Customer Reviews

4D New York City Skyline Time Puzzle

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am certainly not into puzzles but this one takes the prize as the most fun and geographically interesting puzzle i've ever seen and put together; It does take a lot of effort to string together all pieces of the puzzle, specifically the bottom first layer and the final 120 buildings layer, but i imagine that's what puzzles are for. I became so engrossed with it towards the end of assembling the bottom layer that i ended up having a "puzzling" marathon session that lasted for 8 1/2 hours of non-stop, head-breaking matching pieces and final assemblage, almost an act of obsession !

The detail of the pieces, particularly on the tiny buildings, was rather surprising and amazing, considering their size and the price of the item.

One recommendation that i found very useful and not mentioned in the manual is to get a base (wood, plastic, etc) large enough to serve as the assembly base, as there are so many small pieces in this puzzle, so many buildings and assorted detailing, that you might as well have a base to display the end result permanently, or at least until the puzzle is fully put together and ready to be transferred to a more permanent location.

A few minor disappointments were the fact that the Metropolitan Museum building is not included in the puzzle (arguably the biggest tourist attraction in New York City and major historic building), the detailing on the bridges, compared to the detailing on all the 120 buildings, is non-exhisting, and the same can be said about the World Trade Center Twin Towers, which the manufacturer decided to include with the puzzle as well as having their own places on the final assembled puzzle, even though they don't exist any longer.

Overall, a highly recommended item; Just be prepared to become unwittingly obsessed with finalizing the puzzle and have some water or other liquid handily available, or like myself you might end up dehidrated in blissfull obsessiveness !

Terrific idea, great puzzle overall, marred only by a few details being totally off. Too bad they call 5th Ave "central Park East". They did away with the Hudson north of where it meets the Harlem River, and Central Park South is called 57th St (if at all, should be 59th). They should have looked at a map!

Although this puzzle has some design/manufacture weaknesses, I must say I really enjoyed it. It has 2 layers--the bottom layer shows major streets in Manhattan, with buildings outlined in their locations. The second layer is an overlay with cut-outs for the plastic buildings that are included. The problem is that the puzzle is printed on a foam backing, which makes each piece rather maleable and because most are cut in the same basic shape, most pieces will fit with any other piece. You have to be very conscious of the color shades and fine details of the picture in order to get it right. When I got the edges finished, I found that I had one side 28" long and the opposite side was 24" long. I don't think this is a puzzle for children or people with poor vision. The 126 plastic buildings/bridges each has a very tiny number on the bottom. You have to use a magnifying glass (one is included) to see the numbers, which correspond to the name of the building on a chart. Three or four of the buildings didn't have a number, but that was no problem--at the end you could see where each one fit. I wrote the number on each piece with a fine Sharpie, and then we sorted them by the date they were built (according to a chart that's included). We started placing the buildings chronologically, so that we could see the city grow. I wanted to improve my knowledge of NYC, and this puzzle was helpful. And it was really fun to do. This is a very creative and enjoyable puzzle that will help you learn about a great city.

We just finished the New York Puzzle - we stayed up until well past midnight the other nighe working on it.

My mother and I had a blast with it - she's never been to NYC and we never buy puzzles! We are going to take it apart and give it to my aunt and cousins to put together.

I bought a second puzzle of NYC as a Christmas gift for a friend and am going to order a puzzle of Chicago for myself.

What a great product ! ! ! If you like a bit of a challenge or like NYC, you won't be disappointed.

The glow-in-the-dark feature makes makes it possible to view the city as it might be at night with traffic on the streets. Maybe they should make parts of the buildings luminescent so it will look like they are lit up at night, also?

I hope they will make puzzles of San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Maybe Houston, and Dallas, also - or a larger map of NYC that includes parts of the boroughs?

Positives: Lots of pieces, challenging enough for an adult, and different from other puzzles. Also, the finished product looks really neat - you may not want to take it apart.

Opportunities: Some of the puzzle pieces are not uniquely die cut so you have to experiment a bit to ensure you have the right piece in some cases - but this just adds to the challenge in a positive way.

For anyone interested in architecture, this is an amazing display. The buildings are finely detailed massing models in correct proportion to each other, about 1:1000 scale.(except for the Statue of Liberty, which is much larger than scale) With over 100 buildings, the skyline of New York is well represented. I would have expected this sort of thing to be much more expensive than this- I worry that they won't be able to deliver on their other promised world cities (London, Paris, Hong Kong) at this price.

My only quibble is that I wish I could download a correctly proportioned map of Midtown and another for Lower Manhattan, to place the buildings in the right spots relative to each other. Overall, a good purchase: I wish I knew someone to give this to as a gift!

got this for our 10 year old daughter who loves jigsaw puzzles. very cool, good teaching tool as it presents new york skyline during various decades, including proposed freedom tower.

My son received this as a Christmas present and is just now getting around to putting the puzzle together. I agree with several other comments that the foam first and second layers are difficult to work with. Many of the pieces will fit with each other and unless you have spectacular vision errors can and will be made. When you get to the actual buildings, which is the most exciting part of the puzzle, more frustration will occur. On the bottom of each building is a very tiny number, so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to see it. Don't fret one is included but if you wear glasses, have a glare or any number of things, this tiny number will be very difficult to find. And no the number is not in the same place on each piece nor is it the same size.

This puzzle looks great completed but the sheer frustration to get there may not be worth it. I don't think we will be purchasing any more of these.

My family got this puzzle over the holiday as a gift. The teen ager and the 9 year old both loved working it together and my husband and I had to muscle our way into the fun. We live in Manhattan and it was great fun to see our city come together over the steps of history before our very eyes. It was quite poignant when we put the World Trade Towers in and then 10 minutes later took them out. The foam back is a bit funky to work with and the scale of the city is seriously squished to accomodate the design but we all loved putting it together and admiring our work. Can't wait for the next city to build.

My son really enjoyed doing the puzzle. It took the better part of the day, but it wasn't frustrating. The puzzle seemed well-made and he had no issues with the pieces. A big part of the entertainment was already being familiar with Manhattan and finding & placing the various building and structures.

I got this for my son and he loved it. He loves manhattan and this made him crazy. The puzzle was fun to put together and highly detailed. The glow in the dark streets were good too but how ever the buildings would not glow. Also the map of manhattan was messed up. But still recommended.