Car Players by ETKVR

Reviewed by John A. MacInnes

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Summary Table

Category	Rating / Comment
Brand	ETKVR
Model Number	CH02
Piece Count	455
Age Rating	14+
Difficulty	2 Star (Easy Build)
Dust Covers	Yes
Customisation Potential	Low
Build Quality	9/10
Value for Money	10/10
Overall Verdict	Highly enjoyable build with excellent presentation, strong build quality, and impressive lighting. Minor instruction issues prevent perfection, but it remains an easy recommendation.

First Impressions & Unboxing

Just starting the Car Players book nook by ETKVR and first impressions are very positive indeed. The kit arrives in a rather smart retail box with full colour printing, making it ideal if you are thinking of buying it as a gift for another unsuspecting addict of miniature worlds and questionable levels of patience.

Now, everything got off to a flying start… provided you ignore the rather spectacular typo on the rear of the box where the kit is proudly introduced as “Cat Players”. Clearly somewhere along the production line a proof reader was either on annual leave or trapped under a pile of MDF sheets. Oops. A reprint needed for the next production run. Sadly, for manufacturers, when you have a newspaper editor building your kits, spelling, grammar, punctuation and tone errors are hunted down with the intensity of a truffle pig in a forest.

Once unboxed, the contents are extremely well packed inside sealed transit wrapping. Inside you get 10 full-size boards, the lighting kit, a sheet of pre-cut stickers, a smaller oil sheet of window inserts, the dust cover, and a sheet of cable securing stickers.

The lighting setup consists of a battery box where the touch sensor occupies one port while the six warm white LED beads take up the remaining connectors. One small observation is that there’s no physical on/off switch on the AAA battery unit, so operation relies entirely on the touch sensor. Not a deal breaker by any means, but some builders may miss having a manual override switch.

ETKVR also include a pair of tweezers and a sandpaper stick, which is always appreciated. It saves rummaging through drawers looking for tools you absolutely definitely put somewhere sensible. The manual shows a tube of glue, but most kits these days are shipped in from China and must be transported without batteries or glue due to air safety restrictions. There is a small mirror and another square of PVC supplied.

Materials & Build Quality

All the sheets are 2.5mm MDF and, it has to be said, they are beautifully finished. The laser cutting is spot on and the printing quality is excellent throughout. Every printed detail lines up perfectly with the pieces, with no bleeds, overruns or fuzzy edges lurking about to offend the eye. Colours are vibrant, sharp and crisp, giving the whole kit a polished, premium feel straight out of the box.

The manual itself is A5 sized, printed in colour. Instructions are logically arranged, easy to follow and clearly curated by someone who actually understands the difference between “helpful guidance” and “cryptic treasure map”. So far, construction stages appear sensibly planned without any obvious “assemble part B into invisible slot C while balancing on one foot” moments.

The completed build measures 23 x 18 x 11cm, giving it a decent display presence without requiring you to knock through a wall in the living room.

Instruction Issues & Build Challenges

As the build progressed, however, a few issues began to emerge. Nothing here falls into the category of a fatal flaw, and the kit remains perfectly buildable, but there were several occasions where the instructions could have been clearer or where certain parts required a little more investigation than they perhaps should have.

Part C34 (Page 8)

One area where the manual could do with a little attention is the way some of the parts are illustrated. Take part C34 on page eight for example. The drawing completely omits the locating slots.

Had they been shown in the drawing, the whole process would have been instantly obvious. Instead, it briefly turns into a game of “Guess Which Way Round This Goes”.

Part C4 (Page 11)

Part C4 on page 11 also raised an eyebrow or two during the build. It appears to be either cut incorrectly or printed on the wrong side of the board.

Fortunately the fix is simple enough. A suitably coloured marker pen soon disguises the problem and once installed you’d be hard pushed to notice anything was ever amiss.

Barrel Assembly (Page 17)

Page 17 introduces the construction of three barrels using parts K32, K22 and H2. Unfortunately, this is another area where the manual leaves the builder to engage in a little bit of creative interpretation.

Rather than trying to assemble everything at once, fit part H2 to K22 first, positioning them roughly at the 12, 3 and 6 o’clock positions. This immediately creates a rigid structure that holds everything together.

One other tip worth mentioning is to colour part K22 before final assembly. As supplied, it remains natural MDF and is clearly visible when looking into the finished barrel.

Spare Parts & Builder-Friendly Features

There are, as you would expect, some very small pieces scattered throughout the build. The sort of parts that have an uncanny ability to launch themselves into another dimension the moment they leave the tweezers.

Thankfully, kudos to ETKVR for thinking ahead. A number of spare pieces have been included on the boards, which is a genuinely welcome touch and shows they understand the realities of model building.

Lighting System

Worthy of a mention is the wiring for the lighting system which rightly deserves special praise because it is one of the most straightforward setups I have encountered in a book nook.

The wiring route is logical, easy to follow and, once installed, remains completely hidden from view. There were no awkward cable runs, no desperate attempts to poke wires through inaccessible openings and, best of all, no need to reach for a knitting needle or similar improvised tool to retrieve a cable that had vanished into the depths of the model.

It is a simple, well-thought-out system that works exactly as it should and makes the lighting stage a pleasure rather than a chore.

Builder Tips

Don’t Throw Away Parts Too Early

There were several occasions where I found myself holding what appeared to be a scrap piece of MDF in one hand and the bin in the other, only to pause and wonder, “Wait a minute… is this rubbish, or is it actually part of the model?”

My advice would be to resist the temptation to clear away the waste pieces too quickly. Keep everything to one side until you’ve checked it against the parts list and the relevant build step.

Colour-Code Your LED Wires

Most manufacturers still don’t colour-code their lighting LEDs.

My solution is simple. Before starting the build, use coloured marker pens to mark each cable length. For example, red for 10cm, blue for 20cm, green for 30cm and yellow for 40cm.

It takes less than a minute to do, but can save a surprising amount of frustration later in the build.

Final Verdict

Despite the handful of niggles encountered during the build, Car Players remains a thoroughly enjoyable kit that delivers an impressive finished result. The quality of the MDF, printing and laser cutting is excellent throughout, and the overall presentation is among the better examples currently available in the book nook market.

While some areas of the manual could certainly benefit from additional detail and a few parts may leave builders scratching their heads momentarily, none of the issues are serious enough to spoil the experience.

The finished model is packed with detail, the lighting adds real atmosphere, and the fit of the components is generally very good. If ETKVR were to address some of the instruction-related issues in a future revision, this would be an exceptional kit.

As it stands, it is still a very enjoyable build that I would have no hesitation recommending to book nook enthusiasts looking for something a little different from the usual fantasy streets and magical libraries.

Pros

• Excellent quality MDF, printing and laser cutting

• Attractive retail packaging, making it suitable as a gift

• Well-designed lighting system with responsive touch sensor

• Crisp, vibrant graphics throughout the kit

• Components generally fit together very well

• Good quality self-adhesive stickers that can be repositioned if required

• Spare small parts included on the boards

• Detailed and visually impressive finished model

• Little sanding required overall

• Good value in terms of content and presentation

Cons