Heartland (poly-resin) N0145 5" Poly-resin Nativity Set 11 Piece

I have been on the lookout for a "traditional" Nativity set as a gift for one of my brothers but the ones I found that I knew he would like were pretty far out of my price range. I happened upon this one last week and read the first three reviews. I admit to being on the frugal side and fairly persnickety about the products I buy, and I was somewhat skeptical that the set could be as nice as described for $31. I decided to take a chance and I ordered this set after business hours on Friday, Nov. 5. It arrived by UPS, well packaged and undamaged, at midday on Wednesday, Nov. 10.This set contains 11 porcelain figures plus Joseph's staff which is separate and made of a different material: Mary, separate infant Jesus, Joseph, three Wise Men, a shepherd with lamb, a camel, a donkey, and two sheep. The molds from which the porcelain figures were made are very detailed and lifelike. The forms are not the least bit clunky and there are even delicate "cut out" areas on several of the figures, which is a bit hard to do without breaking anything. The hand painting is lovely and also quite detailed. The colors are bright and vivid. Whoever did the painting (the set is made in China) took great care with the facial features and clothing. There are no blobs or smudges of paint or booboos in the design on my set. The only fault I can find at all with the figures is that, while the adults are all dark haired, they do not look very Middle Eastern. They are all fair skinned and look Western European as is typical of much Christian religious art work. Jesus is a blond, blue-eyed baby. Considering that this set is so well done and so reasonably priced, this historical oversight can be overlooked.Each figure in this set is packaged in a plastic bag, which makes them easy to slip into their own form fitting pocket of a Styrofoam case. With a little care the foam case should protect the set while in storage throughout the year. The set was packaged in a larger cardboard box padded with air pillows. My set arrived in perfect condition.I am excited to give this set to my brother and would like to have one myself. I may order a second set. This set would make a very thoughtful and appreciated gift for anyone who cares about such things and doesn't already have a Nativity set.

I was very excited to get a Nativity set for the house in rememberence of my late mother who always used to have one set up in the home. I found the perfect product, ordered it on Dec 11th, was told it would ship between Dec 13th-15th. When those dates came and went, I checked on the status, and it said it was being packaged and would ship soon. On Dec 18th, I began to get worried that I wouldn't see it before I went home to Maine on Dec 21st, so I sent Grady's Online a note asking them to expedite the shipment (the item was listed as "In Stock" this entire time), because I was afraid I wouldn't be home when it arrived.I recieved a reply from Grady's saying that the item as in "High Demand" (note once again, the item was still "In Stock", they just need to get it in a box for shipment, unless of course they were lying about it being "In Stock"), and because I wouldn't be home after the 21st, they were CANCELLING THE ORDER. No attempt was made to contact me to see if I still wanted it shipped. Of course, they couldn't reverse the cancellation themselves, and wouldn't you know it, the item was no longer in stock from them and was twice as expensive elsewhere. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what's going on here - they oversold the product, didn't have them in stock, and my e-mail gave them an excuse to weasel their way out of my order, citing company policy that when the shipment address is in dispute, they cancel the shipment to avoid complications. How convenient for them. Note, it's pretty common for people to say they won't be home over the holidays - it wasn't like I was moving away for good. But Grady's couldn't be bothered to contact me to see whether I wanted this rare item still shipped. They just cancelled it, case closed, with no recourse for me but to be upset and write this review.Lesson learned, read the seller's reviews, even when ordering through a reputable website like Amazon. When I went back and looked at Grady's Online seller reviews, it appears that one out of every eight customers had their orders delayed or damaged, with no explanation. Given the volume of merchandise they move, that's several shipments per day not leaving the warehouse on time. Seven out of eight might seem like good odds for most, but not for an online retailer. If I was as bad as that at my job, I would be fired. Imagine if your local Starbucks completely screwed up one out of every eight drinks? At any given moment, there would be a customer in line fuming. Grady's Online might want to consider getting into a different business - I would urge you to consider going with a different retailer. I was just a number to them, I was lied to, and they showed zero remorse for their actions.

I don't often write product reviews however this product prompted me to do so and here is why. Last year I built a nativity scene and began searching for the figures for it. I didn't really find what I was looking for and since Christmas was already at hand,needless to say I ended up not getting the figures and postponed completing the Nativity scene until "later". Well as often happens, later became a few weeks before Christmas and my search was on again when I came across this wonderful set of nativity figures. I read a bunch of the reviews which were very positive and decided to give it a shot. After receiving the set I was amazed to find they were actually of quite good quality with very good attention to detail. For less than $40.00 I wasn't really expecting too much but this time I was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion this one looks better than most if not all sets I've looked at that cost two, three or more times what this one does. If you are in the market for a nativity set, you can't go wrong with this one. A funny twist to the story though, I mentioned I hadn't really shopped for figures since last year, so with that being said, I guess time has a way of distorting things. I looked at the specs on this set and saw the tallest figure is about 6.5 inches tall. Using my minds eye, I figured that would work fine with the Creche I built. Needless to say, the Holy family and the wise men looked like giants next to the Creche I built last year! Also, needless to say, me and "Joseph" (for scale), had to make a trip to the basement workshop to begin building a more size appropriate Creche that hopefully will be done for display this year.