Wrebbit3D Assassin’s Creed 3D Puzzle Model of Notre-Dame | 860 Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces | References from Ubisoft Popular Video Game

I bought two of the Wrebbit puzzles as a Christmas gift for my pre-teen, who is fascinated by architecture right now. She wanted to do the Neuschwanstein Castle first, and we just wrapped up with the Taj Mahal. As others have mentioned, there is a lot of scrap foam in the box that needs to be weeded out as you are laying out the pieces. (We kept the scraps in the box, and sealed it with tape. Combing through the box later turned up two "missing" pieces.) I could have saved us a bit of time if I had simply read the directions before we started on the first puzzle. The directions are mostly in French though, as the puzzle is made in Quebec/Montreal. There is a handy diagram of all the puzzle pieces and how they fit together in the instructions. The puzzles take up a considerable amount of room, so for the second puzzle I made sure we started on a larger table. Give yourself plenty of time to complete these puzzles, especially if this is going to be used for a school project. The Neuschwanstein Castle took us about twice as long as the Taj Mahal to complete, but this could be largely due to having overcome the learning curve by the time we got to the second puzzle. With each puzzle, we found that we were missing one or two pieces. If you are missing any pieces, the instruction pamphlet gives an email and mailing address where you can request replacement pieces. This process worked quite well, and a few weeks later the missing pieces arrived in the mail. In our case, I attribute the missing pieces to our curious puppy. These puzzles really look nice when they are assembled. I am pretty impressed, and my daughter thinks they are fantastic. It is nice to do a puzzle and have something to show for your efforts later. We will definitely be getting more of the Wrebbit puzzles. I would caution parents not to expect a young child to complete these puzzles by themselves. They will challenge an adults patience and fortitude, but stick with it and you will be happy with the results.

I enjoy the challenge in putting together these three puzzles. Helps keep my mind sharp. I already built over forty of these puzzles over the past many years.

I have several of these puzzles from Wrebbit and Puzz3d. This one had the highest piece count but was the easiest one I have done. This is due to the fact that the various surfaces have significantly different designs and the parts were easily distinguishable.I see so many reviews complaining about having to remove the off-cut (red dot) pieces. These puzzles already cost $40+. Having to sort these pieces out would raise the price dramatically. If you're in a hurry, these puzzles aren't for you. Sorting through the pieces is a great way to familiarize yourself with the different shapes and designs, which will make them easier to find and assemble later.The very first 3D puzzle I got, Neuschwanstein Castle, took me nearly 2 weeks of working 2,3 or more hours a day to finish it. This one took me maybe 12 hours. The diagram is really helpful when you're not sure what you're looking for and the pictures on the box are a great reference, as well.These puzzles are challenging and not for the faint of heart. It's really not right to give a product a bad review just because you're not up to the challenge or decide you don't want to invest the time.If you don't want to bother with the puzzle, pass it along to someone who will appreciate it.

So, if you're an oldtime Wrebbit Puzz-3D lover, but are getting confused between the Wrebbit 3D and Puzz-3D puzzles from Winning Solutions, here's the story as I understand it. The original Puzz-3D foam puzzles were created by a company in Montreal called Wrebbit. They created a lot of puzzles throughout the '90s, and were eventually purchased by Hasbro in 2005. Hasbro took over the manufacturing and moved it to the US, and then in 2006, they discontinued the line. In 2011, the Hasbro line was brought back into production from Winning Solutions, and they've been reprinting the older designs ever since.However. Back in Montreal, all the old employees and original Puzz 3D designers reformed the Wrebbit company in 2012, and these new Wrebbit 3D puzzles are theirs. Their emphasis is on larger and more complex puzzles, so if these might be too challenging for you, the older classic designs from Winning Solutions may be more your thing. :)I'm typically happier with 3D puzzles with a 500-700 piece count, as I prefer a puzzle I can put together and take apart in a single sitting. And when I opened the box on the Taj Mahal, I wasn't sure I was up to putting it together, as this is a significantly larger Wrebbit than I've put together solo before. But the old familiar initiation rite of pulling out all the red-dot printed pieces soothed me. For those wondering what the complaints are all about--Wrebbit doesn't separate out all the "waste" pieces from the cutting, as this would add significantly to the production costs (and these aren't cheap puzzles to begin with). So, you do have to pull some of the spaces out from between the "dovetail" edge teeth, punch out a few of the smaller holes (I missed quite a few the first pass through for the interior cardboard support tabs) and clear away the waste pieces that didn't separate. When I was done, I'd pretty much filled up an entire 1 gal. ziploc baggie with "waste" pieces, and if you aren't meticulous about this, you can accidentally toss a real piece in with the waste ones. It took me roughly an hour, but as I said, I'm an old hand at this, and I find it soothing, like knitting; and the idea that it's a initial-use-only deal makes it easier for me to get through. YMMV. Wildly.Putting the puzzle together is generally in two stages: you put together the model pieces (borders are typically delineated by square-wave notches for dovetailing edges together or straight lines or curves with no breaks in them). And then you take all the "model" pieces and create the 3D structure. Wrebbit does supply a printed "plan" for assembly, which will actually show each individual puzzle piece's position within the "model" pieces, as well as how the model pieces are meant to assemble together.One of the possibly more frustrating or helpful features of these Wrebbit puzzles is that they are engineered to only be assembled in one way. Despite seemingly symmetric features, the size of tabs and holes will be geared so that assemblies can only be oriented or slot together a single way. If a fit seems to be "off", you're probably trying to put the wrong pieces together and need to substitute a similar piece or rotate something. I find the printed plan to be a good "cheat sheet" to keep from getting too frustrated--the four corner towers in particular could have taken me a lot longer, if I hadn't just laid out all the pieces as they were on the plan, and then assembled them that way. Those damn towers were actually what took me the most time on the puzzle and were the last thing to go in. The central dome, palace, and courtyard bits were the easy part. :) You do have to be detail-oriented when looking at fit--the printed pattern will always match exactly. The foam edges can be forced into false fits very easily, but it's usually pretty self-evident when you've gotten it wrong.The dome did stymie me a little at first, as I'm used to assembling "model" pieces flat. These pieces actually only cleanly lock together when the surface curves appropriately. Once I realized how the pieces were supposed to curve, it was relatively easy to get everything to be in the right shape, but I fold origami, too, so this kind of "sculpting" of flat surfaces into 3d shapes isn't particularly tough for me.My only real complaint about the puzzle is that there are some unavoidable points of fragility on it. The small pointy turret pieces on the main palace are particularly fragile--held into place by very small jigsaw piece joins, and the inner cardboard supports are relatively thin and will probably need to be stored with care in the box for future reassembly. I'd have preferred tougher plastic pieces, but can see that would increase the cost appreciably.All told, it probably took me about a dozen hours to put this puzzle together by myself, and the frustration level was bearable :). I only gave it 4 out of 5, because I was still frustrated enough to put it away at times, and because I needed to leave room for that fifth star if Wrebbit ever recreates (or Winning Designs reprints) my favorite of the old Puzz-3Ds: the double-sided Sistine Chapel, where you could take the roof off and look at the ceiling. :D Still. Very very nice to have Wrebbit back and making new puzzles.