Puzzled, but not in a good way.

See this puzzle?  Looks very cool, doesn't it?  It lights up, plays music and is in the shape of a 3-D castle.  It might just be the coolest puzzle Sam ever had.  We got it at Epcot, specifically in the country China. 

 

Take a look at the awesome and informative instructions: 

Wow, should be pretty easy for us to assemble, right?  In case you think there is more written to help on the other side of this sheet, please know it is in Chinese.  Lovely.  Written with the sarcasm oozing out of my pores.

So this very cool 3-D castle (with music and lights) has 105 pieces.  Yes, 105!  And in the corner of the instruction page (not discoverable until AFTER you've bought this masterpiece), it states that this puzzle is intended for 14 years plus, has a difficulty rating of all 5 stars (OMG!), and should take 3 hours to assemble.  Really.

Jeff, Samantha and I start putting it together.  The more eyes and hands trying to get this to look like the picture on the box, the better. 

 

Jeff somehow sees these tiny little numbers on the instruction's drawings of all the pieces.  WHAT!?!?!  I couldn't believe it, but yes, there were numbers on the instructions.  I had to enlarge the instruction page to 210% of the original size to see them.  To realize there were numbers to guide us in the order the pieces should be put together took us easily 20 minutes.  Ha!  The three of us was not sure how this whole thing was going to be assembled in only 3 hours.  We were joking that the batteries will need to be replaced by the time we get it together.  Jeff thinks we will need to convey the puzzle (and all of its various pieces) when we sell the house -- in like 20 years!   We were definitely in over our heads.

An hour later we got to piece #11.  Believe me, we struggled during the first hour.  It was not easy for us to figure out what they wanted us to do.  Here is what it looks like:

BOOM!  We are now officially stuck.  For some reason we can't find piece #12.  And we can't proceed until piece #12 is in its place.  Among the remaining 94 pieces, none of them look like what #12 should be. 

So this thing sits on our coffee table, taking up space.  Each time we come and go (which is often), we are reminded how we should be riding the short bus when it comes to doing puzzles.   Why doesn't the box let potential buyers know what they are getting into?  I would've never picked up a puzzle intended for 14 years or older.   We may still be trying to figure this out by the time Sam is 14.