J**P
Worth the hassle to acquire and assemble; the images are beautiful
Among the several cons with this product are its cheap and rather shoddy construction, and no instructions in English. The tube appears to be one half of a paper towel tube cut along the middle. The eye cap and polarizer cap do not fit the tube well, and sometimes fall off unless glued--but if glued, the kaleidoscope is a bit awkward to store in a box.Although the assembly instructions were in Japanese, I took the risk and bought the product--no one else was offering a polarizing kaleidoscope kit. When the product arrived, I found to my chagrin that one of the most important components, the small screw that fastens the acrylic and polarizer plates to the tube, was missing! I spent 20 minutes at the local hardware store looking for a replacement screw, and luckily found a workable one for ten cents. With the parts complete, I did not have much trouble assembling the scope. However, I was not a novice at this--I had made a few scopes before. Someone who cannot read the Japanese language instructions and has no assembly experience should read up or watch videos on kaleidoscope construction before working on this kit. The mirrors, for example, should be joined "edge on face" to reduce image distortion--a trick that is not obvious at all to the beginner.So why am I giving this somewhat poor product four stars? As I said, there are no other polarizing kaleidoscope kits out there, and practically no instructions for building one even on the Web. So Artec has to be commended for making this kit available. On the plus side, the included acrylic mirrors are first surface with high reflectivity. What has made this kaleidoscope most endearing to me, despite all the hassles to acquire and build it, are the wonderful images that await inside. I will not try to describe these fantastic images; the photos included with my review speak for themselves. (Is this what inspired Robert Delaunay in his paintings?) Overall, I'm happy that I bought this kit and learned how to make a rare type of kaleidoscope. I will be buying polarizer sheets for my next home kaleidoscope project.Update, 20 August 2015: I realized a few days ago that I should have been using birefringent tape on the acrylic plates, not the Scotch "magic tape" that I had used for the first photographs. (So much for my attempt to guess at the Japanese instructions.) With the birefringent tape, the images assume a higher order of beauty and complexity. I have replaced the images with the new ones.
K**O
Ugh, check the package when you first get it
Yes, the instructions were in Japanese, but this is such a simple product that if you have any ability to follow pictures, you'll be fine. My issue is that when I received this (shipped from Japan), it was a gift and I put it into my son's stocking without thinking any more of it. I got it mostly assembled when I realized it was missing the colorful translucent pieces. My son was so bummed, but I was able to return it. If I had the pieces, I think it would have been very nice.
K**S
Junk...
Cheap and you have to COMPLETELY assemble yourself with terrible instructions. Do not recommend this product, very disappointed 😞
