Recently built this to amuse our grandson for Halloween. Looked good on the box and appeared to go together reasonably well until on completion, I found that the lift could only be winched up but not down. Then we could only get the lift part way up the shaft before it jammed solid and on trying to retrieve it, the chain snapped. So disappointingly, we had to give up on getting the lift to work. Looking online, I then found that others had also had problems getting the lift to move up and down properly, with people referring to there being too tight a tolerance. Really pleased that we hadn't wasted any further money buying a motor. With some trepidation, wondering what our experience will be with the Carousel (10257) when we get around to building that!

I think a lot of fans are going to have a problem getting the ride to work correctly (the first time trying) which consists of smoothly getting the ride cart to be pulled up to the top of the tower without the chain links snapping off and then falling all the way to the bottom where a new mini figure or “rider” can get on.

The problems I would encounter were first off that there was overall too much friction from the 16 rubber wheels that help slow down the cart so it doesn’t come crashing into pieces at the bottom. When cranking the ride up from the bottom to the top, the force it took was too much for the chain link to handle (due to too much friction) and it would continuously break and snap off. So in the process of trying to tweak the ride and try to get it to work I had to physically have one hand under the cart to help push it up past the initial start where the brake wheels are located as I was cranking the lever in the back.

The second problem that came due to too much friction of the wheels was when it would fall back down. The cart would get caught and come to a complete stop way before reaching the bottom and I either had to physically pull it down or I had to wait for it to sloooooowly trickle down to the bottom after it came to that initial first stop. (This wasn’t due to bricks out of place as other have stated)

I knew going in that there would be some issues possibly with the ride after watching a video from an influencer online that got the set early and he encountered some issues as well. Never thought it would take this much tweaking and rebuilding though.

Basically what I ended up having to do was very reluctantly take down the tower section (which there is no easy or defined way to do like on a modular where you could take levels on and off very easy) so I could get to the wheels and reposition them/space them out as I thought at first that them touching each other was the problem. After testing that theory out it did help a little (***HIGHLY recommend spacing out those wheels on the yellow technic axel as opposed to pushing them close together***) but ultimately there was still too much friction so what finally worked for me was getting a paper towel and putting a dab of soap and water on a corner of the paper towel and “greasing” the wheels or slicking them up if you will. This is what finally worked for me and it fixed both problem of the chain breaking from too much force and the early catching of the wheels to make the kart stop before it should have.

I know this is probably a tad confusing, I’m not the best writer in the world but I hope this well help some of you get it right the first time because no LEGO builder wants to spend time taking apart something they just built.

The last thing I’ll say is that I’m not really sure if the value is there after looking at the actual pieces you get in this 3200 piece set, I’d say easily 500-600 of the pieces are 1x1 rounds, plates and tiles and the chain link is around 100 pieces as well which can serve no other purpose to a LEGO builder than on this set. I know it’s probably nitpicking I just wanted to state for those who care about what pieces you get and price per piece, I mean you can get 1x1 pieces a lot of times for pennies per piece.

With everything being said I love the LEGO brand and will be a fan for life, this set just wasn’t for me.

Good luck & Happy Building!

This is an amazing build. I’m so impressed with this one. All I can say is this was a frightening build with awesome features. The details and the app to interact. Wow. Team LEGO I don’t think I’ll ever stop admiring these builds. Fans who read this, I highly recommend getting the sets you want and just enjoy the builds. At first I was like nah, until I purchased my first set. The rest is history. I enjoy every build. Thanks Team LEGO. I give a 10 out of 10 on this one. A spooky build with all the extra scares.

I had bought this set for the aesthetics as well as the fact that I’m a huge fan of amusement park rides of all sorts. But then I saw the negative reviews that pertained particularly to the car stopping or getting stuck, or the chain not catching the car as well as it should, etc. I can totally see how those instances can easily happen, but more on that later. I found this set to be a wonderful build inside and out due to the gothic/Victorian architecture, and all the fun mini-builds like the artifacts placed all around. The mini figures, ride operators/ghosts as well as the wary park guests look fantastic! Ok now here’s the important part. As you are building the drop tower, from the VERY first lay out of bricks in the footprint, until the very top, you MUST carefully lock each brick tightly and MUST make sure that all bricks for the tower align as flat/straight/perfect angles at corners as possible. Sometimes those flat 1x1 pieces can be a few slight degrees off and that can make a difference in how smoothly the car comes up and down. There is so little room of give in the shaft walls and the outside of the car, you must exude measure and patience in this part of the build. I used the exact number of chain pieces needed and gave slight adequate spacing around all the gears. Once I finally got the car built, I placed it at the base of the tower and turned the crank a bit reluctantly. It took a couple turns for the machinery to “marry”, so you will hear sounds from those turning pieces, but once all gears linked to the chains, the car went up and pummeled down perfectly! Whew! I’ve cranked the mechanism for this play feature dozens of times and each time a perfect raise and drop! If you are patient in the tower build and strive for straight edges and perfect corners, the build will perform as it is intended. As an added bonus, I added LCD flickering candles inside. Spooky and cool! Enjoy the build if you plan of getting this fine set!