Not really my favorite, but a nice palate cleanser. Sometimes I just need a quick 300 piecer to feed my addiction while I decide what larger puzzle I’ll be assembling next.
There’s nothing wrong with the puzzle itself; the pieces are ok and fit together well, the image just doesn’t tickle my fancy. Perhaps on another day I’d be more in the mood for this puzzle and would have loved it – when I assembled it, it just wasn’t that day.
It’s a busy image, with lots of cute and not so cute creatures hiding everywhere. The orange octopus was my favorite, and the sunken ship was harder to put together than it looks!
Droids was much more fun than I anticipated, I love Buffalo’s smaller piece count puzzles. The fit is excellent, and the pieces are the perfect size (for me). Great puzzle!
I don’t always like the 1000 piece puzzles by Buffalo, sometimes I have to be in just the right mood. I find the piece shapes are all too similar. Not so with their 300 and 500 piece puzzles; I find the pieces to be the perfect Goldilocks size – not too small and not too big. The shapes are less “boxy”, and they offer more variety in the size of the pieces as well. The image reproduction is stellar and the fit is wonderful. Their smaller piece count puzzles are my favorite. Click the link to check out Buffalo Games and see all of their available puzzles, they have some gorgeous images to choose from!
I’m not the world’s biggest Star Wars fan, but looking for some 300 and 500 piece puzzles to keep me entertained I decided I might as well give these droids a try. It didn’t look like a ton of fun, but fortunately looks can be deceiving and it was very entertaining. I had a great time putting it together, even more fun than making the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs! (That seemed kinda Star Wars nerdy – I know – but I have so much useless information and quotes in my brain and I can’t get them out!)
If you or someone you know is a Star Wars fan, I absolutely recommend this puzzle. It’s the right amount of difficulty and the right amount of fun. 🤖
Picnic Raiders by Steve Read – Buffalo – 300 pieces
I assembled this puzzle after resting for several days from a car trip/medical procedure. Funny that it’s in the queue for today, since this afternoon is another 3 hour trip to a doctor, gee doesn’t that sound like fun? 😐
I don’t always like Buffalo puzzles, the pieces seem so uniform and uninteresting; I have to be in the right mood to work a larger piece count from Buffalo. Luckily the 300 pieces they have don’t give me the same feeling, and I very much enjoy them. This cute little one by Steve Read was adorable, interesting, good quality, and just the right amount of challenging.
The puppies are the best part of the image, in my opinion. Puppies make me happy, although Boston Terrier puppies would have been even cuter if you ask me. 😉
Technically this puzzle doesn’t have a name, according to the box – I have named it Donut. It came in a multipack called Sweet & Salty. I think this is without a doubt the most challenging 300 piece puzzle I have ever assembled. It looks amazing though, doesn’t it? I’m not one for sprinkles, but a chocolate frosted donut sounds so good right now! 🍩
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this puzzle, especially since it was in a multipack. My experience with many puzzles in one box has been that the quality was quite poor. This is the first one from this box that I’ve assembled, but the quality of this particular puzzle was better than expected.
The pieces were thicker than I remember from other Ceaco puzzles I’ve assembled, and the fit was excellent. There was a good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction was very good as well. The cutting leaves a bit to be desired, as all the pieces weren’t cut completely through; and although the thickness was better than I remember there was still some fanning of the chipboard on some pieces. Still, overall, I found the quality to be good. Click the link above to see all the Ceaco puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse.
The obvious place to start was with the edges and the center, and they went together pretty quickly. I don’t normally work this way, but I separated the pieces by shape and worked from center to edge all the way around. The image is pretty challenging, but I enjoyed it anyway and the finished product is very cool looking!
Although Ceaco isn’t a premium brand, getting 8 puzzles for $16.99 is a pretty good bargain in my opinion. And even though the chipboard isn’t the thickest around, they have beautiful images and an excellent fit. I enjoyed this first puzzle very much – keep an eye out for the remaining 7 puzzles, I hope they’re as much fun as this one was.
Details:
Title: Donut
Artist: iStock
Brand: Ceaco
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 14 in. (36 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Good
Cutting: Good
Image: Very good
Box: Average, 8 puzzles in 1 box
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: 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.
Beauty and the Beast by Steve Crisp – MasterPieces – 300 pieces
This beautiful image was fun to assemble, but it was the first time I’ve been disappointed in a MasterPieces puzzle in quite a while. 😒
My experience with this brand has mostly been very good. The image reproduction has always been excellent in my opinion, as are the variety of piece shapes. They are a good thickness and fit together well. I’ve heard that others have found the fit to be quite loose, but that hasn’t been my experience at all. That doesn’t discount their experience; there have been many times where people with the exact same puzzle have had much different levels of quality – a lot of the time it all depends on where in the run your puzzle was produced. Beginning of the run may give you a tighter fit, end of the run can be much looser.
My problem with this puzzle wasn’t the fit at all, it was the bent pieces. I can’t be sure if it was because of the box (book shaped and somewhat small for 300 large pieces) or if it was another reason. The pieces were almost jammed in the box, and up into the spine of the “book”. Whatever it was, there were many bent pieces and the puzzle didn’t lay flat when complete, which was disappointing.
Otherwise I enjoyed the assembly very much, and found the image itself to be absolutely stunning. Steve Crisp’s artwork is beautiful, the colors are perfect for the scene, and it made for a captivating puzzle.
The random cut helped with keeping my focus as well, you couldn’t rely on the edges of the pieces to help you find what exact shape you were looking for. You have to rely more on patterns and shades of color because you may think you’re looking for a certain shape and it could end up that 2 pieces fit where you thought only 1 should go. I love it when a puzzle keeps me on my toes. 🙂
The bent pieces were a bummer, but I enjoyed it anyway – it’s a beautiful puzzle!
