A few weeks ago my fiance and I celebrated our anniversary! He got me this awesome Totoro puzzle planter. Since the first time I saw it at the store, I’ve wanted this puzzle planter. I’ve seen the completed display piece at the store but I’ve never seen a work in progress. I open the box and see 2 bags, 1 with all the puzzle pieces and 1 with the planter pieces, and a card of instructions that have no English what-so-ever.
I begin by opening the puzzle bag and dumping it out on my table. First thing I notice is that every piece has a number on the back. Unlike a normal puzzle where you look at the picture while you are putting the pieces together, you have to assemble the pieces in numerical order without looking at the final picture. 80 pieces shouldn’t be this difficult right?
After assembling 1 thru 16 completed the top ring of the planter. Overall it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. Everything snaps tight when its in the correct position. After completing this ring I opened up the bag of planter pieces. There are 4 pieces in this bag, the bottom base, the middle support, the planter insert, and the top support. I need the top support piece to attach to the ring I just created. The grooves on the ring of puzzle pieces fit into the slots on the support ring. Just like the puzzle pieces everything snaps tightly together when it is in the correct position. By attaching the top support now it helps to stabilize the the puzzle ring i have already assembled.
I continue working on the puzzle until I have snapped together the last piece. I now have a completed puzzle bowl. At this point I wish I could read the instructions about how to attach the remaining pieces, but a little trial and error eventually worked out fine. The middle insert, which is the one without the holes, slides into the bowl and sits on top of the top support ring, carefully flip upside down and put the base piece on which locks everything in place. The planter insert fit inside the middle insert and the puzzle planter is completed!
Picking out a plant was difficult since it is currently fall in my area. There wasn’t too much of a selection of plants would even fit this small of a planter. Mums are nice and all but most of the time they grow into really large and sprawling plants. Eventually I found some smaller Heather plants that were meant to be indoor decor plants and thought that was perfect! It has made a nice addition to our growing Anime garden.
This was my first ever 3-D puzzle attempt and a challenge for myself that I’ve wanted to try out for many years. After assembling mine all I can say is that this was very different from any sort of puzzle I’ve done before and I would love to try something a little larger next time.
Katagi's Kreations 