Puzzles for Christmas!

3D Interlocking Plastic Animal Puzzles at

Tapir and Friends Animal Store

Our 3D interlocking plastic animal puzzles make great stocking stuffers or small, affordable gifts this year. We are still shipping in time for Christmas in the US and POSSIBLY overseas. We have several express options in our shopping cart! Check out our full selection!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Who needs a pink dinosaur puzzle?

Buy this Styracosaurus dinosaur 3-D interlocking 
plastic puzzle at
 Tapir and Friends Animal Store

Who needs a pink dinosaur puzzle? Maybe you or maybe me. Or maybe you know someone who just loves PINK and also loves dinosaurs! Could this pink dinosaur be the perfect gift?

Our Styracosaurus 3D Puzzle

The details on this 3-D puzzle animal toy add another dimension, so you could say it is 4-D (3-D + details)! It is certainly one of the more detailed we have seen, making it an interesting replica as well as a fun toy for adults and children above the age of 3. This delightful dinosaur model measures 4 inches from nose to tail and 2 inches tall. It comes assembled. The pieces are cleverly fitted, flexible, and not too difficult to assemble. When complete, this highly-detailed dinosaur stands nicely on its own for display on your shelf, TV, computer monitor, etc. Check out our other 3-D Puzzle Animals, as well as our other dinosaur toys.

About Styracosaurus

Dinosaurs represent the dominant terrestrial lifeforms on planet Earth for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic period through the end of the Cretaceous period approximately 65 million years ago. While no human ever lived during the age of dinosaurs, modern palentologists have learned much studying the fossilized remains of these magnificent creatures.

Not to be confused with its famous cousin the triceratops, Styracosaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur that lived approximately 75 - 76 million years ago. Styracosaurus was around 18 feet long and weighed as much as 5,000 pounds. Its most distinctive feature is a head-frill of bone laces with long horns, as well as horns protruding from its large head.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

"C" is for Caribou, Camel and Crab

We're doing fine with our alphabetical discoveries this week. We have plenty of "C" animals. Three of them are the caribou (or reindeer), camel and crab. Our plastic caribou (pictured above) is good for school projects and displays, and can be used as a toy, given as a gift, or saved as a collector's item for animal fans. It is nicely detailed and made of a plastic that's somewhat soft and flexible as well as being sturdy. The anlers are not dangerous because they flex.

Here is one of our beautiful camels by Safari, Ltd. It also had lots of nice, realistic details. We have other nice camels in our gift shop, too.

Crabs! We have lots of crabs. The one shown here is our 3-D Plastic Crab Puzzle. You can take it apart and put it back together as many times as you'd like. The pieces are interlocking and flexible. Have fun with the legs!

Giant Galapagos tortoise 3-D animal puzzle

Have you tried these wonderful 3-D plastic animal puzzles yet? They're among our most popular items. Fun for kids on summer trips, and fun for indoors entertainment when the weather gets too unpleasant to stay outside. I find this tortoise one of our more challenging. We have approximately 40 animal puzzles in stock. Most come in plastic eggs, shells, ice blocks, etc. In other words, the packaging is a snap-together container that you can keep as a way to store the pieces if you decide to take it apart rather than leave it out as a showpiece. The cases are also wonderful for packing to take the puzzles on trips.

I said the tortoise was one of the more challenging, and it is. Most of the bulky animals such as the hippo or one of our two elephants are a bit tough because there are some interior pieces. With the bulky animals you sometimes need to pull off a side, front, back, or top once it's partially put together to get the interior pieces into where they belong. With the thinner animals, most if not all of the pieces have exterior paint and that helps match the pieces up, and you also don't have to maneuver the outside pieces while working on the inside. It's hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean. The snakes, for instance, are reasonably easy, but each animal presents some sort of problem to solve. THE most difficult is our tarantula! Try figuring out which jointed leg goes where - and yes, they have to go in the right sockets, because otherwise the spider simply won't fit together. Kids usually do better with these puzzles than the adults! Check them out, they're lots of fun. And once put together, they look like real animals, so you can add them to your collection of collectible toy plastic animals!

More 3D sea life animal puzzles

So far this 3-D clown crab plastic puzzle seems to be the favorite among the four new sealife and coral reef puzzles in Tapir and Friends online gift shop. But don't overlook his three equally fun friends!

. . . the octopus puzzle . . .

. . . the chambered nautilus puzzle . . .

. . . and this charming, lifelike sea turtle puzzle! A plastic nautilus is hard to find. We had one (non-puzzle, about the same size) but it was (sadly) discontinued by the manufacturer. We were overjoyed to find this puzzle nautilus soon after we had to retire the page for our other nautilus. Although this is a puzzle, it is hard to find the breaks once it's been assembled. The details and design make it an excellent replica for school projects or for a collector of sea animals or shells.

Each animal puzzle has roughly 20 three-dimensional pieces that have to be fitted precisely or the puzzle simply does not go together. These are fun for adults, buy you may need a very young friend to help with the finishing touches. Kids take to these animal puzzles like sea turtles to water. The pieces are flexible and have interlocking parts. We have many animal types for hours of fun. And once you're finished, you can either take it apart again or keep it around as an attractive animal replica! Have fun!

Snow leopards on TV and in your home

If you like these beautiful cats, we have a couple of suggestions. They're going to be on The Discovery Channel on Sunday, March 9th (click the link to see times and read about these animals and their unusual eyes). You could also take home a 3-D plastic snow leopard puzzle (as seen above) from Tapir and Friends Online Gift Shop.

3D animal puzzles!

Hi, Everyone. This nice humpback whale puzzle has just sold out. We can't get any more, and we're sorry about that, it was a real favorite. The good news is that we still have a very limited number of dolphins and orcas from the same series. You can see and order them here.

We have approximately 40 3D puzzle animal types! They're fun for kids and for adults, although the kids are often more adept than us old folks at putting them together. One youngster who had every puzzle we sell also had a special talent. He mixed all of the pieces together from every animal and was able to put them back together at some astounding rate. I'm not sure I would try it! However, you can create your own game, as this young man did, or just enjoy the results of the finished puzzle!

If you're looking for something new, we have four new sea life 3D puzzles that are not even online yet. To order any of these, please call us at (503) 325-3179 (West Coast Time in the US). As of this post, the prices are:

Clown Crab: $8.00

Chambered Nautilus: $8.00

Green Sea Turtle: $8.00

Octopus saiamensis: $6.00

These fun puzzles are also known as 4D . . . three dimensions plus details. Once you've put them together, they make a nice addition to any toy or plastic animal collection! CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A BIGGER IMAGE.