Travel America – Great American Puzzle Factory – 1000 pieces
No, the “smoky” look isn’t the picture, it’s the actual puzzle. It had very odd coloring in my opinion, but I’ve seen a lot of odd things in puzzles in my time. 😉
This puzzle wasn’t as entertaining as I’d hoped, but they can’t all be fantastic. The quality was fair; the pieces were thick enough and fit together extremely well. But the image reproduction was fuzzy and smoky and altogether weird. I’ve never really come across a puzzle like this from any brand. Interesting.
The artwork made for quite a challenge, everything was so muted and smushed together.
There were a lot of blue pieces, but luckily there were plenty of things to break up the monotony. The grid cut was offset, so you couldn’t rely on piece size to see if they lined up, which made the ocean sections a bit more challenging.
I’ve never worked a puzzle with this odd coloration before, it was….something.
Herb Farm Friends by Nancy Wernersbach – Cardinal – 1000 pieces
This is a beautiful puzzle, but the flowers were such a PAIN! I knew they would be going in, and at times had to do a little internal cheerleading to keep myself going. When it was all said and done it’s a pretty image that was both entertaining and highly frustrating. 😉
This Cardinal puzzle actually had some whimsies, but they were awful to work with on my white board – they kept sliding around and making me crazy. My fabric covered board was occupied with another puzzle, perhaps I should have waited to assemble this one on the fabric board. Hmm.
I appreciate that extra work that goes in to making whimsies in a cardboard jigsaw puzzle, but these whimsy pieces added to the frustration if I’m being honest. The pieces that surrounded them almost never connected until you got 2 layers out, and there was much accidental touching of the pieces that made everything come apart. I’ve worked some cardboard puzzles with whimsy pieces that connect around the figural piece to keep things together, it would have been nice if these had been designed that way as well.
I’d love to tell you this was a fun puzzle, but although I enjoyed parts of it, the majority of my time was spent being frustrated with both the image and the whimsies. 😐
American Diner by Steve Crisp – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle that wasn’t a collage, and I’m not gonna lie, it was a little weird at first! This was very entertaining though, and it got done quickly – not being able to sleep is a good thing if you need help getting enough puzzle time. 😉
Steve Crisp’s artwork makes for fantastic puzzling, if you haven’t assembled one of his puzzles I absolutely recommend you give them a try. They’re beautiful, detailed, colorful, and just altogether great fun.
I love this dancer, she looks like all she cares about is enjoying herself and dancing – she reminds me of me. 💃💃
Look who’s on the wall – Marilyn, Elvis, and James Dean! I didn’t notice them on the box image, it was fun to see it up close in the finished puzzle. Jailhouse Rock Elvis was sexy! (I was a weird kid in the 70’s and 80’s and LOVED Elvis just as much as George Michael, Journey, and many others – I make no excuses 😎)
I really enjoyed this one, if you come across a copy it’s definitely recommended!
Ideal Bookshelf: Universals by Jane Mount – Galison – 1000 pieces
Ideal Bookshelf: Universals was a completely entertaining puzzle that I couldn’t seem to walk away from – just…..one…..more……piece!
This is my kind of puzzle image, it’s a collage (of sorts) full of bright, fun colors. For me this type of picture is the wonderfully engaging and I have a problem stopping to do other mundane things like sleeping and eating. The pieces of one book lead to the next, and they’ll be so easy to find – I can’t stop just yet!
Galison puzzles have very good quality. The pieces are a good thickness, thinner than some brands, but very sturdy and difficult to bend. The fit is very good and holds together well; and the image reproduction is crisp and clean with no blurring or fuzziness. They have a great catalog of images to choose from, you can click the link above to see their current lineup of puzzles. (There’s a new puzzle very similar to this image that I would LOVE to assemble called Bibliophile Books Club Darlings – looks like great fun!)
My one issue with this puzzle was the lack of variety in the piece shapes, all the pieces are what I call ballerinas (the standard 2 prong/2 hole shape). There is enough variety within this shape to be sure you’re not placing pieces where they do not go, but I normally prefer puzzles with a little more variety. Having only one shape makes large areas of one color or pattern more difficult to complete….
You can see above where I separated the pieces by “long” ones and “fat” ones, and had to try them one at a time to fill in the polka dot book. In the puzzle community we call this using “brute force”, it’s something most puzzlers have done at one time or another. I do it a little differently though; instead of picking up each piece and trying to fit it into place I pull the piece from the assembled section and try it against all the pieces I have lined up. I find it much easier and less time consuming, and therefore it seems a little less frustrating. The only books in this image that I had to do this for were the red polka dots, and the dark blue “Book That Makes Me Look Smart”.
Even with the lack of variety in shapes I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and would definitely assemble it again. It had enough challenge to keep things interesting, was easy enough to not feel tedious, and the image is beautiful and bright. If this image turns your page, it’s absolutely recommended – two book stacks way up! 📚📚
Details:
Title: Ideal Bookshelf
Artist: Jane Mount
Brand: Galison
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 20 x 27 in. (51 x 69 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Excellent
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: No variety, all 2 prong/2 hole
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: Very good, recommended
I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.
B & T Brewing Company by Art Poulin – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces
This puzzle is gorgeous, and was tons of fun because mom helped quite a bit – the posse was back together assembling something other than the Mystery Puzzle! Mom came over just as I had finished the sorting and she loved the look of the puzzle, so she stayed to start assembling it with me.
We finished it together too, when I had a medical appointment she came over early so that we could work on it for a bit before we left. We both are severely addicted to puzzles and puzzling. 😉
The quality of this MasterPieces puzzle was wonderful; excellent fit, thick pieces, great colors and a fun image. The random cut kept things interesting too. All around I really enjoy working with this brand, they’re very nice puzzles with a great catalog of images to choose from.
I quite enjoyed assembling this middle section (above) which shows all the steps of brewing beer; not being a beer drinker I knew none of the steps at all. And I love that the “steps” are at the top of the steps! 😄
Great image by Art Poulin, I’ve assembled 2 puzzles in this Inside Out series, have the third but haven’t assembled it yet, and would love to get my hands on the last one. Such fun!
My Jigsaw Journal 