A Wooden Puzzle You’ll Treasure Forever
I grew up in a family that loves puzzles. It was very common on long winter weekends to find us working on a big puzzle. My mother would set-up the card table in the living room so that we could leave the puzzle out to keep working on it for days on end. Needless to say I wasn’t surprised when Nick showed quite an interest in puzzles. We do puzzles together all the time, so I was intrigued when I was asked to review a personalized wooden puzzle from Wentworth Wooden Puzzles.
I have to admit that when I heard the review was for a wooden puzzle I thought of puzzles for young children with chunky pieces that are easy to take out and put back in. I was afraid that the puzzle would be geared toward a child younger than Nick, but I decided to get some more information. I was told that puzzle would be 50 pieces and I was directed to a website that showed a puzzle made from a personal picture. That seemed really neat to me, and 50 pieces sounded like a good level for Nick, so I agreed to review the puzzle. I choose a picture that I thought would make a good puzzle (I had a harder time deciding on a picture than I expected), and I sent it off.
Wooden Puzzle Review
I was extremely impressed when the puzzle arrived. It came in a nice sturdy box and they had put the picture that was used for the wooden puzzle on the front of the box. Every puzzle box needs a picture of the puzzle right? I had expected to open the box to find the puzzle pieces in a plastic bag that needed to be ripped open, but that wasn’t what I found at all. The puzzle pieces had been placed into a nice cloth bag with a pull cord that had been loosely knotted to keep the pieces from falling out.
The puzzle itself is wonderful. It’s like most normal puzzles, but since it’s a wooden puzzle it’s nice and strong so the pieces won’t get hurt or accidentally bent. The pieces also fit together well. Nothing worse than a puzzle with pieces that don’t connect together well. I also was very pleased with how the picture looked. Since I used a scanned picture I wasn’t sure how the quality of it would turn out. The only thing that didn’t transfer so well was the sparkle spots on my dress. They came out as tiny white dots (pin point tiny), but they are small enough that it doesn’t make the puzzle look bad at all. This is truly just me being picky.
I have to laugh at myself because I choose a picture with a boarder thinking that it would make the puzzle easier, but it’s probably one of the hardest 50 piece puzzles that I’ve ever done. The puzzle pieces are cut into very different shapes. In fact there are no actual corner shapes. Plus scattered throughout the puzzle are animal shaped pieces! These are really neat, and they’ve put a lot of detail into them.
What I love about the puzzle is that you can adjust it for different levels. Nick can help do the puzzle, but it’s a little bit too hard for him still. To make it easier sometimes I will put the puzzle together and leave out all of the animal pieces. Once I’m done he goes through and adds all of the animal pieces to the puzzle by himself. The animal pieces are well scattered throughout the puzzle so it is easy to make out the shape for each one.
I love our new children’s personalized photo wooden puzzle. The quality of it is amazing. My mother put it best the other day when she said it was the type of thing that would become a family heirloom. It is not something that is going to fall apart with use. I can already see Nick’s kids someday asking to put together the puzzle with the picture of daddy as a baby. You’ve got to love toys that can last through generations.
