Review: “Grandpa’s Potting Shed” by Steve Read, Buffalo Games – 9.5/10
Publisher: BuffaloGanes (US), published 2015
Title: “Grandpa’s Potting Shed” by Steve Read Buffalo Games, 2000 pieces
OUR RATING: 9.5/10
I just completed this 2000 piece puzzle a few days ago, and I loved it!
Box Quality: (9/10)
The Buffalo Games box is a smaller square shape, which saves room on the shelf. The front is shown above. The back of the box has a generic Buffalo Games back.
The sides have a photo of the puzzle, the name, piece count, and manufacturer. The only place the artist is mentioned is in small print in a copyright notice on one side. It would have been nice to have had Steve Read’s name featured on the cover and side.
Inside:
The inside of the contains the bag of puzzle pieces (NOT in a bag, but loose) as well as a full-color poster. Props to Buffalo Games for including a poster to work with! The poster is shown in the photo below. The back is blank white.
The Image: 10/10
I can’t express how much I love this image. I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to put it together. I love the bright colors, all the details of the products on the shelves and table, the way the view out the window forms a little puzzle-within-a-puzzle, and the close-up point of view of the worktable. It’s a very homey, appealing scene and the high level of detail is ideal for a jigsaw puzzle. So many things to discover as you put it toghter!
I also love that it is available in 2000 pieces. It takes a nice, long time to complete. It really feels like a project. And it is LARGE when it’s done.
(Click on any of the images in this review for a closer look.)
Puzzle Quality: (9/10)
You can see my brand page for Buffalo Games here. This puzzle is very recent and I found the quality quite good. The pieces feel thick and sturdy, there was no puzzle dust or damaged or lost pieces, and the image reproduction was wonderful. The pieces are cut in a grid, but there is a lot of variety in pieces shapes, as you can see in the close-up below. I never had any issue with pieces seeming to fit where they did not. The fit is not too loose, but you do have to use care when moving assembled pieces because they fall apart fairly easily.
Assembly: (10/10)
This is a medium difficulty puzzle due to its larger size of 2000 pieces. It’s one of the most fun puzzles to assemble that I’ve done in a long time. There are lots of nice bright color areas in the puzzle, such as the red and pink flowers on the worktable, the aqua table, the various cans and tools on the shelves, the purple flowers on the right, the lettering on the crate, etc. The kittens, too, each have a unique color. And the view out the window is also totally different in color/pattern from the ‘inside’ pieces. I really just sort of powered through it–there were so many fun little things to put together like the photograph and troll doll in the image below. Just great! There is a new 2000 piece puzzle that is similar (“Grandma’s Craft Shed”) and I plan to order that one too.
The Finished Puzzle:
Below is a photo of the finished puzzle in my temporary mount system with the box in front for size reference. I like the large size!
Conclusion:
This is one of the best puzzles I’ve done in a long time! I high recommend it for anyone who likes larger puzzles. This definitely makes me want to work more Buffalo Games puzzles. NOTE: Ravensburger has just released this same image in 1000 pieces in case you prefer a smaller size.
JJ
