Review: Harry Potter Book 7

On February 15, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews5 Comments

This is the last of the Harry Potter book puzzles from the collector’s set I received for Christmas from my daughter. I absolutely loved assembling every single one of them – even Book 5 which was quite difficult! They’re excellent quality with fun subject matter, and perfect little *One Coffee Puzzles* you can finish in one sitting (perhaps with a cup of coffee or an adult beverage 😉 ).

I haven’t assembled many NY Puzzle Co. puzzles, but I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve done, and this set has raised my opinion of them even more. They have pieces that are a good thickness and fit together extremely well. The image reproduction is lovely with great detail and beautiful colors, and they were so enjoyable that I’d love to assemble every one of them again! All the pieces were the standard 2 prong/2 hole shape (what I call a ballerina), but there was plenty of variety of size and shape within them; accidentally placing a piece wrong was never a problem. With a puzzle of this size the lack of variety in shapes wasn’t an issue for me at all.

Many puzzlers never bother with small piece count puzzles, and I think they’re missing out. I used to think that anything less than 1000 pieces wasn’t worth my time, but I’ve come to the realization that puzzling is fun no matter the piece count. Puzzles of all sizes, shapes, and subjects make me happy! (In fact, we just bought a box of 10 kids puzzles from the thrift store – they’re only 24 pieces each, but they were so adorable and looked like they’d be pretty entertaining; at $1.99 for all 10 we couldn’t resist 🙂 )

Being an adult doesn’t mean I can only do puzzles with “adult” pieces counts; and I love that NY Puzzle Co. has many smaller puzzles in their catalog. Most of us puzzlers love that sense of pride and happiness you get when your puzzle is complete, and I think it’s just as rewarding to have that feeling when you complete a puzzle you can assemble in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee.

I adore these puzzles, and had the best time with each and every one. They’re wonderful quality and highly recommended. Alohomora! Open the box and unleash the magic. 🧙‍♂️

Details:

Title: Harry Potter Book 7
Artist: Mary GrandPre
Brand: NY Puzzle Company
Piece count: 100 pieces
Size: Approx. 7 x 9 in. (18 x 23 cm)
Purchased: New (gift)

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Very good, 7 boxes inside a larger box
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Offset grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety within single shape
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, highly recommended

Harry Potter Book 6

On February 12, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I love the color on this one, and like the first five in the series this one was great fun to put together.

NY Puzzle Company has a bunch of 100 piece mini puzzles, and I find them relaxing to assemble and extremely entertaining! Being a proud cheapskate I find it a little difficult to spend full price for a puzzle with only 100 pieces that will only take me 10 minutes or so to assemble, but that doesn’t mean they’re not lots of fun. 😉

Trolls (1)

On February 8, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was a fun little puzzle with beautiful colors, and it’s a bit more difficult than it looks. The quality was very nice, and the fit was excellent – not bad for a dollar store puzzle!

Mom was going to the dollar store to look for something specific, and I asked her to look at the puzzles to see if there might be a small puzzle or two there that I might be able to use for a mash-up. She bought some kids puzzles to try out, but none of them really worked for that purpose, so I just puzzled them. My brain is far too muddled these days for combining two puzzles into one anyway. 😉

Such funny and interesting creatures! I love the glitter guy on the far left, I haven’t seen the movie so I have no idea what his name is; but they are all very cute in my opinion.

There was no name on the puzzle at all, so I’ve named this one Trolls (1) because she bought two of these puzzles and the other one is unnamed as well. This was the prettier of the two, so this one gets top billing.

This was the first puzzle we’ve gotten at the dollar store, and I was impressed with it. I’m sure others aren’t as good quality, but if we take a chance on missing pieces at the thrift store, then I guess we might (if we love the picture) take a chance on a cheap puzzle. 🙂

*probably not very often, I truly can be quite the puzzle snob sometimes*

Harry Potter Book 5

On February 7, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was the hardest one of the 7 puzzles, but it was still entertaining and I enjoyed the challenge. I finished the last 3 puzzles on the same day, and had a great time with every single one of them.

Assembling these puzzles has made clear to me that I didn’t pay much attention to the actual book covers when I read them. I guess I was too excited to get to reading. 🙂 But putting these together I’ve seen things in the background that went unnoticed before – and now I’ve got a hankering to read them all over again.

I wonder if there are any more fun series of puzzles that NY Puzzle Company has, I’ve enjoyed this one so much!

Introducing Frenchy!

On February 3, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

A cute little kids puzzle, with the added fun of glitter! I love the Fancy Nancy images, they’re adorable, and remind me of myself. I’m all about being who you are, especially if you don’t fit in – who wants to be just like everyone else? Not me! 🙂

This is the fourth Briarpatch puzzle that I’ve assembled, and they’ve all had differing levels of quality; it makes me wonder why that is. This puzzle had thick enough pieces, but the chipboard used wasn’t very sturdy at all, and the way the pieces fit together was……odd. It wasn’t too tight, it wasn’t spongy, it simply felt very weird. I’m not sure I can properly explain it; you could plainly see that the piece was in the correct place, but it didn’t feel as though it was. Not a good fit, bent and flimsy pieces, and the puzzle didn’t lay flat.

Questionable quality aside though, Fancy Nancy is adorable!