We bought this set as our three year old's birthday gift. It was more than we had planned on spending but when looking at comparable sets, there's a lot of ~$25 sets out there and then there's the Playmobil set and this one. We chose this one because it most closely mirrors an american farm, its size and ruggedness, and the availability of companion sets. To be honest, it is so feature rich that I'm not sure we'll ever appreciate in full all of the "bells and whistles".Assembly required a bit of troubleshooting, one of the walls got a little scrape to remove a injection-mold mark to allow it to slide together better, and the force required to assemble the kit sometimes bordered on excessive.The Schleich USA customer service we received was 10/10. A few small parts were missing and our CS rep was more than willing to help us with any problems, even shipped replacements quickly!To summarize our experience thus far- the engineering and design that Schleich has invested in this product really shows, and other than a few manufacturing/packaging problems (that customer service quickly and happily remedied) this is a set that would be hard to compare to- plus the amount of available new and used sets available makes this very attractive to accessorize! (Our three-year-old will probably be getting additional sets for birthdays and christmases for years to come.)