Reviews related to : Jigsaws

While ‘Flying Pigs’ on a Saturday night may not be rare for some members of the community they are hopefully not normal for the 10+ age group that this toy is aimed at. In fact during my tests even younger than that enjoyed flying it. From tail fin to the front of the double rotor is 25cm, the pig – complete with flying goggles – is 15cm from head to tail and 4.5cm wide. The overall height to the top of the rotors is 13cm and its weight is only 71 grams.

Here I am looking at presents that may appeal to the older members of the family with a couple of jigsaws not this time from Ravensburger but here from a British company Gibsons who have been making quality puzzles for many years. Two puzzles to remind people of the way things were first a delightful unspoiled view of Castle Combe and second Grandad's Workshop perhaps as seen through the eyes of a child who has now become a Grandad himself.

Still with memories of the 5000 piece offering that defeated me early this year I reverted to the other end of the scale with a 100 piece ‘XXL’ puzzle. This is aimed at 6+ with the average piece size being around 6x3.7cm. The overall puzzle size is 49x36cm and features Dr Who and Amy Pond along with something that looks rather like one of my school teachers as well as a Dalek and what I think is a stone monster in a very blue scenario.

Of course even these are tiny in comparison to the 32,000 plus pieces in the world’s largest jigsaw that they produce. See last paragraph. For me anyhow a 2000 piece jigsaw is at the very least ‘a challenge’, it also has an awful lot of various shades of blue.

On the face of it his 500 piece puzzle would not be a great test of the more expienced puzzler, the first problem is the subject its Tower Bridge at Night so there is a great deal of blue grey and black, however there is another twist. It glows in the dark so the finished item is quite likely to need to be displayed possibly behind glass as a picture.

It is landscape in shape and 80x60cm in size. This image is made up of eight boxes seven of which have a single puppy and the eight has two puppies. In theory this makes it easier to complete as the blue areas around each puppy give you distinct areas to work with. However the drawback is there is a lot of the single blue colour. The image is by Greg Cuddiford. However it would have been nice to know a little about each of the puppies.

This premium puzzle has the Ravensburger softclick technology so if the pieces do not seem to fit they certainly are not meant to go with each other. A Landscape offering roughly 70x50cm and its such an intriguing image.

The recessed game boards are 22x22cm with a playing area of 14x14cm that is exactly the same size as 16 labyrinth tiles (four by four) that fit in the space. Although the tile faces are cardboard they fit in red and blue plastic holders so to protect them from wear. If you add two magicians, sixteen 7x7cm object cards and the book of rules (24 pages in six languages) you have the contents of the box. It is based on a game by Prof. Dr. Max Kobbert that is now over twenty years old.

This is apparently the twelfth limited edition puzzle produced by Ravensburger. I cannot talk about any of the first eleven as I have not seen them. This is a delightful puzzle of 1000 pieces and for me anyway quite difficult because of the amount of snow. It is created from an original watercolour painting by Roy Trower who studied graphic art at Norwich and graduated in 1984. It is one of Ravensburgers Premium Puzzles featuring their softclick technology.

This is stated to be for age 6-12 what worries me as certainly an ‘over 18’ is that I enjoyed using it immensely with one exception its pink!! As stated it is two tone pink and around 35x35x6cm. You are provided with a range of stencils and the object is to make a design on paper using one or more of the provided stencils. However here is the clever bit you can repeat the design as many times – within reason – as you like.

This has an idea new to me two 500 piece jigsaws in the same box. Don’t worry they are packed separately as otherwise even the real puzzle experts would be pulling their hair out. This box (ref 14093) has two different Riverside Cottage pictures and while 500 pieces is probably the level for a bright child they can be fun for older people two. Ravensburger have been making puzzles for very nearly 120 years and unlike some they make sure no two pieces are alike.

This is a board game from Ravensburger one of the biggest names in games in the world. Certainly a game for the family it is stated as age 10-99 and for 3-6 players. Timing is given as 45 minutes but maybe because those who tried it were all novices we found it took at least an hour. The contents of the 37x27x5cm box are the game board, six player tokens, eighteen starting cards, 127 transport tickets. One travel log and a baseball cap. The board is 66x40cm (stored in the box folded in four).

Not a skin in sight, it is basically a pair of drumsticks with thin leads going to a small box, while there are a couple of smaller boxes that is it. Insert 4x‘AA’ batteries in the box and start learning the movements and hear your efforts either from the inbuilt speaker or once you have things perfected pipe it out through external speakers. Annoy the neighbours without even ever bringing anything larger than 43x26x6cm cardboard box into your home.