Bizarre Town a Ravensburger puzzle – Review

Bizarre Town is a new 5,000 piece Colin Thompson illustration puzzle from Ravensburger, and certainly proved a challenge. One that I bizarrely enjoyed! I love jigsaws, but have only recently found the time and space to take it up again. I loved the Ludicrous Library by Colin Thompson puzzle that I completed recently, so the chance to do my first ever 5,000 piece puzzle was too good to miss.

Ok so next, you will need a big space to complete the Bizarre Town puzzle as it measures 153cm x 101cm, you will also need time, as it is supposed to take an average of a month to complete. I measured my table and thought I would have lots of room, but to start with it was a big problem storing the loose pieces, as I somehow I didn’t realise just how big this puzzle was going to be.

Starting by sorting the edges, and this itself took some time, I think about 2/3 hours in total. While I went through the bag I decided I might as well pull out some of the bolder colours and sort as I went. Trays were the only thing I could think of to store all the pieces, with a combination of 5 needed including the box and lid.

I have to say that the illustration from Colin Thompson is amazing and the detail in the picture was enough to keep me hooked for hours. Its hard to believe that this artist is colour-blind, as the detail and colours are fantastic. I was determined to reclaim my dinner table before the boy went back to school, so powered on through the night. The boy and Dad did a little bit, but seeing the size and amount of pieces I think put them off a little. The Bizarre Town puzzle is as it name suggests “Bizarre” but the tiny details which you can’t see clearly on the box lid are enough to make this puzzle fun to complete. I think it took about 20 hours to complete the puzzle, and somehow I squeezed this into just over a week. The illustrations have some cute hidden characters, and household items inc Lego! With different areas of the puzzle picture almost making up smaller puzzles. Having these smaller chunks to tackle kept the puzzle interesting, and the colours helped separate the areas.

Bizarre Town by Colin Thompson will be available shortly from Amazon and other Ravensburger retailers for RRP £49.99, and if big puzzles are your thing then this should be added as a must! It was great fun, and not too hard to complete or lose interest in. The boy says I should have a 5,000 piece puzzle medal, which would be fun, and for now I think I might stick to puzzles that don’t take up the whole dinner table!

If you would like the challenge of a smaller 1,000 Ravensburger puzzle then why not look at the Jigsaw Puzzle Factory, completed by Mary at Over40 and a Mum to One.

Disclaimer, I was sent this puzzle for the purpose of review the opinions remain my own and have not been altered.