Ravensburger - Disney: Villainous Worst Comes Prepared 2000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

Every card from the Disney Villainous game, tipped out and photographed where it fell. Two thousand pieces of overlapping cardboard, and the whole picture is rectangles.

What you are looking at

Villain cards, ally cards, item cards and condition cards from the tabletop game, scattered face up across each other. The named cards are readable and half the pleasure is finding them: Hypnotize, Cunning, Opportunist, Wish, Grow Giant, Scarab Pendant, Arrogance, Obsession, Once Upon a Dream, Dragon Form.

The characters run right across the Disney canon. Maleficent in green, Ursula twice, Captain Hook, Prince John, Smee, King Triton, the Queen of Hearts, Alice and the White Rabbit, the Genie, Diablo the raven, Tick-Tock the crocodile. Scattered among them, the objects: a gold crown, a magic lamp, a scarab pendant, a pink potion, a red heart, a silver goblet.

What it is like to build

Every single piece belongs to a rectangle, and that is the whole method. Cards have straight edges, rounded corners and a border of a known colour. Sort first into pieces that carry a card edge and pieces that are card interior, because an edge piece tells you which card it is on and which side of it, which is two facts from one.

Then work card by card, and take the named ones first. Anything with legible lettering on it can be placed almost immediately, and the card names are spread evenly across the picture, so that pile alone gives you anchors everywhere.

The trap is that the cards overlap. A card is often two thirds hidden, so you cannot assume a rectangle completes. Build outward from what you can see rather than trying to close each card, and expect the last few hundred pieces to be dark card backs and the near-black shadows between layers.

Why Ravensburger at 2000

Made in Germany since 1891, and in a 2000 piece the pieces are smaller than in a 1000 while still sharing no two shapes. On a picture built from repeating rectangles that fit matters more than usual, because the picture will happily suggest a piece belongs somewhere it does not. Thick board, linen texture, low glare, which counts on artwork this dark.

Specifications

A little context

Measure the table before you buy this one. At 98 x 75 cm finished it needs close to a metre of clear surface and it will not come off a dining table between sittings. That is the real decision with a 2000, more than the piece count is.

This is the collage end of the Villainous series rather than the gallery-wall end. If you prefer one villain and one story told in framed scenes, Scar and Gaston are 1000 pieces each and a good deal more forgiving. The rest is at Disney.

Stock is real and it is in Sydney. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi with no minimum.

Built it already? Use the Questions section below and tell us how you found it. Which part fought you, how long it took, and whether you would send someone else to it. We answer every one.