Review: Solar System

On February 21, 2020February 20, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Now this is the kind of quality I love to see on a kids puzzle, extremely thick pieces, great fit, beautiful image reproduction, and a finish that you can clean off to keep the puzzle in good condition. An excellent puzzle all around, and even though it was only 48 pieces I had a great time putting it together.

Melissa & Doug puzzles are excellent quality, and even though all of their puzzles that I’ve assembled have been secondhand, I’ve always found them to be excellent quality. They take care to make puzzles that will withstand the rough and sometimes careless play of children; the chipboard is extremely thick and sturdy, and the finish is one that can be cleaned off if a messy or sticky hand is used to put pieces together. 🖐

Educational puzzles like this one always make me smile, and even if I know all the information they’re still fun. I’m a big proponent of giving children jigsaw puzzles, they’re so good for developing brains! They help teach problem solving, spatial awareness, hand/eye coordination, and many other skills that help young brains learn and grow.

Delightful puzzle with amazing quality – it is very highly recommended – I loved it!

Details:

Title: Solar System
Artist: Melissa & Doug
Brand: Melissa & Doug
Piece count: 48 pieces
Size: Approx. 36 x 24 in. (91 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Excellent
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Very good, sturdy
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, easy-clean surface, lays flat

Overall Rating: Excellent, very highly recommended

Lady in the Meadow

On February 19, 2020February 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

I found this puzzle at mom’s house, and I don’t know what in the world I was thinking when the decision was made to assemble it – it’s so difficult! It’s got all the things I don’t care for in a puzzle image, why in the world did I start assembling it? Honestly, I have no idea, other than because mom loved the image so much. I think I did it for her. 💗

I put this on my second, larger board and only worked on it a little bit at a time, I didn’t want to become too frustrated with the dark, difficult image. It took me several weeks to complete, but I think that was the best way to assemble it; when I found myself getting annoyed with the difficulty that was my cue to walk away and work on something a bit less demanding.

This is my second puzzle with an image from this artist, and although I love her style and artwork, I much prefer her lighter and more colorful images. This one is so dark!

Meadow 1

The double border was quite difficult, and I’m not sure why there were the 2 border lines down the center – perhaps we’re viewing this scene through a window? In a cave? It’s odd, but who knows what the artist was thinking. All I know is that it made an already dark and difficult image even more of a challenge.

Meadow 2

Not only is this a pretty face, but you can also see that the quality wasn’t great; there is quite a bit of image lift on the tabs and the puzzle did not lay flat. The image lift is something you get used to when you buy secondhand puzzles, many times disassembling causes image lift; it does interfere with the enjoyment I get from running my hands over the completed puzzle though. With all the tabs sticking up I worry that I’ll tear part of the image off, so there was no satisfying puzzle massage with this one. 😦

You can also see that it’s cut like an Educa puzzle, all the pieces are ballerinas except for the humpback/swayback pieces. This is odd for a Sunsout puzzle, I’ve worked many of them and have never seen this piece shape before. The fit was this puzzle’s best quality – it was exceptional – not too tight (which some Sunsout puzzles can be) and not too loose; it was almost perfect, and you could lift the entire puzzle without any pieces coming off at all.

It’s a beautiful, if odd, image and I’m extremely proud of myself for finishing it! When I come across more interesting and crazy difficult puzzles at mom’s house I think they’ll go right into the donate box – I’ve learned my lesson! 😉

Game Pieces

On February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

My last puzzle completed in January was a thrift store find that was lots of fun and went very quickly; I started at 4 am and finished just after noon (that includes some running errands too). I’m no puzzle dynamo though, collages go together much more quickly than a single image, and when an image draws me in like this one did I find it terribly difficult to stop. It’s an affliction!

It’s easier puzzling in the wee hours of the morning; there are no distractions and no interruptions – just a peaceful, quiet house and the only thing I have to think about is does this blue look the same as the blue I’m trying to match? And do I need a piece with 3 tabs or 4?

Better than typical White Mountain quality made it very nice to work with; the pieces fit together extremely well and the fantastic collage image was completely engrossing. There was no image lift at all which is surprising for a secondhand puzzle, and the image reproduction was bright and colorful with no fuzzy or blurry areas. Very good quality all around!

Anybody know what game that butterfly card is for? I don’t ever remember seeing it before. How about the Pig card, anyone know what game that is from? There were a lot of games I didn’t know, ever heard of Flinch? If you have heard of or played any of these games, please let me know. I could probably look these things up online, but to be honest I’d rather have a conversation in the comments with a fellow member of the PADS posse. 😉

Game Pieces 2

Oh my! Did I love the dice bubble from the Trouble game when I was young! I would sit and just pop it/roll the die over and over – it just felt really cool! (Can you tell I am from the pre-internet generation? LOL) Just looking at it makes me smile. Was it just me, or did anyone else love to play with it too?

Even though there was a missing piece I wasn’t disappointed at all, it was still tons of fun. It was just what I needed after a puzzle that was pretty much all one color and all kinds of YAWN – I wanted bright colors and fun, and this puzzle definitely delivered. If you come across a copy I highly recommend it. Loved it! 🎲 👍😍

Aquatic Harmony

On February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Aquatic Harmony is an older Sure-Lox puzzle, so unfortunately the quality is quite lacking compared to the newer puzzles of theirs that I’ve assembled. It had very thin pieces, image lift on several of them, and some of the pieces weren’t completely cut through and couldn’t be separated.

Aquatic Harmony 1

It’s supposed to be a puzzle that the whole family can work on together, with three different sizes of pieces so that both young and older family members can participate. But the way this one is constructed, it doesn’t seem like it’s feasible for everyone to work together on their respective pieces. It’s designed so that the largest pieces are on the outside, going smaller into the middle; the smallest pieces can’t be connected to anything until the middle sized pieces are in place. I suppose they could be assembled by themselves and then placed into the puzzle, but that’s not always easy to do with a lesser quality puzzle like this one.

Aquatic Harmony 2

This is the puzzle with just the large pieces assembled. The middle pieces go next, working towards the center.

Aquatic Harmony 3

Now the middle sized pieces are all put in, and it’s time for the “adult” pieces to go in, right in the center.

This was a difficult puzzle, almost everything was blue, or shades of blue and white. The underwater section was the most challenging, even with the largest pieces. The image itself isn’t one I would choose for a family puzzle, it seems pretty demanding for a puzzle the whole family would be working on, perhaps a more colorful one would be better. This is all just my opinion of course, there are probably plenty of families out there that may think this image is perfect for the whole family to assemble.

I’d like to tell you I enjoyed assembling this one, but the truth is that it just wasn’t my pile of pieces. It’s not exactly a monochromatic image, but it certainly felt as though it was, and they are not a type of image I particularly enjoy. Image aside, the poor quality of the chipboard and the cutting makes this a puzzle that I can’t recommend. There are plenty of other brands out there that produce very good quality family puzzles, and my suggestion is to give one of those a try.

Candy For All Seasons

On February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the day for love, and gifts of flowers, jewelry, and candy if you believe the commercials. Hubby and I don’t go in for all of that; he treats me like the queen I am all year long. 👑

Anyway, to the puzzle! I don’t have any Valentine’s Day puzzles here at the house, and I don’t like to repeat any posts, so this one was the closest I could get specific to today’s holiday. I associate some holidays with candy – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. This puzzle has one heart lollipop which is the only candy I could find for Valentine’s Day; it’s a little sad, one lonely lollipop.

There’s plenty of chocolate eggs and rabbits for the Easter holiday. The only thing I could find specifically for Halloween was the candied apple at the bottom. There are some Christmas chocolates in the foreground, but really not that much.

The surprise for me was the Thanksgiving candy. I don’t associate that holiday with candy at all, for Americans it’s all about the Thanksgiving dinner; but there were several things shown here that I’ve never seen at all.

Candy 1

I have never seen a chocolate turkey before, or anything like the lollipop shown here. It’s probably the least appetizing “candy” I’ve ever seen. I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it – candy corn and green chocolate – ugh. Does that sound good to anyone?

I’m familiar with most of the candies shown, but I’ve never seen or eaten Turkish Taffy or Abba Zabbas. I’ve seen and tried Lemon Heads, but never knew they make other flavors like Cherry Heads and Apple Heads too!

The quality was a little disappointing with this one, most notably the fuzzy image reproduction. I’ve seen this on several White Mountain collages, but it doesn’t stop me from buying them. It can be a bit annoying, but they have some of the best collages in the business and collages are my favorite type of puzzle to assemble – so I just deal with it. If it’s important to you though, you should be aware.

This White Mountain puzzle was a thrift store find, and I very much enjoyed putting it together, even with the four missing pieces. According to my puzzle friend Nicola, the task is to put together all the pieces you have until there are none left. The puzzle may not be complete and you may have missing pieces, but you have completed your task when you place the last piece. If you look at it that way, it’s a little less frustrating, right?

I try not to get too upset at missing pieces, most especially the ones from the thrift store. In my mind, I’m dividing the time spent by the amount paid for the puzzle. If I spent 8 hours on a thrift store puzzle that I bought for $1.99, then even if there is a missing piece or two I have gotten a fantastic deal! Where else can you get time to yourself, productive entertainment, and all the health benefits that come from assembling jigsaw puzzles for only 25 cents an hour? A bargain at 100 times the price!