Ice Cream Bars by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
Here’s another puzzle that I was very much looking forward to, but it had very disappointing quality. It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle, and they can be hit or miss – this one was a miss, unfortunately. I wanted to enjoy this, and I did – just not as much as I’d hoped. Oh well.
The image reproduction on this was was quite blurry in some places, and there were quite a few pieces not cut all the way through. The fit was good, not as tight as some WM puzzles can be, but good. The chipboard was a good thickness, and the finish was a bit shiny, but not too much so; it was mainly the reproduction that caused me so much trouble.
So let’s look at some of these ice cream bars and wrappers up close…
Apparently sex sells, even ice cream bars.
I wanted to show the difference in clarity – the Dairy Queen cup is quite clear and the surrounding wrappers were quite muddled and blurry up close – I’m not sure I was able to capture it in the picture though. Perhaps the artist used actual vintage wrappers or pictures of them and they’re just what they looked like. I can’t be sure, but it was frustrating to have some of the image be so blurry in places.
Six Klondike bars for $1.49? Wow. Just wow. And you can also see in this picture that the words are quite clear and the image of the boy and the ice cream bars is fuzzy and indistinct.
The overall quality of this puzzle was quite a letdown; I was hoping for an entertaining collage with good quality that I could just relax and enjoy – this puzzle wasn’t it. ☹
I just finished sorting this morning and quickly put together the logo that goes in the middle – and I got all the pieces on the initial sort – way to go me!
The quality is less impressive than I was hoping for; the pieces are thin, the fit is very loose and there are a LOT of bent pieces. It’s quite different than Harmony Harbor by the same brand that I just posted about two days ago. That puzzle had quite a few bent pieces as well, but the chipboard was thicker, the finish was matte instead of shiny and the fit was very good.
According to the blog this is my first 1000 piece puzzle by this brand, and unfortunately so far I’m underwhelmed.
Apparently this is one of a series of six puzzles with images of classic board games, the others are Guess Who?, Monopoly, Battleship, Life, and Scrabble. They aren’t available online other than on resale sites; you can only get them in-store at Target and they seem to be extremely difficult to get. I wasn’t aware of any of this when I purchased it, and honestly I’m finding it quite frustrating just trying to get any information about this puzzle and/or the series.
Here’s hoping the assembly is less exasperating than the search for info about the puzzle itself. Fingers crossed!🤞
Childcare! by Bill Houston – Jumbo (Wasgij Mystery) – 1000 pieces
It looks like whatever poor soul bought the Wasgij Mystery puzzle printed just before mine ended up with several missing border pieces – because they found their way into my box instead. I’m hoping that doesn’t mean that there may be missing pieces with my puzzle, this one looks like so much fun!
The box says “The two childcare assistants are doing their best to look after all these children, but what’s the worst that could happen? That is the scene you have to puzzle.”
My frame of mind was NOT in the right place when I was assembling this puzzle; usually collages make me happy – this one just wasn’t entertaining. There were so many faces, so many pieces with just an eye or an ear, and I found myself having to check the poster frequently to see where things went. It isn’t how I normally puzzle, and unfortunately I just didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’d hoped to.
It was fun at the beginning, once the border was completed I put together all the words – love that part! 💖
After the words were done it got more tedious and annoying for me. I just wasn’t in the right headspace I suppose, normally these types of puzzles are great fun. In the 70s my family and I watched plenty of these tv shows together, they all hold memories for me so I was really looking forward to this assembly. Apparently I just chose to assemble it at the wrong time, it wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own.
Luckily, near the end hubby came in the puzzle room to talk to me and after telling him how frustrating the puzzle was he decided he was going to help me finish. He helped with the final 70 or 80 pieces. Of course that’s his M.O. (modus operandi); there’s nothing he loves more than coming to my rescue. So, I tell him that this puzzle is frustrating me and he rides in on his white horse – and saves me from a tedious assembly.
It was nice working together with him, I don’t usually have anyone sitting side by side with me to puzzle anymore.💕
Unlike most the other puzzles with tv shows from a particular decade I can tell you that I know every single show in this image, and have seen at the very least one episode of each program. Back in the day there were only three major networks in the States, so there wasn’t a lot to choose from; no streaming services, no cable television with a thousand different channels, no DVDs or VHS tapes of movies to watch at home. There was the television…that’s it! And the shows in this puzzle were all very popular, so my family watched most of them on a regular basis.
M*A*S*H was a family favorite back in the 70s and 80s, we all watched it together – back when the whole family sat together to see a tv program. My oldest son and I still watch it on a streaming service when he wants to spend time with me; we usually work on a jigsaw puzzle together and enjoy Hawkeye and Trapper or BJ making mischief and tugging on our heartstrings.
The Carol Burnett Show was another favorite of mine – me being the comedy nerd that I am. The scene shown above from Went With the Wind where she comes down the staircase dressed in the draperies complete with the curtain rod was one of the funniest scenes in the history of television (if you ask me). I can still remember laughing hysterically when I saw it for the first time, and remember how long they had to wait for the audience to stop laughing so they could continue with the sketch. Carol Burnett just turned 90 years old – what a comedy treasure she is. 🤗
I wish I could tell you how much I enjoyed this puzzle, but I really didn’t – it just wasn’t the right image, or the right time – or both.
Don’t be dissuaded by me though, it’s a very good quality puzzle with an excellent fit, it even stands up on it’s edge (forgot to get a picture of that before I disassembled it). If you’re looking for a well made collage of tv shows from the 1970s, look no further.
Pixels & Pizza by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces
Well, sort of in progress. I’m still sorting it – and that’s a start, right? 1000 piece puzzles take a lot longer for me to sort these days; I get so antsy to start assembling and want nothing more than to be done with sorting, so I take frequent breaks. In the back of my mind, I know that if I get the sorting done that I’ll be happier with the assembly so I keep slogging through it little bits at a time.
I’m very excited to start working on this image; there are SO MANY words, it’s got a fabulous 80s feel to it, and the colors are so bright and bold – it’s gonna be a great time – I can tell!
