Quick assembly that was my first completed puzzle of 2024. My youngest son got it for me for Christmas, and bought it at our local library during their book sale. I love that he wanted to get me something he knew I would like and did so by recycling a puzzle. What someone spends on me doesn’t make the gift good or bad, it’s the intention behind the gift that matters – and his mom thinks he did a great job.💖
This is a new to me company that I hadn’t previously heard of. Dreamtivity. To be honest the quality really wasn’t that great. The fit was loose and a bit wonky, and although the variety of shapes was good the actual cut of the pieces wasn’t great. The chipboard itself was a bit on the thin side, but not too much so. The image reproduction was the best part of the puzzle, it’s a beautiful image and it was reproduced very nicely with sharp, bright colors.
This was my first mini panoramic puzzle (I think) at only 101 pieces, and it was pretty enjoyable to assemble even with the less than optimal quality.
This thrift store puzzle had a HORRIBLE loose and floppy fit, and was so bleeping frustrating that I wanted to set the bleeping thing on fire and chuck it in the bleeping garbage! Bleep! 😡🤬
You couldn’t move two pieces without them falling apart and it was unbelievably frustrating to work with.
Normally Springbok puzzles aren’t loose, many times I’ve had Springbok puzzles with a fit that was too tight and you had to really work at getting the pieces together; neither is fun to work with in my opinion. This one was so frustrating that at times I was almost enraged by how the pieces would crumble apart when you tried to adjust them even just a tiny bit. Grrrr!
The collage image was one I was very excited to put together, you know how I love an interesting collage – it’s my puzzle happy place. Unfortunately the puzzle that this image was attached to made me very, very sad. Very sad indeed. 😭
Regardless, the image was fun to assemble and the family and I all took turns saying how many of the movies we hadn’t seen. Usually with a book cover collage we say how many of the books we’ve read, but with this one most of us have seen almost all the of movies. There are only five movies in this image that I haven’t seen; Weird Science, The Blues Brothers, A Clockwork Orange, Scarface, and Blade Runner.
*Please don’t say, “Oh, but you have to see ______, it’s such an iconic/funny/wonderful, interesting movie”. While I appreciate your opinions, truly, I am very particular about movies and have to be in just the right mood to watch certain genres. And as I get older I find I have much less taste for deep, insightful, upsetting, or thought-provoking movies; entertainment, not introspection is what I’m looking for.*
I’ve chosen three to highlight here because they’re movies that I love and have seen multiple times and can quote from. Ready for some reminiscing?
The Princess Bride is a family favorite, and my entire family can quote extensively from this one. It’s a fabulous movie that I highly recommend if comedy, drama, romance and fun are what you’re looking for. Princess Buttercup, Wesley, Fezzik, Inigo Montoya, Vizzini, Miracle Max, Prince Humperdinck – all amazing characters in a wonderful movie that the whole family can enjoy. There’s only one swear word in the entire movie, and I’ve already told the story of my youngest son yelling out the movie quote at his teacher when he was upset at school. “I want my father back you son of a b*tch!” Oh dear.
Being the comedy nerd that I am, of course I loved Airplane! All the slapstick, the little jokes that you have to pay attention to hear, it’s a fantastically funny movie in my opinion. Barbara Billingsley (Beaver Cleaver’s mom) talking jive, the “drinking problem” of the hero, the little guy visiting the cockpit and talking to the pilot – thinking of all the stupid, ridiculous, naughty, silly jokes really does make me smile.
As a teenager in the 1980s, of course John Hughes movies are on my list of great movies to watch. My whole family loved this movie, and we can quote from this one too. Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald were fabulous in this one (and who can forget Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong?), and the comedy and one liners are still funny to me today. Sweet, silly, touching – John Hughes knew how to make a great movie.
I wish I’d enjoyed this puzzle more, but the quality left a bit to be desired. 😐
Oh well, at least talking about some of my favorite movies has made me happy.
Happy Beads by Elspeth McLean – Ravensburger – 500 pieces
I fell in love with a couple of puzzles by this artist at the store, and bought two of her 500 piece puzzles. Of course I got them home, opened the boxes and looked at the pieces and thought “Why in the world didn’t you recognize how difficult these were going to be?” That’s me all over, if I love the image then damn the consequences – I’m buying it!
Actually this one seems like it’ll be the easier of the two that were purchased, and even though I knew going in it would be challenging it hasn’t been as horrible as I’d prepared myself for. Actually it’s been much more enjoyable than even I thought.
Last night I was working on this and one bead led to the next; things were connecting and even though I knew I needed to get out of my chair and go lie down it was extremely difficult to crowbar myself away from this puzzle. In the end a bargain was made (in my mind) that once the pieces were pared down from four trays to three that would be the end of work for the night. It was difficult, but eventually the last piece was put in for the evening and finally got myself to bed. 🛌💤
It’s going together slowly, bead by bead, but it’s been nice just zoning out and searching for the pieces of one bead or another; it’s almost meditative as focus is definitely required. When a puzzle takes that much of my concentration it almost shuts out the rest of world.
Isn’t that something we all need from time to time? I certainly do!
Koi Fish by Ciro Marchetti – Milton Bradley (Big Ben Luxe) – 500 pieces
Absolutely gorgeous image by Ciro Marchetti, it made for such entertaining puzzling! Underwater scenes aren’t usually my thing, but my daughter wanted me to buy this one so I couldn’t disappoint her. She’s such an enabler (LOVE that about her). 😉
I had no idea when I bought this that it was a Marchetti image, there was absolutely no mention of the artist anywhere on the box. Disappointing. If I had my artwork on a puzzle I would absolutely want to see my name on the box – wouldn’t you? Luckily the poster that came in the box had the artist credited.
It’s hard to give a rating for the quality – other than the fit it was very good/excellent – but fit is SO important! Piece shapes, cut, reproduction, finish, and chipboard were all really quite good; even better than expected. But how a puzzle fits together is unbelievably essential to a good assembly experience, and the fit on this puzzle left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t just loose, it was spongy as well; even when the correct pieces were put together you still weren’t always sure because it felt almost wrong the way it fit. I guess I’m giving it a good rating. Honestly, if the fit were better it would have gotten an excellent rating and I would have also given it a highly recommended.
It’s hard to say fish have expressions on their faces, but there something about the eye on this Koi fish, it almost looks embarrassed. It actually made me laugh when I really looked at it.
Look at these gorgeous colors! Ciro Marchetti’s work reminds me of Aimee Stewart, their use of color is similar, and makes for such fun puzzles in my opinion. Stunning!
Wonky fit aside, it was a beautiful image that made for truly fun puzzling. I started it late at night and finished by 9:00 the next morning. It makes me wish I had more puzzles with his artwork here, this one was fun!
Even though this image was quite difficult I loved this one. As an added bonus part of the proceeds from the sale of this puzzle go to The Trevor Project, which makes me extremely happy; love it when I can buy a puzzle and help people at the same time!
The quality is typical for a MicroPuzzles puzzle, and I love being able to subscribe and get new fun images each month. This is one that I bought from their website (puzzle shopping addict? anyone?) and I’m constantly looking for new and interesting images to put together whether the puzzles be large or small.
This image, luckily, was double sided. When I wasn’t sure about whether or not a piece was placed correctly I could just turn it over to verify. Several times I was wrong, because although you might think a rainbow colored puzzle would be simple to assemble – it wasn’t. But therein lies the fun!
I always appreciate a double sided puzzle, especially when the image on the front is a bit challenging, like this one was. Can’t say enough good things about this puzzle.
My Jigsaw Journal 