My daughter gave me this to assemble after she had done it, she said it was kinda tough and was pretty proud of herself for getting it done. It was a bit of a challenge, so way to go for both of us! Not great quality, but the image is fun – and how could I refuse to assemble a puzzle she gave me?
Technically this puzzle doesn’t have a name, according to the box – I have named it Donut. It came in a multipack called Sweet & Salty. I think this is without a doubt the most challenging 300 piece puzzle I have ever assembled. It looks amazing though, doesn’t it? I’m not one for sprinkles, but a chocolate frosted donut sounds so good right now! 🍩
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this puzzle, especially since it was in a multipack. My experience with many puzzles in one box has been that the quality was quite poor. This is the first one from this box that I’ve assembled, but the quality of this particular puzzle was better than expected.
The pieces were thicker than I remember from other Ceaco puzzles I’ve assembled, and the fit was excellent. There was a good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction was very good as well. The cutting leaves a bit to be desired, as all the pieces weren’t cut completely through; and although the thickness was better than I remember there was still some fanning of the chipboard on some pieces. Still, overall, I found the quality to be good. Click the link above to see all the Ceaco puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse.
The obvious place to start was with the edges and the center, and they went together pretty quickly. I don’t normally work this way, but I separated the pieces by shape and worked from center to edge all the way around. The image is pretty challenging, but I enjoyed it anyway and the finished product is very cool looking!
Although Ceaco isn’t a premium brand, getting 8 puzzles for $16.99 is a pretty good bargain in my opinion. And even though the chipboard isn’t the thickest around, they have beautiful images and an excellent fit. I enjoyed this first puzzle very much – keep an eye out for the remaining 7 puzzles, I hope they’re as much fun as this one was.
Details:
Quality:
Overall Rating: Good, recommended
This beautiful image was fun to assemble, but it was the first time I’ve been disappointed in a MasterPieces puzzle in quite a while. 😒
My experience with this brand has mostly been very good. The image reproduction has always been excellent in my opinion, as are the variety of piece shapes. They are a good thickness and fit together well. I’ve heard that others have found the fit to be quite loose, but that hasn’t been my experience at all. That doesn’t discount their experience; there have been many times where people with the exact same puzzle have had much different levels of quality – a lot of the time it all depends on where in the run your puzzle was produced. Beginning of the run may give you a tighter fit, end of the run can be much looser.
My problem with this puzzle wasn’t the fit at all, it was the bent pieces. I can’t be sure if it was because of the box (book shaped and somewhat small for 300 large pieces) or if it was another reason. The pieces were almost jammed in the box, and up into the spine of the “book”. Whatever it was, there were many bent pieces and the puzzle didn’t lay flat when complete, which was disappointing.
Otherwise I enjoyed the assembly very much, and found the image itself to be absolutely stunning. Steve Crisp’s artwork is beautiful, the colors are perfect for the scene, and it made for a captivating puzzle.
The random cut helped with keeping my focus as well, you couldn’t rely on the edges of the pieces to help you find what exact shape you were looking for. You have to rely more on patterns and shades of color because you may think you’re looking for a certain shape and it could end up that 2 pieces fit where you thought only 1 should go. I love it when a puzzle keeps me on my toes. 🙂
The bent pieces were a bummer, but I enjoyed it anyway – it’s a beautiful puzzle!
Here’s another puzzle from several years ago, and I specifically remember the time frame and what was going on when I was assembling it. I don’t always remember the specific time, but I do with this puzzle – it was June of 2016. It seems odd that I don’t have the title or even the brand of the puzzle, but unfortunately I don’t have that information (even though I searched the internet for info on it). I wish I did, because this was so much fun to assemble; I’d love to be able to recommend it by name. 🙂
Even though this thrift store puzzle had two missing pieces it was so much fun! It was so long ago, and missing pieces, but I do recall that mom wanted me to keep it so she could assemble it even though it wasn’t complete. It may be hiding in the piles and piles of puzzles at mom’s house, but she’s in the process of moving, so finding it isn’t an option at the moment.
The great colors and all the wording made this puzzle both entertaining and challenging; and part of the reason mom wanted to assemble this even with missing pieces is because I enjoyed it so much. I don’t recall much about the actual quality of the puzzle, but the image is what made it so much fun to put together.
If you can find a title, artist, or manufacturer please let me know (I’m not great at finding things online, obviously). 🙂
I’ve been having a terrible month so far, and feeling so blah I don’t even want to pick out a puzzle to work on. I have several puzzles to review, and plenty of other puzzles as well. Problem is my medication is fogging up my brain and I can’t seem to concentrate on anything at the moment, not even a puzzle.
What puzzle are you working on? I need some inspiration.
My Jigsaw Journal 