Product Description

This 12 piece wooden jigsaw features bright, graphic designs and solid-wood pieces that easily interlock and fit into a convenient wood tray. A wonderful first jigsaw puzzle! 12 pieces. 11" by 8.5" Ages 3+

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6753 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Melissa & Doug
• Model: 2931
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .40" h x 8.90" w x 11.70" l, .88 pounds

Features

• 11.8 x 8.8 x 0.5

Customer Reviews

Good but flawed
For a child just learning to fit jigsaw pieces together, this puzzle is barely acceptable. They designed the puzzle to have a captivating image, the piece sizes are good, the interlocks are okay but not great (several times my child puts two pieces together successfully that are not meant to go together -- as a "first jigsaw puzzle" they should have been more careful to make the various interlocks more unique.)

The reason I really give it a lower rating is that they clearly never thought to examine how the puzzle's "cuts" interact with the image. In some places, the cut separates (nicely) the red car in two, so a child can use the colors on the pieces as a guide to how they match up. But that's not the case for so many of the cuts of the puzzle! Too many cuts just happen to fall between two different colored areas, or a cut will just barely "skim" one color or another (enough for the parent to notice, but not the child). So the result is unnecessary frustration, and depending on the nature of your child, it could mean a LOT of frustration. Didn't have to be. Now, I normally wouldn't make this argument for a jigsaw puzzle... but when you're designing an image intended for a first-learning jigsaw puzzle, it is disappointing that the designers made such errors. They never thought to create a prototype, look at where the cuts would be placed, and say to themselves "this cut here isn't good, let's re-draw this part of the image over so it's clearer to the child what's going on..."

After several months of play, I've seen no physical / manufacturing problems; a child takes it apart by literally trying to rip it, or throw it, and the pieces so far have withstood that twisting & pounding. The images have stayed on the pieces. Still, I'd try not to get it wet.

Overall, I'm actually disappointed. But, given what's out there, I think this is probably still about as good a "first true jigsaw puzzle" as one might expect to find.

HUGE hit with my busy little man!
Another great product from Melissa and Doug. This, and the similar Melissa & Doug Construction Wooden Chunky Puzzle, were my 21-month-old son's first jigsaw puzzles, and he loved them on sight! Because these puzzles are made of thick, sturdy wood, there are some not-completely-smooth edges. No biggie -- I gave them a little buffing with very fine sandpaper and they were fine.

He worked with the puzzle, with a little help from Mom & Dad, until he had literally memorized it and could put it together lightning-fast. Now, at 24 months, he enjoys putting his puzzles together wood-side-up, too, so we're really getting our money's worth with this thing.

One thing to note is that, after much love and enjoyment, the paper is starting to wear at the edges. And my son actually managed to tear some of it off one of the puzzles in a moment of toddler curiosity. However, contact cement pasted the paper back on and all is well again.

The recommended age is 3+, but I think kids much younger than that can enjoy starting to learn how to work jigsaw puzzles. The look of pride when they figure out how to put them together is priceless!

Melissa & Doug...need I say more?
These are great wood puzzles. To make them a little more user friendly, a light sanding around the edge helped the pieces flow into one another more seamlessly. Great quality however, and the best test is the kid test....it passed!