Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsVery cool little set of Waldo books
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 7, 2022
As a kid they always had these books around in the school and public libraries - but they were very much in demand and often they were quite dirty with pages torn out, if I could even get my hands on them.
To buy each of the 7 books in hardcover, as I always saw them in the past would be a significant expense. This boxed set of new-edition 7 paperbacks is a great way for me to get my chance at trying to really find Waldo, his companions, and all their hidden belongings.
One small thing I notice is that some of the pages throughout the 7 books are printed less-clearly than most of them. I don't know if this has to do with the original drawings, or if its just a printing inconsistency in this run, but its just kindof weird. Even in the later books, when the images are higher quality than the earlier books and often much more clearly detailed, there some pages here and there that look 'softer' in focus. Still totally useable, not fuzzy enough to obscure the hidden objects, but still noticeable.
Another thing is that the paper itself isnt glossy paper from the hardcover printings. Its actually very matte. This might contribute to some of the pages looking less sharp, I don't know.
Anyway, I have no complaints for the price I paid. If you like comic/illustrative art, you can waste hours looking at these chaotic images.
tip: If you don't want to write in the books, but you still want to complete the checklists, you can just photocopy the checklist pages and put them into the box along with the books.
One weird thing I didn't know was that the 7th book, The Incredible Paper Chase...is really an oddball in the series. It has 2 major punch-out/fold-out cardboard inserts in the book. A board game, and a circus scene made of little paper dolls that you much out. Both of them seem totally for kids only. This book only has half the number of 2-page spreads as most of the books (6 instead of 12), with a few 1-page games thrown in. And even the 2-page spreads are much more simplistic than in other books. I don't know if this is all because this final book was intentionally aimed at a younger audience, or because this book came out 22 years after the first one, and the artist/author had tired of it a bit. Either way, It's a bit disappointing that what will probably the ultimate Waldo book, actually seems to be the simplest. Maybe some Waldo experts will say that its actually the most intricate and complex one - but I don't see it.
