Over the past few months, I’ve started getting into doing jigsaw puzzles – not just with the kids but the more advanced 1000 piece ones for grown ups. The one I’m currently working on (with a bit of help from the kids as they like Star Wars!) is the Ravensburger Darth Vader Silhouette puzzle, with 1098 pieces.
We were sent the puzzle from Ravensburger and you can check out their grown up range of puzzles here on their website.
I chose this puzzle as the silhouette shaped edging makes it a bit different, and I thought I would try out a new challenge. I’m managing to do the 1000 piece puzzles fairly quickly now, and this has slightly more pieces at 1098 so I wanted to see how I would get on.
Actually, this puzzle is a lot more challenging than a typical 1000 piece rectangular puzzle! So it’s taking us longer than I had expected, but if you’re ready for a new challenge with puzzles and are really confident in putting them together, or maybe looking for a gift for someone who is a real puzzle fiend then it’s definitely worth a try!
As you can see, a lot of the colours used in the puzzle are similar shades too as you have big sections of space and sky to put together, as well as lots of space vehicles, earth texture, and Darth Vader’s mask and cape. We found it easiest to start with putting together the light sabers and the lightning flashes, as those colours stand out the most. Normally with puzzles my technique would be to build up all the edges first, so I can easily define the space that we’re going to need but with this puzzle the shaped silhouette makes that quite a lot trickier, as well as most of the edge being similar dark shades. However, when you do get sections completed it’s quite satisfying with this puzzle, since it is more challenging!
Within the puzzle there are a few special shaped sections which adds to the uniqueness of it. These pieces actually made it a bit trickier for me too as they have smooth edges on one side, it’s easy to mistake them for being an outside edge piece – so do watch out for that!
My kids like Star Wars, so they were all immediately interested in the puzzle based on the picture on the box, although it’s very difficult for them. It is a puzzle that can benefit from a group effort though! So it would be a good one to do with the whole family (particularly if you happen to have one relative who is really good with puzzles who could help things along a bit!)
Once the puzzle is completed, the finished picture looks like this. As you can see, there’s loads of detail and lots of characters included within the larger Darth Vader shape. If you look carefully, you’ll see where the three special shaped sections are too within the lower section of the puzzle.
When finished, it measures 106 x 70 cm
This puzzle is available from Amazon for the current price of 14.99 (RRP 16.99), and is suitable for age 12 years and up but I would recommend it for the more experienced puzzlers or those who are keen to challenge themselves. If you have a Star Wars fan who’s really good at puzzles then it would be perfect for them!
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.