Ravensburger 3d Puzzle : Planetary Solar System Set review

It doesn't seem more than two minutes ago that we were saying "Aaaaah, we're on holiday ! What are are we going to do over the next couple of months?" but, somehow, we're at the final weekend before going back to school. This weekend, we were looking for a final pre-school challenge to take part in, and Ravensburger had just what we needed. With their set of 8 different 3D puzzles, you can build and create the Solar System in miniature. Perfect !

We weren't sure what to expect when we pulled the cover off the box, but inside, you get eight different puzzles in separate bags, plastic bases for the planets, a roll of string and some pieces of paper. The 3D puzzles are scaled to represent the different sizes of the planets, so Saturn and Jupiter are represented as 108 piece puzzles, Uranus and Neptune as 72 piece, Earth and Venus as 54 piece and Mars and Mercury as 27 piece puzzles, totalling 522 pieces in all. 

We started off with one of the smallest planets and tipped the pieces out into the box. Each puzzle has curved, high quality plastic pieces, which are numbered on the inside for easy assembly.

It only took a few minutes and ... ta-da ! ... our first puzzle was complete !

It only took about an hour for us to complete the remaining puzzles, but we were constantly using the numbers on the back to keep us on track !

We've tried out several of the Ravensburger 3d puzzles before and we always work as a team, with one person finding the pieces and laying them out in order and the other one putting them together. (I bet you can guess which job I had - yep, you've guessed it, I had to lay them out in order!)

It took about a hour for us to put all the pieces together. Pierre usually asked me to fiddle about and put the final piece in on each puzzle, but apart from that, it was all fairly simple.

Each planet comes with its own stand and the whole set can either sit on the colourful Solar System poster (which includes facts about each of the planets), or be suspended by thread.

Pierre was happy enough for us to leave it on the stand, as it takes up quite a bit of space, but I may look at putting it all in his room at a later date.

We read all the facts and figures on the poster, oohed and aahed about the wonders of the world, then tried to fit it all back in the box. Oops, that turned out to be impossible, which was a shame. We'll have to undo the bigger planets but, for now, Pierre wanted to keep them all whole.

 The set also includes a kit which assembles into a sun mobile, and a fact-filled information leaflet for all budding astronomers out there. The kit is suitable for ages 7 years and up. 

for more information : https://www.ravensburger.org/uk/products/3d-puzzle/shaped-3d-puzzle/planetary-solar-system-3d-puzzle-11668/index.html

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.