MB Super Challenge Series: Aspen Trees, Colorado

Aspen Trees, Colorado

Milton Bradley, Super Challenge (1985) Series #12

1540 pieces

31" x 23 1/2"

purchased opened (complete) from ebay ($4.75)

Difficulty level: super challenging

There are a lot of puzzles in Milton Bradley's "Super Challenge" series; this is the first one I have attempted. After an initial foray into the puzzle, it is indeed very difficult. Without a central or defining image, there's no clear area of attack--after doing the border I did the sky and then started on the grass. There are huge sections of red leaves and yellow leaves, but even after sorting all the pieces into piles there's no easy place to start. You just have to find a match and go from there. The problem with that, however, is that the pieces are very oddly shaped--most of them have at least one side that's mostly flat or has a small curve, so that it just abuts an adjacent piece, rather than locking in. (And the pieces just sort of "fall" together--if it has to "click" to another piece you're putting it in the wrong spot.) Furthermore, the pieces that do lock have a very loose fit, and with nothing other than the trees having a clear outline, it's sometimes tough to tell if two pieces that fit are actually supposed to go together. The colors on the puzzle, however, are much more vibrant, and the image more sharp than the photo on the box, making the box top of very little help--the box photo is also not cropped exactly like the image, so the top and right side don't match those corresponding pieces.

I started with the border and the little bit of sky, then was faced with 1400+ gray, green, yellow, and red pieces.

I should have done this one on a piece of white cardstock or something, since it looks like the same color as the floor (as seen through the glass table top). Next I attacked the grass and the red leaves, and started putting together any of the gray trees that abutted green or red.

When I was down to 250 or so pieces, I laid them out on white paper so they were easier to see, then sorted by shape--the oddly shaped "super challenge" pieces actually paired together very easily once I did this, and the last 200 pieces were a lot easier to slot (but still tricky even though they were all some shade of gray).

Brief panic at the end when I was one piece short. The piece was located in the oven. (Don't ask.)

Despite its technical flaws (loose pieces and a soft, incorrectly cropped box image), this one was fun. A lot of these Super Challenge series puzzles look brutal, so I will probably end up getting more of them at some point.