Built & reviewed by David Richards

Model: TQ135  |  Manufacturer: Tonecheer  |  Pieces: 387  |  Difficulty: Advanced  |  Dimensions: 10.5 × 4.2 × 7.4 inches

An aesthetically pleasing kit with excellent lighting — but also a frustrating example of just how far Tonecheer has come.

Introduction

Having recently built my first Tonecheer kit, Venetian Dreams, I was really looking forward to Leonardo da Vinci. Venetian Dreams had been one of those builds that reminded me just how good a modern book nook can be. Leonardo da Vinci, as I was about to discover, was going to require rather more patience — and, by the end, possibly a packet of paracetamol.

That contrast is important. We subsequently discovered that Leonardo da Vinci was one of Tonecheer’s earlier kits, and viewed in that context it becomes an interesting snapshot of the company’s development. There are some clever ideas here, especially in the lighting and moving mechanisms, but there are also engineering and instruction choices that I would be very surprised to encounter in one of Tonecheer’s newer releases.

Summary Table

Leonardo da Vinci – More Than the Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was the archetypal Renaissance polymath: painter, engineer, anatomist, architect, inventor and relentless observer of how the world worked. Although he is best known today for masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, his surviving notebooks reveal thousands of sketches exploring anatomy, mechanics, hydraulics, flight, architecture and military engineering. Many of his ideas were centuries ahead of the technology required to make them practical, which makes Leonardo an extraordinarily rich subject for a miniature scene.

Among his most famous mechanical concepts were designs for an aerial screw, often described as a precursor to the helicopter; a parachute; an ornithopter or human-powered flying machine; an armoured fighting vehicle; a self-propelled cart; elaborate geared mechanisms and transmission systems; and numerous bridges, cranes, pumps and hydraulic devices. His anatomical drawings, particularly his studies of the human body, were equally remarkable.

This is perhaps where Tonecheer missed its greatest opportunity. A Leonardo da Vinci kit could have been filled with suspended flying machines, engineering drawings, mechanical models, anatomical sketches, working gears and illuminated inventions, creating the feeling that we had stepped inside Leonardo’s extraordinary mind. Instead, quite a lot of the scene is devoted to fairly ordinary workshop furniture and woodworking tools. It looks attractive, but with a subject as extraordinary as Leonardo, I wanted the contents to be extraordinary too.

What’s in the Box?

• 9 MDF boards
• Electronic system
• Platform rubber band
• Pins and plastic sleeves
• Small red plastic pieces for the fireplace coals
• Dust cover
• Wax and screwdriver
• Sticker sheet

Quality, Fit and Instructions

The problems began surprisingly early. The stickers had poor adhesive strength and a number started to lift after they had been fitted. Eventually I had to glue several of them down. The laser cutting was also much tighter than I would expect from a modern premium kit, with some parts particularly difficult to remove cleanly from their boards.

The instructions created another unnecessary challenge. Tonecheer chose not to identify the printed side on many of the parts. That sounds like a minor omission until you are halfway through a multi-part assembly and genuinely cannot tell which face is supposed to be visible. On several occasions I was not certain I had assembled a section correctly until it was almost complete.

Piece fitting was another weakness. I hardly ever need a modelling hammer because I can normally press MDF parts together firmly by hand, but this kit frequently needed considerably more persuasion. For builders without strong fingers, some of these joints could be a real struggle.

Stage 1 – The Ground Floor

The first major section creates the ground floor and contains several of the kit’s most interesting features: a moving rocking chair, a box that moves in and out, a sliding door, a rotating newspaper carousel, the fireplace and an infinity-mirror display.

The fireplace is one of the highlights of the entire kit. The small red pieces used as glowing coals are very effective, and Tonecheer supplied a proper flickering light rather than leaving the builder to create the effect. We often add flickering fireplace LEDs ourselves to other kits, so it was pleasing to see the effect engineered into the design from the outset.

The sliding door was far less successful. It uses small metal rods secured by plastic sleeves. Having built a number of ROKR products that use a similar arrangement, I immediately suspected there could be a problem because the sleeves pushed on far too easily. With the ROKR versions I have used, considerable pressure was needed to create a firm connection. Here, the rods repeatedly worked loose. One minute the mechanism functioned; turn the model on its side and it could come apart again. Eventually I gave up trying to make it reliably operational.

Take particular care with the infinity mirror. The fit on mine was too tight and the mirror cracked slightly while I was getting it into position. I am not the only reviewer to have experienced this, so this is one section where patience is essential.

Stage 2 – Battery Compartment and Base

The standard Tonecheer 4.5V solid battery compartment is bolted into the base before nine pillars are added to support the ground floor, with another two attached to the floor itself. Aligning all of these was one of the most frustrating parts of the build. It took a long time to get the floor joined securely — using the word ‘securely’ in its loosest possible sense.

Fortunately there is enough space between the base and floor to make small adjustments, but the three cross-pillars at the rear, around the infinity-mirror section, were especially troublesome. Also make absolutely certain that the correct wires have been routed underneath before attaching the floor to the base. This is not a section you will want to dismantle unnecessarily.

Stage 3 – The Lifting Platform

Next comes a platform with swinging gates and a number of moving parts that need waxing. Use the supplied wax everywhere the instructions indicate; there is enough friction in this mechanism without adding any more.

A series of gears is fitted to the side wall so that turning the external dial raises and lowers the platform. Leonardo certainly had an interest in gears and mechanical systems, so their inclusion makes sense, but similar gear assemblies appear several times during the build and I found myself wishing that some of that complexity had instead been used to represent a wider selection of Leonardo’s inventions.

Attaching the rubber band to the lifting platform was particularly awkward and needed a lot of persistence. A large amount of furniture is then added to the wall. The scrolls are not the traditional rolled-paper type; instead, stickers are wrapped around wooden pieces. Unfortunately the weak adhesive struck again and several repeatedly came undone. I eventually replaced a number of them with spare scrolls I had saved from other kits.

Stage 4 – Upstairs

The second level introduces more furniture, including a table, easel, palette, chair and display desk. Ordinarily these would have been straightforward assemblies, but by this point the combination of tight-fitting wood, lifting stickers and instructions that still did not make the patterned face of parts obvious was taking its toll. The paracetamol reference from the introduction was becoming less of a joke.

The second floor is then rather precariously joined to the first and is only partially supported while you continue the build. Fitting the steeply shaped back onto what feels like a semi-floating platform was another challenge.

The Tool Desk – A Missed Opportunity

The tool desk was the piece of furniture I questioned most. Leonardo was one of history’s most imaginative designers and engineers, yet here I found myself assembling a fairly ordinary woodworking bench. The instructions for it also left me scratching my head and I had to take pieces apart several times.

There are no 3D parts in the kit at all. For an early-generation model that is understandable, but judged purely as a Leonardo da Vinci concept it feels like another opportunity lost. Even a handful of three-dimensional representations of his inventions could have transformed the scene and made its subject unmistakable.

The Flying Device and Final Assembly

There is at least one more obviously Leonardo-inspired object: a flying device suspended beneath a beam containing two LEDs. I am not entirely sure which specific design it is intended to represent, but it adds some welcome visual interest. Very thin wire from the flying object has to be twisted around the beam, which then slots into the back of the kit and remains rather wobbly until the final assembly is complete.

The second wall is fitted next. Unfortunately this was the point where completing one part of the model seemed to make another part come apart. Out came the B-7000. The back and roof followed, while pieces continued to pop free and the imaginary swear jar became progressively more expensive.

The PIR sensor is fitted into the front border and the dust cover should then theoretically slide into place. I did not even attempt it. By that stage I could already see that the overall alignment was not sufficiently square to make forcing the cover into position seem sensible.

Lighting and Electronics – The Standout Feature

If much of the engineering frustrated me, the lighting did the opposite. It is excellent. The fireplace in particular is superb, with the flickering effect giving the ground floor warmth and life, while the other LEDs illuminate the scene effectively. The PIR sensor is also a welcome feature. Lighting and electronics are comfortably the strongest element of this kit and earn a full 10/10.

Final Thoughts

Leonardo da Vinci is not a bad-looking book nook. Once illuminated, it has plenty of atmosphere and there are some genuinely clever mechanisms hidden inside it. My frustration comes from knowing how much better the concept could have been. Leonardo supplied the designers with one of the richest collections of ideas imaginable, yet too much of the finished scene feels like a general Renaissance workshop rather than a celebration of one of history’s greatest inventors.

The build itself is unquestionably advanced despite the relatively moderate 387-piece count. Tight fits, unreliable sticker adhesion, unclear orientation in the instructions, awkward moving mechanisms and difficult final alignment mean I would not recommend this as a beginner or intermediate Tonecheer kit.

There is, however, another way to look at it. Leonardo da Vinci is one of Tonecheer’s earlier designs. Having built this and then experienced the precision, clarity and polish of Venetian Dreams, the difference is striking. Rather than judging the manufacturer by this kit alone, it actually demonstrates how substantially its products appear to have evolved.

Final score: 70/100. A visually appealing and brilliantly lit early Tonecheer kit, but one whose difficult engineering, weak adhesive and missed opportunities prevent the subject matter from reaching anything close to its full potential.