This review is from: Ravensburger Giant Stow And Go (Toy)
Vine Customer Review of Free Product(What’s this?)
Customer Video Review Length:: 0:34 Mins
Just before I got this Ravensburger Giant Stow and Go puzzle mover, I spent three weeks building a 2000 piece monster of a puzzle (Neuschwanstein Castle 2000 PiecePanorama XXL Puzzle). My family would have loved this system to free up the dining room table.
This product couldn’t be more simple, a huge heavy deep blue felt mat, three elastic bands, and an inflatable tube (a larger version of those thunder sticks seen at sporting events). It also works rather well. There are a few tricks to making it work better.
The biggest problem is that the felt is folded up inside the box. Felt is awesome at keeping folds. It is important to iron or steam the mat before using it. The worst thing in the world is trying to build a puzzle with hills and valleys – it just doesn’t work. Spend some time and iron the mat. I didn’t do that, and regretted every minute of not ironing it.
In order to sell this in a box about the size of a puzzle, they had to use an inflatable tube. If Ravensburger used a solid tube, these Stow and Goes would never fit on the shelf at the store; and they would be double hard to store at home. The inflatable tube works just fine, it isn’t perfect but it holds air very well and does the job. It would be pretty simple to find a cardboard poster mailing tube or buy a piece of two inch PVC pipe at the local home center.
I tested the heck out of this system and it works perfectly fine, with a few small caveats. Leaving a lot of stray pieces on the mat is not a great idea. It is better to work off trays or the box for larger puzzles. For 500 to 1000 piece puzzles, it might be possible to leave pieces on the mat. Be certain to leave a fairly big border around the puzzle, work more in the center of the mat than near an edge. Don’t do what I did; start really close to one edge of the mat. When rolling up the puzzle, it will shift a bit away from the direction rolling. At some point a bit of the puzzle will come undone. This is incredibly minor, reconnect the pieces after unrolling, it takes about 30 seconds to do.
No pieces ever flipped over or stuck to the mat. If I left stray pieces close to the edge, they fell out if I held the roll vertically (simple solution, keep the roll horizontal). In general the puzzle stayed put together pretty darn well. In fact it seemed like magic when I unrolled the puzzle. I really liked that pieces don’t move around while working on the puzzle. Place a piece on the mat, and it stays there, no sliding around like on my dining room table. The royal blue is beautiful. The elastic bands feel a bit flimsy, but they do exactly the job required, hold the felt closed.
Check puzzle dimensions carefully, this will definitely work with 1000 to 2000 piece puzzles. I’m not as confident about 3000, unless the puzzle uses fairly small pieces.
Be certain to iron the felt before using. I’m amazed at how well this works.
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This review is from: Ravensburger Giant Stow And Go (Toy)
Vine Customer Review of Free Product(What’s this?)
Ravensburger Giant Stow and Go mat does the job on keeping my puzzles safe and out of the way when I am not working on it. It is perfect? No. The felted mat isn’t firm enough to keep a puzzle say on a bed or anything like that, but on a table it works good. There are other things which I will explain below.
The blue color makes it easy for the puzzle pieces to show up and that I like. The plastic blow up tube, (think of plastic beach ball type of plastic), is what holds the puzzle together by slowly rolling the mat with the puzzle onto the tube and holding it with bands. I have several tips I will share that will help make your puzzle adventure a pleasant one and not one where you want to pull your hair out.
First, the mat is about 39½ inches, (at least that is what mine was), by about 60 inches. It comes folded with rather harsh fold lines, so I put it in the dryer on the gentlest cycle. I was able to get most of the wrinkles out after about 30 minutes in the dryer. I then ironed out on the lowest setting the rest of the lines. Do not let your iron stay on the fabric for any length of time so not to burn it. Just keep sweeping it over the wrinkles and it will take them out.
Secondly, After doing a 2,000 piece and 3,000 piece puzzle on the mat, the 2,000 piece had no problem holding together except for a few pieces turning over once in a while, but it held. The 3,000 piece not so much. I found out one thing is to always keep your puzzle on the mat from the start, so don’t transfer it from a table and them to the mat.
Next, the 3,000 piece puzzle, I found by going down to the fabric store and buying about two yards of felt fabric, trimmed to the same as the mat, then I laid it over the puzzle and then rolled the mat up over the tube, it held my puzzle. Why? I think the felt fabric I put on top helps hold the pieces in and it allows for a greater hold from the tube. The reason the pieces fall apart was the plastic tube has no grip on it and the felt fabric holds the pieces together. So try that on big puzzles.
Last, make sure the tube is filled up totally. If the tube is not totally filled up with air, it will not hold to the puzzle well. It can cause the puzzle to fall apart.
The Stow and Go is about the best you can find right now for storing big puzzles. Follow these tips and it will help keep your puzzle on the mat and not on the floor. Oh and one other tip, when you move the tube with the mat and puzzle, gently move it and keep it horizontal. Don’t tilt it up vertically. This really helps too on keeping your puzzle from shifting and pieces coming undone.
One tip I would give Ravensburger is to make the tube with a flocked felt sprayed onto the tube. I think this would hold the puzzle much better than the shiny smooth plastic tube. All in all, with these tips, it works well.
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This review is from: Ravensburger Giant Stow And Go (Toy)
Vine Customer Review of Free Product(What’s this?)
We do so many puzzles in our house, so I was interested to see how a puzzle storage system would work. This particular system is a large piece of felt and an inflatable tube.
The felt is very durable and the pieces don’t slide around, and the inflatable tube is a great toy for hitting other people with.
The first couple of times I tried to roll up my puzzle and move it to another location, everything was fine with the rolling and unrolling, until I got to unrolling the last piece of felt that was around the tube. The puzzle pieces tend to slip out while the fabric is still on the tube, so the last five or six inches get ruined. A way to prevent this would be to keep a border of 6 inches on the edge that would be rolled first, so that part wouldn’t be jumbled.
Pros: you can (very carefully) move the puzzle successfully. the product is very sturdy
Cons: The puzzle pieces are not on a perfectly flat surface so the puzzle tends to buckle. I prefer a very flat surface for puzzling. There’s a reason why I don’t put puzzles on fabric.
Bottom line: I wouldn’t buy it again.
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Table Saver,
Customer Video Review Length:: 0:34 Mins
Just before I got this Ravensburger Giant Stow and Go puzzle mover, I spent three weeks building a 2000 piece monster of a puzzle (Neuschwanstein Castle 2000 PiecePanorama XXL Puzzle). My family would have loved this system to free up the dining room table.
This product couldn’t be more simple, a huge heavy deep blue felt mat, three elastic bands, and an inflatable tube (a larger version of those thunder sticks seen at sporting events). It also works rather well. There are a few tricks to making it work better.
The biggest problem is that the felt is folded up inside the box. Felt is awesome at keeping folds. It is important to iron or steam the mat before using it. The worst thing in the world is trying to build a puzzle with hills and valleys – it just doesn’t work. Spend some time and iron the mat. I didn’t do that, and regretted every minute of not ironing it.
In order to sell this in a box about the size of a puzzle, they had to use an inflatable tube. If Ravensburger used a solid tube, these Stow and Goes would never fit on the shelf at the store; and they would be double hard to store at home. The inflatable tube works just fine, it isn’t perfect but it holds air very well and does the job. It would be pretty simple to find a cardboard poster mailing tube or buy a piece of two inch PVC pipe at the local home center.
I tested the heck out of this system and it works perfectly fine, with a few small caveats. Leaving a lot of stray pieces on the mat is not a great idea. It is better to work off trays or the box for larger puzzles. For 500 to 1000 piece puzzles, it might be possible to leave pieces on the mat. Be certain to leave a fairly big border around the puzzle, work more in the center of the mat than near an edge. Don’t do what I did; start really close to one edge of the mat. When rolling up the puzzle, it will shift a bit away from the direction rolling. At some point a bit of the puzzle will come undone. This is incredibly minor, reconnect the pieces after unrolling, it takes about 30 seconds to do.
No pieces ever flipped over or stuck to the mat. If I left stray pieces close to the edge, they fell out if I held the roll vertically (simple solution, keep the roll horizontal). In general the puzzle stayed put together pretty darn well. In fact it seemed like magic when I unrolled the puzzle. I really liked that pieces don’t move around while working on the puzzle. Place a piece on the mat, and it stays there, no sliding around like on my dining room table. The royal blue is beautiful. The elastic bands feel a bit flimsy, but they do exactly the job required, hold the felt closed.
Check puzzle dimensions carefully, this will definitely work with 1000 to 2000 piece puzzles. I’m not as confident about 3000, unless the puzzle uses fairly small pieces.
Be certain to iron the felt before using. I’m amazed at how well this works.
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|Does the job,
The blue color makes it easy for the puzzle pieces to show up and that I like. The plastic blow up tube, (think of plastic beach ball type of plastic), is what holds the puzzle together by slowly rolling the mat with the puzzle onto the tube and holding it with bands. I have several tips I will share that will help make your puzzle adventure a pleasant one and not one where you want to pull your hair out.
First, the mat is about 39½ inches, (at least that is what mine was), by about 60 inches. It comes folded with rather harsh fold lines, so I put it in the dryer on the gentlest cycle. I was able to get most of the wrinkles out after about 30 minutes in the dryer. I then ironed out on the lowest setting the rest of the lines. Do not let your iron stay on the fabric for any length of time so not to burn it. Just keep sweeping it over the wrinkles and it will take them out.
Secondly, After doing a 2,000 piece and 3,000 piece puzzle on the mat, the 2,000 piece had no problem holding together except for a few pieces turning over once in a while, but it held. The 3,000 piece not so much. I found out one thing is to always keep your puzzle on the mat from the start, so don’t transfer it from a table and them to the mat.
Next, the 3,000 piece puzzle, I found by going down to the fabric store and buying about two yards of felt fabric, trimmed to the same as the mat, then I laid it over the puzzle and then rolled the mat up over the tube, it held my puzzle. Why? I think the felt fabric I put on top helps hold the pieces in and it allows for a greater hold from the tube. The reason the pieces fall apart was the plastic tube has no grip on it and the felt fabric holds the pieces together. So try that on big puzzles.
Last, make sure the tube is filled up totally. If the tube is not totally filled up with air, it will not hold to the puzzle well. It can cause the puzzle to fall apart.
The Stow and Go is about the best you can find right now for storing big puzzles. Follow these tips and it will help keep your puzzle on the mat and not on the floor. Oh and one other tip, when you move the tube with the mat and puzzle, gently move it and keep it horizontal. Don’t tilt it up vertically. This really helps too on keeping your puzzle from shifting and pieces coming undone.
One tip I would give Ravensburger is to make the tube with a flocked felt sprayed onto the tube. I think this would hold the puzzle much better than the shiny smooth plastic tube. All in all, with these tips, it works well.
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|Does the job, but not stellar,
The felt is very durable and the pieces don’t slide around, and the inflatable tube is a great toy for hitting other people with.
The first couple of times I tried to roll up my puzzle and move it to another location, everything was fine with the rolling and unrolling, until I got to unrolling the last piece of felt that was around the tube. The puzzle pieces tend to slip out while the fabric is still on the tube, so the last five or six inches get ruined. A way to prevent this would be to keep a border of 6 inches on the edge that would be rolled first, so that part wouldn’t be jumbled.
Pros: you can (very carefully) move the puzzle successfully.
the product is very sturdy
Cons: The puzzle pieces are not on a perfectly flat surface so the puzzle tends to buckle. I prefer a very flat surface for puzzling. There’s a reason why I don’t put puzzles on fabric.
Bottom line: I wouldn’t buy it again.
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