Review: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

On October 20, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles Schulz – USAopoly – 500 pieces

Super fun! The first Halloween puzzle I’ve done this season, and I enjoyed it very much. I’ve come around to shaped puzzles, I never really wanted to do them before. Now that I’ve got quite a few under my belt, I appreciate the nice change of pace that they offer. Their shapes make them very interesting to assemble.

I didn’t start with the edge of this one, although I normally try to find all the edges of shaped puzzles to see how much I can assemble. I started with Linus and Sally, they were the easiest to pick out. Then I worked on Snoopy’s silhouette and the moon. The pumpkins were easier than I thought they’d be! I enjoyed the challenge of this one, it wasn’t too easy. I had a great time with the entire puzzle; easy parts were quick and satisfying, challenging parts kept me entertained and focused.

I love the fall and Halloween. I don’t have too many Halloween puzzles, but I’m enjoying the ones I do have. Here’s hoping the thrift stores have some more after the holiday! 😉

Details:

Title: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Artist: Charles Schulz
Brand: USAopoly
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 19 in. (48 x 48 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Thin but sturdy
Cutting: Good – fully separated, some hanging paper
Image: Very good
Box: Collectible tin
Fit: Normal/Average
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Random
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Good, recommended

Colorful Animal World Map

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

This was a fun 100 piece puzzle that had a little bit of challenge to it. There’s lots of ocean and it wasn’t always easy to see what piece goes next. It doesn’t lay completely flat as you can see in the picture above, but it is a thrift store purchase so perhaps it was well loved before donation. Still, it is a very good quality kid’s puzzle that also glows in the dark! Check it out….

It doesn’t just glow in the dark, it glows in 3 different colors; red (hardest to see), green, and blue. I’m not always able to get a good glow picture, so I was pleased that this one turned out so well showing all 3 colors. How cool is that? Very!

I enjoyed putting this one together, I like it when a kid’s puzzle has a little bit of challenge to it. I think that’s good for kids too, if all their puzzles are too easy they get bored. It feels like a little more of an accomplishment if you had to work at it a little bit. Of course, that’s just my own personal puzzle addict’s opinion. 😉

Galaxies

On October 18, 2017October 18, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is our first Japanese manufactured puzzle! The quality is excellent, and the subject matter was very interesting as well. Had a great time assembling it, the very last part was a teensy bit tedious, but overall I loved this puzzle. 🙂

The pieces are quite thick and fit together extremely well. It’s hard to comment on the image reproduction as the entire puzzle was very dark, but it was very clear with no fuzziness at all. There are a nice variety of piece shapes too. Excellent quality all around, and I’d love to find more Epoch puzzles to assemble. Isn’t it amazing that these days it’s not too terribly difficult to find puzzles from all over the world? It’s so much fun for me to try all these companies from across the globe!

Most of the lighter sections of this puzzle glow in the dark, and I must say that it’s the strongest and nicest glow I’ve ever seen on a puzzle. It was amazingly bright and clear, but unfortunately it didn’t photograph well at all, and I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the glow. 😦

As you can see from the picture, there were lots of words to assemble, be still my heart! There were explanations of different types of galaxies, superclusters of galaxies, the anatomy of a galaxy, explanations of light travel time, etc. Educational and fun at the same time.

Mom helped a bit with this puzzle, and we had a good time working together, as usual. When I got to the end, though, I was working alone. The dark pieces around the edge of the galaxy shown slowed me down a bit and it was a little difficult at the end. Still, I enjoyed it very much. 👍

Dog Hammock

On October 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another adorable dog puzzle, look at that face! What a sweet, sweet puppy!

I wasn’t feeling great when I did this, and because it was only a 200 piece puzzle I was able to work on it lying down in bed. It doesn’t take up much room and fits easily on my white board even though it’s a larger piece puzzle. They’re large for Re-Marks, but not the largest I’ve worked with.

These pieces fit together very well, and it was a fun puzzle all around. It really was an excellent image for puzzling, the hammock, dog, and flower were easy to find and assemble. There wasn’t too much plain white space, but enough that the puzzle wasn’t too easy to complete. Excellent quality puzzle, with a truly adorable image. They have more in the series, including 2 more puzzles with dogs, a cat, a hamster, and a frog. They’re all very cute, and I would love to find and assemble them as well. 🙂

Hot Chocolate

On October 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Super cute image, but not an easy puzzle by any means. But the more difficult ones are the most fun when I can work on them with my mom. 🙂

FX Schmid puzzles have excellent quality, I’ve never had a bad one. The pieces are thick and feel good in your hand. They fit together very well, and the image reproduction is exceptional. This puzzle was no different and it was nice to have good quality pieces with such a difficult puzzle.

I know it doesn’t look too bad, but the chocolate lab, the boots, and the darker areas of the fire/fireplace made it a bit of a challenge. It was adorable though, and we enjoyed even the challenging parts. I looked up this puzzle to be sure I had all the information correct and according to some this is a rare puzzle that’s hard to find. Cool! (It’s still going to the senior center though, I’m sure they’ll have fun with it)