2000 piece puzzle, "Waterlillies, 1917-19" by Claude Monet, Pintoo, China.
This is my first time trying the Taiwan-based brand Pintoo, which makes puzzles out of plastic. This puzzle was a limited-edition that I only saw available at Planet Puzzles about a year ago (they also had Monet's "Nympheas" in the same size).
I'm finding it an interesting change of pace but I'm not sure that I like this material all that much. The pieces fit very tightly: you really need to force them to snap into place, and I wonder how easy these puzzles would be to take apart. Maybe Pintoo assumes that everyone will want to display their finished puzzle as art after completion.
And this is what the white border is all about: the border pieces are all identical and fit anywhere (well, two types which alternate every other place). If you wanted to you could link this puzzle with another 2000 piece puzzle, or two horizontal 1000s, I suppose. Pintoo makes calendar puzzles where all 12 months could be combined. This feature doesn't really interest me at all.
The flaw I'm finding in the material is that although it's quite rigid, it's still thin enough that the pieces can be bent quite easily. They do seem to bend back, but I'd imagine that disassembling this puzzle would leave many pieces not sitting flat.
The image is printed directly onto the plastic, there is no paper face. The quality of the image is very good, and the pieces have a slight texture to them that helps deflect light. The sheen level of the pieces is low to moderate.
The puzzle size is similar to Epoch's small size 2016 piece series, so the pieces are smaller than average. But the cut is not nearly as neat as Epoch's, so the puzzle cut is only of average difficulty, I'd say (although this Monet is a pretty tough image).
I noticed when doing the inner edge (the partially white pieces) that the puzzle has a repeating pattern with two identical 1000 piece sections. This was also a little disappointing since I'm not sure their manufacturing process has the same limitations as cardboard puzzles. I can't figure out if they are using a press or a mold to form the pieces. I opened the box a while ago but I'm pretty sure there were two separate bags and then another small bag with the white pieces.
It's also worth mentioning that the all-white border pieces are in addition to a total of 2000 inner pieces, which run 40 x 50.
Pintoo is now making plastic puzzles in the 4000 piece size, and even offers custom puzzles on its web site up to 9000 pieces (which run about $400 apiece). Indeed, their puzzles are at least twice as expensive as a cardboard of similar size (the 2000 series retail at $55), another reason I won't be going out of my way to collect this brand.
This is at the 5 hr. mark, with no box reference.
2000 piece puzzle, "Waterlillies, 1917-19" by Claude Monet, Pintoo, China.
This is my first time trying the Taiwan-based brand Pintoo, which makes puzzles out of plastic. This puzzle was a limited-edition that I only saw available at Planet Puzzles about a year ago (they also had Monet's "Nympheas" in the same size).
I'm finding it an interesting change of pace but I'm not sure that I like this material all that much. The pieces fit very tightly: you really need to force them to snap into place, and I wonder how easy these puzzles would be to take apart. Maybe Pintoo assumes that everyone will want to display their finished puzzle as art after completion.
And this is what the white border is all about: the border pieces are all identical and fit anywhere (well, two types which alternate every other place). If you wanted to you could link this puzzle with another 2000 piece puzzle, or two horizontal 1000s, I suppose. Pintoo makes calendar puzzles where all 12 months could be combined. This feature doesn't really interest me at all.
The flaw I'm finding in the material is that although it's quite rigid, it's still thin enough that the pieces can be bent quite easily. They do seem to bend back, but I'd imagine that disassembling this puzzle would leave many pieces not sitting flat.
The image is printed directly onto the plastic, there is no paper face. The quality of the image is very good, and the pieces have a slight texture to them that helps deflect light. The sheen level of the pieces is low to moderate.
The puzzle size is similar to Epoch's small size 2016 piece series, so the pieces are smaller than average. But the cut is not nearly as neat as Epoch's, so the puzzle cut is only of average difficulty, I'd say (although this Monet is a pretty tough image).
I noticed when doing the inner edge (the partially white pieces) that the puzzle has a repeating pattern with two identical 1000 piece sections. This was also a little disappointing since I'm not sure their manufacturing process has the same limitations as cardboard puzzles. I can't figure out if they are using a press or a mold to form the pieces. I opened the box a while ago but I'm pretty sure there were two separate bags and then another small bag with the white pieces.
It's also worth mentioning that the all-white border pieces are in addition to a total of 2000 inner pieces, which run 40 x 50.
Pintoo is now making plastic puzzles in the 4000 piece size, and even offers custom puzzles on its web site up to 9000 pieces (which run about $400 apiece). Indeed, their puzzles are at least twice as expensive as a cardboard of similar size (the 2000 series retail at $55), another reason I won't be going out of my way to collect this brand.
This is at the 5 hr. mark, with no box reference.