My husband put this together himself in about 3-4 hours. No big deal. I had to hold a piece here or there, but manageable. The kids love it and my oldest is 6. They use it as a prop in play too (ie. put a blanket over it and use as a fort). It's a great alternative piece of play equipment. Easy to move with two people to cut the grass. 

This was fairly simple to put together, holds up to 400lbs so all the kids can get on it, and seems extremely sturdy. It does take at least 2 people to put together (3 would make it even easier) and needs to be on a pretty level surface when assembling. It took us one afternoon to assemble the entire dome. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I wish that it didn't have the "rock" hand grips. It makes it difficult for a child to sit on the top once they get up there because the hand grip is right in the middle where they would sit. It isn't something that would prevent me from buying again, but they are still in the way and my kids have already asked if they can be removed (they can not be removed and MUST be put on-if they are not put on you will have long screws sticking out all over the climber). Over all it is a great climber at a great price, at least it was a great price when I bought it, and for the price I would buy it again.

Ordered this item for my granddaughters in another state. Item arrived as promised and my son had no problem picking it up. It has not been assembled yet due to the snow, but the girls are excited and can hardly wait. It was great being able to order this item from California and having my son pick it up in Colorado.

I bought this for my 5-year old and toddler sons. My older son has always been tentative when climbing on structures at parks. We live in a rural area, and he doesn't get much park time or much climbing practice. This climbing dome has helped him gain confidence and coordination at his own pace, without other kids crowding him, and without him feeling self-conscious about being cautious. He can climb to the top, and if it starts to feel precarious, he just hangs down from his arms and falls 8"-12" safely to the ground, landing on his feet. My toddler likes to duck in and out of the bars and go inside the structure. It has been a fun piece and a nice companion item to their Lifetime swing set. With both products I purchased, I copied assembly tips from the reviewers into a document, and gave it to my handy woman to help with assembly. For the climbing dome, she followed the alternate assembly advice from one of the reviewers, and built the main dome in about 2 hours by herself with my son handing her tools (and me helping her lift one part, just one time). Attaching the black hand holds took about another hour. My play ground equipment was the first she ever assembled, and she said it was fairly easy. So far, this is a nice, solid piece of playground equipment. My oldest son is 4' tall and weighs 58 pounds, so I was worried that the joints would start to loosen with extended play, but so far, so good! Both boys really enjoy it.

Ordered this for my twins 5th birthday. It arrived when expected, thought I did pay the $5 for it to arrive a week early instead of the free shipping. FedEx delivered it in good condition. Took me about 3-4 hours to put it together, but it should have taken a lot less time. I consider myself very good at putting things like this together. Most things I buy where the reviews say it's hard to assemble I tend to plow right through without issue. This was an exception. It's very well made, and the quality of the product is not the issue, but rather the directions. I think the person who wrote them might have very little experience in writing directions. They are very unclear in that they want you to assemble five different assemblies in the first step, but don't make it clear at all. So you assemble one assembly and then move on to the next few steps but don't realize it (because they only show a picture of 1/3 of the product) until you get a few pages along. Then you realize you have to go back, disassemble what you spent the last 45 min assembling, and assemble the other four assemblies and then continue where you left off. Other than the directions being written by a child, it's a great product. Order it, just beware of this in the first step and you should be good.

We actually bought two of these. One for us and one for a friend. My friends was fine, but our box had a tear in it. We discovered that all of the bolts were missing. I went to customer service and looked for a way to order and purchase a new set. I bought the item with an open box, so I figured it was my fault for not double checking. I received an email the next business day stating that they shipped all new bolts for free. Wow! Not what I was expecting. They were wonderful!!

The assembly does take a little while. Not difficult but time consuming. I found hand tightening worked best until the entire unit was assembled because it is more forgiving at getting the angles just right. Then I tightened everything down before putting on the hand grabs. There were a few sections I had to read twice but overall Lifetime does a good job differentiating parts and providing images. A slightly deeper 1/2 socket worked well also since the screw is long as you tighten down the bolt. We have the matching swing set also so this was a good addition to the yard.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] LIFETIME did it again! This dome climber is the best jungle gym I've ever seen. Kids can climb it like a mountain, hang on it, hang upside down from it, use it as a fort, and so many other things! Our kids are at the perfect ages to enjoy this now and to use it for many more years to come--they're 6 and 3. The 3-year-old can't really climb it on his own yet but loves hanging off of the nearest bars he could grab and jumping off. This is quite a big structure and the kids can stand straight up underneath it, making it a great fort to camp under. We love that it's very sturdy, a great structure that builds the kids' strength and agility, built to last, and the colors work great in our backyard! The kids had their friends over and they all had fun--including the parents! Two grown men built this in about 1.5 hours – it is helpful reading and carefully following the instructions (dads who think they know better). At one point when we were tightening the screws one broke off! But, thank you Lifetime for even thinking about that in advance as they gave extra nuts and bolts with the package. It does have a large footprint but that just means more kids (and adults) can be on at the same time. We trust the Lifetime brand to be solidly built and to last a lifetime, and we think this one definitely will.

I primarily purchased this for my 3-year-old, but my older son who just turned 11 has been on it, while my 3-year-old has shown no interest. I am not sure why as he LOVES to climb and swing from every object possible? After assembling the dome climber, I realized it is a pretty good size. It will probably be a while before he can actually climb onto the first bar off the ground. We have had it assembled for less than a week, so I am hoping he will warm up soon. We even put his kiddie pool in the middle underneath today to coax him into exploration. We had zero success with that manipulative move. It is still a GREAT product and whether or not he uses it now, we are pretty certain he will come to love it and play on it for many years to come. The structure is pretty sturdy after assembly and easy to move with a nice added feature of joint bolt covers that double as a climbing fob. There were some technical inconsistencies with this product: instructions, maximum weight, and recommended ages. INSTRUCTIONS: 3 on a scale of 1-10. It is almost easier to figure it out than try to view the illustrations. The gray-scale coloring is inverted on the instructions with the hunter green bars in light shades and the light brown (beige) bars illustrated in the darker shades. This made it confusing when putting the bars together. There were also a few places that were not clear. The instructions do not mention from Step 1 that you will be screwing and unscrewing the nuts SEVERAL times in the main sections. Wal-Mart listing: maximum weight = 600 Product maximum weight listed= 400 (200 pounds off - BIG difference) Wal-Mart recommended ages listed = (3-10) Product box recommended ages = (4-11)

All my grand kids, from my oldest of 21 to the youngest of 3 love climbing on this thing! As children, my own kids played on one in the park near our home and had so much fun, I had to get this for the younger crowd. I see my 3 year old great-grandson becoming so self-confident as he travels around the outside of the dome by himself. His dad helps him to the upper area, where he loves sitting on top and seeing things from a different perspective. This was definitely a good purchase!