Spider-Man 3

On December 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was purchased from the thrift store the day mom spent the morning “Driving Miss Stacey”. I thought my younger son would enjoy it as he is a Spider-Man fan so we decided to take a chance. This puzzle is made of foam and the package said it fits together so well you don’t need glue, you can just hang it up when you’re done. While this is true, unfortunately I wasn’t impressed.

The fit of this puzzle is weird, and although it’s true that you can pick up the entire puzzle without glue I don’t think it would make a good hanging decoration. The pieces will not lay flat, not even close to flat. I tried to adjust them all so that it wouldn’t be so noticeable, but you can tell in the picture above that I was unsuccessful. Even if all the pieces had been there this isn’t a puzzle I would have kept.

Milton Bradley in my experience usually has good quality puzzles, but this one just didn’t pass muster. I will still enjoy their more traditional cardboard puzzles, but I don’t think we’ll be purchasing any more puzzles made of foam. It was fun to try out a new type of puzzle though. 🙂

Chocolate Artistry

On December 17, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Excellent thrift store find, it was so much fun! This one was unusual in that mom completed it first, and then I did; typically it’s the other way around. We both enjoyed it very much, it was absolutely worth the 99 cents we bought it for. 😎

The fit was tight, but not in the extreme which was good. Sometimes the Springbok puzzles are so tight the edges curl up! I’m not a fan of the super tight fit and was glad that wasn’t the case here. The image is perfect for puzzling, especially for someone who enjoys collages. I love being able to grab a bunch of pieces for a small section and put them together without having to look at the box image. I think that’s why I’m not a fan of the super busy images; I dislike having to stare at the box trying to figure out what I’m actually assembling or where it goes.

I had a very good time with this puzzle, it was hard to walk away from working on it and was completely entertaining. Excellent quality puzzle with an awesome image; if you come across one new or used I would definitely recommend it – 2 chocolate bars way up! 🍫🍫

Humpty Dumpty

On December 10, 2017December 11, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

This gorgeous puzzle was excellent quality and it has the most stunning colors! The pieces are thick and incredibly sturdy and fit together very well. It’s a really well made children’s puzzle from the late 90’s – if you can find one cheaply I would definitely recommend it for a little one in your life.

We don’t come across many Milton Bradley puzzles anymore. I remember when I was young and doing puzzles with my grandma she didn’t have much variety to choose from as far as brands go. Most of the puzzles she assembled (from what my aging brain can remember) were Big Ben puzzles from Milton Bradley. There wasn’t much variety in the images either, most were photographic puzzles of landscapes, cabins, lighthouses, etc. I wonder what she’d think of all the different brands I’ve tried and all the different types of artwork. I’m sad she isn’t here to try out all these wooden puzzles and brands from across the globe, but it also makes me appreciate that I have my mom to share them with. ❤

With the internet and our ability to shop puzzles from around the world we have so many more brands and images available to us now – I take it for granted most of the time, and I really shouldn’t. It’s amazing that I can get online and browse through puzzles from Germany, Japan, England, Australia, Holland, Turkey, France and too many more to name! I can “talk” to other puzzlers from around the world, translate any webpage to English with a click of the mouse, and order puzzles for myself from almost anywhere on the planet – amazing! We are truly blessed to have so much available to us and it barely fazes us anymore; we don’t really stop to think how awesome it is and how wonderfully lucky we are. I try to remember that when I’m feeling whiny.

I’m not sure how a children’s puzzle started me off on this tangent, but oh well. My brain takes me on wild adventures sometimes, and I’m not always able to trace them back to the starting point. Oh yeah – Milton Bradley! Miss you Gram, love you mom. 💗

Darling Doe

On December 9, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another puzzle with only ballerinas – good thing this had interesting artwork too or it might not have been completed! The artwork is quite nice, and perfect for puzzling. It was a thrift store purchase, and even though it’s missing 2 pieces we still got our money’s worth.

Mom and I assembled this puzzle together on one of our visit/puzzle days – so much fun! Andrews + Blaine puzzles seem to be hit or miss quality-wise. The pieces were a good thickness and fit together well. But I really don’t care for puzzles with only one shape piece, it’s boring and makes the assembly more difficult. Although if the image is a good one I’ll put up with it; sometimes if the image makes for a fun assembly I barely even notice that all the pieces are the same. Andrews + Blaine have some beautiful images to choose from, I wish all their puzzles had a good variety of shapes as well.

Luckily the image of this puzzle was a good one, and we didn’t have too much trouble with large areas of the same color/pattern. It was definitely better that mom and I worked it together – she’s my favorite puzzle partner and many puzzles I wouldn’t want to do alone I have no problem doing with her. We’re an awesome puzzle posse! 🙂

Escape from Alcatraz

On December 7, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I’d never heard of these Mythic Mazes puzzles, but it was a lot of fun! There are apparently more, including Escape from Merlin’s Dungeon and Escape from the Haunted House. It looks like they’re definitely out of print, so we’ll just have to hope that we are able to find more in the local thrift stores.

MasterPieces quality can sometimes be hit or miss, this one was very interesting. The thickness of the pieces, the fit, and the image reproduction were excellent but there was no variety in the piece shapes. They were all ballerinas. Sigh. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but then again I have no actual knowledge of what goes into manufacturing a jigsaw puzzle. Still, it’s a bit disappointing; the quality was very good otherwise.

You can’t see it well in the picture, but there are plenty of words to assemble, which I love. And even though there’s no variety in the piece shapes the good news was that there were almost no pieces that were just one color. There was plenty of shading and writing so that there weren’t large areas of one color. It made working with just the one piece shape a little more palatable for me.

The bright colors, interesting maps, and the actual information regarding the real life escape from Alcatraz made this puzzle even more fun. I enjoyed it very much, and would love to do the others in the series if we’re able to find them. Thumbs up for the Mythic Mazes! 👍