3D picture puzzles can be a pain in the neck !

A few weeks back I saw a 3D picture puzzle that my nephew had. Having seen such a 3D puzzle for the first time I was hooked ! I borrowed it from him and last week finally started putting it together. 

The puzzle is quite interesting and challenging and my family ended up playing with it whenever they could. They spending as much time as they did is a surprise in itself :)

Vital stats 

Pieces : 500

Time taken to complete : 4-5 days

Puzzle picture : 3D

At the start I thought we would have to look at the picture very closely to put the pieces together. I sorted the pieces with obvious colour differences.  However, as we worked on the puzzle edge, we realised that the pieces had so many colors and shades which couldn't be seen at a first glance. I actually ended up looking at the pieces from various angles before I could decide where a piece might fit. 

Due to lesser pieces in green trees and yellow of the Tiger's face, the picture started appearing quite quickly. For the rest, I had to sort the pieces by shape. Once that was done, we could complete the rest in just 2 days.

This 3D Tiger puzzle taught me that the 3D puzzles can be a pain in the neck 🐯!!

If anyone interested, Amazon has a few such 3D picture puzzles from National Geographic.

Despite the challenges of 3D picture and different color shades that you can see depending on the angle you look from, this is still the fastest puzzle we have put together so far.

A few more puzzles

A few puzzles, full of colours and shades, making them quite interesting and challenging. 

Finally the Tigers came in the picture

Till early 2012 it was already more than 6 months to since I started. I was the only one solving it. But I should acknowledge the contribution from friends in solving couple of pieces and more importantly, not dismantling the pieces I had put together :)  And finally the entire picture of handsome tigers lazing around, on the background of a serene landscape was completed.

Puzzle Vital Stats

Pieces : 1000

Latest puzzles

This year in July, one of my aunts was going to come in India from USA. Harshad searched for a nice puzzle with a scene of a beach, coconut trees, brilliant blue sea and asked my aunt to get it for us.. 

Because I got married last year and not living with my parents anymore :( I could not go at home to play with puzzle very often. Somehow Harshad and my father became very busy and only my mother had some time to play with it. After a month or so, I started going at home frequently and together we progressed much more than before. In few more days, my father, Harshad and Parth joined us.

 

Moving to bigger puzzles :)

When we moved in our new house in August 2002, we wanted to do another big puzzle soon. It had been few years since our 1st puzzle. In that Diwali, my mother and Harshad had gone for some diwali gift shopping in ‘Khelia’. This shop was our favourite cause it always provided some brain storming games for all age groups rather than only dolls and such toys. The shop had some puzzles but they didnt keep any bigger puzzles due to less demand. Then they had gone to ‘Popular Book House’ for further shopping. The Popular had a catalogue of puzzle pictures, from which any picture could be ordered. My mom and Harshad found this picture of a gorgeous alsatian dog sitting on a lawn. They liked it and bought it immediately.

My First Puzzles...

I dont really remember when I did my first jigsaw puzzle. I only remember the puzzle I had. It was my favourite.  It had a picture of 2 cats sitting on a pile of wool, looking forward to play with the balls of wool. It had 63 pieces in all. I guess I was 5-6 at that time and we did not use to get such big puzzles for kids, in India. One of my grandmothers had bought it for me from USA.

Around the same time I had another puzzle which had a picture of a hot air balloon with 2 bunnies in it. A few other animals, gathered below near a house to see off those 2 bunnies. This had 60 pieces. This puzzle had many colors in it, so I guess it may have been a challange for me at that time..