Review: FlipStir Puzzles

8/16/2016

Hey!
You know how it's good to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills?
You know how lovely it is when you can do so in a fun way?
Then let me introduce you Enlivenze LLC who has come out with FlipStir puzzles, a fun way to do logic and creatively thinking, in our home we used the Solar System puzzle.

Recently we went on vacation. It was a five hour trip to our destination with two boys in the back seat. They played minecraft for a while but it does start to wane after three hours. This was followed by... what can we do? Can we stop for a while? So I pulled out my critical thinking puzzles on the tablet, my son's pet spider, and the FlipStir puzzle. ALL were an instant hit. Two boys talking over the tablet puzzles and working to solve them, then my lad watched his spider and his friend worked on the FlipStir Puzzle (Solar System). This is a 10 piece 3D puzzle, contained in a plastic sleeve with a wand for helping to move the pieces about. No pieces can get lost.

I have to admit, when I first got the puzzle I wondered...would I ever get it together? But then my fine international student took a hand. :) It didn't take long before he showed me this: (Well done eh? He finished it in 10 minutes what it took me 10 just to get set up!)

I have to admit he made me laugh, When I asked him how he did it so quickly, he said "You must have patience of the French", giving me this big cheeky grin. :) "It is not so hard if you remember to go slow and carefully" he added as an encouragement.

I do need to tell you that my son is great at watching people do it, but has yet needed to work up the courage (and willingness) to do it for himself. He currently excels at offering advice to others though about what they should do. :) Hubby won't try it at all (but that's not a surprise as physical logic puzzles tend to annoy him), but I've happily worked away at it several times. It gets easier the more we do it.

It has recently developed a squeak to it, which I am not sure why, but I've been wanting to dump a touch of cornstarch on it to see if that solves the issue. it doesn't impede the game at all and means I am more aware of how I am moving the stick.. which perhaps is why it is occurring, to make the user more aware and therefore more careful, definitely adds an extra level of difficulty to the puzzle. :)

The Game is not hard. You shake up the puzzle to rearrange the pieces, then you use the stick to line them up and then to move the pieces from the wrong location into the right one. You need to carefully shake the tube to help turn pieces around (while using the stick to keep the correct ones in places).   The wavy lines of this level two puzzle I found to be very helpful in getting them to stay in place nicely.

Selling for $24.95, this durable, self-contained puzzle (so you can't rearrange the stickers or lose any pieces) will last a long time. The puzzle I received had the picture of the final image printed on the bottom in case you got it mixed up.   It has definitely served our family well as a travel game, boredom buster for international student, pain-distractor for an injured person, and an advice aid, helping my lad clearly articulate what he thinks the next move should be. (You do need to state it more clearly then move the stick thingey over that world and turn it over)

If you are looking for a game to help your child think critically, that might take a bit of encouragement to get them to do, looking at a long car trip and needing a distraction for them, or even have a child needing to articulate directions well...this self-contained puzzle game should do the trick!   (but that's just my opinion)   :)

Enlivenze LLC graciously provided the TOS Crew with four different puzzles to try out. They are:
Rainbow Pencils, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Solar System and Statue of Liberty.

Please click in the image below to go read what other crew members had to say about these FlipStir puzzles.