Review: Seams Likely

On June 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

When mom first showed me this puzzle I was very excited, doesn’t it look like fun? It was! The bright colors and big numbers made this an excellent assembly; I enjoyed it very much. 🙂

This was a very good quality Springbok puzzle, although the fit was somewhat tight. You know I’m not a fan of the super tight fit; this one wasn’t too bad, but it was tight. The pieces are thick, the image reproduction is bright and beautiful, and the random cut gives a very good variety of piece shapes. Overall the quality was very good, and I enjoyed the assembly.

I started with the red thread, and then moved on to the yellow spool. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with a thrift store puzzle, one of the pieces was damaged…

Someone’s child, pet, or maybe even a vacuum cleaner got hold of one of the pieces. I’m glad they included it in the puzzle and didn’t throw it away; technically all the pieces were there.

The rest of the puzzle wasn’t too difficult to assemble, all the measuring tapes weren’t as difficult as I thought they might be. It was just as much fun as I’d hoped and I really enjoyed the assembly. Mom has a knack for finding awesome puzzles at the thrift stores, and I’m the beneficiary of her amazing talent.

This is a discontinued puzzle and no longer available from puzzle sellers, but if you find a copy somewhere I highly recommend it – it’s a quick, fun puzzle and the end result would be great framed in a sewing or craft room. 👍

Details:

Title: Seams Likely
Artist: Allied Products
Brand: Springbok
Piece count: 350 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Good, somewhat tight
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays mostly flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

New 40,320 Piece Mickey Mouse Puzzle!

On June 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

m-puzzle-mickey-mouse-behem-let-40320-dilku-46058

Well what do you think of this?!? I read about this puzzle on the blog of a friend from Russia, and found it already available for sale on a jigsaw puzzle site in the Czech Republic! It took a lot of searching online to find it, but I refused to give up and finally found the little bugger. 🙂

Here’s the info I was able to find:

40,320 pieces (same size as Disney Memorable Moments)
22.3 feet x 6.2 feet (680 x 190 cm)
Comes in 10 sections of 4032 pieces
Box weighs about 44 pounds
Manufactured by Ravensburger
Priced at around $500 USD 😮

This puzzle is celebrating the 90th birthday of our beloved Mickey Mouse. I wish I could get a better look at each of the 10 frames, but unfortunately I was not able to find any images of each of the sections separately. This is the best I can do for now…

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It looks as though it’s artist desk/collage images from Mickey’s past 90 years. I’m really looking forward to being able to see each panel close up – it looks like fun!

I wasn’t able to find the official title of the puzzle. It could be “Mickey – The True Original” – that’s what I can see on the front of the box; my friend in Russia says the title is “Disney – The 90th Birthday of Mickey Mouse”. According to the Czech puzzle site, the name is Puzzle Mickey Mouse. Google translate tries, but it doesn’t always do right by me, so I can’t say for sure just yet. 😉

I doubt I’ll be buying this one any time soon, but for some reason news of this puzzle really got me excited! I spent well over an hour searching everywhere I could think of to find any information I could. I’ll update with new info when I can find it, but these things seem to take a long time – especially when you’re really looking forward to them!

What do you think? Gonna give this one a go?

Cute Bunny

On June 26, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This puzzle has been in my house for a long time, I found it the other day and thought it was the perfect time to assemble it. It’s a quick, fun puzzle that’s pretty darn cute!

The quality was good, but not great. The pieces were a medium thickness, but not overly sturdy and easily bent. There were a nice variety of shapes and the fit was very good. The image reproduction was slightly fuzzy in some areas too. It’s interesting to me the diversity in quality within the same brand. I’ve had some Hasbro puzzles that have been excellent quality and some not so much. I wonder why it isn’t more consistent.

There was no title of the puzzle anywhere on the box, so I’ve named it “Cute Bunny” because that’s what I think of when I see the picture. It was a cute image and a nice diversion for a little while.

Kids puzzles are pretty fun, especially when I’m trying to decide which larger piece puzzle I’m going to assemble next. It’s nice to have a small puzzle lying around that I can pick up and put together pretty quickly; it feeds my puzzle addiction and makes me very happy!

Bookshelf

On June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

At the end of a day that contained no puzzling I grabbed a micro puzzle to feed my addiction. This beauty was just what I needed!

Wentworth puzzles are beautifully made wooden puzzles produced in Wiltshire, England. They are made from a specially developed wooden board taken from sustainable sources. The pieces have an excellent feel in your hands, and there’s nothing like the satisfying “plunk” when they fall into place. The whimsy pieces are intricate and interesting, and usually match the nature of the image. It’s so enjoyable for me to just open one of their puzzles and look at all the pieces; even if I don’t start working on it right away I still find it satisfying to just handle the pieces and see all the detailed whimsies.

This 40 piece micro puzzle was pretty challenging, but still entertaining to assemble. I love Colin Thompson’s artwork, and I even have this particular image in a larger piece count from a different puzzle company. I haven’t assembled it yet, but I’m looking forward to having a larger image to work with and reading the spines of all the books.

I love jigsaw puzzles of all kinds and sizes, and even a 40 piece puzzle is entertaining and satisfying for me. I’m enjoying more smaller piece count puzzles these days, and it’s the puzzling itself that makes me happy – no matter how many pieces there are.

Aphrodite’s Vista

On June 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This image scared me a little bit, I was sure it was going to be very difficult, tedious, and time consuming. Luckily – as usual – I was wrong! It went together much more easily than I thought, and I enjoyed myself very much. 🙂

I purchased this puzzle more than a month ago, I absolutely couldn’t pass up a brand new Ravensburger 500 piece puzzle for only $5.99. It’s interesting how price affects your thinking, isn’t it? If I were shopping online for puzzles I would pass by this image quickly with little to no thought about it. There’s nothing wrong with it – actually it’s quite beautiful – I just normally prefer brighter colors and more distinct lines. But put it in front of me for an extremely discounted price and I won’t be able to leave it behind. I’m a cheapskate and proud of it!

I enjoy the larger piece Ravensburgers very much; for some reason a 500 piece puzzle with the large pieces seems to go together more quickly for me than one with pieces that are the “average” size. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps because assembling a small section nets a larger finished area, giving one the sense of a bigger accomplishment. The more a puzzle is complete, the more I am encouraged to keep working on it to see the finished image.

As usual, the quality of this Ravensburger puzzle was outstanding – thick pieces, wonderful fit, and lovely image reproduction. This is a beautiful puzzle with excellent quality. Definitely recommended!