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Ravensburger Toy Story 3 Puzzleball Spaceship
by cha97mw
My eldest received this puzzle ball last Christmas. This is priced between £5-£11 depending on where you shop, and is aimed at children aged 6 plus. My son was just a bit past 5 when he got it, and really, I think he would have got a lot more out of this puzzle if he had been a bit bigger, even though he is quite bright for his age and ... normally has no trouble with jigsaws of this number of pieces, the actual dexterity needed for these puzzle balls is what sets the age recommendation, and here, a fair amount of adult help was required.
This set out looking a good buy. Like other puzzle balls the pieces are numbered 1-40 to help you work out where the pieces need to go when building. Unlike other puzzle balls which mostly seem to be round in shape, this one is shaped more like a pear, being a lot wider at the head end of the rocket rather than the tail. The pieces are made from a tough plastic type material and when it is built it is quite a strong structure and it looks very nice as a display piece. The pieces were reasonably ok to put together until we got to the last few pieces, with the last one being a bit of a pig to slot in. The colours are really quite vibrant, and have not faded through being left on display, though we haven't actually tested colour fastness by leaving on a window sill in bright sunshine.
There were some extra accessories that really make this set look a lot better. 3 fins are provided which slot into little holes with pegs, these go one each side, and one on the top. There is also a piece that looks like rocket burnets, which pegs onto the tail end of the spaceship to make it look more realistic. The ship also comes with a little oval shaped stand, which the finished rocket sits on very nicely.
I have been impressed with the finished strength of the puzzle ball. My youngest is only just 4, and very rough when he is playing even when he knows he needs to try and be careful. He also has struggled with the concept that the finished spaceship is really an ornament rather than a toy, so this has been played with, and it has survived without any bits snapping off even though the fins do not look that strong. It has also been dropped on the floor and stayed in one piece.
This was a bit of fun for the boys when they were building it, and they have enjoyed playing with it afterwards. As it is only the same size as my flat hand, it is not so big we are struggling to work out where to display it, and it looks good on display in their bedroom.
I don't really get why puzzle balls exist to be honest, I prefer jigsaws to be something they can do a few times quite easily, but the boys did enjoy it, so I am going to give it 4 stars. It isn't the dust attracting waste of space I imagined it to be, and it does look good.
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Ravensbudger Thomas & Friends Clock Puzzle
by Lbird99
Little Man is a huge fan of Jigsaw Puzzles and a huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, so when we saw the Thomas and Friends Right on Time Clock puzzle in the Toy shop at Butlins last September we thought it would be a good buy for him.
I really liked the design of the puzzle as it shows pictures of lots of the engines doing ... different tasks throughout the day rather than just the usual Thomas, James and Percy. The pictures work through the day starting at the top moving clockwise showing things like Thomas waking up, the Fat Controller having his breakfast, Rheneas picking up school children and ending with Harold doing night time search and rescue. In the centre of the puzzle is a clock face with moving plastic red hands.
This puzzle has been a big hit with Little Man, especially as it has one of his favourite trains, speedy Spencer, on it. He spends ages chatting about what all the engines are doing in each picture, and because there is miniature clocks in the corner of each picture it gives us the chance to talk about what jobs are done at what time, and he can then set the clock to match each picture. I usually try to take the clock pieces out of the box when we do this puzzle and let him put them in last, as if they go in first I find he gets a bit distracted by the moving hands!
The puzzle has 60 pieces and when completed comes up reasonably big at 43 x 39 cm. We tend to do this on the floor due to the size, although due to the size of the pieces I wouldn't say it was a floor puzzle. It is made by Ravensburger puzzles, which you may know from previous puzzle reviews are my favourite puzzle brand as they are so robust. We have had our puzzle over 6 months now and it still looks like new. It is recommended for ages 4+ but I think this is more due to the amount of pieces as they are the same size as his smaller puzzles for age 3+. Little Man was 3 last August and at first used to like to do this with me or his Dad but is now completing it like a pro, so if you have a jigsawaholic like me then don't be put off by the age advice.
I bought this puzzle for £9.99 on holiday, which I expected to be a bit more expensive but as I hadn't seen this puzzle before I was happy to pay it. It is now available from Amazon for £7.95 delivered. This is still one of his favourite puzzles, and he must do it at least a couple of times a week so it is a definite 5 stars from us
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Thomas and Friends 4-in-a-Box Jigsaw
by firasha
My 3 year old son was given this box of puzzles as a present and he instantly loved it. It's very good for this age as it has 4 varying difficulties of puzzles, so its neither too easy nor too hard as there is a bit of variety. If all of them were 12 pieces it would be finished quickly and not make them think, but its good to have the 12 ... piece one in there in case they feel frustrated with more pieces, depending on the child's mood.
This box has puzzles with some newer characters in it such as kevin who is seen in the day of the diesels and misty island films, and charlie who is also quite a new character, so they seem quite up to date and appealing. We also had another very similar box which is the one with stepney in, as mentioned by the other reviewer.
The quality of these is good but with some wear and tear I have found the pieces can get broken or bent after a while, and the pieces are quite small so easily lost. I have to keep it out of the way of my younger 2 year old son, as he is mainly responsible for any pieces that have been broken or lost so far. So I would say it's suitable for 3 years+ or closer to 3 but 2 and a half+ may be fine for a more sensible child.
My 3 year old loved these puzzles and because of the Thomas characters he really wanted to do it again and again so it helped him to develop his puzzle skills and become really fast at it, and do them by himself, so I feel like it's quite educational and beneficial. We never had an issue with the 4 puzzles peices being mixed in together (the backs are not marked at all) as even my 2 year old can quickly sort out which pieces belong in which set so that just adds an extra bit to the activity. It's only the box of 10 which we have, where that becomes a bit of a problem. However you could easily mark them or keep in bags if it is an issue.
I would buy more of these with different pictures, so recommended from me.
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