Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

Review: Puppets & Marionettes

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews6 Comments

Puppets & Marionettes by Jay Burch – Pomegranate – 300 pieces

While this isn’t your typical Halloween image, for me the creepiness of the puppets in this artwork made me immediately think that it would be perfect for posting in October. Spooky, creepy, menacing, and just all-around disturbing if you ask me.

The quality of this Pomegranate puzzle was exceptional. I’ve done one or two puzzles by Pomegranate in the years since the pandemic and noticed immediately that the quality had gone down a bit. With the supply chain issues and the overwhelming demand for jigsaw puzzles at the time it wasn’t difficult to understand the reasons for the drop in quality; though I’m hoping for better days ahead with a return to their pre-pandemic excellence. Thankfully, this puzzle seems to be a return to their old quality standards; maybe wishes come true!

There were a very good variety of pieces and the pieces were wonderfully thick with a fit that was truly exceptional. The image reproduction was excellent as well, although the finish was slightly shiny. My only small problem with the quality was the amount of puzzle dust, but that’s a minor annoyance that doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of the assembly.

From this picture it looks as if this section with the horse would be quite simple to find the pieces and put together, but in reality it wasn’t easy to find most of the blue pieces, and it looks quite dark in the finished image. I think if this had been a larger piece count it would have been quite a challenging puzzle.

There’s something truly menacing about the little boy puppet’s face, although pretty much every marionette shown seems creepy in some way when you really look at them. It’s probably not what the artist had in mind, but that’s how I see it.

The fit was truly exceptional with this puzzle. The thick pieces and the tight fit made for a satisfying and entertaining assembly. Plus, I got to take one of my silly stand up pictures!

Though it was a bit difficult at times, this was an entertaining assembly. The artwork makes me think of suspenseful movies, and if you opened a closet door and saw these puppets and marionettes looking like they do – yikes. Cue the dark music, something’s coming for you!

This puzzle is definitely recommended, great quality and lots of fun to put together. 👍

Details:

  • Title:                  Puppets & Marionettes
  • Artist:                Jay Burch
  • Brand:               Pomegranate
  • Piece count:     300 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 24 x 18 in. (61 x 46 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Excellent
  • Cutting:             Very good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Very good, sturdy and thick
  • Fit:                     Excellent
  • Puzzle Dust:     Large amount of dust
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Excellent, highly recommended

Sunflower Face

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Sunflower Face – Wentworth (Mini Mindful) – 80 pieces

Now this is what I’m talking about when I want a Mini Mindful puzzle that completely takes over your focus – you absolutely have to pay attention with this one!

The honeycomb shaped pieces and the fact that many of them are cut in half made this puzzle one of the most challenging Mini Mindful puzzles that I’ve assembled so far. Even at the end I had to keep taking pieces out and moving them around because although they looked as though they were placed correctly they weren’t.

I truly enjoyed the challenge of this one. Although it was only 80 pieces it took me just over half an hour to complete it correctly! Normally keeping track of the time it takes to finish a puzzle isn’t something I do, but I knew this would be quite a difficult assembly and noted the time when I started and when it was finally complete.

It would probably be easier to put this together with the image side down, you wouldn’t have to make sure the colors/textures lined up. It might be interesting to do that and see how completely crazy the image would be. 😂

Maleficent

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Maleficent (Disney Villainous) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This beautiful and dark image was quite the challenge, but fortunately the resident Puzzle Goddess was up to the task! All of the Disney Villainous puzzles are quite dark, but this one seemed even more so and made for some difficult puzzling.

The quality was very good, typical for Ravensburger puzzles in my opinion. There’s something about finishing a Ravensburger puzzle and running my hands over it, my little puzzle massage. It feels fantastic!

This is Merriweather – my favorite of the three fairies in the Sleeping Beauty movie. She’s a little shorter and thicker than her sisters and a bit more stubborn, which makes her adorable in my eyes and she was always my favorite. Doesn’t she look determined?

I started with the fairies and worked on the easiest sections to pick out with the lighter colors. The circular picture frames were the easiest to find and so I began with them. It wasn’t as easy to pick out the pieces for what went inside the frames, because many of the pictures had such dark images in them.

Many of the framed images were dark and indistinct, it made it very difficult to fill them in. They all made me want to get myself better lighting above the puzzle board. I haven’t mentioned it to hubby because the moment I do he’ll want to find and order new lighting and then he’ll be disrupting my puzzle time with the installation. (Perhaps I’m just moody today and even thinking about all the interruptions is making me a bit cranky.)

Although I enjoyed assembling this puzzle very much and I do recommend it, it comes with a bit of a warning. It is VERY dark and not an easy assembly; it isn’t recommended for someone who isn’t accustomed to assembling challenging images.

Robot Repair

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Robot Repair – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Isn’t this the cutest little image? I thought it was anyway. It turns out that the cuteness doesn’t translate to ease of assembly – this was much harder than I thought it would be!

Does it sound dumb to you that after the hundreds and hundreds of puzzles I’ve done that I still can’t always tell whether a puzzle will be easy, difficult, entertaining, or a dud? It sounds dumb to me; yet I can’t always tell and can’t give you a reason either. You just do the best you can and pick puzzles that you like the look of, I suppose. Anyway, back to our puzzle…

This puzzle came in my MicroPuzzles subscription box, and the theme of that month was Mad Science. It was the companion puzzle to Tube-Tastic that I posted about in August. I love the image, but the size of the pieces and the number of pieces that constituted each little robot made it more challenging than I thought it would be. I ended up having to bring this one into the puzzle room in order to complete it under better lighting.

Even with the challenge I enjoyed this puzzle very much, and it’s too darn cute! 😍

Cabana Retreat

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Cabana Retreat by Nancy Wernersbach – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This was an excellent quality large piece Ravensburger puzzle, with a beautiful image that was lovely to assemble. 💖

Nancy Wernersbach images are usually quite fun to put together, most of the artwork by her that I’ve done has been outdoor scenes; beachside, flower shop, cottage, etc. There’s something calming and beautiful about her work and it makes for excellent puzzling.

The large piece Ravensburger puzzles are quite fun for me, there’s a special something about the larger pieces that I find wonderful to work with. And the larger finished puzzle makes you feel as if you’ve accomplished something impressive when you’re done; it’s about the size of a typical 1000 piece puzzle.

A beach bag filled with books, drinks, perhaps a little puzzle, and maybe a snack or two sitting beside a bucket of champagne – doesn’t that sound like a lovely afternoon? If it weren’t for the sand (it gets everywhere!) and being out in the sun it would sound nice.

A plate of fruits with what could be a little pot of Nutella or chocolate sauce to dip them in – now that sounds amazing!

Great puzzle; excellent quality, beautiful artwork, and a good time was definitely had. Highly recommended!