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challenging puzzle for "kids" of all ages
Santa Claus brought the Ravensburger basic 540 pc earth map globe puzzle to my then 10 yr old 4th grade my daughter Christmas 2008. My husband was more curious than she was, & eventually got it going. We have been married 20+ yrs. I have never seen him work a puzzle or do any hobby type things of this sort. He was totally entertained, & could not leave it alone. My...
Published 1 month ago by reader mother
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Fun, but some significant issues
Pros:
-The pieces are made of thick plastic and generally hold together quite well. Although there may be individual connections that seem looser, they are more than made up for by other connections that are quite tight (sometimes ridiculously so, requiring some force to put together), so that the entire ball holds together nicely. The completed ball is...
Published 2 months ago by Gabe W
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challenging puzzle for "kids" of all ages, July 17, 2010
Durability: Fun: Educational:
This review is from: Ravensburger Ancient World Map (Toy)
Santa Claus brought the Ravensburger basic 540 pc earth map globe puzzle to my then 10 yr old 4th grade my daughter Christmas 2008. My husband was more curious than she was, & eventually got it going. We have been married 20+ yrs. I have never seen him work a puzzle or do any hobby type things of this sort. He was totally entertained, & could not leave it alone. My daughter & I dabbled @ it now & then, mainly helping to sort pieces into categories. It takes a big surface to lay out pieces & sort them. There needs to be plenty of light. A magnifying glass is helpful. It is precarious, in that you can easily knock pcs out if you bump or handle it too much. The stand is flimsy, & the globe does not stay in place on it very well, however, you get used to being careful w/it. Once it was finished, it has stayed assembled & on display. My husband loved it so much that we gave him the 540 pc ancient globe in the last yr. He could not wait to get into it. I kept putting him off till my daughter was out of school & had more time to participate, & till a time when I could stand for him to tie up the dining room table for a while. He has done it in the last 2 wks while he has been on medical leave recovering from surgery. It has been just great to keep him from going crazy at home. I am now thinking he should try the 960 pc version! Children could definitely work this, but it is delicate tedious work, so they have to be types that don't mind such projects. Many would not have the patience or coordination. It is a great family/group activity.
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Fun, but some significant issues, June 22, 2010
Durability: Fun: Educational:
This review is from: Ravensburger Ancient World Map (Toy)
Pros:
-The pieces are made of thick plastic and generally hold together quite well. Although there may be individual connections that seem looser, they are more than made up for by other connections that are quite tight (sometimes ridiculously so, requiring some force to put together), so that the entire ball holds together nicely. The completed ball is quite firm and stable - after completing it, my wife and I tossed it to each other like a soccer ball. This is without the need for any kind of glue. In fact, we're novice jigsaw puzzlers and, after working on this puzzle on a lark, we're now working on a plain old 2D cardboard puzzle and really miss the firm fits between pieces that allowed you to pick up whole sections and move them around the table with ease.
-The included stand is of decent quality (it's metal and plastic) and works well - the globe spins on it just fine. However, you'll need to put a hand on the stand when spinning the globe to hold it down and stabilize it, since the stand is fairly light and isn't grippy on the bottom at all.
-It's fun and spacially challenging to build a spherical puzzle. You'll constantly have to be wrapping your mind around the sphere-ness of it to figure out where something goes.
Cons:
-As stated above, some of the pieces fit together very tightly and will require some force to put together. This may be natural considering what this puzzle is made out of, compared to the typical cardboard puzzle. But more importantly:
-The pieces of this puzzle are all stamped out individually, i.e. they are not made from a single globe that has been cut up. This is somewhat positive because 1) it allows for all of the pieces to be individually numbered on their backs (which they are), which lets you check connections to see if you have it right (sort of cheating), and 2) if there's any problem with any piece, you can contact the company and tell them precisely which one you're missing and they'll theoretically send you a replacement. In fact, one of our pieces arrived misshapen and I did just that. I heard back from the company (they wanted me to be more specific about which puzzle the piece was from), I responded, and haven't heard back from them again in the last few days.
However, it's far more a negative than a positive because it means that *the pictures on consecutive pieces do not line up particularly well.* This make assembling the puzzle more difficult (and occasionally makes checking the numbers on the backs of pieces practically required) and, given that the puzzle depicts some INCREDIBLY small illustrations and print, makes the finished product far less pleasant or else totally impossible to read/examine.
-The actual "map" portion of this globe is quite small - all told, it probably occupies only about a third of the surface of the globe - so, as a map of the world, this thing is nearly useless. The best it can do is broadly show where continents are in relation to each other, and even then the polar continents are missing entirely. The two "poles" of the globe are covered in just aesthetic illustrations, and so is a good third or half of the "mid-section" of the globe (the picture that you see on Amazon doesn't show that portion).
-Finally, due to the inherent difficulties of building a spherical puzzle, and especially because of the difficulty of fitting some pieces together, the final product will not be a perfectly smooth ball. E.g. sometimes you'll push a piece in a little too far but, because there's now no way to get your hand in there to push it back out again, you're just stuck. However, the final product is mostly smooth and certainly does look like a "globe".
Verdict:
Recommended because of the general fun of "puzzles" and particularly spherical ones, but not so much because the final product will likely displease you. If you're interested in this, I would strongly recommend looking at Ravensburger's "Earth" puzzleball instead, which should produce a far more useful/educational final product and won't have the problem of microscopic illustrations that don't even align properly. However, it looks like the pieces of those puzzles are stamped out individually as well, so some of the alignment problems may persist.
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description not correct poor quality, February 15, 2010
Durability: Fun: Educational:
This review is from: Ravensburger Ancient World Map (Toy)
puzzle pieces fall out do not fit snug enough to build the puzzle. quality poor not all pieces fit loose but enough to make you have to use glue or something to hold them in to finish it. cannot recommend. priced too high for the low quality.
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Not As Cool As You Might Think, January 31, 2010
Durability: Fun: Educational:
This review is from: Ravensburger Ancient World Map (Toy)
Since this is the Ancient World version, it's not that educational. I bought it more for the fun and display value. Anyway, the packaging is very misleading because the colors are really dull. Not something that you would want to display. They have a good idea but perhaps if they spent another $0.05 on ink, the puzzle would live up to your expectation
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