While most puzzles are rectangular in their shape, today we are looking at shaped puzzles. What the heck is a shaped puzzle you ask? Well, if you look at something like our Disney puzzle guide, you will notice most of them are the same shape - they have straight edges and corner pieces.
Well, the puzzles we are looking at today break that puzzle mold and are uniquely shaped. What is the point of this? Well, to start with, it makes for a much more challenging jigsaw puzzle to put together so if you feel like you are as smart as Reed Richards, you will love the extra challenge you get with one of these puzzles.
Also, there is just something a bit more fun about putting together a puzzle that is not shaped like all of the rest. This can be great if you are a puzzle enthusiast who is a little burned out on jigsaw puzzles as it makes a jigsaw puzzle seem fresh and exciting.
8 Simple Rules For Makin Our Shaped Puzzle List!
Ok, so that was a tortured pun and an attempt at humor based on the Disney classic 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter. However, in all seriousness, we here at Geek’s Oasis did have some rules for picking puzzles for our shaped puzzles list. Basically, the rule was the puzzle could not be in a rectangle or square shape, anything else was fair game!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
Trust us, if you read this with the voice of Mickey Mouse in your head it will be way better! Oh boy! This super fun Mickey Mouse puzzle is not only challenging as it is made up of over 900 pieces, but it is also a ton of fun as the whole puzzle is shaped like Mickey Mouse!
Inside the puzzle are tons of Mickey heads, based on all eras of Mickey Mouse a few of our favorites being classic Steamboat Willy and Mickey from Mickey’s Christmas Carol!
Good To Know
- Size: 14 x 10 inches
- Recommended age: 12 years and up
- If you are a big Disney fan you will get a huge kick out of the different eras of Mickey here
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
As you may know from our Game of Thrones puzzles list, we love dragons here at Geek’s Oasis and this is one very badass-looking dragon! We just love the whole design of this dragon!
It looks like it is stained glass, like something that would be on the wall of a gothic church in some kind of fantasy land. 304 pieces may sound easy, but this dragon is sure to take a bite out of you with how challenging it is!
Good To Know
- Size: 17 x 16 inches
- Recommended age: 12 years and up
- Made from wood
- For those that love fantasy and dragons, this is one of the coolest-shaped puzzles around!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
One of our favorite puzzle guides that we have done is the one looking at Haunted Mansion puzzles so you know we love the dark and macabre here at Geek’s Oasis. As soon as we saw this awesome-shaped puzzle, we knew it had to make this list!
This is coming in at 1000 pieces so hopefully, you will have a spell or two up your sleeve to get through this! We in particular love all of the funny Halloween-themed signs this witch has.
Good To Know
- Size:27 x 37 inches
- Recommended age: 13 years and up
- There is so much going on in this puzzle, it really is going to test those puzzle skills of yours!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
”America! F Yeah!” Ok, if you get that we are pretty sure we can be friends.
In all seriousness how cool is this? The American eagle is just such a cool creature and this one is even more patriotic as it is rocking the stars and stripes on its wings!
It looks like something Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai would have on his living room wall! Not only will this be fun to put together, but this is also going to look amazing in a frame on your wall.
Good To Know
- Size: 21.26 x 14.76 inches
- Recommended age: 6 years and up
- Made from wood
- With most of this puzzle being red, white, and blue, it truly is going to be one heck of a challenging puzzle to put together.
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
Recently we looked at the best National Parks puzzles and to be honest with you, this could have made that list. This is just awesome; we love it when shaped puzzles are shaped like animals and this one is shaped like a big Canadian moose!
While that alone is cool, inside the moose are all kinds of amazing animals such as bears, mountain lions, wolves, and more. It truly is an amazing puzzle for those that are animal lovers and get a kick out of the great outdoors.
Good To Know
- Size: 25.25 x 31.25 inches
- Recommended age: 8 years and up
- If it is a challenging, but also epic-looking shaped puzzle you are after, look no further than this one!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
If you wanna rock, this is the puzzle for you! Who hasn’t sometimes wished that they were a guitar God like Slash or Richie Sambora?
Well, this guitar-shaped puzzle may not let you play like you are Nikki Six, but you will still have a lot of fun while you are putting it together.
This guitar has a kind of psychedelic, paint-splatter thing going on. Kind of like something Jimi Hendrix would have rocked out with…. And then set on fire!
Good To Know
- Size: 7.4 x 22.5 inches
- Recommended age: 12 years and up
- This is actually part of a series of puzzles, you can also get a bass guitar and a drum too both of which are shaped like their respective instrument!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
As soon as we started this shaped puzzles list we knew that some kind of wolf had to appear on it. Heck, we could do a whole list of epic wolf puzzles!
Anyway, this features one very majestic-looking wolf, howling at the moon as only wolves can. While the shape of the puzzle is great, we love the artistic style it has.
This is one that would be great to put in a frame and display on your wall. And while it "only" has 170 pieces, it would still be pretty challenging just like all these irregular-shaped puzzles.
Good To Know
- Size: 27 x 35 inches
- Recommended age: 8 years and up
- Made from wood
- If you are like us and think wolves are cool and have a bit of mysticism about them, this is the shaped puzzle for you!
FAQs About Shaped Puzzles
If you do have a few things that are poking around in that nogging of yours about these exclusive shaped jigsaw puzzles, you have come to the right place!
Are shaped puzzles really harder?
Of course, we are all different when it comes to jigsaw puzzles in regard to what we find difficult, but for the most part, we would say yes.
You may notice that some shaped puzzles are not as huge as say a 1000-piece puzzle or one of the puzzles that you may have seen in our Spider-Man puzzle guide, but the challenge here is that the shapes are so unique and odd, it makes finding the right spot for each piece extra challenging.
So for puzzling beginners, we'd recommend either the ones with a smaller piece count or maybe you're better off starting with a rectangle puzzle at first.
Can I still frame a shaped puzzle?
We had a lot of fun looking at the best puzzle frames here and while they are clearly made with rectangular puzzles in mind, we feel that if a shaped puzzle fits in a frame then it is more than ok to frame it.
You may have to do a bit more homework to make sure it will fit ok. Plus, you may have to do a little more work to get it in the middle of the frame and use some puzzle glue too, but it certainly can be done.
What kind of themes are featured on shaped jigsaw puzzles?
Most of the shaped puzzles, around 95%, are animal-shaped, and there aren't that many other ones out there. And there is a good reason for that - those animal-shaped puzzles just look so cool!
One Last Thought About These Unique Shaped Jigsaw Puzzles
Thanks for taking this trip around to look at shaped puzzles. We had a lot of fun with it and granted, it may not be as exciting as looking at Harry Potter 3D puzzles in theory, but we would hand on heart have more than a couple of these puzzles on a new cool puzzles list if we do one.
Puzzles should be fun and not only are all the puzzles that have made our shaped puzzle list fun, but they are also extra challenging so perfect if you want something that is going to help keep that mind of yours as sharp as Professor X’s!
Thanks for stopping by!
