Review: “Statue of Liberty 3D”, Ravensburger -8/10

Publisher: Ravensburger (Germany), 2016

Title: “Statue of Liberty” 108 pieces

Final height: 14.75″ (37.5 cm)

Review by Jane

OUR RATING: 8/10

Introduction

I decided to review something a little different for the blog. This is a 3D puzzle, which we haven’t featured before, and it also has a lower piece count than I normally review (108 pieces). This product was sent to me by Ravensburger. I’ve been wanting to try a 3D puzzle, so I gave it a whirl.

Box Quality: (8/10)
This box is smaller and a bit deeper than the rectangular Ravensburger puzzle boxes. It’s sturdy and nicely designed. I like the close-up details on the front.

Back:

The back of the box is specific to this puzzle and has a blurb in various languages. It says: “Simply unique! Experience the unqiue combination of puzzling and construction, to create an impressive model of the Statue of Liberty. Use the Easyclick technology to piece and slot together the innovative plastic puzzle pieces to provide excellent stability – no glue required! Contents: 108 Numbered Puzzle Pieces + Statue + 3 Constructions Parts + Illustrated Instructions.”

The sides:

The sides show the Ravensburger logo, the finished 3D puzze, the piece count and the name of the image. The year of release is not shown.

Inside the box:

A whole bunch of stuff comes in the box. There’s a statue of liberty piece which is nearly complete (just the back of her head comes separately and you stick it in place–not sure why that is). There’s a bag of plastic puzzle pieces, the base piece, the beige statue ‘stand’, 2 plastic frame type things that go over the statue at the end, a small baggie of clips, and the instructions.

In sum, the box is good, but given the high price point, I would have liked to have seen a mini-catalog or even a single color sheet with more in their 3D line. Also. some information about the history of the statue of liberty would have been nice to give the product more educational value.

The Image: 8/10

In this portion of our reviews, I normally talk about how much I like the image–how appealing it is in the store and how much I like the final assembled result. In this case, we have the statue of liberty. It’s certainly an iconic world landmark, and probably a great item for kids to learn about. And this version from Ravensburger does a nice quality job of modeling the real statue. It’s shape, though, doesn’t lent itself much to a 3D puzzle, at least not at this piece count, so that’s a drawback. The body of the statue itself comes all in one piece. The end result is something you could display in a kid’s room and that’s a plus.

Above: The completed puzzle. Click for closer view.

Product Quality: 9/10

Ravensburger is one of our highest ranking brands for quality, so I expected good things with this puzzle. I wasn’t disappointed. All the small puzzle pieces are of good quality. The pieces are plastic, so they are very sturdy. That’s good because some of them actually bend. The small statue of liberty is also of decent quality.

Above: The ‘bendable’ side pieces. Click for a closer view.

Assembly: 7/10

For this review, I’m going to talk more about the assembly process, since it’s quite different from your average jigsaw puzzle. The part that you actually assemble is the base of the statue.

I dumped out the 108 pieces, turned them up, and started assembling the way I normally would a jigsaw puzzle. I ignored the instruction sheet thinking ‘how hard can it be’? I had about half the base put together when I noticed that the inside had numbers on the pieces, and the way I’d put them together, the numbers weren’t sequential. I had piece 100 next to piece 32 etc. So I took it all apart and started again.

So the thing that’s an interesting choice in manufacturing is this: The four sides of the statue base look pretty much alike. And you can place pieces together that look absolutely like they fit, on multiple sides. But aha–apparently they do not fit. Or rather, they’re not right. What you actually need to do is turn the pieces over to the white side and assemble based on the numbers. As you can see in the close up below, each piece has a number and an arrow on the back. The arrow shows in which direction the next consecutively numbered piece will attach.

Realizing this, as I said, I started over, this time paying attention only to the white side and attaching piece 1 to piece 2, etc. I’d check the front side on occasion but, yes, it looked correct. So, oddly, you are actually putting the white numbered pieces together, NOT the side with the image. Finally, when you are done with the base, the inside looks like this.

Now I personally found this process rather fun and different. It wasn’t hard– pretty straight forward really. But it felt a little like a cross between a jigsaw puzzle and something like ‘connect the dots’. It didn’t take me very long. It takes 1-2 hours to assemble the base at most.

Once you have assembled the base, it’s time to put the statue together. Here’s the bottom ‘platform’. You insert 4 small plastic clips that help hold the base in place.

Place the back of the head on the statue, and the tan base on the bottom of the statue. There are two plastic ‘balcony’ type pieces that go over the jigsaw base. You place them below the little ‘people’ who are outside on the base. The entire thing goes on the bottom platform. And that’s it.

I’ve rated the “Assembly” portion of the review a 7/10 because, although assembly was fun, there just wasn’t enough of it to suit me. For adults who are used to assembling 500+ piece puzzles, assembly is quite easy for the price point of this product. However, the age range on the box is 10-99 years old, and I think it’s no doubt best suited a younger demographic, perhaps even 8-15.

Final Photos

Conclusion

This 3D puzzle from Ravensburger has educational value, fast and easy construction with only 108 pieces, plus you get a statue of liberty to display in the end. The quality of the box, pieces, and final product is good. It would make a nice gift for kids in the 8-15 age group. It’s not ideal for seniors looking for larger piece puzzles, since the pieces are slightly smaller than normal Ravensburger puzzle pieces. If you’re used to 500+ puzzles, this may feel too short to you.