Feeling Puzzled – Ravensburger Wembley Dreams Jigsaw Puzzle Review

I have fond memories of doing jigsaw puzzles when I lived at my mum and dad’s home. My mum went through a big jigsaw phase and there was often a puzzle lying out on a table in the living room. Each member of the family would stop as they passed through and place a piece or two in the correct place, the ultimate goal being to place the final missing puzzle piece.

In recent years my puzzles have been more towards the 100 and 200 “Spiderman” or “Barbie” varieties. My daughter however has recently become a big fan of 3D puzzles like the Ravensburger Eiffel Tower 3D Puzzle which are great fun.

We were given the Ravensburger Wembley Dreams Puzzle (1000-Piece) to review. This 1000 piece puzzles harks back to the glory days of 1966 and features a group of young boys playing football in the park and dreaming of being at Wembley. I had high hopes of recreating my harmonious family puzzling days with it. Ha ha no way, I had forgotten how addictive jigsaw puzzles are and how OCD I am about them.

First of all, I picked out all the edges and corners (Oh ok I got my daughter to pick them out, but she loved it). Then I placed them together on and old camping table (excuse the grubby surface, I don’t do camping so it has lived unloved in the garage for a long time)

So I had announced to the family that this was a joint project. Until that is they tried to help, “stop” I cried “I’m not working on that bit yet.” Or “Nooo, those pieces are there for a reason.” It turns out I’m quite possessive of my jigsaws.

Seriously though I forgot how great fun and addictive they are. Last night when Mr B went to bed I claimed I was just about to join him, an hour and a half later I was still beavering away at the puzzle. This morning I stood poised to leave for work but unable to drag myself away from the jigsaw. I just made it to work on time after toying with the thought of phoning in sick with puzzling symptoms!

This evening I returned to the above stage and my daughter and I did eventually sit down together to finish the puzzle off. Was I a good mother and let her place the last piece in? Of course not, it’s MY puzzle!

This was great fun, really addictive and also relaxing. You totally shut off to everything else when you are focused on finding that last piece of roof or the dog’s tail. The difference I noticed with this from other puzzles is that the pieces are cut really well, so you know for sure when you have something in the right place or not. It also had just the right mix of bright and obvious pieces along side those annoying sky or grass sections, so it was a challenge but not so much that it makes you want top tip the whole lot of the table.

Good quality, well printed, with a lovely theme and great fun, maybe next time I’ll even let the family join in, maybe.