Country Bus

I’ve ended up with quite a few Corner Piece puzzles; they appear to be a dedicated brand from budget outlet chain The Works but don’t let that put you off - they seem to be a pretty quality product.

Pieces - 8/10

The individual pieces are pretty good; on the thinner edge of ideal, but perfectly stiff and easy to handle.

The actual fit is tight enough that there always feels to be a risk of the printed layer lifting off when pieces snag together, but that never actually happened so the quality of the make outweighs my paranoia.

The pieces also have the ‘Corner Piece’ brand stamped on their reverse side, which manages to at least suggest a certain quality (and, I suppose, you could cheat and use it as a double-check for any questionable placements!)

Fit - 6/10

The fit is snug; very snug. This makes things mostly great during assembly, although the pieces snag together very easily while in the box so rummaging for just the right piece can become frustrating.

However, it is so tight that taking the puzzle apart is a nightmare - to avoid causing damage, you pretty much have to shake the thing into large blocks and then disassemble one piece at a time. It’s so tight that you can literally pick the whole puzzle up and carry it around!

Still, on balance it’s definitely better to err on the side of being too tight.

Confusion - 8/10

There’s a lot of texture in an image like this one, so it’s usually very clear where in the picture a piece belongs. The straight cut also makes it fairly obvious when pieces belong together.

There were a couple of occasions where I misplaced a piece - but they were always close to where they should have been, and became apparent quickly.

Differentiation - 10/10

The depth of detail here is just about perfect; lots of different elements that are really distinctive in colour and texture. The commonly confusing areas - the sky, and the road - are both varied and relatively small, so it was easy to pick a new area to work on every time I sat down.

Even the greenery - of which there is a fair amount - is well differentiated, with each region having a distinct tone. Even each red tiled roof had it’s own grain, and every wall distinct.

It really was a joy.

Picture - 9/10

It’s a pleasant enough, traditional jigsaw scene - and actually looks better full size than on the box. I don’t know if they just chose the artwork carefully, but it really could have been painted just for a jigsaw, with such a richness of detail to make it easier to assemble.