Puzzle Questions, Answered

Three to ten hours of building time for most adults, usually across two or three sittings. Artwork matters more than piece count: a field of wheat will beat a busy street scene every time.

Full answer, including 500, 1500 and 2000 piece timings

It is "jigsaw" spelt backwards, pronounced "Woz-gidge". The backwards name describes a backwards puzzle: what is on the box is not what you build.

Full answer

1000 is the standard adult format and where the widest choice of artwork lives. Go to 500 if you want to finish in one evening, to 1500 or more if you can leave a table occupied for a week, and to an extra large piece format if standard cuts are fiddly for your hands or eyes.

Browse 500 pieces, 1000 pieces, 1500 to 3000 pieces or extra large pieces.

For someone who already puzzles regularly, buy a concept rather than a picture, because they have seen every kind of picture. A Wasgij Mystery is the strongest gift in our range on that basis. For someone new to it, a 500 piece illustrated scene beats a 1000 piece photograph, because finishing matters more than difficulty on a first puzzle.

PVA-based puzzle glue, two or three thin coats spread from the front with a plastic card, dried flat on a surface it cannot stick to. One thick coat is what warps puzzles.

Full method, plus framing options

Nothing, at the gluing stage. Glue bonds the pieces to each other and leaves you a single stiff sheet, and that sheet is then mounted on self-adhesive foam board, on 3 mm MDF, or pressed into a frame with no glue at all. A 50 x 70 cm frame is the size that fits about half the 1000 piece range exactly.

Mounting and framing, with the sizes

Sort more before you build. Most people lose more time hunting through one big pile than they would ever spend separating it into eight or ten colour and texture piles first. Frame, then piles, then work the most distinctive regions.

Our full method

Because you lose the reference image. On a normal puzzle the lid tells you where a piece belongs. On a Wasgij the lid shows a different scene, so you are down to piece shape and colour blocking. Expect a 1000 piece Wasgij to feel like a 1500 piece conventional puzzle.

The full guide

On cut and fit alone, Ravensburger is the benchmark, and most brands are measured against it. But "quality" splits into things that trade off against each other: piece thickness, tightness of fit, print sharpness, glare, and how much dust is in the box. Gibsons gives up a fraction of edge crispness to use 100% recycled board. Jumbo cuts tighter than Holdson. We are building a proper comparison from our own customers' reviews rather than asserting one.

Ravensburger for the best engineering and the widest choice of subject. Gibsons for illustrated British scenes with a story in them, and for formats nobody else does properly, like the 636 piece panoramas and the 4 x 500 multipacks.

Full comparison

Jumbo owns the brand and makes it in the Netherlands. Holdson makes the range in New Zealand under licence for this part of the world. Same artwork, different board: Jumbo is thicker with a tighter fit, Holdson is thinner, looser and easier to get here.

The full comparison