Review: “And To All A Good Night” by Dan Morris Designs, Springbok – 9/10

Publisher: Springbok (US), published date 2016

Title: “And To All A Good Night” by Dan Morris Designs, 400 pieces

Finished size: 20.5″ x 27″

OUR RATING: 9/10

Family Puzzle

I really loved this image when it was introduced last fall. I love Christmas puzzles and liked the advent calendar numbers at top and bottom and the folk scene in the center. I was a little disappointed it wasn’t in 1000 pieces. But this size is nice for a single evening, especially in the hot summer, when you’re in need of a little winter breeze. Plus, I haven’t done a puzzle like this before–a family puzzle.

Family puzzles have a mix of very large to normal adult-sized pieces. They’re designed so that people of varying ages and abilities can work on it together. I was curious to check it out. So how was it?

Box Quality: (7/10)

The Springbok box is square and fairly large (photo above). The box is quite sturdy and the front is nicely designed. The front does not show the name of the puzzle or of the artist, which is unfortunate. The artist’s name is only shown in fine print in a copyright notice on the side. The “family puzzle” concept is featured on the bottom right of the lid.

Sides:

Three of the sides feature a small image of the puzzle, puzzle name, piece count, finished size, and Springbok logo. The fourth side has a bar code and legal warnings. The year of manufacture is given in a copyright notice on one side (near the bar code), as is the artist’s name.

Back:

The back of the box has a generic Springbok family puzzle design.

Inside:

Nothing comes inside the box except the bag of puzzle pieces and a small paper slip with the product warranty. There was a small amount of puzzle dust in the bag. The pieces were fully separated and undamaged.

The final box score is 7.

The Image: (10/10)

As I mentioned above, I loved this image on first sight. The various patterned advent numbers at the top and bottom create a collage-like effect, giving the puzzler separate areas to piece together. And I like folk art paintings, so I liked the flat, Wysocki-like village scene in the middle. The street area with the various snow people and sleds, etc, is a nice little “busy” area. The sky is monochrome, but it isn’t that large and is broken up by the moon and Santa’s sleigh. The colors are bright, there are no dark or random pattern areas. Plus, it’s Christmas!

I’ve given this image a full 10 score.

(Click on any of the images in this review for a closer look.)

Puzzle Quality: (10/10)

Springbok did well in our brand comparison. You can see our full brand comparison on Springbok here.

First of all, Springbok has a random piece cut, as you can see in the close-up above. I prefer random cut to a grid or ribbon cut puzzle like Ravensburger because it’s less likely for a piece to appear to fit where it doesn’t go. Also, the variety in shapes is simply fun and interesting. One of the most notable things about Springbok is their tight fit. I mean, it’s really, really tight! It’s the tightest fitting puzzle I’ve ever seen on the market. When assembling, you sometimes have to push the piece in quite firmly–I even find myself using my nails at times to press an edge into place to get a flat finish. When you are done, you can lift it without glue.

I, myself, really like this tight fit, especially when compared to brands with a loose fit, where just jarring the puzzle can make pieces come apart. However, I have seen some people complain that they can’t tell if a piece really fits because the tightness makes them think it doesn’t. I don’t have this problem, but just a head’s up.

Besides the tight fit, the pieces are quite sturdy and there were no frayed edges or bent knobs, etc.

Another quality issue about this family puzzle is the various sized pieces. The outter edge of the puzzle has very large pieces, like a children’s puzzle, and the center is much smaller, more normal adult-sized pieces. You can see this clearly in my sorting tray.

Yes, this is a great idea for families. The kids can work on the large-piece sections of the puzzle and the adults on the center. However, as just a single adult person working the puzzle, I liked it too. It just made a nice change and added a lot of variety into one puzzle. Sort of an uber, uber random cut! I thought it was fun and different. The various sizes were well designed and executed.

The image reproduction and colors are excellent. The folk-art style had a lot of fine detail.

Overall, I’ve given quality a perfect 10 score.

Assembly: (9/10)

This is an easy puzzle that took one evening to complete.

DAY ONE (and only):

As usual, I assembled the puzzle border first. The border is made up of the very large pieces, and with the advent numbers all having different patterns, it’s super easy to put it together.

After the border, I assembled all the rest of the pieces that fit into the advent-number-border plus the dark blue sky. These areas also had large pieces.

The remainder of the puzzle is the central area, which has lots of detail in similar colors. The row of buildings is easy to distinguish thanks to the windows and the horizontal house boards, but many of the colors are used in more than one building. The signs at the bottom of the building can be compared to the box lid for placement.

After the buildings, the last remaining area is the “snowy street” scene with various pedestrians and wagons, and the train at the bottom of the puzzle. This was fun to put together because it was nice to look at each little character and animal. If in doubt, you can always look at the box lid for placement.

Overall, I’ve given assembly a full 10 score. The wide variety of both random cut pieces, and the large and small pieces, kept the puzzle interesting all the way through. I loved the advent letters as separate little “mini puzzles”, and the variety within the central image–building textures, signs, characters, and the train–made everything easy and fun to discover.

Summary:

“And To All A Good Night” is an easy and super fun puzzle to assemble. This “family puzzle” has a mix of very large to normal-sized pieces and is good for a family with different ages and abilities as a joint project. But as an adult puzzler, I too liked the variety and interest the mix of piece sizes added. I did this puzzle in one evening and found it very satisfying. The image is perfect for puzzling. The advent numbers at the top and bottom can be assembles as litlte “mini puzzles” and the central part of the image has lots of details to discover. I particularly liked the small snowmen and Christmasy characters in the street portion. The Springbok quality is very good with thick, sturdy pieces and a tight fit. The fit is so snug you can pick this puzzle up when done and it will hold together without any glue! Recommended.