Brand Spotlight: Genius Games
One of the most challenging parts of your first year of veterinary school is anatomy- the class and the lab. Hours are spent learning new directional terms, bones, organs, muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins. Formaldehyde is ingrained in my nostrils forever. I’ve lost weeks and months of my life dissecting and studying, preparing and taking tests about every little minutia of the dog or cat or horse anatomy. It’s great for learning and being a proficient doctor, but I am so glad that part of my life is behind me!
Imagine my surprise when I found out there are shaped puzzles that detail the human anatomy! As soon as I found this out, my morbid curiosity got the better of me, and I now own every Genius Games anatomy puzzle that they have out (7 now, with 5 more pre-ordered through Kickstarter). These are some of the most innovative puzzles I have ever seen or done. On top of that, they are fantastic quality!
So let’s start at the beginning. How is this so detailed? Well, these puzzles feature artwork from Mesa Schumacher- who is an actual Certified Medical Illustrator from Johns Hopkins University! There are 7 puzzles in total that, once finished, can be combined together to build a 10 foot tall anatomically accurate cross section of the human body. So far, I have put the first three together- the head, the thorax, and the abdomen- and I absolutely loved each puzzle!
I obviously loved the concept of these puzzles, but if we're being honest, I didn't have very high hopes for the actual quality. Genius games is a card and boardgame company, and I assumed they had this great idea to expand into the puzzle market, but didn't really follow through on what puzzlers would like. I was SO wrong. The quality of these puzzles absolutely blew me away!
The pieces are thick and sturdy, with a semi gloss finish. The piece feel is amazing- it’s not exactly enameled, but it feels like the coating on ibuprofen-so smooth and silky! The piece fit is great- I was easily able to move small, medium, and even some large sections around easily- which for a random cut puzzle, is quite the feat! Speaking of cut, these puzzles boast an incredibly crazy random die cut, which makes building this puzzle challenging and fun! For me- not only was I loving the anatomy aspect, but my brain was working hard to match these crazy shapes too!
It's so surprising to me how close human anatomy is to dog anatomy. I pretty much knew what I was assembling, and could even name most of the specific organs/nerves/arteries/veins/muscles etc. But for those of you who have not had hours and hours of anatomy classes, never fear! On the inside of the box (which btw- looks like an anatomy book, opens like a book, and is held shut with magnets- absolutely Genius!), there is a map of all of the cool anatomy that you're assembling! Use it to learn, or completely ignore it, and just enjoy the puzzle for the super cool image that it is!
Real life anatomy not your thing? Genius Games just came out with their Scientific Jigsaw Puzzle series, and I had to try them out as well. I chose Marie Curie (Sheldon would approve- any Big Bang fans out there?), and I was quite pleased with this puzzle as well!
This is most definitely your more traditional puzzle featuring a fairly normal die cut, which is to say-mostly your normal piece shapes, but with ‘batman’ shaped pieces thrown in. The piece fit is good, I had no false fits, and they are nice and sturdy. They have a semi gloss finish, and regular cardboard backing.
All in all, I would recommend any puzzle from Genius Games: they completely encompass their namesake- they are absolutely Genius when it comes to puzzles!
Until next month my Jigsaw Junkies- happy puzzling!
Amanda @600hoursofpuzzle
