Tag: 1000 pieces

Review: Spirit of Coca Cola

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.
IMG_3457
Spirit of Coca Cola by Pamela Renfroe – Springbok – 1000 pieces

Spirit of Coca Cola was a fun but quite challenging puzzle. I like the image, it makes me think of my dad who always has and always will drink Coca Cola!

Springbok puzzles are good quality with nice thick pieces that fit together very snugly and excellent image reproduction. I’m not sure if you would call the cut random or semi-random, but it did make for an interesting assembly. If you read this blog regularly you know I’m not a fan of the super tight fit, but many people are; to each his own. It does make it easy to assemble a smaller section and then pick it up and move it – that’s one good thing about a very tight fit. There’s always a positive to be found, so I always try to find it. 🙂 Springbok has a varied catalog; there are so many interesting puzzles to choose from – nature, animals, sweets, holidays, and many others including more Coca Cola images! Click the link above to see all the puzzles from Springbok available at Puzzle Warehouse.

There was a fair amount of puzzle dust in the bag, but the pieces were all separated and undamaged; the fit was tight and required some effort to connect pieces. The image reproduction was beautiful with a slightly shiny finish. It was a bit difficult to work the darker areas of the puzzle for me, my puzzle area only has artificial lights so there was glare to deal with. The finished puzzle is on the large side for 1000 pieces 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm) so be sure you have a large enough work space. The box has the name of the puzzle, manufacturer and piece count along with a small image on 3 sides so that you could store it vertically or horizontally.

The assembly was relatively easy at first, the bottom half of the puzzle was easy to pick out pieces to assemble the plane, all the people and signs, etc. Once the building and everything below it was complete the challenge was turned up a notch! There is a fair amount of blue sky to put together and an even larger amount of tree line. This section was more time consuming and slightly tedious for me; the trees were more difficult than the sky and took the most time. This wasn’t my favorite assembly, but it wasn’t too bad and I sure was proud when I finished it. 🙂

The artwork by Pamela Renfroe feels retro/nostalgic and makes me think of “simpler times”. I love the feeling of family in this image, and it made me look through the vintage puzzles at Puzzle Warehouse and add several of them to my ever growing, insanely long wish list. 😮 There are a bunch of wonderful collage puzzles that I would love to get my hands on!

Spirit of Coca Cola is no longer available at Puzzle Warehouse, but don’t worry, Coca Cola is a popular theme for puzzles and there are a surprising number of them to choose from. Click here to see all the Coca Cola puzzles available from Puzzle Warehouse from several different puzzle manufacturers. I especially love Santa’s Coca Cola Christmas – such beautiful artwork! The Coca Cola puzzles make me smile and some of them definitely seem like a fun challenge to take on!

 

I received this product at no charge in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

 

Review: Five Cent Piece

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse. 
IMG_3441
Five Cent Piece by David Behrens – Sunsout – 1000 pieces

Five Cent Piece is a beautiful puzzle from Sunsout that I enjoyed very much! The fit was looser than normal for a Sunsout puzzle, but that’s in the positive category for me. The artwork is stunning and makes for an excellent puzzle.

Sunsout puzzles are of very good quality in my opinion. The pieces are thick and sturdy and feel good in your hands. They use a random cut, which gives a wide variety of piece shapes and makes for a more interesting assembly. I prefer a grid (or ribbon) cut, but I also enjoy the random cut every now and then; it’s nice to change things up and work a random cut puzzle just to keep your brain limber! Normally a rectangular Sunsout puzzle has quite a tight fit, this puzzle was a bit looser and I enjoyed that very much. The image reproduction was excellent with a slightly shiny finish which can cause glare under lights. Click the link above to see all the Sunsout puzzles available at Puzzle Warehouse.

The finished puzzle is 23 x 28 inches (58 x 71 cm), a bit larger than the average 1000 piece puzzle, and would be beautiful framed. Sunsout boxes are large and square and have the name of the puzzle, artist, and manufacturer along with piece count on all four sides – easy to shelve either vertically or horizontally.

The artwork by David Behrens is beautiful, emotional, and moving and also makes for excellent puzzling; his art has been made into many jigsaw puzzles. Click the link above to see all puzzles available from this artist at Puzzle Warehouse. I especially like Flags of Our Fathers. Gorgeous!

Five Cent Piece was about medium difficulty, with just the right amount of challenge to make for a fun puzzling experience. The assembly was never tedious and it was fun to watch each piece turn into part of a beautiful piece of art. Thumbs up! 👍

 

I received this product at no charge in return for an honest review. All opinions are truthful and 100% my own.

 

To the Barns

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment
IMG_3461
To the Barns by Art Poulin – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

Another nice thrift store find and fun to assemble. Alas, 3 missing pieces. Oh well. Mom did the majority of this one, I only helped bring it home. 🙂

Buffalo usually has very good quality, but with this puzzle there was image lift on many of the pieces. You can see at the top of the puzzle there are several pieces with the image raised up on the tabs. I’ve worked enough of this brand to know that this isn’t typical, Buffalo makes very good quality puzzles. Perhaps it was well-loved before someone donated most of it to the thrift store?

What’s funny was we were working on it together and there were about 7 or 8 pieces we were CERTAIN were missing.  They were definitely not there. Definitely not. Except they were! We missed them – over and over again. Guess this July heat is boiling our brain cells!

We haven’t had good luck with thrift store puzzles lately, many have been missing pieces. But perhaps that means that we’re about to find a whole bunch of excellent puzzles with all pieces present and accounted for! No matter, this puzzle was a fun assembly, even more fun because we worked on it together. 😊

 

 

 

Review: Horse of Iron

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.
IMG_3479
Horse of Iron by Werner Willis – Sunsout – 1000 pieces

This is quite an impressive puzzle – when I look at the picture the word “majestic” comes to mind. It’s hard to tell from the picture but the train is 3 feet long! (Side note: this is probably the best picture I’ve ever taken of any puzzle – yay me!)

Sunsout puzzles are good quality. The pieces are thick, and they fit together well. Their rectangular/square puzzles have a much tighter fit than the shaped puzzles; I prefer the looser fit of their shaped puzzles, but that’s just me. The image reproduction is very good, they work with many wonderful artists, and they have an excellent catalog that includes a great selection of shaped puzzles. As an added bonus they are an environmentally friendly company that uses recycled board and soy-based inks.

I’ve only recently started working shaped puzzles, and I’m really enjoying them. Sunsout has an excellent array of shaped puzzles, and several other manufacturers make them as well. Click here to see all the shaped puzzles available at Puzzle Warehouse, they’ve got something for everyone. Give a shaped puzzle a try, they’re fun and a good workout for your brain!

I was able to pull all the edge pieces for this puzzle and start there; usually it isn’t easy to find all the edges of a shaped puzzle, but this one has a white border that was easy to spot. This puzzle has a LOT of edge – more than 250 pieces! By the time the border was assembled I had the puzzle 1/4 done. 🙂

The bottom section was about medium difficulty and fun to assemble. The top section was much more challenging – still fun, but I had to take more breaks because it overwhelmed me at times. It doesn’t look like it would be that difficult, but believe me it was. I had about 100 pieces left when mom and dad stopped by and she helped me finish it up. It’s a gorgeous puzzle that definitely makes a statement. The finished puzzle is 36 x 24 inches (91 x 60 cm) it’s quite impressive!

The artwork by Werner Willis is amazingly detailed and beautiful; this was my first puzzle of his and I’d love to find more. I enjoyed Horse of Iron very much, it was a challenge but I certainly was proud of it when I was done!

I’m sorry to say it’s no longer available at Puzzle Warehouse, but I’ve certainly been inspired to work more shaped puzzles, and have even added a few train puzzles to the ridiculously long wish list – including another shaped puzzle with trains and an interesting retro collage from White Mountain called Travel by Train. All aboard!

 

I received this product at no charge in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

Fishing with Friends

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment
IMG_3453
Fishing with Friends – Jumbo (Deco Puzzle) – 1000 pieces

Beautiful puzzle that I don’t believe Jumbo is manufacturing anymore, I got the last one at Puzzle Warehouse. It’s really lovely, but I wouldn’t want to do another one.

Jumbo is right up there with Ravensburger in my opinion, excellent quality puzzles and a great catalog. Their fit is exceptional and I love the way the pieces feel in my hands. In my mind these two companies are tied for first place.

This puzzle, however, was a bit tedious. Not counting the border, 99% of the pieces were ballerinas (2 prong/2 hole) and many pieces could be placed where they didn’t belong. With so much sameness in the sky and water it was pretty difficult and time consuming working those areas.

On the positive side, the puzzle comes with a chart of the pieces because you’re supposed to assemble the entire puzzle and then remove the pieces indicated on the chart to give you the decorative edge you see above. It was extremely helpful in finding the correct pieces to assemble the border. You’re supposed to start with the large piece in the center of the puzzle and work outward from there. I don’t always do as I’m told, so I assembled the edge and the chart was very helpful. 😎

Glue was also included. A packet of powder that you mix with water and then apply. I followed the directions and the glue was very thick, almost a gel-like consistency. I tried to apply it the way I normally do, but it didn’t work very well. I think perhaps it would have been easier to apply with a brush. I’ll have to try it with a paintbrush if there’s a next time with powdered glue.

The puzzle is gorgeous, and I’m glad I did it. But I also was a little let down by the assembly and probably wouldn’t order another one unless the image was amazing. But since they’re no longer being produced I doubt I’ll come across another any time soon. Still, the deco border makes the puzzle stand out, and it’s really quite beautiful!