"Helles Bier" Nukulele

I remember them coming onto the market in 2014 and I was almost given one to review then; but that deal never came off. After the initial publicity they seemed to disappear until recently when I saw them on sale for about half what they were priced at in 2014, (so clearly not a great success), I was tempted at this price but suggested to Miss Moo this would be a good Christmas present. She, however said she wouldn't get me any sort of chordophone for Christmas so when new one came up as an eBay auction with a very low starting price I thought I would put in a small opening bid and see how it went...

It's here now and it's a bit of a "Curate's egg". It has a much better quality finish than I was expecting and though it is better than some novelty ukes like the Toy Story ones or the Carnivals, its still not as good sounding as a proper Ukulele, (it does stand up on it's own though and that's always handy). I can see why they never took off as a Ukulele idea though. Whilst in a large collection, (like mine), it's a striking and interesting addition, if you only have one or two Ukes I can't see this being a good choice for playing and though it's novel, it's not that great as a decorative piece either; the visual joke just isn't that funny

Also the more you look at it the more faults you can find with the finish. They are all tiny but once you know they are there...