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The Complete Guide to Falcon de Luxe Puzzles
The short answer
Falcon de luxe is a British jigsaw brand established in 1976 and now owned and manufactured by the Dutch company Jumbo. Its subject matter is nostalgic British life: coastal towns, steam railways, country pubs, village high streets and rural scenes, usually painted rather than photographed. Its physical signature is a blue backing board instead of the usual grey, which is the fastest way to identify one. It sits in the same emotional territory as Gibsons, generally at a friendlier price.
Turn a Falcon piece over. The back is blue, not grey. It is a small thing and it is the fastest way to identify a puzzle from a range that has been quietly doing the same job, very well, since 1976.
Falcon de luxe at a glance
- Established
- 1976, in Britain
- Owned by
- Jumbo, the Dutch publisher, and made in its factory
- Formerly
- Falcon Games, which was Jumbo's UK trading name
- Signature
- Blue backing board instead of grey
- Subject matter
- Nostalgic British life: coast, rail, pubs, high streets
- Piece counts
- Roughly 200 to 4,000, with 500 and 1000 the core
- 1000 piece size
- About 68 x 49 cm
- Habit worth knowing
- Many titles are released as collectable pairs
On this page
The blue board, and why it is not just decoration
Almost every jigsaw puzzle you have ever built had grey backing card. Falcon de luxe uses blue, and Jumbo names it as one of the defining features of the range rather than an accident of supply.
It reads as a brand signature, and it is. But it has a genuinely practical consequence that nobody seems to mention.
The accidental benefit. If you build more than one puzzle at a time, or you have ever found a stray piece under the sofa six months later and had no idea which box it belonged to, a blue back solves that instantly. A grey piece in a Falcon box is obviously a foreigner. A Falcon piece in a grey puzzle is obviously yours. It is a small thing that makes the range unusually friendly to households where puzzles overlap.
Where Falcon came from
Falcon was established in Britain in 1976 as an adult puzzle brand, and it was a separate business from the Dutch company that now owns it.
The two became entangled to the point of confusion. For years Jumbo's UK arm traded as Falcon Games, and the Falcon name was the one British puzzlers knew, so the brand ended up better known in its home market than its parent. Plenty of people in the UK still say Falcon when they mean Jumbo.
Today Falcon de luxe is one of four ranges Jumbo publishes, alongside the own-brand Jumbo line, the cartoonist Jan van Haasteren, and Wasgij. The company, the factory and the ownership are covered properly in The Complete Guide to Jumbo Puzzles. This page is about the range itself.
What the de luxe actually buys you
Most premium suffixes on puzzle boxes mean nothing. This one is doing slightly more work than usual.
Jumbo's own claim for the range is a thicker board than standard, with what they describe as unique precision printing and cutting techniques. Stated as their claim rather than as our measurement, because we have not measured it.
What you actually notice at the table is a clean cut with very little fuzz on the edges. Puzzle board is paper, and a worn cutting die tears rather than slices, leaving furred edges that make pieces feel vague and sit unevenly. Falcon pieces come out of the box crisp, which is most of what people mean when they say a puzzle "feels good".
The finish is smooth and poster-like rather than linen-textured. That is a real trade-off, not a neutral fact: a smooth finish reproduces a painted scene beautifully and throws more glare under a single overhead lamp than a textured one. If you puzzle at night under one downlight, angle the lamp.
The subject matter, and who it is really for
Falcon has one subject, and it commits to it entirely: Britain, remembered warmly.
The coast
Harbours and seaside towns
Fishing boats at low tide, promenades, cliff paths, the specific light of a British summer that lasted four days.
The railway
Steam and stations
A reliable Falcon subject and a reliable gift. Steam railway scenes are one of the few puzzle categories with a genuinely devoted audience.
The village
High streets and country pubs
Shopfronts that no longer exist, snow on a market square, a pub with the lights on at dusk.
The farm
Rural and working scenes
Farmyards, horses, harvest. Calmer and less crowded with jokes than the equivalent Gibsons scene.
The emotional job here is not challenge. It is comfort, and it is worth being clear-eyed about that, because it tells you exactly who to buy it for and who not to.
Falcon or Gibsons
This is the only comparison that matters for Falcon, because the two brands are aiming at the same person.
| Falcon de luxe | Gibsons | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Britain, 1976, now Dutch-owned | Britain, 1919, still family-run |
| Board | Good, blue-backed, clean cut | Thicker, recycled, the firmer fit of the two |
| Finish | Smooth, poster-like | Less glare |
| Scenes | Calmer, more rural and coastal | Busier, more incident and comedy |
| Price | Generally the friendlier of the two | The premium option |
| Packaging | Standard | Recycled, no plastic in the box |
Our recommendation. If the board is what you care about, buy Gibsons and pay the difference, because the fit is genuinely firmer and it matters if you move sections around. If what you want is a quiet harbour scene on a good board without paying a premium, Falcon is the better value and nobody will be able to tell from the finished puzzle on the wall.
The pairs habit
One quirk worth planning around: Falcon issues a lot of titles as matched pairs, and as larger multi-puzzle sets built to be collected.
Two views of the same harbour. The same high street in summer and in snow. It is a deliberate commercial mechanism, and it works, because the natural response to finishing one is to want the other.
Practically, it means two things. If you have found a Falcon you like, check whether it has a twin before you buy, since they are more satisfying built as a set. And if you are buying a gift, a pair is a better gift than a single box at the same total spend, because it reads as a considered choice rather than a puzzle.
A word on availability, honestly. Falcon reaches Australia in waves rather than continuously, and our Falcon shelf moves between full and empty faster than most brands we carry. If the collection looks thin when you visit, that is a shipping cycle rather than us dropping the range. The blue-backed titles are worth waiting for, and the nearest thing on the shelf in the meantime is usually Gibsons or the wider Nostalgia range.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Strong fit
The comfort puzzler
Someone who puzzles to wind down rather than to be tested. Falcon is built for exactly that and makes no apology for it.
Strong fit
British connections
An enormous number of Australian households have someone who grew up with these streets. It is a very reliable gift for a parent or grandparent.
Strong fit
Multi-puzzle households
The blue back genuinely solves the stray-piece problem if more than one puzzle is on the go.
Falcon, and the rest of the Jumbo house
Shop Jumbo & Falcon
Falcon reaches us in waves, so the fastest way to see what is genuinely on the shelf right now is the Jumbo range, which carries Falcon alongside Wasgij and Jan van Haasteren. We only list what we physically hold.
Related reading
- The Complete Guide to Jumbo Puzzles, the house that owns and makes Falcon
- The Complete Guide to Gibsons Puzzles, the brand Falcon is really competing with
- The Best Jigsaw Puzzles in Australia, the four things that separate a good puzzle from a cheap one
- The Puzzle Library, everything we have written
Common questions
Why are Falcon puzzle pieces blue on the back?
The blue backing card is a deliberate house signature of the de luxe range, and Jumbo publishes it as one of the things that distinguishes the line. It has a practical side effect worth knowing: if a stray piece from another puzzle finds its way into the box, it is instantly obvious, because everything else is grey. If you build more than one puzzle at a time on the same table, that is genuinely useful. - q: Is Falcon the same as Jumbo? a: > Falcon is owned by Jumbo and made in Jumbo's factory, but it began separately. Falcon was established in Britain in 1976, and for years Jumbo's UK operation was actually called Falcon Games, so British puzzlers still often use the two names interchangeably. They are kept as separate brands because they sell to genuinely different people. - q: What does the de luxe in Falcon de luxe mean? a: > It refers to the premium specification of the range: a thicker board than the standard line, a smooth low-fuzz cut, and what Jumbo describes as precision printing and cutting. In practice the thing you notice is that the pieces are clean-edged and the finished surface is even. It is a marketing term, but unlike most marketing terms it does correspond to something. - q: Falcon or Gibsons, which should I buy? a: > They cover the same ground, so it comes down to two things. Gibsons has the thicker board, the recycled construction and the stronger artist roster, and it costs more. Falcon is usually the better value and its scenes tend to be calmer and more rural, where Gibsons leans busier and more crowded with incident. If you want the best board, buy Gibsons. If you want a quiet harbour at dusk without paying a premium, buy Falcon. - q: What piece counts does Falcon de luxe come in? a: > The range runs from around 200 pieces up to 4,000, with 500 and 1000 the core of it. A standard 1000 piece Falcon finishes at roughly 68 x 49 cm, which is the normal 1000 piece footprint and fits a dining table. - q: Does Falcon do puzzles in pairs? a: > Yes, and it is one of the range's habits. A lot of Falcon titles are issued as matched pairs or as larger multi-puzzle sets designed to be collected, which is why you will often see two closely related scenes released together. If you like one, check whether it has a twin.
Sources and further reading
- Falcon established 1976, previously Falcon Games, now part of Jumbo
- Falcon de luxe introduced in the 1970s, blue backing card, precision printing and cutting, Jumbo's own published product claim
- Piece range and 1000 piece finished dimensions, published retailer specifications
- Comparisons with Gibsons, board feel and build character are our own experience and puzzler consensus, not measurement
Last reviewed and updated 12 August 2026 by Michael, Owner, Premium Puzzles. We keep this page current as the range and the market change, rather than letting it age as a dated post.
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