Rolife Sam’s Study is a very interesting miniature dollhouse kit, full of books (deu lol)
Today I’m going to review this kit from Robotime, as I did for this one: Cathy’s Flower House and Miller’s garden. But this time it’s this one: Sams Study.
It is also known as the “DIY miniature model kit Harper’s Library”, as I found out.
But first: Sam’s study instructions PDF
Before we go further: I know have uploaded the manual of this Robotime DIY house English instructions, in a PDF file, as this is a frequently asked question! Download it here.
Robotime Sam’s Study kit: an overview of the Product.
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Sams Study DIY Miniature Dollhouse Kit, 1:24 Scale Tiny House
Buy Now →Product Name: Miniature dollhouse kit called ‘Sam’s Study’
Place(s) To Buy: Amazon , AliExpress, or straight from Robotime
Owners: Robotime aka Rolife
Warranty: 30-day refund or replacement
Product Overview :
Robotime DIY Miniature Dollhouse Kits: DG102-Sam’s Study with LED Light, Tools, and Instructions in English.
Included are many miniatures, photos, and frames, bookshelves and books (lots and lots of those !), chairs, a ladder, etc. Including all necessary tools (see content).
The English instructions show you how the construct the miniature kit step by step. Expected time to assemble: 20 hours. For anyone who likes crafting, dollhouses, miniatures, AND books. (have you seen the other amazing trend as well: book nooks?)
Content :
– wood, paper, metal, cloth: 500 pieces
– English manual
– tweezer
– 2 kinds of glue. Tip: I have been told that, if you run out of glue, or the glue is missing, you can buy the exact same one on Amazon.
– a brush
– the pieces are already painted (you can repaint them)
– 2 batteries, led lights
– sandpaper
– measurements : 18,5 x 22,5 x 19 cm
– weight: 954 gr
– scale: 1/24
– Average time to build: 20 hours (depends on the individual)
You still need a crafting knife and for that, I would definitely recommend a ‘fingertip crafting knife‘ from Fiskars, I’m so happy to have bought it, it’s much handier than your usual crafting knife!
Another Tip: Have spare electric wires (1mm) and heat shrinkable tubes available, because trust me: you will break a lot of them, especially in the beginning.
And another tip! :
To glue the wires together in a quick way, without having to use superglue, I found out the hard way that it’s better to use ‘fast grab tacky glue‘ so that you don’t have the issue of gluing your fingers together!
DIY miniature house Sam’s Study- A personal review with pros and cons.
The Good And The Bad :
The Good.
– It is very challenging but rewarding! (no real struggles though )
– if you love reading books, this can be so pretty next to your real books
– pretty design
– good quality
– besides small scissors and a ruler, you really don’t need any other materials than the ones provided by the kit
UPDATE: there are people worldwide missing glue and batteries
– non-toxic (keep away from kids under three years old though, as those very small parts can be easily swallowed !)
– NO MISSING PIECES (YEAY!), not like in the other kit I made a review from Cathy’s Flowerhouse.
The Bad.
– It could be too challenging for some people (there are lots and lots of books there !)
– the instruction manual could be less confusing and more detailed (that’s a common thing about Robotime, so it seems)
– I had a very hard time fitting all the books together on the shelves, so that was a bit irritating, but in the end, I did it 🙂
– putting together the red chair was a challenge, but managed it also. Some people leave it out, cause they can’t seem to make it. Do you think you could? Tell me please when you have done it or not 😉
– I have read reviews where people said that the base and the building do not fit together well, cause the base isn’t measured correctly. Mine fits well, but maybe yours could be an issue?
In general, I just loved this kit, 5 stars would be perfect, but that is a score that I have never given any miniature kit, so I’m giving this one an ‘almost perfect’ 4 and a half stars.
Sams Study DIY Miniature Dollhouse Kit, 1:24 Scale Tiny House
Buy Now →Where to get support from Robotime/Rolife?
As mentioned in my other review of a Robotime miniature kit, there are lots of videos on Youtube that you could watch for instructions or join Facebook groups!
You can always contact me on my social media pages, whenever you like and I will try to figure it out for you (if I remember how I made something haha). Here’s my Facebook Page.
Or if you prefer: my Facebook group. Join me there and chat with me as much as you like!
- Lots of people ask me where to contact Robotime by email, well I found it on Facebook, here it is: Jack.deng@robotime.com.
- Missing or broken parts? Now Robotime replaces them for free!
You just need to pay for the shipping costs and it doesn’t matter where you bought the miniature kit.
Follow THIS LINK to get replacements.
Rolife Sam’s Study assembly: doing it my way.
Now, with this one, I had a lot of fun, because it was the first one that I wanted to ‘hack’ it and have it quite different than the original version.
You can tell the difference between my version and the original version in this YouTube video of mine:
Do you see the differences? Let me explain what I have changed:
- I have changed the colors of the furniture from orange and light brown, to bright blue and dark brown.
- The paper floor (green-white blocks), wasn’t my thing at all, so I definitely wanted to change that. I used a piece of balsa wood and dyed it ‘woodish-brown’.
- the black plate and 3 green apples on the piece of furniture in front are made by me.
- added a few personal things, like the ‘I-love-Africa’ pin and the little elephant (have you discovered it?)
- the chair was quite ugly in red and it was covered in glue, so I upcycled it with an old blue piece of stretch T-shirt fabric
I’m pretty happy with the changes and results.
Would you like to see the complete tutorial? I have uploaded a 45 minutes video of that as well:
My Final Opinion of Rolife’s Sams Study
This would be a perfect gift for that friend who is a book nerd or of course, yourself, to have hours and hours of crafting fun.
I haven’t encountered any severe issues with this dollhouse kit at all. Apart from maybe that there’s little variation in this one, it’s all about books, books and you know what else? : books. 🙂
Did you know that there are even covers of little books that represent real-life books? Books that I personally read even, that amazing!
Did you encounter any problems though with this or do you have any other questions about this review or other miniature dollhouse kits?
Feel free to ask in a comment below.
I would also appreciate a share on your social media or joining me on my Facebook group, thank you very much!
I wish you happy crafting!
Kind regards,
Lizzy
PS I now have a Youtube channel, where I will be posting videos of all my personal work and/or finished Miniature kits, keep posted!
Hi everyone!
My name is Lizzy, and I am an amateur miniaturist obsessed with everything in the dollhouse and miniature world, ever since I was a teenager.
So far, I have created 2 dollhouse projects, a backyard shed and a miniature treehouse, tons of DIY dollhouse kits, and “hacked” some.
I also created a fairy garden, and lots of small and simple miniature projects on my YouTube channel. (mostly made from trash or everyday items).
I love to write as well about all things happening in the miniature world, hence the reason why I created this blog!
I wish you happy reading and crafting!
Lizzy
Wow, what an amazing site. I’m not the crafting type of person, especially with miniatures, I would get too frustrated. But I know a number of people who are and I will definitely turn them on to this site. You give a very good review of the product including pros and cons. I see folks getting a lot of great information here. I didn’t see links to any other pages, do you offer any other types of assistance throughout the site?
Hi Don !
Thank you very much for referring my site to others that might be interested! To answer your question, I sure have other very interesting pages off assistance on my site. How about these tutorials for example: miniature tutorials or this category, where to start: Some insights
Happy crafting !
This actually looks beautiful. I’ve been a fan of crafts. Planning on taking a few lessons in the future related to the disciple. I currently have no experience in this field. The only thing that attracts me to it is the beauty of the finished product. I wouldn’t consider building a dollhouse but that end product looks so beautiful. Thanks for piquing my interest. Will certainly love to see more content from you
Thank you very much for such a great review. I also thank you for the hard work you put in to bring this website together and providing such useful information. Actually this is my first time to hear about this kit. but, according to the way you explained it, it seems to be a good one and i would like to try out now, crafting is such an enjoyable hobie mostly when it come to making dolls. thanks for the info.
This looks like a nice activity to do, especially now that we’re staying home. When I first saw that it takes 20 hours to build this, I was a little surprised, but then I thought, well, we’re not going anywhere, are we? This is a good way to stay busy, and the doll house is very pretty too.
Looking at the chairs and many books, I think I would get a little irritated putting those together after a while … I don’t have much patience for such things … 😉 I would have to take frequent breaks in order to to do this 😉 What I like is that the books have covers of real books, that is amazing. I am a book nerd too, but I am not great at crafts. I would love to get this as a gift though 🙂
Interesting site am glad I came across it. I will really hand it to you its not really easy coming up with such a site that has so much useful information. I dont no more about crafting but I got so much information from your site Planning on taking a few lessons youu are the best
Once the battery is installed under the floor, how do you replace them without having to disassemble the whole works?
Hi Casey,
The battery case should just slide out of the area where they’re placed. All the kits are designed to be easily accessible so you just pull and it comes out.
best regards,
Lizzy
My sister bought me this for Christmas and was a huge surprise. My family doesn’t normally pick out my two ultimate hobbies for gifts. They don’t know what I have read nor do they have my understanding or knowledge of miniatures. And although since they never buy me books or anything mini I was like a kid and forever grateful. I haven’t started the study but I am going to before any other mini projects. I hope to finish the chair and will let you know if it was a challenge. The only complaint I do have with these kits is that it is sometimes hard to see what scale they are. Being that I really only work in 1:12 it was a slight disappointment. They need to list amd mark what the scales are prominently on all kits and accessories.
Hi Carla, thank you for your comment! The kits from Rolife are always in scale 1/24, as far as I know 😉 It’s true that this is very different, if you are used to working in 1:12 scale, that is a lot smaller 🙂
I’m glad that your family gave it to you as a surprise, mine does the same and I love it!
Happy crafting!
Lizzy
I have been doing this while in lockdown and having bought two kits and starting the coffee shop first, found this one to be so much easier – no windows with messy glued laminate to stick on and much less fiddly pieces to assemble. Not sure if this was done later (and therefore improved upon) but instructions seem a tad better and everything seems to be pre-cut ready to assemble unlike the coffee shop. Really enjoying it. Almost done, hubby just helping me with lights today cos he has a soldering iron and much easier than twisting wires together. I did the chair quite easily but yes a tad messy with the glue. Am hoping some red ribbon attached over the arm edges with hide the messy joins but if not can recover it like you did. Only one thing missing as far I can tell – K14 – that looks like a newspaper that sits on top of the far right little cabinet. Shame but not a major deal. I do have miniatures from my childhood so think I have a few newspapers I can use instead. I’ve kept it true to the kit except for painting around the edges brown instead of white. I felt it looked better. Was a little unsure about floor cos looked blue in picture but actually more green in real life so works well with brown edging.
Hi Robyn!,
I have the coffee shop still waiting for me to do, so much to do lol!
It probably is much easier to do, as you say, I really do think that I started with the more difficult ones, like Cathy’s flower house and Miller’s garden. Oh well, at the least I know now how things work and I got the hang of it.
The lights I find always the most ‘annoying as well, I would gladly leave them in the hands of someone else 🙂
Oh yes, recognizable about the chair and the messy glue and I hope that the ribbon will work out fine!
That’s a bit of a shame indeed when there’s a piece missing, but overall there are so many things in this kit, that you will not even notice. And indeed, you can always use some of your own or make some yourself even. There are so many free prints online (look at the FREEBIE section on my site) that you can easily add to it.
You can ‘drown’ those newspaper prints in a cup of black tea and make them look older, for example.
Sure, you can do whatever you like and use whatever you like. If you like the floors, then go for it, it is your personal taste, right?
Thank you for your comment and I hope you will continue to enjoy these miniature kits from Rolife,
Best regards,
Lizzy
So far so good. I wish the pieces were more interlocking (especially ladder). I end up with my fingers covered in glue.
I am confused on the books (book 1). There are 2 rows of identical pages for N1-N5. Are they supposed to be glued together, make two separate books or just have extra in case you make a mistake?
Janet
Hi Janet!
Oh yes, I know about the glue-issues, such small pieces on this scale of 1:24 haha!
I think as for the books, they should be clearly able to cut the paper to cut each book, and then glue that as a cover to the wooden pieces? I don’t have the manual here with me to see what exactly you mean, but either it is that, or for some books you can create multiple pages and leave the book ‘open’, and still have several pages. Do you see what I mean?
Good luck!
Send me an email and I’ll send the scan showing what I mean. I am unable to attach the scan to this post.
my contact address is : contact@everythingverysmall.com
Never mind. I figured it out. They each had different book covers. This is in reference to book 1 and N paper cutouts.
I do love these builds. I have completed the kitchen and Soho builds.
Janet
I am glad that you have figured it out 😉
I wish you happy crafting!
Lizzy
I’m looking forward to doing this. I’m going to make my own books to go into it. I’m not sure it’s 1:24 precisely. It seems to be somewhere between 1:18 and 1:20. That chair seems out of the fit size-wise. Bit with all my own books, it should look very nice.
It can get a challenge with all the books, but I’m sure the result will look fantastic! If you like to show it on my Facebook group that would be great, thanks for the comment 😉
I wish you happy crafting!
Lizzy
Lizzy, I am obsessed with these miniature rooms. I have 9 and I’ve “created” 3 of my own using pieces that I left out in the originals. My first was the Sam’s study library and I agree with many people that the red chair was a bugger to do. I had glue all over the piece, my fingers. I’ve since improved my chair upholstery making. I find the company doesn’t give you nearly as much glue as you need. Even after doing 12 of them. And now, the company is currently out of stock of the extra glue but I’m glad you mentioned that you can get some from Amazon. Like you, I’ve been taking creative license as to the walls, floors and even furniture colours. I like to use origami paper to cover the walls, like wallpaper and do the flooring too.
Hi Flora!
They sure are amazing and each one has its own little issues as you say, haha!
Oh yes indeed, that glue..
Since writing this article, I totally switched to Fast Grab tacky glue, the bottles are bigger, and there are no threads everywhere. Although I still keep the original glue for other small things sometimes, just make sure to not keep the bottle on its side, or it will be dried out in no time, I just found out..
Quite right, I change a lot of things since then as well, walls and all, a totally different look makes you even more proud to have accomplished something, right?
Thank you for the chat and I wish you happy crafting!
Cheers
Lizzy
The directions are not at all clear how to assemble the light. I have scanned the directions and enlarged them but that doesn’t help. I have all the parts and assembled them up to the point of putting them together.
Do you, or anybody else, have any insights?
Thanks.
Judy
Hello Judy,
It is hard to tell from a distance on which point you are now without seeing any pictures of your progress. Could you ask this same question on a Facebook group, if you have Facebook that is?
There is one group that is talking about DIY kits only, I am sure that they will help you out further: DIY miniature kits
I hope you will get things resolved soon!
Lizzy
Hi!
First of all, your project looks great!
I am struggling with the light in mine now & have been unable to figure out where to get the extra wires & tubing. Any hints?
Hi Sharon!
Thanks for the compliment, really appreciated!
That problem with the lights is not so uncommon and you can get spare ones on Amazon 😉
Good luck!
Lizzy