Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

The World of Frankenstein

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles14 Comments

The World of Frankenstein by Adam Simpson – Laurence King – 1000 pieces

Though at times difficult, I very much enjoyed this puzzle. The quality of the puzzle itself, and the interesting collage-like image made for fun puzzling. If it looks like something you’re interested in, I definitely recommend this one (as long as the puzzle is manufactured in the Netherlands).

As I’ve discussed before, Laurence King puzzles have a conditional recommendation from me; I would only purchase them if you can be certain where they were made. Some are made in China, and they are not the same quality as the ones made in the Netherlands; only those made in the latter are ones I recommend.

So let’s get into this particular puzzle. Have you read the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley? I haven’t, but the poster for this puzzle (and my youngest son) has given me plenty of information about not only the book itself, but the author and the origins of this story. I did know the origin story – funnily enough I saw an episode of Drunk History about it – but have never read the book. If you’ve only ever seen Frankenstein movies, you wouldn’t know that in the book he isn’t the murderous rampaging monster Boris Karloff portrayed; he is “an agonized soul made monstrous by lack of human sympathy”.

The image on this puzzle shows important scenes from the story in the book, with a legend on the back of the poster showing the scenes and their relation to the narrative.

This is where most people think the story begins, with the monster being brought to life during an electrical storm. I won’t go through the entire book here, it would take much too long and require many pictures; but it made for interesting and VERY entertaining puzzling!

When the monster sees his own reflection he begins to understand how much of an outsider he is. This particular image seems so very sad to me.

The center of the image, with the monster and Victor Frankenstein on an iceberg in the Arctic, is basically where the story begins and ends. The iceberg itself was challenging to assemble, but every piece added was a little victory, and I enjoyed it very much.

It was interesting to read the synopsis of the story, and see the artist’s interpretations of those pivotal scenes; and it made for a great puzzle. I absolutely loved it!

Sugar Overload

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Sugar Overload – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

What better puzzle for this month? October is the month with the absolute best candy holiday ever – Halloween! If you think it looks pretty easy, I was right there with you until the sorting started; but once I saw the pieces I knew it would be quite a difficult assembly. And it was, but I’m pretty darn proud of myself for completing it.

The quality of this puzzle was amazing, and really I enjoyed working with it. The cut is actually a modified ribbon cut (Cobble Hill calls it random/quirky), with quite a few interestingly shaped pieces that made it extremely entertaining to assemble. The fit was excellent; entire sections could be picked up easily to move them around. The finish is matte which helps with the glare caused by artificial overhead lighting. There was quite a bit of puzzle dust, but that seems to be an increasing problem with every company lately. I don’t hold it against them, because it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the assembly for me.

The caramels were the first thing I assembled, it was easy to find the pieces because they had the shiny wrapping on them. I used to love eating these but I haven’t had one for a very long time. I have specific memories of my sisters and I sitting around the table unwrapping entire bags of these so that mom could melt them to make caramel apples in the fall – how we loved eating them! There was a huge apple orchard in our hometown, and we’d all go to pick apples in the fall. Some of them turned into homemade apple pies, some became canned filling for pies and crumbles to enjoy in the middle of winter, and the best ones ended up as caramel apples that were made with love by our momma – and they were so unbelievably good. 🍎💖

This was another section that was easy (somewhat) to find and assemble. When hubby came into the puzzle room to kiss me goodnight he pointed to this section and in particular the candies with the sugary beads on them and said “those are sooooo good!”. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the flat square-shaped candies anywhere before. Have you? What do they taste like?

The jelly candies at the bottom and top of this picture were easy to sort, but not as easy to assemble. With all the shine on many of the candies it was difficult to know what piece was next. The shine looks white, but it could be shiny where the pieces connect and your brain tricks you into thinking you need a certain color, but actually you don’t. It made for a somewhat difficult assembly, but I enjoyed the challenge of it.

Once I had put together each bowl of candy that was relatively easy to find, I resorted to sorting by color and putting things together that way. When I got to the end, the only pieces left were red, yellow, and the white of the bowls; those pieces were then sorted by shape to finish it up. It wasn’t to difficult to finish it, but getting there certainly was more of a challenge than I bargained for.

An enjoyable, but definitely difficult puzzle. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, beware. It isn’t as easy as it looks!

Rainbow Tarts In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Rainbow Tarts – Buffalo – 300 pieces

This puzzle is beautiful, fun, and relatively easy to assemble. That being said, there is a quality issue with it that’s quite disappointing for me, and I’ve already sent an email to the company about it.

There are rips in the image on the puzzle, as if it weren’t cut all the way through and when the pieces came apart they peeled off. I haven’t had a quality issue like this with a Buffalo puzzle before, and it’s a bit of a bummer for me as I really love the image.

Still, it shouldn’t take too long to finish, and the colors really are lovely.

Happy puzzling today my friends!

Rocks, Crystals and Minerals

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Rocks, Crystals and Minerals by Lars Stewart – Wentworth – 250 pieces

This beautiful collection of rocks and crystals is absolutely stunning, even more so than the picture can show. It made for such an interesting and entertaining assembly that I was really sad when it was over so quickly – I wished I had purchased a larger piece count!

Beautiful whimsy pieces that go along with the puzzle, although I was surprised to see the excavator along with the other digging tools. It does make sense though, there has to be some way to get those beautiful stones out of the Earth, and the excavator would make it much easier than hand tools.

I think I got the image upside down when I took this picture, although I didn’t notice it until right this moment. I could go back and fix it, but it would take time to change the image and then re-upload it, and to be honest in my opinion it doesn’t matter enough to take the time. I’d rather spend that time working on my next puzzle!

This beautiful image by Lars Stewart (Aimee’s boo) is absolutely striking and the colors are amazingly lovely in person – pictures definitely don’t capture it properly. This is one puzzle that will definitely be assembled again.

I give it five out of five diamonds!💎💎💍💎💎

Stephen King Books

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Stephen King Books (?) – Unknown Brand – 1000 pieces

This puzzle from an unknown brand had terrible quality, but the collage image was still entertaining to put together. Entertaining or not though, it isn’t one that I would recommend – I just couldn’t get past the thin pieces and terrible fit and the frustration of trying to move pieces around that crumble and fall apart like they weren’t even connected.

Although I searched every inch of the box, I could find no brand name at all. It says “Jigsaw Puzzle” and “1000 pieces” and there is a grid that has letters in it but that seems to be showing that this puzzle is lettered on the back to help with sorting and assembly. There’s no title for the puzzle either, so I just went with the obvious. This seems to be a quickly made puzzle to take advantage of the increased demand during the pandemic.

The pieces are unbelievably thin, and the fit was quite loose. The image reproduction was slightly blurry in some places and the finish was quite shiny. All the pieces were ballerinas (2 prong, 2 hole) in two different shapes – one thinner that was assembled vertically, and one thicker that was placed horizontally. There was also an extra piece, and one missing; usually both problems in one puzzle are from pieces sticking in the die that is used to cut the shapes. The nicest thing I have to report about this puzzle is that it lies flat, that’s the extent of this puzzle’s virtues.

You can see in the first picture both the extra piece, and how incredibly thin the pieces of this puzzle are. The second picture is showing the first section to be assembled. I used the letters on the back to both sort and assemble this puzzle. Normally I don’t do that, but there are so many words repeated (Stephen King, obviously) and so much darkness in the image that with the frustration of the pieces and how they fit together I don’t think I would have put this puzzle together any other way.

Carrie is the only Stephen King book I’ve ever read, and to be honest I really didn’t care for it. I was a teenager at the time, perhaps that was part of it, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I do love the look of this book cover though. 😲

Richard Bachman is one of several nom de plumes (pen names) that Stephen King has used, so this is also a Stephen King novel. I’ve never heard of this book, but this seemed like the perfect picture to take for a puzzle posted near Halloween. Bloody and creepy!

I’ve learned in the past couple of years that if there is no brand name on a puzzle box that it is not worth my time. Just this week I was given a wooden puzzle for my birthday with no brand name on the box, and it was AWFUL. If the makers aren’t willing to tell you the brand name (or if there really isn’t a brand at all), it’s a hastily made puzzle without regard for quality, or your enjoyment of the assembly.

Real companies that put their name on a puzzle box are proud of their product, even if we aren’t always happy with their quality; those that don’t just aren’t worth it in my opinion. I’d rather have a Ceaco than a crap puzzle without a name.

Yep. I just said that.