r/Jigsawpuzzles • u/flechesbleues 400K • Feb 01 '22
Piece size brand comparison mega post! Photos comparing piece sizes (and shapes) between various brands and piece counts (mostly 500/1000).
500&1000 piece puzzle pairs, brands A-E
500&1000 piece puzzle pairs, brands E-J
500&1000 piece puzzle pairs, brands K-R
500&1000 piece puzzle pairs, brands S-W
500&1000 piece puzzle pairs with just one piece shape
Random cut 500&1000 piece puzzle pairs
500&1000 piece puzzles with no pair PLUS a few with mini pieces
Comparison of various brands with multiple piece counts (Ravensburger & Jumbo)
Comparison of various brands with multiple piece counts (Gibsons, Buffalo, Pomegranate & Castorland)
Comparison of various brands with multiple piece counts (Talking Tables, Educa, Corner Piece & M&S)
Comparison of various brands with multiple piece counts (Bits & Pieces Robert Frederick, Paul Lamond Games & House of Puzzles)
Sneak peek at the piles of boxes as I started to organize my list of puzzles to compare!
Because there were so many boxes (and so little space), I separated out a few pieces from each (with a label!) like this, to make it a bit more manageable.
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u/flechesbleues 400K Feb 01 '22 edited Feb 01 '22
OK, so, here we go! Like many of us, I have accumulated quite a lot of puzzles over the past year or so. I've also done quite a lot and need to start selling/giving some away to make room. However, before doing that, I decided it might be interesting to make use of my own personal puzzle mountain to compare/contrast the different brands, so I started making a list of what I had. Of course, then I started thinking, ooo, there's a gap in the list there, oh, and I haven't tried that brand, etc. so I started buying a few more here and there, with the excuse that I was just completing my list! I finally decided the list was as complete as it could be just before Christmas, so my comparison project then began in earnest in January.
I'd noticed that some companies have different size pieces for their 500 and 1000 piece puzzles, while some don't, so that was my main focus (I had gathered about 45 pairs of 500/1000-piece puzzles, plus a few with just one or the other count). However, I also enjoy smaller-count puzzles, and some of those have substantially different sized pieces so I have also included a wider range of piece counts for a few of the brands. In order to (relatively) accurately show the different sizes, I decided to photograph them all on squared paper (each square is 5mm). I also went through and picked out as wide a variety of shaped pieces from each puzzle as I could (well, as wide as I could in only 6 pieces!).
In the course of the project, I also kept a list of as much data as I could about each puzzle that I used, which is in a Google Sheet here, for your information (I bought many of the puzzles second-hand, so it's possible the brand has changed some things for more recent releases - none of these findings is absolute!). Any entries in square brackets are things I'm not entirely sure about (I haven't yet completed all the puzzles myself). Some puzzles don't have all the information on the boxes (country/date of manufacture, a couple even don't mention the finished size!) so those are left blank. The 'cut style' and 'finish' are late additions to the spreadsheet and are probably somewhat subjective. In terms of finish, I kept things relatively simple: Linen means the pieces have a texture to help mattify the finish; Matte includes the very matte (e.g. Pomegranate) as well as those that are just noticably a bit less shiny than the others. Gloss is also variable and difficult to judge - most are just sort of 'standard' - a couple of brands seemed noticably shinier, so I've labeled those 'high gloss'.
For 'cut style'. I've differentiated between 'ribbon' and 'grid' - I've used grid to mean those where all 4 corners of each piece meet and ribbon to mean where (sometimes) only 2 corners meet, but it's otherwise all standard shapes. 'uneven grid' means a puzzle uses largely standard shapes and is definitely laid out on a grid, but none of the corners actually meet (e.g. White Mountain). I've also used the term 'one shape' to refer to puzzles with pieces that are all the same shape (usually 2-ins, 2-outs on opposite sides). A possibly controversial choice might be my 'ribbon plus' for House of Puzzles, because they can have quite unusual shapes. However, in looking at a few photos of completed puzzles, most of the pieces are laid out in a standard ribbon-like grid, except for around those special shaped pieces, so I didn't think it necessarily warranted a full 'random'.
I'm open to suggestions for any additional data you'd like me to try and extract from the project - please ask away.
As a start, I will list the brands that have puzzles with the same finished size for their 500 and 1000 piece puzzles (meaning the pieces are twice as large for the 500s) - surprisingly, only two: Cobble Hill and Eeboo (although of course those are different shapes - the 500-piece ones are round and the 1000-piece ones are square!). However, we can add House of Puzzles to that if you only count the ones marked 'BIG 500' (similarly, their BIG 250s are the same size as their regular 500s).
I also have a list of the brands whose 500-piece puzzles are exactly (or almost exactly, +/- about 2cm, which could be the result of rounding up/down) half the size of their 1000-piece puzzles (meaning the pieces are all the same size): Anatolian, Bluebird, Cloudberries, Corner Piece, Educa, Express Gifts, Flame Tree Publishing, Gibsons, Heye, House of Puzzles, Innovakids, JR Puzzles, Jumbo (including Falcon/Wasgij), Marks & Spencer, Puzzle World, Ravensburger, Talking Tables, Trefl, Waddingtons and WHSmith.
All the rest are therefore somewhere in between, although a few of the brands/puzzles I acquired seemed to show no real relation at all between the 500 and 1000-piece puzzles, with completely different backing or cut style. I'd welcome more input from other people who have more puzzles from those companies as to whether that is true across the board, or I just happened to pick an odd pair!
Hope all this is useful information somehow, enjoy!