We usually review children's puzzles from Ravensburger, so it was a nice surprise to be offered two of their more grown up jigsaws for us to get our teeth into over the school holidays. The first was Fairytale Fantasia, which is a 1000 piece puzzle - the biggest one that Sophie has ever tackled so she was very chuffed to rise to the challenge !
The puzzle features an illustration by Aimee Stewart, who uses digital painting and photo image editing techniques to produce amazingly creative designs, with bold and bright colours and a huge amount of detail.
This is the perfect puzzle to tie in with World Book Day which was on Thursday, as it features a fantasy library where storybook characters come to life on the shelves. We had great fun trying to spot as many characters as possible - we could see Cinderella, the Mad Hatter, Aladdin and the evil witch from Snow White, but there are others that we have yet to identify.
It's such a beautiful design and the girls worked so hard to put it all together that we're thinking of framing this one for the bedroom. At the moment, it's been carefully made up in the Puzzle Store, which is a great investment if you're a keen puzzle enthusiast.
While the first puzzle tied in nicely with World Book Day, the second one could be seen as a great representation of International Women's Day which just happens to be today. Called The Secretary, it's a 500 piece puzzle from the Happy Days At Work series and has a lovely retro vibe.
The old-fashioned (but state-of-the-art at the time !) electric typewriter, the vintage delivery vehicles outside, the retro telephone with the dial that you had to push round to ring the number and the ubiquitous grey filing cabinet all take me back to the days when I was allowed to go in and see "the girls" at my dad's office. I can just hear the whirr of the phone as the secretaries casually dialled with a pencil and smell the metallic whiff of the filing cabinets ! It's a real blast from the past and if you want another nostalgic trip down memory lane, the other professions from the series of puzzles are Milkman, District Nurse, Farmer, Train Driver, Air Hostess, Clippie, Baker and Mechanic. They'd make a lovely retirement gift for anyone who remembers the "Happy Days at Work" shown in the retro scenes.
star rating : 5/5
for more information : http://www.ravensburger.com/wcm/menu/United%20Kingdom/Puzzles.xml
Disclosure : We received the products in order to write an honest review.
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Still have many Ravensburger jigsaws which I have collected through my lifetime. I love the attention to detail and the challenges which each new puzzle brings. Cold, wet weather and out they come- and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without new ones in my parcels.
ReplyDeleteMy mum loves these.
ReplyDeleteFab puzzles! Eddie loves puzzles, and we have quite a few at home. Not sure he's ready yet to move onto 1000 pieces though that might keep him quiet for a bit. ;)
ReplyDelete