Tough Act to Follow -- Review

My "Tough Act to Follow" arrived today. This three sword () teaser with art by Cheryl Johnson comes in at ~150 pieces.

Catalog picture:



The predominant theme is a circus train. To me, the theme harkens a bit to the trick puzzle line made up of different train cars with circus animals (Dancing Dolphins; Roo Romp; Amazing Seal; CIrcus Engine; Elephant Show; Lion Show; Seqaquarium.) Did I mention that one of these days I want to pick those up?

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand "Tough Act to Follow". Cheryl has done a fantastic job of capturing the various circus performers (as opposed to the animals, though some of the teaser pieces are animals) and created a teaser masterpiece. This is hands down my favorite new Stave (teaser/trick) acquisition in the past year. First off the teaser breaks a lot of the rules and avoids falling into what I will call the "brute force" trap of some of the teasers that seem to have no "ah ha" moments because i find you need to brute force a lot of the pieces.

A lot of the challenge of this teaser comes from the presence of three primary puzzling cavities to hold the tumbler pieces. It's not that simple though because well, saying more would be telling.

Even assembling the shell of the cavities was a lot of fun as well since there is a lot of playfullness to that as well.

I would rate this puzzle a 5-out-of-5.