Bright Red Barn

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Bright Red Barn – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

An uninspired name for a puzzle, but an accurate one. It’s a great image for a puzzle, but unfortunately it was terrible quality – even though it was mostly fun to put together.

The image itself made for a pleasant assembly, the flowers were a bit of a challenge and kept me on my toes; the barn itself was very entertaining, and the windows and roof helped break up all the red. It was a great couple of hours putting it together, even with the quality issues.

This Milton Bradley puzzle was purchased new, and right out of the box there were problems. Many of the pieces had extremely bent tabs, so much so that when the edge was assembled one of the tabs broke off completely when the piece was connected. The tab stayed in the hole of the adjoining piece, but the image had lifted and remained on the original piece…

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It was quite disappointing, the quality of this puzzle. Milton Bradley joins Ceaco on my list of companies who can’t seem to regulate their quality control. Some of their puzzles have been excellent, and some – like this one – have been less than stellar.

There are always occasional problems, even with the premium puzzle companies; no manufacturing process is perfect. But companies like Ravensburger, Jumbo, Heye, and Pomegranate have managed to produce excellent puzzles almost all of the time. I know you get what you pay for, but if a puzzle company is at least consistent with their quality then I know what I’m buying. If it’s a gamble, I’m less likely to take a chance unless I’m buying used.

Thus ends my rant for the day.

Pattern 1

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Pattern 1 by Patchwork – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

These puzzles make me so happy, they’re beautiful, fun to put together, and they remind me of the pattern/coloring books that mom used to get for us. For me they were so much more interesting to color than your “regular” coloring books for children.

I would love to do this pattern in a larger piece count, they are the perfect image for me; bright colors, fun patterns, and they’re a collage. The quality is excellent – thick pieces, good variety of shapes, excellent image, and a great fit. I’ve found and assembled all 3 of the 300 piece patterns that I could find. There’s a similar 500 piece puzzle available that I would definitely like to get my hands on.

If I could find these patterns in 1000 pieces or even more I might get over my issue with larger piece counts at the moment and dive in!

 

 

Review: Teacups

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Teacups – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

Aren’t these the cutest puzzles? 12 separate teacup puzzles, perfect for the blog tea party being held by Blooms & Beautifuls today – I don’t drink tea, but I’d love to have some hot coffee in one of these beautiful teacups if I could!

These small, separate, shaped puzzles by Lafayette Puzzle Factory are so much fun to assemble that I just can’t seem to walk away once I start putting them together. Each one is quite small compared to a regular puzzle, and it doesn’t take very much time to put them together. Some can be tricky and require a little bit more brain power, but that’s part of the fun! The back of each puzzle is color-coded so you can separate them if you like before you begin; or if you’re feeling like tackling more of a challenge you can ignore the backing and work the puzzles with no extra help – it’s up to you.

The quality is very good; although with the colored backing there seems to be some difficulty with the die cutting all the way through the puzzles. At least a few pieces from each puzzle need to be separated before you begin. I don’t mind so much because I find them so entertaining to assemble that I can overlook the small quality issues.

My oldest son hasn’t been feeling well so he’s been hanging out with me during the day, watching M*A*S*H and assembling puzzles. He helped me with the teacups and he enjoyed them so much that we immediately started on another set. Stay tuned in the upcoming days for the Reef Fish that we assembled together – I’ve added another member to my puzzle posse! 😎

 

The teacups above are our 3 favorites out of the 12, but they are really all quite lovely in their own way. They were so much fun that they were all assembled in about an hour – we just couldn’t stop! That’s my kind of puzzle, it’s definitely recommended – two teacups way up (with pinkies out!) ☕☕

Details:

  • Title:                  Teacups
  • Artist:                Not credited
  • Brand:               Lafayette Puzzle Factory
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Varies
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Very good
  • Cutting:             Good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Very good
  • Puzzle Dust:     Small amount
  • Piece cut:          Random cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Very good, recommended

Three Arches

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Three Arches by Arturo Zarraga – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 250 pieces

This is a beautiful puzzle that I very much enjoyed assembling. As always, working with a wooden puzzle makes me extremely happy, and that the image is so lovely makes it even better.

The artist, Arturo Zarraga, was born in Mexico City and many of his paintings are scenes from the area where he was raised. The info I found on this puzzle says this is a street scene from Mexico City. The whimsies, however, tell a slightly different story…

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If the image is supposed to be Mexico City, I’m not sure why one of the pieces is in the shape of South America – it’s the wrong continent! There are no llamas in Mexico, and Christ the Redeemer is in Rio, Brazil.; but I’m probably nitpicking, right? Problem is, I have way too much time on my hands to look these things up!

Inaccurate whimsies aside, this puzzle was beautiful and wonderfully entertaining to assemble; the color palette is so pleasing it makes for great puzzling. Wentworth Puzzles have such excellent quality and a large and varied catalog, it’s difficult for me to go on their website without wanting to buy way too many puzzles. Of course if I’m honest, that happens on pretty much EVERY puzzle website that I go to. 😉

 

Review: Yarn Shop

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Yarn Shop by Kim Jacobs – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces

Mom loves this image, but it’s just not my pile of pieces (cup of tea, as it were). It’s too pastel, and there’s too much going on. It’s pretty, but it just wasn’t fun for me to assemble.

The quality was good; the pieces are a good thickness with a nice variety of piece shapes. The image reproduction seems a bit fuzzy, but that could be the artwork itself. The fit seemed a bit mushy to me, it wasn’t always clear if the correct piece was chosen because sometimes a piece seemed to fit but really didn’t. I don’t always have the right words, so I’ve chosen “mushy”.

You can see in the above pictures that there was a lot of patterned background, almost none of the pieces had a solid color with no pattern. Perhaps if it were more brightly colored it wouldn’t have been such a chore, but in my opinion the color palette added to the difficulty. I seriously disliked the entire assembly, but that was more about my taste than the quality of the puzzle.

Of course, it could be that I just wasn’t in the right mood for this image. You never can tell these days; old age is setting in (I’m a few months away from 50), and there are plenty of “You kids get off my lawn!” moods that my family has to endure. 👵

If you’re in the right mood, and this image is one that tickles your fancy, I say go for it. The quality is good and if you like the artwork you should enjoy the puzzle.

Details:

  • Title:                  Yarn Shop
  • Artist:                Kim Jacobs
  • Brand:               Milton Bradley
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Very good
  • Cutting:             Good
  • Image:               Good
  • Box:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Good, slightly mushy
  • Puzzle Dust:     Moderate amount
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Good, recommended