree(s) on you have to push that together and for me it was really hard. Parts were popping off etc.. In fact the roofs were not having it.  The instructions show putting on the trees with everything intact but I did it with no roofs and then put those on after.

I used whatever I could to push them together and get the trees on and I was hoping after that it would be pretty decent.  

https://imgur.com/a/gqHdBn5

 

[revel68]

I fixed it!  

I could see in to the foundation a bit and with all that bowing from the middle I had decided at some point I would take it apart in big chunks and check it out.  My guess was it would be possible i would see something wedged in there. Non-Lego. I don't know what. A washer. A small screw? Something small -- Just enough to tweak everything out but not keep it from going together.  

I took the trees off and popped the front locks and cracked it open and this is what I saw

https://imgur.com/a/cCu16ar

Yeah. I did not do that!  At all. So what must have happened and this should be no mystery to anybody who built this kit is that red piece must have popped off while i was sandwhiching all this stuff together and then it slid over and then I pushed it all together.   I didn't hear or see anything.  The 11th hour of this kit is insane. It basically goes "yeah snap all this crap together" and its kinda funky as i'm sure you can imagine.

At this point i have the locks on the back and i'm thinking ok i'm gonna just place this red piece and close this all up and put it back together and push stuff together.

I get it in place and start to put it together and for whatever reason this thing has had it with me and sorta explodes!  Oye. So i took the roofs off and the rear locks and pillars and crap are falling out.  All sorts of pieces were just falling and popping off. It was annoying.

But I got the 2 individual houses all pieced together nicely.  Put them on their back and sandwiched together and put the front locks on. The trees. Then set it up and the back locks and the little extra pieces that are after that and from what I can tell its all there and decent.  The whole thing is much better now. There can be a little bit of gaps going on in spots on the up-side roof.  But its quite nice now. 

If people run in to similar issue may be they find this thread and will find out that something in the base may have flexed and moved.

I ran in to lighting kits for this thing online but I'm scared at this point haha.  Not sure I want to dig in to it to get lights.  We'll see. I may some time in the future.

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by revel68

[BrickStanley74]

I added a lighting kit to mine...probably the first and last time I ever do a lighting kit