Hey Puzzle Bomb Family!
I hope you're all having a wonderful week! We're having a particularly wonderful one, celebrating Sukkot and the promise of God once again dwelling with His people.
Here's what our eating and sleeping quarters look like this week! The structure is called a sukkah, which is what Israel dwelt in as God led them out of Egypt into the promised land. It's a reminder of how God was with them, is still with us, and how those in Christ, the promised Messiah who reconciles us to God, will physically dwell with Him again! 
On to today's blog! We get very few complaints at Puzzle Bomb, but when we do get one, it tends to be one of two things:
1) "I don't like that the puzzles arrive assembled."
This is what we'll talk about in this blog!
2) "I don't like that you talk about Jesus on the back of the inner sleeve of the box."
I won't write about that in this blog, other than saying that when Jesus completely transforms your life, you can't help but want everyone to know what's possible when you give your life to Him. It's like finding the fountain of youth, a bottomless treasure, or a cure for cancer, but infinitely greater than all three of those things combined. I desperately want everyone to hear the message of new life in Jesus, even if it means they won't buy another puzzle from us. Our puzzles, and whatever money we make creating and selling them, will pass away with this world, but Jesus never will, and eternity is a long time!
Ok, before I preach an entire sermon, as for that first complaint...
The Main Complaint
While folks usually don't mind the record album-style form factor, the reason for the dislike is generally that the person doesn't like a pre-assembled puzzle. I've picked up on a two reasons for this:
1) They don't like any part of the solve spoiled, which is completely understandable. I do some tricky things in our puzzles, and they don't want to discover those things pre-solve. I've mulled over lots of ideas to preserve the mystery better, but just haven't thought of anything that preserves all of the reasons I flat pack, which we'll talk about below.
The main solution I've seen from a few fans is that they'll have someone else in their family unbox and disassemble the puzzle for them. This seems to work great, even though it requires a bit of teamwork!
2) We're creatures of habit, and when something bucks "the way it's done", it challenges that presupposition or habit. You've probably noticed I don't do much of anything normally, so I'm always pushing up against common expectations. :D
I've seen this in the board game world, where almost everyone neatly baggies all of their game bits at the end of a game, impeccably sorting the bits into the box so it's ready for the next game.
Then, a popular game designer, Friedemann Friese, showed himself just raking all of the bits and cards haphazardly into the box after a game, to the abject horror of most board game fans. However, despite the geeky uproar, his logic was sound: it's possible the game will never get played again. If it does get played, we'll sort the bits then. If not, why waste my time?
I see Bumfuzzled puzzles the same way. When you do one, you've got a few minutes of disassembly first, but when you're finished puzzling, there's nothing to do other than slide the puzzle into the box. It just moves the "work" portion of disassembly to when you actually want to use the puzzle.
And, even with standard puzzle boxing methods, most folks take the time to sort all of the pieces neatly onto the table before puzzling anyways, so a pre-assembled puzzle might not really add to the "work" at all (at least all of the pieces are already face-up in a Bumfuzzled!). It just changes the nature of that work.
Why We Flat Pack
While I'd love to solve the issue of preserving the mystery (other than the solution of a second person to unbox for you), I see the benefits far outweighing the potential drawback. There are several!
1) Unbeatable protection. If you've ever opened an older wooden puzzle, you'll nearly always see edge wear on the pieces, caused by jostling around in the box. With flat packing, the pieces don't slowly erode each other every time the box is moved. Lord willing, if my great-grandchildren open one of these puzzles, it will likely look the same as it did when it was new!
I've also never had to replace a piece that was broken upon arrival. Flat-packing allows me to design very intricately without risk of broken pieces during packing and transit. Less problems for you means less time spent on customer service for me; win/win! I do love hearing from you, though, so feel free to email even if you don't have any problems!
2) Variable difficulty. Flat-packing allows me to include the outer frame and backboard, which allows the puzzles to scaled to the puzzlers' preferred level of difficulty.
It's been wonderful seeing parents doing these with young children, or people doing these with the elderly, and everyone is having a good time, despite different puzzling abilities!
3) Savings on freight/shipping/storage. Most puzzle boxes contain a large percentage of air. I don't like to volumetrically pay to warehouse a bunch of air, or pay to ship/freight that air around! The more puzzles that fit on a pallet, the better!
4) Space savings on your shelf. Storing air takes up a lot of space, and many puzzle boxes aren't designed with common shelf dimensions in mind. Most folks don't have unlimited storage space. Similar to storing record albums, a flat box like this allows you to store a lot of puzzles in a small space, in a dimension that works well with most shelving systems.
4) Opportunity for pretty storage. The "spines" of the boxes also make your shelf display super pretty! Especially those who subscribe and are getting them all!
In my case, I keep 5 of each puzzle, making my rainbow super long! I keep one for myself, one for each of my kids, and for who knows what.
If someday any of my kids decide they don't care about dad's puzzles, maybe we'll have a ridiculous "every Bumfuzzled ever made" giveaway! It's crazy to think when our youngest turns 18, there could be nearly 200 Bumfuzzleds!
5) Displayability. While I'm working on a more polished framing system to display Bumfuzzleds as wall or desk art (it's going to be a cool product that allows you to quickly frame and unframe the puzzles!), flat-packing in an outer frame allows the puzzle to be displayed on an easel. Or, I've seen some folks apply a piece of acrylic to the puzzle front, holding it on with binder clips.
Summing it Up
In short, rather than just designing puzzles and auto-piloting our packaging to the standard way of doing things, I weighed a lot of factors in making Bumfuzzled a product rather than just another puzzle.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on our boxing methods! Leave a comment!
Blessings,
Chad aka the Puzzle Bomb Designer and Other Stuff Guy
Why We Flat Pack Our Puzzles
7 comments
As with all of the other commenters, I really like the flat packing. They bring a lot of joy stored in a small space and I find tucking away the completed puzzle in fully assembled form to be very satisfying.
The options for different assembly methods is greatly appreciated. I struggle with vision issues and having the puzzle arrive assembled has an added benefit. Differentiating top from bottom for the natural colored pieces is very challenging for me. So, the first thing I do with a new puzzle is flip it over, remove the frame and paint the backside black with a Sharpie Magnum marker. It dries quickly and then there is no doubt which side of each piece is the back.
Regarding your mention of Jesus – I am an agnostic, but am not offended in the slightest by your faith or when you write about it. Rather, I enjoy the fact it is of great importance to you and the courage with which you openly share. It’s what makes you Chad, but doesn’t mean I have to hold the same passion to enjoy your puzzles. It does mean I know the person behind the puzzles a bit more.
The current flat pack is definitely better than the plastic sleeves because they were hard to get the puzzles in and out. But I remember the original original Bumfuzzled that came in a box. The flat pack design is way easier to store, and the rainbow is fun.
And I love that you talk about Jesus and what he’s done in your lives! I’m thankful every day for what he’s done for me! Never stop (not that you would)!
I like this way of packing. I even thought maybe you could find a cardboard box that is slimmer to reduce even that bit of packing. I think you’ve probably thought it all out well and this is the best and most protective way of shipping. I do puzzles for the fun of it, not the challenge. I find them very restful and they take my mind off any worries or if I’m having trouble sleeping. I don’t mind a challenge, but I do use the picture and any help I can get to do one, although I do separate pieces that have stuck together. We all have our own “rules” for puzzling. Mine as simple. It only takes a short time to start to play and mixing up the pieces that are together to start is not a big deal. I think the rainbow color idea is super. It reminds me of my daughter who put everything into rainbow order, even at the store, if it was supposed to be in that order. I am very temped to rejoin the puzzle-a-month group if there is space as I miss getting them each month. While I have no yet found a safe way to store an unfinished puzzle away from cats and dogs, I anticipate finding a solution one day. I love your puzzles, your creativity, your fun emails, etc. I need to find a way to fit it into my budget. I’m going to go ponder how.
I LOVE the flat packaging, for all the reasons mentioned by Chad above!
My style of doing puzzles is to NEVER refer to the picture while doing the puzzle, but I DO want to see the picture before doing it to have a general idea of where I’m going.
I never try to memorize details, so in the case of the panda with the cube, I simply had a general sense of “panda somewhere” and “cubes somewhere”.
Seeing the puzzle intact before breaking it up gives me no more clues than that.
Perhaps it helps that I don’t have a photographic memory :-)
Chipped corners on wooden puzzle pieces are something I find really annoying. Puzzle Bomb is one of the absolute BEST companies in that regard, and I suspect the flat packaging is a huge boon for the flawless unchipped pieces.
Paul
I love the choice to flat pack it. For some puzzles, I deliberately don’t find out what they are beforehand (like this month’s one, the Ponderous Panda). So now I’ve become an expert at disassembling them without looking at the box or the complete puzzle!
Agreeing with Linda, I’ve recently tried opening and breaking apart the puzzle face down to avoid seeing it; and that seems to work well.
I appreciate the space savings; it’s going to be awhile before my Bumfuzzled shelf can’t hold them all.
Thanks for sharing, this was quite interesting. One thing some people might not know is that the original Bumfuzzled puzzles came in a hard plastic case rather than the doubled cardboard slipcovers. I much prefer the current design as it is much easier to get the puzzles in and out of the holder. I also see (with repeated puzzling) that the folds on the plastic are starting to wear and will likely break off eventually.
Another solution, for those who don’t want to see the puzzle assembled, would be to shake it out face down. Yes, there is the no-color picture on the brown cover, but that avoids clues like color-blocks.
I would think the biggest issue with the flat packing, for the end-user, would be that it is impossible to pack up the puzzle until you have finished it! I just consider this added incentive :-)