I was introduced to Rolife while touring around the Seattle area, for a spot for fun gifts for people into crafts. It's amazing.
If you were into LEGOs or similar or did small crafts, this store is a blast. Everything is friction-held together for the most part (tiny amounts of glue on occasion, from what I gathered by chatting with people). With all the pieces pre-painted/cut so you can focus on going through assembly as a fun time. Some of the models have very simple motor/light electronics which bring them to life. Unlike LEGOs, these are designed to be crafted together and then displayed without remixing them further.
Large variety of model types. Some which fit onto a bookshelf and tell a story, some which are small city buildings, or some that are just items like flowers. The store interior showcases a large variety of the models, and staff were helpful with pointing out ones which fit a particular interest (we had a friend we know loves stag beetles and surprise, they had a stag beetle). The models run around $40 for the middle sized ones, and we ended up buying several, as nicer gifts to friends who we know would appreciate the fun of assembling them and showing off their creations. read more