Earth 540 pc puzzle ball

I bought this for my 9-year old daughter. She could not wait to put it together, and did so in 2 days. ON the back of the puzzle pieces are numbers to aid in properly assembling the globe. These numbers are almost essential to help put together the ocean areas because many pieces interlock with almost the exact same cut, and it is otherwise hard to know if you got it right. However, my daughter, in her desire to get it made, looked at the numbers for most of the puzzle. I was hoping she would look at the countries & cities to assemble at least the land areas. While she did not get the geography lesson I was hoping for, she had fun and said it was her favorite gift.
I would recommend that the manufacturer only number the ocean areas - it is easy enough to figure out the land areas. They could even key the ocean areas such as P-1 for Pacific, or I-1 for Indian, to at least convey that distinction to a child relying on the numbers to assemble the puzzle.
It is not terribly sturdy when finished - we went back after the fact and applied some scotch tape to the inside to help hold it together. I wish we would have done this as she went along - it would have been easier than taping it at the end.

The durable plastic pieces exactly connect so the globe is solid. For the geographically challenged, there are numbers on the back of the pieces (connect 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.). I gave puzzleballs as gifts with tiny figures from the train model store to glue onto to the globe. A lot of play value for the money!

My 6 year old son had been wanting this puzzle ball for about a year, ever since Aug 2007. We finally got it for him on 23 Nov 2008. At first he was a little overwhemled, but each puzzle piece is numbered 1-540. So I put the puzzle pieces in piles of 100's so he could do it a 100 pieces at a time. He spent about an hour a day on it. It took him about 5 days and 5 hours total to do it, with very little help from me. He also likes it for looking at all of the countries and states.
Thanks again for such a great toy!

It's a lot of fun to put together and definitely teaches geography. It's challenging too, especially in expanses of open ocean but fortunately all the pieces are numbered. It's only drawback is that it's not really a "group" puzzle. Because of it's design you basically start in Antarctica and work your way to the North Pole, pretty much holding it in your hand as you go. Because of the curve of the pieces it's difficult to put together large "sub-assemblies" of areas like you might with a traditional flat puzzle. Nor could one person (or group) start with the South Pole and the other person start with the North Pole, meeting at the Equator. It's also a little fragile. It won't fall apart in normal use but will not stand up to impact or rough handling.

All in all it's a challenging puzzle, looks great completed, and I would highly recommend it! Suitable for kids 7 and up with adult supervision and kids 10 and up alone.

I was thinking about getting a globe as a gift for school age children and came across this puzzle globe. It is a current, working globe with the added bonus of being able to visualize each country as it is put together. The puzzle format is easy to use (the pieces are numbered on the back), but still a little challenging. It is also hard and durable, and can withstand pressure and falling (not a hard fall, I don't think). It would be nice to have some sort of back lighting for night use, but craft aficionados will find a way to remedy that. After I gave one away as a gift, I recommended it to a friend of mine as a gift for an 8 year old puzzle lover. It was his favorite gift ever and he finished it before the night was over!