Review: Central 23- Midnight in Soho

New Brand Alert!!!

Central 23 has come on the puzzle scene with an amazing group of original art puzzles. Based out of Soho, London, their mission is to create the world’s “funnest puzzles”, and I think they have achieved that. I have my eye on a few of their modern designs, and they were kind enough to send me one of their 1000 piece puzzles, Midnight in Soho, for review.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the box to find a coaster included! I have never gotten an extra like this inside of a puzzle and it totally made my day right off the bat. They also came up with a cute booklet with puzzling tips and tricks.

The pieces came in a plastic bag that is resealable with a sticky line, similar to when you buy a greeting card and it comes in that plastic film. Of course, I’m an idiot and didn’t see that and cut the bag open…

As I dumped out the pieces, I was a bit disappointed to see some chunks that weren’t fully cut through. There also seemed to be some odd cracking on the image, like it wasn’t set before cutting and the image got stretched. I reached out to Central 23 with my concerns and they said that they are working with the manufacturer to remedy these issues in future batches. I really appreciate a company that takes time to listen to their customers and use feedback to improve their products, and I have no doubt that this will be the case with Central 23!

The image I worked on was a really easy to sort puzzle. I hate hate hate sorting, but the different brick buildings, sky and street scenes made it a quick and easy process. I did have some issues with pieces fitting into places they didn’t belong, but could easily figure out they were in the wrong place by following the brick pattern.

The team designed this image based off of the area their office is in and even hid their names in the graffiti. They also provided a list of seek and find objects to look for at the end of the puzzle, and I have to say those were a hoot! I’m really excited to get my hands on some more of their puzzles. They are definitely a brand I’ll be watching going forward!