Review: “The Fishing Shed” by Tony Ryan, Gibsons – 9.25/10

Publisher: Gibsons (UK)

Title:  “The Fishing Shed” by Tony Ryan, Gibsons, 1000 pieces, 2016

Review by Jane

OUR RATING: 9.25/10

In celebration of Puzzle Warehouse adding Gibsons puzzles to their stock for the first time, this week our focus is on GIBSONS PUZZLES. Those who have followed my blog for awhile know that I really enjoy GIbsons puzzles, and I previous interviewed Kate Armitage, the founder’s great granddaughter. So I’m thrilled to see a good distributor for them in the US. I will definitely continue to cover Gibsons heavily on this blog.

GIBSONS SALE

Part of our celebration this week is a discount on all Gibsons puzzles at Puzzle Warehouse. So if you’ve never tried this AAA brand before, here is a good chance.  I’ll be reviewing two Gibsons puzzles this week and then doing a feature on Gibsons this weekend. Here’s the sale link.

Box Quality:  (10/10)
The Gibsons boxes are of excellent quality–thick and sturdy with a lovely design. You can see the front above. Most of their boxes (except for a few series like the Limited Edition Christmas puzzles) come in blue boxes. They make a very nice-looking collection on the shelf. On the front, they have the name of the puzzle and artist. The back is unique for each puzzle. As you can see below, they have a bio on the artist and a little blurb about this image. Click on the photo below for a resolution you can read.

Gibsons puzzles often come with extra stuff inside the box, like a mini catalog. However, “The Fishing Shed” comes with just the bag of puzzle pieces and a warranty sheet.

Sides:

The sides feature a pull-out of the puzzle image, the piece count, Gibsons logo, and the name of the puzzle and artist. I’m always happy to see a manufacturer feature the artist name prominently. To me, it’s like an author name–I know the artists I like and I tend to collect specific ones.

The Image: 9/10

This is a British nostalgia image showing a boy getting ready to go fishing with his grandfather. His grandmother brings them some refreshments before they leave. This is a painted image that looks like it was probably commissioned specifically to be a jigsaw puzzle. It has a nice blend of masculine and feminine elements. I’m very drawn to the bright colors, the softness of the light, and the “rural British life” aspects. All the unique fishing gear might be of interest to fishermen. I liked all the unique little objects in the scene because that added interest to the assembly process.

You can see the brushwork in the close-up below. This is no pieced-together digital image but a real painting. A lot of thought went into including plenty of color, pattern, and detail.

Puzzle Quality: 9/10

I love the feel of working a Gibsons puzzle. The pieces are very thick–even a bit thicker than Ravensburger, and they have a waxy feel to the touch which is very distinct. They are a grid-cut puzzle. You can see our full brand comparison for Gibsons here. I have deducted 1 point because they do have a lot of 2-knob, 2-hole pieces which are quite similar. This can cause pieces to look like they fit where they don’t actually go, and sometimes you can’t tell until you try to connect the 2cd or even 3rd side. However, it really isn’t a problem with “The Fishing Shed” because there aren’t large areas of a single color or pattern, like the sky, to worry about.

Assembly: 8/10
This puzzle is easy to assemble. I did the frame first and then the brightest colors–the pink on Grandma’s apron and the pillow, the red on the boy’s jacket, and the blue of grandad’s sweater.

The wooden elements such as the counter, hutch, and white wainscotting and windows, are straight forward to assemble and take up a nice chunk of the composition. The various wooden items have slightly different colors and textures, so it’s easy to tell what pieces go together. The tile floor is another decent sized area that is easy to assemble.

All the little doodads around the scene–on the shelves, hanging form the ceiling, on the floor–are put into place after the bones of the puzzle are there. These aren’t hard, but you may refer to the box lid now and then to see exactly where something goes.

The dog breaks up the tile floor and provides a little bit of white (and happiness!) in the scene.

Conclusion

Gibsons puzzles are a high-quality puzzle from the UK with beautiful blue boxes, very thick pieces, and a waxy matte finish. This British nostalgia puzzle shows a boy getting ready to go fishing with his grandfather. With it’s bright colors, soft light, appealing theme, and strong detail, you can see this is an original painting commissioned specifically to be a jigsaw. The assembly process is easy and fun. This is a puzzle that can appeal to men and women and would make a lovely gift for a grandfather or anyone who likes nostalgia scenes.

Where to find:

Here’s a link to the puzzle on PUZZLE WAREHOUSE.  This week you can get all Gibsons puzzles for 10% off with the code GIBSON10. This code is good through Sunday, Jun 5 2016.

JJ