I really love the art of Eric Dowdle, but I must also say that they make for some difficult puzzles – this one was a challenge!

Part of the challenge was that at the factory a mistake was made, the puzzle inside the box was not what was shown on the box. We thought we were purchasing Redwood National Park. The box says we did, the poster inside was for Redwood, but the bag of pieces was what you see here. Still a cool puzzle, I wasn’t really that upset. But it did make for a more challenging assembly, no picture to go by! Of course I sometimes do this to myself purposely, I put the box away and do a puzzle with no helps just to give myself a challenge (and because I’m weird) 😉

Also, I don’t usually comment on the boxes the puzzles come in but Dowdle boxes are pretty cool in my book. Extremely sturdy one piece box that has a lid that folds over and is closed with velcro. There is a slipcover that goes over the box with the info about the puzzle, and on the inside you get a poster of the puzzle to work with, and a zip closure plastic bag to store the pieces in once you’ve finished the puzzle. A++ for the box!

This puzzle was quite a challenge for me, there is so much green and trees in the background it took way longer than is normal for me to complete a 500 piece puzzle. But I love the scene and I had no problem taking on the challenge. There are so many little animals all over the puzzle, it was fun to figure out where every one went. And at the very end I found the big eyes and one paw of an animal you can’t really see and don’t notice in the image unless you’re looking for it (or putting in the pieces there). If you look on the left edge of the puzzle about midway up you can see the paw, the eyes are darker and in the background – not easy to see, but they are there. Great puzzle 🙂

The quality of the puzzle was quite good. The pieces were about average thickness and very sturdy and they fit together quite well. The pieces were predominantly the 2 prong 2 hole variety, but within that they were all different shapes and sizes so it didn’t seem monotonous to me at all. The finish was glossy was caused a lot of glare, which is difficult sometimes with a Dowdle puzzle because there are a lot of darker areas and it’s difficult at night under lights. And a lot of the Dowdle puzzles have quite a bit of symmetry and sameness in the backgrounds which can add an extra challenge. Nothing wrong with a challenge though, it’s fun to do and you feel like you’ve accomplished something when you’re done!  I love the artwork, there isn’t one Dowdle puzzle that I wouldn’t love to own or do, so even if there is glare I don’t mind that much. Awesome images make for fun puzzles in my book!