Best Kids Puzzle Reviews 2018

When a brand is able to keep puzzling families for more than a century, you should know that it’s not here to play games; it means business. Ravensburger AG was established in 1883 by Otto Robert Maier as a publisher of instructional folders for architects and craftsmen; by the next year, he introduced his board game “Journey around the World.” Today, the company’s product offering has grown to include activity kits, children’s activity books, Happy Families and non-fiction books, reference books, and more. In 2015, it acquired BRIO, a Swedish maker of toy trains, thus increasing its product offering. This is the company that broke the world’s record for the largest jigsaw puzzle in 2010 with 24,000 pieces, and its Disney's Memorable Moments with 40,320 pieces is the current holder of that record.

The Ravensburger Ocean Turtles Puzzle is a 200-piece puzzle that forms a beautiful underwater scene of 2 magnificent sea turtles swimming above colorful fish and coral life, while an underwater diver a short distance away takes pictures. It’s made with an extra-thick Kappa cardboard and heavy, linen-textured paper, exclusively developed for this brand. This gives it a beautifully glare-free image quality, increasing convenience and enjoyment of the game.

Each piece is well-made and no two pieces are the same, having been cut by hand-crafted cutting tools, guaranteeing a solid interlocking fit across the board. We love that adults can enjoy this game too, and that it can be used as an interesting way to spend family time as everyone can gather ‘round and help or sit around and share wonderful underwater stories the picture is sure to spark off. This puzzle is recommended for kids ages 8 and above.

Here are some of Ravensburger’s other puzzles for your consideration:

• Ravensburger World Map Puzzle: a colorful 60-piece puzzle depicting the continents of the world and countries in them—great for a geography lover
• Ravensburger Outer Space Puzzle: a 60-piece rendition of intergalactic awesomeness, recommended for kids 4 years and above
• Ravensburger Realm of the Giants Puzzle: a 200-piece puzzle that’ll take your kiddos back to that era when dinosaurs walked the earth
• Ravensburger Mermaid and Dolphins Glitter Puzzle: a 100-piece puzzle with glitter and a pink-tailed mermaid—what more could a little girl ask for?
• Ravensburger Disney Planes Fire & Rescue: Fighting The Fire: a 100-piece puzzle showing Disney’s fire-fighting planes—it’s hero time, boys!

Melissa and Doug is a toy-making factory that was set up in 1988 by—you guessed right—Melissa and Doug (yes, they’re real people). It began as a start-up in Doug’s parents’ garage from where the company’s first toys were made and delivered to buyers (in Doug’s dad’s station wagon) around the East Coast. Today, the company has come a long way from those humble beginnings to become a major producer of stimulating children’s toys. It believes that child-led play is essential to the complete growth of a child as it stimulates imagination and open-ended thinking. In its words, today’s kids are “overstimulated, overscheduled, and facing undue pressures” with little or no free time to just be themselves. That’s why it’s on a mission to Take Back Childhood—a campaign it invites parents and child care-givers to participate in.

Melissa and Doug’s United States Map Puzzle is a large floor puzzle with large pieces, practically all of which have been cut into shapes of American states. When all the pieces are correctly placed, you’ll have a map of the US states showing their capitals, iconic features, and prominent water bodies; for instance, there is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign on the California piece, a pink fat pig in Iowa, and the lakes surrounding and dividing the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. It’s a great way to get your kids started on a path to acing their geography quizzes and tests as they get to interact with each piece and relate them with their landmarks or industry.

Seeing as this puzzle’s pieces are going to undergo a lot of handling (you know how kids try to force a wrong piece into the wrong spot), we’re pleased to inform you that it’s made with heavy-duty cardboard with an Easy-Clean surface made with plastic coating. This makes them not only durable, but waterproof as well and easy to maintain.

Some other puzzles from this company include:

• Melissa & Doug Traffic Jam Jumbo Jigsaw Puzzle: a 24-piece floor puzzle showing vehicles stuck in traffic
• Melissa & Doug Construction Vehicles 4-in-1 Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles: a 48-piece puzzle with a sturdy, wooden box
• Melissa & Doug Mermaid Fantasea Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle: a colorful 48-piece set with a storage tray

Buffalo Games was established in 1986 by Paul Dedrick. It’s a leading maker of party games and jigsaw puzzles in the world, and prides itself in making games that people will find not just fun and easy, but also something to come back to time and again—games that you’ll not find boring. Its creativity in game-making has won it quite the number of awards which include the Game of the Year Award in 2011 by Creative Child Magazine for Gotcha and iParenting Media Award for Outstanding Product both for Last Word in 2007. It also holds licenses to work with popular brands such as DC Super Friends, National Geographic Channel, Darrell Bush, Charles Wysocki, and many more. It ensures that only the thickest premium paper and durable materials are used in the making of all its puzzles.

Buffalo Games’ Frederick the Literate Puzzle features Charles Wysocki artwork depicting a cat (whose name is presumably Frederick) snuggled comfortable on a shelf crammed full with books (this probably explains why Frederick is considered literate) and other knick-knacks. The fun begins when you start putting the puzzle pieces together to reveal the picture; you find yourself giggling at the interesting book titles such as Lusting for the Giant Rodent, Rat Holes of the World, Wallowing in Garbage – Trashy Cuisine Recipes, The Sardine in all of its Splendor, and the list goes on. We have to agree, that Frederick is a learned fellow.

This 750-piece puzzler comes with a bonus poster of the whole picture to serve as a guide as you fit the pieces together. Thanks to the precision-cutting technique employed in the making of this puzzle and its makers’ trademark Perfect Snap, each piece is guaranteed to fit beautifully to create a lovely picture at the end of puzzle—quite rewarding.

Some other puzzles from Buffalo Games you might like include:

• Buffalo Games - Dino Adventure: a large 48-piece puzzle for kids 5 years and older, with an activity book of 15 educative and interesting activities
• Buffalo Games Large Piece Travel, London: a 300-piece puzzle with bonus poster
• Buffalo Games - Josephine Wall - Nature Boy - 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle: the glitter edition with gold glitter highlights throughout the puzzle
• Buffalo Games Kid’s Jigsaw Puzzle: Ready for School: a 24-piece puzzle with a fun and educating activity book for kids 3 years and older

White Mountain Puzzles is a company that’s committed to family; it believes that family is important and incorporates family values into its ethical system. It creates fun puzzles to enhance family time and promote the feeling of togetherness among players with interestingly-themed puzzles. The company was founded by Cronan Minton and Ted Wroblewski in 1978 as a small poster company in Vermont. It’s a family-owned business, but the daily running of what has now morphed into a nationally acclaimed brand is the capable hands of their sons. All of its puzzles are made in the US and it makes efforts to ensure that it becomes better with each passing year, creating puzzles that are original, more colorful, entertaining, and educating.

The White Mountain Puzzles Candy Wrappers Puzzle is a fun 1000-piece puzzle that you and the kids can put together on a slow weekend. It’s a great way to get everyone off their phones and the internet so that quality time is spent putting the bright-colored puzzle of yummy candy wrappers together and reminiscing of the good old days of sugar-fueled childhood. It features a whole collection of old-time candy favorites and was created by Charlie Girard, an artist notorious for doing one puzzle a day, when he decided to make his puzzle so as to keep his artistic mind entertained.

On the box in which the puzzle comes, is the complete picture of the whole thing which you can use as a guide for putting the puzzle together. It’s recommended for kids 12 years and above, and its pieces are well-cut and made durable from blue chipboard and recycled paper. This puzzle is designed to be long-lasting.

See some more White Mountain Puzzles below:

• White Mountain Puzzles Best Places in The World Jigsaw: a 1000-piece collage of enticing travel posters and photos
• White Mountain Puzzles What I Did as a Kid Jigsaw Puzzles: a rendition of classic children’s games in a thousand puzzle pieces
• White Mountain Puzzles Princess Unicorn: a 100-piece puzzle depicting an enchanting scene of a princess and her pet unicorn in a fairytale paradise
• White Mountain Puzzles Things I Ate as A Kid: a 1000-piece, tantalizingly delicious puzzle
• White Mountain Puzzles Trucks & Tractors Jigsaw Puzzle: a 24-piece puzzle showing heavy-duty vehicles at work

Ceaco is the home of superb-quality jigsaw puzzles. It has a vast array of beautiful and intriguing puzzles made by popular artists Thomas Kinkade, Jane W. Scott, and Jan V. Haasteren. It was established in 1987 with one mission, which is to create innovative puzzles of the highest quality that are challenging and keep the whole family entertained for hours on end. Through a skilled team of professionals, the company is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve its offerings, for the latest trends and rising artists, and the latest technology that’ll improve all the processes involved in the creation of its games. Its desire is to always keep its customers supplied with nothing but the best in offline family entertainment.

The Ceaco Kinkade Beauty and the Beast Puzzle is made with high-quality materials to meet the demands that’ll be placed on it as its 750 pieces are manipulated into their spots on the puzzle. We love, love the picture that’s formed at the end, and the process is quite rewarding as you get to discover other characters from the story that are not immediately visible in the picture on the box. The picture shows Belle and Beast on a terrace beside the river with the castle on the other side, holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes. In the picture, we also see Cogsworth, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, and Chip. In the distance, we have the village and above in an aircraft we have to assume his inventive hands have made, is Maurice, Belle’s father.

The finished picture is beautiful and a work of art indeed. The paper is thick and sturdy so that the pieces last for a long time; they are cut in different, interlocking pieces that fit together and snap in place so that kids won’t have a hard time piecing the puzzle together. What’s more, it’s as challenging as it is entertaining.

Here are some other puzzles from Ceaco:

• Ceaco Beach Party Selfie Puzzle (550 Pieces): showing furry felines and canines on the beach
• Ceaco Dragons Old Friends at Play Puzzle (1000 Pieces): features a wizard and a dragon at a game of chess
• Ceaco Spring has Sprung Puzzle: a 100-piece picture of furry bunnies
• Ceaco Disney Family Christmas Puzzle (400 Piece): showing Mickey and his friends in Christmas cheer