Review: Rainbow Bricks jigsaw puzzle
Posted by Huw,
Jigsaws were a popular pastime during last year's lockdowns so the release of Chronicle Books' first LEGO-themed 1000-piece puzzles during the summer was very timely.
The company has now produced five such puzzles, the latest being Rainbow Bricks, which depicts a colourful collage of LEGO pieces.
My wife is a keen jigsaw puzzler, so I set her to work on this one...
The relatively small box contains the pieces in a reusable zip-lock bag and a sheet showing the design of the puzzle, which comes in handy if more than one person is working on it at once.
I believe it's traditional to construct the edge first and sort the pieces somehow before embarking in the interior. In this case it's fairly easy to do so by colour.
It's manufactured from 2mm card stock which is the same as that used in most other puzzles we have. Many reviewers on Amazon have complained about the quality of the pieces in Chronicle's puzzles and, while they might not be up there with the likes of Ravensburger, they are perfectly acceptable. In this one they were all cut cleanly and none were bent.
The overall size is 63x50cm (3150 sq. cm) which is smaller than most of the 1000-piece puzzles in our collection, which average about 3330 sq. cm, so the pieces are slightly smaller as a result.
Due to the way in which the parts can be pre-sorted by colour it was relatively easy to complete, and took my wife less time than is usually a case for a puzzle of this size.
Jigsaw puzzles provide a pleasant way to pass the time and if you're looking for something constructive to do that doesn't involve actual LEGO pieces, these are ideal.
This particular one costs £13.42 at Amazon.co.uk and $17.95 at Amazon.com which seems on a par with other 1000-piece puzzles. Those released last year are slightly cheaper.
Thanks to Chronicle for sending the puzzle for review and my wife for doing it. All opinions expressed are my own.
91 likes
30 comments on this article
And for a moment there I thought it might be a new set akin to the Mosaic sets ;-)
This looks quite good and will be a lot easier to frame.
Interesting. I guess reproducing the pattern with real bricks would add another layer of fun to the puzzle... alas, with lockdown, there is plenty of time to kill anyways...
I really like the idea of this as a display piece due to the variations of colours and shades shown and am guessing others are also pondering constructing this of 4x2 plates in the respective colours shown... Most shades appear to be relatively easy to get hold of on Bricklink - just a thought...
@jsosse said:
"Interesting. I guess reproducing the pattern with real bricks would add another layer of fun to the puzzle... alas, with lockdown, there is plenty of time to kill anyways..."
Looks to be 38x48 studs by my count, so would handily fit on a large base plate. That would be a great double activity. Might have to look at this as an addition to the building activities I do with my daughter.
Cardboard, yes, but it does have an impressive price-per-piece. Sadly, no alternate build instructions.
My fiancée and I did the Paint Party one last year, which is quite challenging. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and didn't have any concerns about the quality either.
We tried to do the one with the minifigure heads, but it was more challenging than I thought. After a long night we barely had the edge completed, so we will save it for another time.
This one looks more doable for the casual puzzler!
^ Yes that one does look to be the most challenging! We have the minifigures and ice cream dreams but not that one yet.
Thanks for the review. There is something therapeutic about doing a jigsaw puzzle, in a similar way to building a LEGO set. I'm not that keen on this pattern, but I have seen one that is just yellow mini-figure heads that we'd like to try.
I've done the Paint Party one, and have this one, Ice Cream Dreams & Minifigures still to do. Perfect for the lockdown days where I couldn't decide between Lego and jigsaws. I chickened out of buying the minifigure heads....
The Minifigure Head puzzle took much longer than I'd expected. I don't know if I would recommend it, but we had a great bit of fun with the Minifigure puzzle. I would identify the minifigure ("That's the Mummy's arm") and the kids would look for its placement.
My friend has the mini-figure head puzzle and he said it took their family forever to put together. Said it was the hardest puzzle he's ever done in his life.
We completed Ice Cream Dream this week. It was a fun puzzle. We did each color individually, and I sorted the pieces like those I get in bulk to get us ready. Almost like real bricks.
I got the minifig head one for Christmas and it did end up dominating the table for a good while there, certainly one of the trickiest puzzles I’ve done, surprisingly so in some places.
Saw this on Amazon last week! Thanks for the review.
Honestly surprised w/ the number of printed pieces....and no stickers!
I ended up gettin the first 4 (Minifigs, minifig heads, paint buckets, ice cream) at Target for $9.99 each, which I thought was great, but then last weekend saw the first four in two packs for $13 at Sam's Club. I'll definitely get this one, but I'll wait for a deal over the $18 at Amazon.
The only one I've built so far was the minifigure one...it was really fun and high quality.
I really enjoyed this jigsaw - it was well worth the money. The shadows on the studs help you orientate each piece, but even then it is surprisingly tricky as the colours repeat often to make up this colourful work of art.
I'd think the minifigure head puzzle will be the hardest by far. All the others seem pretty easy to me. Then again, sometimes having one that's a little easier can't hurt.
I too purchased the first 4, but have only done the ice cream one & it was a fun yet challenging enough puzzle. It kind of reminded me of building a LEGO set, I used various puzzle building techniques to complete it. Sorting by colors, some done by eyeing pieces, sometimes needed to follow the picture for proper piece placement, I actually finished the border last. It is a high quality for a thinner puzzle, not as beefy as Springbok or Ravensburger but yet nice pieces overall.
I was hoping it would actually be made of bricks...
Could be misleading as there's no image or mention of jigsaw puzzle on the front cover, a '1000 piece puzzle' could refer to lining up 1000 2x2 actual bricks? Although there are only 494 actual 2x2 bricks shown, I don't think anyone will be counting as they rush through the toy shop. Doing the later with actual bricks would be quite fun, and you could always build a mosaic wall as well or use as spares!
I have all of these & this one was fun. I started on the left & made my way over, made the puzzle more exciting. I hope we get many, many more to come.
Get your wife the Faces one...that one was fun, but a hellish nightmare at the same time.
Thanks for the review! During Christmas 2020, I purchased the minifigure and minifigure faces puzzles. The minifigure one was a lot of fun to put together as a family and took a few hours. I did the minifigure faces alone and took 40+ hours to complete it. Probably the hardest puzzle I've ever done! By the end, I was getting a headache staring at the faces. Looking at my wife, I would pick out the individual features on her face (glasses yes, eyes like this, mouth like that, etc.)...
I should get this for my dad! He loves puzzles!
@BrickTeller said:
"Cardboard, yes, but it does have an impressive price-per-piece. Sadly, no alternate build instructions. "
Looks like it is hard to connect to other pieces...
I never saw these before but that puzzle of heads looks very impressive and challenging. The rest seem to be too color coded to the point of being too simple, although this rainbow design looks great. $18 seems a bit pricey, but I can see myself getting these if they are on sale.
I’ve actually been doing lots of Star Wars lately as they provide more doable and and relaxing sections in the people and ships, but then near impossible sections when you get to the stars.
The minifigure faces is really fiendish especially when you've pieced together all the faces and all you're left with is the gaps in between. So so satisfying when finished though :o)
@Henkdevries said:
"We tried to do the one with the minifigure heads, but it was more challenging than I thought."
I got the minifigure heads one for Christmas. Took me 14 days (a couple of hours each day as my brain couldn’t handle anymore!)
@Henkdevries said:
"We tried to do the one with the minifigure heads, but it was more challenging than I thought. After a long night we barely had the edge completed, so we will save it for another time.
This one looks more doable for the casual puzzler!"
The minifig head one was the 2nd most dificult puzzle i've ever done till i tried a 500 peice pizza puzzle from Aldi last month, that took 2 weeks and relegated the minifig head to 3rd