My 3-year-old loves puzzles, and he's a Bob the Builder fan. By the time Christmas rolled around, he'd been doing the standard 24-piece jigsaw puzzles for quite some time and I was on the hunt for several different puzzles that would keep his interest going. This Bob the Builder puzzle was one that we chose.

The Puzzle
The puzzle is 30 pieces and it's a Bob-shaped 3 foot tall portrait of Bob the Builder in his usual outfit of hard hat, checked shirt, overalls, work boots, and tool belt. Just above Bob's head there is a hole, and the box cover tells you you're supposed to do the puzzle, glue it, and hang it on your child's wall from that hole.

Difficulty Level
This is a good puzzle for any child who already has some experience doing 24 piece jigsaw puzzles. At 30 pieces, it is a bit more challenging, but not terrifically so. My son does this puzzle by first putting Bob's head together, then his checkered shirt, then his tool belt, then the few remaining pieces of his overalls, then finally his shoes. Doing Bob's face is very easy, which starts the process off on a positive note, the rest of his body is a bit more challenging, particularly around the arms, and the shoes are easy. What saves this puzzle - and adds to the enjoyment - from being really difficult is that the male female ends that fit into each other are of distinctly different shapes, rather than just round knobs and holes. This gives the puzzler additional clues to work with.

Our Experience
My son really likes this puzzle and I think it's done a fair job of increasing his puzzle solving skills and helping develop his motor skills. It also reinforces shapes like diamonds, rectangles, squares, and circles. Really, anything Bob the Builder is a winner in my son's book anyway.

But I have 2 complaints:

Trash in the Box!
There were several pieces included in this puzzle that were not pieces at all, but scrap that should have been discarded in manufacturing. They look like part of the puzzle to my 3-year-old, but were not. My son had a hard time believing me about this and it was pretty frustrating at first. Finally, I had to sneak these pieces into the garbage when my son wasn't looking.

Hang it on the wall? Yeah, right.
It is unfortunate that Milton Bradley decided to advertise this "feature" of the puzzle. You can glue and hang absolutely any puzzle. The hole at the top of course is helpful should you actually wish to do so. However, children this age may like the idea of hanging Bob on the wall, without fully understanding the consequences of gluing their toy together so that they can never play with it again. I did not tell my son about this possibility, but the box cover makes it completely obvious since there's a picture of the Bob puzzle hanging on a kid's wall. Every time we do this puzzle, my son asks me to hang it on his wall and I have to explain to him - again - what this means and why he doesn't want to do that.

Final Thoughts
This puzzle is a good one, and I heartily recommend it. But parents, save yourself some trouble by opening it first and discarding the trash, and put it in a different container so your child never sees the hang-it-on-the-wall feature.

More Bob the Builder Reviews
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Colorforms - Bob the Builder Building Yard Play Set
Play-Doh Bob the Builder Playset
Bob's Laptop Computer

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Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 7.99
Type of Toy: Puzzle
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years