Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
A reasonably cheap and interesting puzzle . |
| Disadvantages: |
Could be a bit difficult for the younger child . |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
As you may be aware I have recently reviewed my daughters puzzle ball, after my daughter showed such enthusiasm and flair for the puzzle I was going to suggest she treat herself to another type of this puzzle and get it with her birthday money.
After visiting Toys r us this afternoon the product I will now review was drawn to her attention literally within minutes of entering the store.
The product I will now review is "High school musical 2 - collection puzzle ball"
Ok so you may be wondering why I feel the need to write a review on the same product I reviewed last week, the fact is it isn't quite the same!
The general idea is the same, this is still a 3d jigsaw puzzle but the difference is this is a heart shaped "pendant", I use pendant in the loosest sense of the word due to the fact it is 11cm across the widest part of the puzzle, so is obviously not a necklace but how the puzzle is designed, it is supposed to be hung and displayed.
The puzzle comes in a sturdy cardboard box around 13cm by 13cm, and is obviously a square box. The box has a lift up lid and in so , making this box ideal to store my daughters bobbles and hair clips in now the puzzle has been made, as Bob the builder would say, "reduce, reuse and recycle"!, can't you tell I have a young son too!
The box (due to the fact it is the dreaded HSM again), is the standard maroon colour with obligatory pictures of the
characters from the show "jumping" across the corner of the box.
At the top is a jigsaw piece with the pieces quantity inside of it, it's 60 by the way!
And finally in the centre is a picture of the made up puzzle with a picture of the main male character on it, as soon as my girl spotted the gorgeous Zac Effron, aka Troy, smiling from the jigsaw section it drew her to him!
What I didn't realise until we got the puzzle home is that on the
other side of the heart puzzle is a picture of the other main female character from the show Vanessa Hudgens aka Gabriella.
When you open the box you will notice all the pieces to the puzzle are held within a single plastic sealed bag, on top of this are the two heart shaped edge pieces and finally a set of instructions, all in German may I add!
Upon tearing open the plastic pouch I noticed the pieces for this puzzle were a lot smaller than the puzzle ball we had made up a few days earlier, also these pieces were more curved than the previous pieces, which at times made it bloody difficult to push in place without completely destroying the entire puzzle!
Between us, me and my daughter attempted to complete the first side, which after about ten minutes realised it was the Gabriella side, a small gripe about this was the fact the puzzle is aimed at 6 years+, but made no attempt to separate the pieces of puzzle for each half of the heart.
We worked together to complete the first side, realising that it was easier to
build up the puzzle by adding the edge pieces first , I know that may sound self explanatory to you all but when faced with a red heart shaped piece of plastic, with, even though it is a single solid piece of plastic, has been cut to look like jigsaw pieces so as to fit in with the puzzle theme, also the fact there are no distinctive markings or picture to match the pieces to, it makes a little bit difficult to say the least!
After the first side was completed my daughter felt more than capable of completing the second heart side on her own, after a little titivation to the puzzle we were ready to assemble the puzzle ball heart to its final hanging glory.
This task is very easy to do, but your child may need a
little help as its fiddly. There is a tiny cutout on one of the heart shapes, you simple thread the knotted and looped piece of sparkly elastic (provided in the set), into the groove, then very carefully push the two heart shapes together until you hear a click, then you just find somewhere nice to hang it, then admire your handy work!
As I mentioned before this was purchased from Toys r us, and as my daughter was trying desperately to get as much for her money as possible, was more than pleased to find it only cost £5.99. I have to be honest I never noticed if there were any other designs in the heart shape due to the sheer quantity of 3d puzzles they sell there, there was a whole wall dedicated to this section alone!
Needless to say if this sounds like a perfect puzzle for you or the kids Toys r us is the place to go!
For more information visit - www.puzzleball.info or www.toysrus.co.uk
Thanks for reading x
Display pictures
The obligatory "jumping" picture of the cast! |
