Volkswagen 3D Jigsaw Puzzle - Ravensburger

 

Ravensburger 3D VW Bus Jigsaw Puzzle

OK, I know that I recently made a general jigsaw puzzle page with a collection of my links and said that jigsaw puzzles wouldn't have their own, individual posts any more. But this plastic Volkswagen 3D jigsaw puzzle is just too cool not to be given a platform and discussed. 

Ravensburger, my favorite name in jigsaw puzzles, has many 3D puzzles with plastic pieces. I have several and they are all round. Never have I owned, or even seen, one shaped like a VW bus - until now. This puzzle has a chassis, rolling wheels, a hard top, and a luggage rack. Like I said, it's cool.

Looking into the box, before assembly.

There are 167 plastic pieces, colored on one side, white on the other. The pieces have tabs and blanks, just like typical jigsaw puzzles. Unlike typical puzzles, you will not be assembling the VW by the image on the colored side. The pieces are numbered from 1-167 on the back, white side. On each piece is also an arrow to tell you where to attach the next piece. You will be assembling the puzzle in number order. Let me drop in an image here so that you can better understand what I mean.

 

 

Piece number 37, bottom right, has an arrow pointing to the right. That tells you where to attach piece number 38 - on the right. Piece number 38 has an arrow pointing up. That is where you will attach piece number 39 - above number 38. It's a fairly simple process. The pieces snap together tightly enough.

To build it, I called on my husband. He likes to build and assemble things and is very good at it, as I have mentioned in several past posts. While I like assembling jigsaw puzzles, I knew this would be different. My husband noted that building it was easy, but holding the pieces together while you are building is a little tricky at times. There are four rounded corners and these are the places that it was most likely to break apart, and where he had to re-snap multiple times. This is definitely a two-handed activity with lots of hand skills involved, and not for beginners or those who frustrate easily. A typical assembly time might be 1-2 hours.

I took a picture after we were done, but this professional picture is better.

My husband suggested gluing it after he was done. I didn't because I am going to donate it to a non-profit for kids. But it would look nice on a kid's dresser or shelf.

This is the puzzle ball I used occasionally in therapy - Farm Puzzleball. I like it because it has a half-dome round frame to stabilize the puzzle on as you are building it. 

Try this:

• Sort the pieces before you begin, to cut down on time. Since the pieces are all white, there will be nothing to help you identify quickly each piece as you need it. I sorted while my husband assembled. I sorted 1-100 first, putting them into piles by 10s. Then I did the same for the numbers above 100.
• Pinch each piece as you put it into place, to flatten it with the rest.
• Try putting several pieces together and then attaching that bigger piece to the model, if holding it while adding one pieces at a time is more difficult.
• Work on sequencing numbers, spatial relations, in-hand manipulation, pinch, coordinating the use of two hands, grading pressure, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation, maybe problem solving and frustration tolerance.
  

In the box: 167 pieces plus wheels, chassis, luggage rack, surf board