This is the 3rd of the mini STEM puzzles (although if I’d done them in order this should have been the second – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). My husband and I had a great time assembling them all, and I highly recommend them.
There are only 150 pieces each, and they come in a test tube. The label serves as both a poster showing what the finished puzzle will look like, and it has a quiz on the back relating to the subject… (click on the photos twice to see a larger image)
If you enjoy working with very small pieces, or would just like to give them a try, they are definitely recommended. We had a great time with all 4 puzzles; only 1 more to go!
This is the second of four mini puzzles that hubby and I did together. He had so much fun with this one that he took it into the living room and almost did the entire puzzle by himself! I had to tell him to let me at least put in a few pieces, if I don’t help in the assembly I can’t post it on the blog. 😉
There’s something about the very small pieces that is so engrossing and entertaining – as long as they’re good quality. You start to put a few pieces together and you just can’t put it down; although that could be just me. I wouldn’t want to work with the teeny tiny pieces all the time, but once in a while is pretty darn fun.
This image is very busy, and with the piece shapes in the finished image it’s hard to see all of the line drawings. Honestly, it was my least favorite of the 4, but still fun to put together. You can see the image a little better on the poster below…
It’s so detailed that I wanted to enlarge the poster to show all the drawings. It was tough to work with all the black and white lines, especially because the pieces are so small. The quiz on the back is fun to read through as well…
These puzzles are a lot of fun, and if you want a challenge I highly recommend them! Stay tuned in the next few weeks for Technology and Mathematics. 👩🎓
I love the idea of these puzzles, four small piece puzzles each highlighting an area of STEM education – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. I found all four of them when mom and I went shopping together. They were all very entertaining, and even though they’re very tiny hubby and I had a lot of fun with them. 🙂
These are the first jigsaw puzzles I’ve done from this brand, although I did review a set of their brain teaser puzzles last year. I was very impressed with the quality of this puzzle! It has been my experience that it’s difficult to get good quality with such small pieces, but Professor Puzzle seems to have worked it out. The pieces are a very good thickness, and fit together well. There is no variety in piece shape, but with only 150 pieces to work with it didn’t bother me much at all. The image reproduction is good, with sharp lines and a matte finish.
As you can see, I wasn’t kidding about the very, very small pieces. I laid them all out on a paper-lined cookie sheet and put it in the master bathroom. Hubby enjoys having something constructive to do, and he gets very involved in the puzzles when I leave them for him to work on. (He got so involved with this one he said he sat there until his leg fell asleep! 😉 )
Each puzzle comes in it’s own test tube, with a small poster that also serves as a label on one side, with an engineering quiz on the back…
We found them at Barnes & Noble, and I have to say they were great fun! Hubby enjoyed every one, and was a little bummed when we finished the last of the four. If you’re looking for a challenge, just like the look of them, or if the small pieces intrigue you – I highly recommend any of these puzzles. 👍
Stay tuned for the remaining 3 – they were all entertaining but Mathematics was my favorite; hubby preferred this one, Engineering.
Islands of Life by APAK – Artifact Puzzles – 165 pieces
I bought this puzzle for mom for Mother’s Day – I hope she forgives me, cause this one was a bear!
We finally got around to assembling this one on the 4th of July. Mom and I did most of the puzzle, but my daughter helped here and there. It was quite difficult, especially that border, holy smokes! It isn’t as dark as it looks in the picture, it’s actually quite greenish – dark green.
I got quite frustrated with it at times, it was the border that kept giving me fits; I kept trying to find the pieces that those tree root looking pieces fit into. There were only 165 pieces, but it was very challenging. I even apologized to Mom for giving it to her! Even though it was hard, I don’t really feel bad about giving it to her. Although it was frustrating and demanding, we had a good time working on the puzzle and working together again. The Puzzle Posse is back!
There were some interesting looking buildings on one of the floating islands in space, and I loved the scene of the strange little people having a picnic on the main island. Those were some of the easiest parts to assemble besides the big tall thing with a window. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a building or a plant of some kind; whatever it was, it was fun to put together – in a “test your puzzle abilities” kind of way.
You can also see in the smaller images above the wonderfully unique shapes of some of the pieces, they gave our gray cells quite a workout! Luckily, mom and I are pretty smart (at least we’re good at puzzles) and we got it done. 😁
Just like with Alice in Wonderland I forgot to take a picture of the whimsy pieces, although with this one there weren’t very many of them. Even so, I didn’t separate them out for a pre-assembly picture. Unfortunately the puzzle belongs to mom, so it isn’t here for me to go through and get a picture of the cool pieces. Sorry about that guys, I promise to do better.
Britain & Ireland by Mike Jupp – Gibsons (Jig-Map) – 150 pieces
This is the first kids puzzle I’ve purchased new; I don’t have an explanation why I wanted it so much, I just did. I love the idea of Mike Jupp’s artwork and humor added to a geography lesson in a high quality puzzle. I wasn’t disappointed!
This puzzle is a “Jig-Map” and has a “place name quiz”. There are 32 identically shaped pieces with the names of cities and towns in Britain and Ireland. Luckily you don’t have to know the geography to be able to complete the puzzle; the image behind each name will help you find it’s correct position. And as an added bonus it’s a lot of fun! Here are all the names…
Here are all the places to find…
The fun part was the different images by each name. The Beatles were next to Liverpool, there were sheep and a sweater in Cardigan, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck were in Nottingham, etc. What a great tool for teaching geography, it’s a lot of fun. 🙂
The quality was excellent with thick pieces, wonderfully crisp image reproduction, an excellent variety of shapes, and a very nice fit. I do love when a puzzle manufacturer puts effort into their children’s puzzles; kids need good quality puzzles that will stand up to being assembled many times and rougher than normal handling. Also, how cool is it that they got such a great image from such a great artist?
I looked up Jig-Maps, and they were a series of shaped geography puzzles that also had a place name quiz produced by Waddington’s in the 60’s. They were basically exactly the same as this Gibsons Jig Map, and a very cool idea in my opinion. I plan on donating this puzzle to my adopted grandson, I’m pretty sure he’ll love it as much as I did!
My Jigsaw Journal 