Rolife Jason’s Kitchen Miniature DIY Kit Review

This was one of the first miniature DIY kits I made, and it got me hooked! The kitchen miniature detail is just perfect, and that retro style appeals to my love of all things vintage. 

I’m going to give my thoughts on the kit, as well as some tips I gathered along the way that you can follow if you make this miniature kitchen or other miniature kits.  

But first, a quick brand overview.

Rolife is the DIY miniature house kit sub-brand of Robotime, a company that designs and makes creative and mechanical kits for children and adults. According to their website, they’ve been around for about 15 years and sell their products across the globe. 

What does the miniature kitchen kit include?

Jason’s Kitchen includes 188 pieces.

I’m not going to list every single item that comes with the kit, but there’s the gist:

Some of the adhesives and tools might not be included in your kit, depending on where you are in the world and where you buy from. 

Other things you’ll need

Although pretty much everything is included in a Rolife miniature DIY kit, there are plenty of opportunities to do customising, from adding your own accessories to a complete refurb. This kind of customisation is known as kit-bashing and is ideal if you’re straddling the comfort of a miniature DIY kit with full-on DIY-ing your own doll’s house.

How long does it take to make?

Robotime says that Jason’s Miniature Kitchen should take about 18 hours. Maybe that’s for the pros, but I think it took me closer to 30. For a first kit, I don’t think that’s bad, and honestly, I probably could have easily taken longer had I spent more time on the intricate cutting and folding (those pans won’t be cooking food anytime soon).

What is the difficulty level?

This kit is probably not for crafty beginners, although I think it’s perfectly fine for a first-time doll’s house DIY-er. This is approximately a 1:18 scale, which is big enough to show nice details and small enough for those who enjoy a miniature challenge.

Is it suitable for children? 

For the most part, I would say no, although patient teenagers should be fine. The newest range by Robotime, called Rolife Super Creator, would be more suitable as an activity that parents could do with a child. Even though there are fewer DIY activities like painting and glueing small items, Super Creator kits do need putting together and have lights that need installing.

How clear are the instructions?

I have to be honest, my instructions are in Chinese (being that I live in China and the Robotime brand is Chinese), but I found the visual instructions (for the most part) were good enough, even if I couldn’t read any of the writing. Most of the written directions are actually just about which glue to use (the kit came with clear glue and a white wood glue), and I mostly just used the white glue anyway.

There were some situations when the photographs were slightly confusing, and it was only halfway through making an object that I saw a mistake or correction I needed to make. 

Putting it all together

Sections that need painting require several coats of paint, which adds more time and effort. Having said that, I think I should have attached white paper instead of painting some of the walls and ceilings. 

I also had some issues with the lighting, as it can be pretty fiddly to remove the casing from the wire without cutting through them. I ended up buying some additional bulbs, already wired, so that I didn’t have to deal with trying to attach the wires to the bulb. This was much easier, and I followed suit for the other kits I’ve done as well. 

Would I try another Rolife kit?

Yes, I’ve made several Rolife Dolls House kits, and I have two from the new ‘Mystic Archives’ range that I can’t wait to start!

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