Colours of Asia

On May 13, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My first Educa puzzle! Not bad at all – I liked it very much. 👍

From what I’ve read online I was expecting a puzzle with a very loose fit, I was happy to find out that this was not the case. It was slightly loose fitting but not at all what I’d imagined. Good piece thickness and image reproduction, and the pieces lie flat in the finished puzzle. The only issue I had was with similarly shaped pieces and sometimes thinking you’d placed a piece properly when you didn’t. It didn’t cause too much problem in this puzzle, but I’d be careful if there were a puzzle with a large amount of the same color. Otherwise I have no problem with their quality and wouldn’t hesitate to order a puzzle. Note to self: No big blue skies if ordering an Educa puzzle!

It’s nice to order a brand and find out for yourself what YOU think of the quality. Everyone has different qualities that are most important to them – piece shape, thickness, how the pieces fit together, grid cut, random cut, etc. You have to find out what is important to you in a puzzle and which brands are the ones you prefer. Everyone is different and you can use other’s reviews as a guide, but only you can decide which is best for you. I’m trying when I order puzzles to find a company I haven’t tried before and see if there’s a puzzle that looks like fun for me to assemble. This is the puzzle I choose to try out Educa; cool picture, right?

This image is beautiful, and it’s always fun to have several little pictures in the bigger puzzle (well, it is for me anyway). When I was assembling this puzzle there were several extremely stressful things going on, and this puzzle was a welcome respite. I could sit, even if only for a few minutes , and pull out pieces for one small section and just be absorbed in the puzzle and fitting pieces together. Too bad there weren’t more than 1000 pieces, the stress is still here but the puzzle is done! 🙂

The Frozen Difference

On May 12, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This puzzle is called The Frozen Difference because the image on the box top and the image on the puzzle are different. There are nine small differences between the two, and there is a small poster of the puzzle in the box with the differences circled. How many more times do you think I can use a form of the word different differently?

As you can see by the picture, the pieces are somewhat warped and do not lay flat. I have never seen that in an adult Ravensburger puzzle, however I haven’t done any children’s puzzles from them and can’t say if it is typical or not. I believe from knowing the excellent quality that Ravensburger produces that the issue with this particular puzzle lies in the fact that it was a thrift store purchase and was most likely used plenty and/or perhaps not reboxed or stored properly. (This is Florida after all, and you wouldn’t believe the things that can become warped in the heat. Plastic, cardboard, minds, ideas, etc.)

I will admit that I have not seen Frozen. My kids are adults now and I don’t have to sit through their movies any more. I know the sisters are Anna and Elsa, I know the snowman is Olaf, I know the song Let It Go is burned into the brains of parents with young children, and I know that I’m thankful that I don’t have young children. 😉

The thickness of the pieces, especially compared to other children’s puzzles, is excellent! They feel sturdy in your hand, and the linen finish is top notch as well. There is a nice variety of piece shapes and they fit together well in spite of the slight warping. The quality overall is excellent, and I will always recommend Ravensburger puzzles. They’re top of the line in my book!

Ravensburger has been and continues to be my favorite jigsaw puzzle manufacturer. This puzzle has issues, but I cannot say for certain if it was a manufacturing problem, or just because the puzzle was purchased secondhand and was loved and used a lot.

Hearts of Gold

On May 11, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I’m not sure what it is about this image I love so much, but I do love it and the assembly was quick and just challenging enough. Excellent, excellent puzzle!

I really was wanting to get these new puzzles that I ordered, and as soon as it got here I stopped the puzzle I was working on to get going on this one. Started and finished it in one day, even though I had a horrible day with pain and couldn’t sit or stand for very long. I was also watching my grandpuppies that day, which is tiring, whew!

Sometimes a puzzle just grabs me and I want to keep going until it’s finished no matter what – not interested in food breaks, or puppy play time breaks or anything really; it’s almost an imposition when life breaks in and demands my attention. Most puzzles aren’t like that for me. But it’s quite fun when it does happen, because that means the puzzle is such a great image or the assembly is so entertaining that I literally don’t want to stop.

This puzzle was one of those, and it was great! Heye puzzle, so great quality, but I will say that the piece fit was quite loose on this one. If I tried to scoot some pieces over a little bit so they would fit properly I ran the risk of them all crumpling up and coming apart. I haven’t had a Heye puzzle that was quite that loose before, and I’m hoping it was just the end of a run or something. Still great image quality, piece shape and thickness. They’re not as thick as a Ravensburger or Jumbo piece, but they’re extremely sturdy.

Also you cannot tell from the picture, but the puzzle had metallic stamping on it, so there were shiny gold dots and gold framing around the heart, etc. Very cool looking! Who doesn’t love sparkles and shine? They truly are hearts of gold!

Ludicrous Lighthouse

On May 10, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This lighthouse is so much bigger than I thought it would be! To be honest I never even looked at the size when I ordered it; I just saw Colin Thompson and Ravensburger and ordered it without another thought. It’s over 3 feet tall! 38 inches x 25 3/4 inches. It’s pretty awesome though, no matter how tall it is. 🙂

Excellent Ravensburger quality, fun shaped puzzle, and Colin Thompson’s artwork = a happy, happy puzzler! I’m not a shaped puzzle aficionado, this is technically only the 2nd one I’ve completed, but I enjoyed this one very much. I did like that the sides going up the lighthouse were pretty much straight so I could at least pull out some of the edge pieces and keep to my puzzling routine, even if just a little bit. This puzzle has “specially shaped pieces” as well, which might be called whimsies. There aren’t many of them, but enough to be fun and make for some interestingly shaped pieces that surround them.

There are so many things to discover in this puzzle that it may take several observations to find them all! The usual Colin Thompson humor, worlds within worlds, and plenty of little pink people throughout. This is a puzzle that I’ll definitely be doing again – it was loads of fun!

If you’re a shaped puzzle fan or if you love Colin Thompson’s artwork, this puzzle is an excellent one! Make sure you’ve got a big enough board though, it’s pretty darn tall!

Why??

On May 9, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Aww, look at my little guy! I was inspired to try to get this picture by a fellow puzzler who just started this puzzle and took a picture of her 2 dogs inside the box, so adorable! My dude is a 31 pound Boston Terrier – yup, 31 pounds. He’s a mutant and very large for a Boston but he’s the sweetest boy ever! Although he doesn’t look happy here, he looks like my long-suffering friend who constantly has to put up with my weirdo jigsaw puzzle stuff. Why?? Why must I be in the box??

I’m working on a puzzle at the moment that I’m just not feeling, and I think it may be time to put it away for now. I’m not sure why now it isn’t working for me, but when the time is right I’ll pick it up again and it’ll be tons of fun! Timing is everything.

I haven’t made a decision on which puzzle to start next, but there are many, many to choose from – something fun and happy I think! 🙂 Just yesterday I was looking at Noah’s Ark by Loup (2000 pieces), and Tarzan by Mordillo (1000 pieces), they both look like so much fun! Also there’s a 750 piece sugar skull by Thaneeya McArdle that my daughter got for me that I’m very much looking forward to. Decisions, decisions!