We have completed so many puzzles over the past few years thanks to the lovely people at Ravensburger. However these latest puzzles are a bit different than any we have tried previously.
Unlike standard puzzles which you put together and then either take apart or glue to a board, these make useable objects. There are four to collect - a vase, jewellery tree, vanity box and a pencil holder. They are aimed towards girls 8 and over although I ended up doing the majority of them - as always.
The puzzle pieces are made from plastic rather than the traditional cardboard. Each piece has part of the puzzle on one side and a number on the other.
On traditional jigsaws you would follow the pattern but on 3D jigsaws it's much harder and much easier to follow the number and the direction of the arrow. Each one of the owl puzzles comes with a base to start building on and you build it upwards.
This is the pencil holder being built.
This was the easiest one with the least number of pieces. The top plastic rim is what helps keep it together, tho dropping it will also break it apart as Izebella recently discovered.
We have managed to build three out of four of the puzzles. The jewellery tree is the one we struggle with. The pieces go together fine but getting the top part on is difficult as the whole thing falls apart so we will keep trying as we may just be doing something wrong with it.
I really like the vanity box. It has lots of room for jewellery, make up or small toys. It has over 200 pieces but was fairly easy to build up and seems very sturdy.
I find the easiest way to build these puzzles is to sort the numbers out into blocks of tens and then it makes it much easier to build.
Finally the vase, which includes a plastic pot for water so real flowers can go in.
We had a few minor problems when starting to build this. The instructions state to place piece one onto the vase base and build from that. This is more or less impossible as the pieces just don't stay on in any way. We worked out the best thing to do is build the first rounded part up so you have a connected circle of pieces and then place this on the base and build up from there. The vase looks very decorative on my girls bedroom window sill.
Our puzzles were built over 2 days and are quite easy once you get the hang of it.
Find out more about the funky owl puzzles here and buy from Amazon and most good toy stores.
