We’re unboxing another jigsaw puzzle that I’ve been wanting to do for a while: the Costco 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle by Dowdle*! I had been thinking about getting one of these. And one day when I was shopping in Costco, I noticed them being placed around the book and stationery area. The only rational decision I could do was to put one in my cart immediately 🙂
Dowdle Folk Art Brand Introduction
Dowdle Folk Art started with the artist Eric Richard Dowdle going door to door providing paintings for houses in the 1990s. In 1997, he started to make his original paintings into puzzles and thus established the jigsaw puzzle product line. The puzzles are also distributed through big grocery chains like Costco and Walmart, as well as small businesses. In 2019, he began partnering with Disney to illustrate classic Disney characters through his unique art style and make them into a series of jigsaw puzzles.
Dowdle Costco 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Quality and Review
It’s such a cute idea to have Costco sell a jigsaw puzzle with an image of a Costco store! And it’s even priced at US$9.99 in the store! What a steal! An adorable illustration, super affordable price, and puzzle brand that I haven’t tried? YES.
Basic Information
- Piece count: 1000 pieces
- Dimensions of the box: 7.5 x 7.5 x 3 inches / 19 x 19 x 7.6 cm
- Dimensions of the completed puzzle: 19.25 x 26.63 inches / 48.9 x 67.6 cm
- Puzzle piece thickness: about 1.8 mm
- How long does it take to complete: 6 hrs (This is how long it took me to complete this jigsaw puzzle in my first go.)
- Click me to check its current price on Amazon*
- Click me to check its current price on Costco.com
(Listing to the two websites so you can compare the prices before you buy it. But it seems like you can get the best price in store with nearly 50% of the prices on the internet. So strongly recommend checking it in person if there is a Costco spot near you!)
They also have the same design on a 500 piece version with the same price point. And Dowdle Folk Art also has a lot of other puzzles to choose from*. The biggest collection might be their Disney series. Some are also distributed through Costco.
Unboxing Experience
It has paper sleeves printed with the Costco logo, Dowdle logo, and puzzle design in the front. As well as a brief introduction of the artist and artwork printed on the side. Under the paper sleeves, there is a vintage-map-style hard cardboard box that feels like a treasure chest. Well-designed packaging overall! After unboxing, all the pieces are properly cut, no pieces are connected together. And there is medium to little puzzle dust.
Puzzle Pieces
Here are some close-up shots of the pieces! The printing quality in the front is pretty good. You can barely see the printing grids that form the color blocks. And the image is fully packed with brush strokes and lines by design so you won’t notice those grids at all when doing the puzzle. There are some glares but not too severe. The pieces are thick enough with a grey/blue back.
Most of the puzzle pieces are basic shapes – a square with 4 inward or outward tabs. But there are also some special pieces with interesting shapes! The shapes of each piece are different enough and well-designed, plus the image is quite busy, so it’s easy to know if you get it right when you try to put pieces together. It’s also quite sturdy. I like to redo the puzzles several times so this is important to me. Puzzles made of paper are certainly not as durable as the plastic ones, but this one looks strong enough to me so far!
The puzzle is also interlocking tightly. I was able to move around a small section of pieces once I put them together. They will not split if being moved with a bit of caution.
Puzzle Image And Level Of Difficulty
I just love its artwork ♡♡♡ The fact that it has a theme of “inside a Costco store” is interesting enough on its own. And I love the illustration style. But most importantly, there are so many hidden Easter eggs in this picture!!! (No wonder they mention “treasure hunt” on the packaging!) Not only some literal Easter eggs, but interesting people doing interesting things in Costco lol. My favorite one is probably the guy who has the exact Dowdle Costco puzzle in his hand for check-out! ♡ It’s like a puzzle version of Where’s Wally with a super enjoyable puzzling experience! Since there’s a lot happening in this image with clear sections like racks, counters, and pipes, it’s not a difficult puzzle to do, especially if you use the full image as your guide.
Final Thoughts
It’s rare for me to run into a jigsaw puzzle which I like its art more than the puzzle itself lol. And don’t take me wrong, it does have a great puzzle quality. It’s just that I love the whole image and the little details in it way too much ♡ Great packaging, artwork that’s full of details, comfortable and satisfying puzzling experience, good quality, and even special-shaped pieces, this is truly a hidden gem! Might be the most cost-effective puzzle that I’ve ever tried! I think it totally worth the $20 online store price, and it’s just such a bargain with the less than $10 in-store price!
Lastly, here are the pictures of the completed puzzle for your reference. Thank you so much for reading yet another long jigsaw puzzle review post! If you have any puzzles that you like, would like to recommend, or want to learn more about, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment so I can have an excuse to buy more puzzles! 😉
Infobox
⇨ Click me to check out its current price on Amazon*
⇨ Other puzzle review posts
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