Tag: 500 pieces

Secrets of the Deep

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles10 Comments

Secrets of the Deep by Steve Read – MasterPieces – 500 pieces

This puzzle was a joy – random shapes, beautiful colors, excellent fit – I absolutely adored it! Ocean images aren’t really my thing, but I wanted to clear out some of the older thrift store puzzles and this had the right piece count so I gave it a go. I’m so glad I did.

MasterPieces puzzles have always had good quality in my opinion, and this was one of the best quality puzzles of theirs that I can ever remember doing. The image reproduction is stunning, the fit was exceptional, the random shapes made the assembly wonderfully interesting, it was just an all around great puzzle. 💙

It can be interesting putting together a random cut like this where the “corners” of the pieces don’t meet – it can be all over the place. In my case it makes me slow down a bit and really pay attention to the connections and be sure to grab the right piece no matter if it’s tall or short or long or thin.

In addition to being an all around great puzzle this was also a glow in the dark puzzle with hidden images to find; Steve Read likes to hide things in his artwork. I found myself going back through the blog and looking at past puzzles with his artwork, and quite a few of them were ones with hidden images – there were hidden animals, hidden fairies, etc. Anyway, back to this puzzle, there are 16 hidden dolphins to find; can you see a pink dolphin in this coral (or whatever it is)?

The fit was very good, and I was able to get this stand up picture, but just barely. You can see the pieces are moving a bit, and immediately after I took this picture a piece fell out. I almost feel as though I shouldn’t be posting this picture because it wasn’t as good as previous puzzles that stood tall and proud with no pieces moving around. But I did capture the image, so why not?

As I mentioned before this was also a glow in the dark puzzle, and a thrift store purchase. Once it was finished and pictures were taken I took it outside to “charge” for 10 minutes or so in the sun. You can never tell with a thrift store puzzle if you’re gonna still be able to get a good glow out of it and I’ve found that putting it in direct sunlight for a few minutes helps.

Let me tell you, I got the best glow on a puzzle I have EVER seen, and the absolute best glow picture I have ever taken. Ready?….

It’s a little blurry on one side, I think I was so amazed by how well it was glowing that I moved a little when I was taking it. There was absolutely no manipulation of the image other than to crop it, this is actually what it looked like in the darkened room. Isn’t that a glorious GITD picture? I was so excited to capture such an excellent glow on this puzzle – I still am!

This was a fabulous puzzle with hidden images inside beautiful artwork on a puzzle with excellent quality. I absolutely recommend it; it made this little old puzzle lady very happy indeed. 👵

Admont Abbey Library In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Admont Abbey Library by William Carr – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This puzzle is going together rather well, which is not anything like what I’d envisioned. I stayed away from this puzzle for quite a few years, it just looked so muted and as if it would be very difficult; but it hasn’t been that way at all. This poor thing has been shuffled around and around always not making the cut cause I was too scared to try it that day, or not in the mood, or whatever reason I told myself. Thank goodness I finally took the plunge because it’s been way more fun than it looks!

The pieces seem brighter than the image on the box, although it’s still quite muted in color. But it’s not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. One small section leads to another and things are going much more smoothly than anticipated.

I’m having lots more fun than I’d even hoped for!

Nature’s Bounty Box

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Nature’s Bounty Box – Puzzlebug – 500 pieces

You can’t believe it, right? Stacey the puzzle snob did a Puzzlebug puzzle? Yes, I did. I don’t think I’ll be doing one again soon, there are just too many excellent puzzles here at my house to be assembled; but I really liked this image and even though this brand isn’t one I ever buy, not even at the thrift store (usually) there was something about this one. And for only $0.99 cents I just had to give this brand another go because this image spoke to me.

I decided to do this puzzle on a day when I wasn’t feeling well at all. I dumped the pieces out of the box onto a tray and started sorting, but I had to take a break relatively quickly and didn’t go back in the puzzle room for the rest of the day. The next morning when I made my way back to the puzzle board I looked at the VERY thin pieces and to be perfectly honest I almost dumped them in the garbage. They were so thin, I thought to myself “there’s no way these pieces are going to fit together properly, this will be a horrible assembly”. But before I did anything I found two edge pieces that went together to check the fit, and it was much better than I anticipated. As you can see from the picture above, I didn’t toss the pieces in the trash, I continued on with the sorting and assembly.

There hasn’t been a Puzzlebug puzzle on my board in 10 years, I checked. Any fair and impartial blogger should give them another go and see if the quality has improved, right? Well, that’s not why I bought this puzzle, I just really liked the image and for some reason I’m not sure of I bought it. They’re still pretty far down the quality food chain in my opinion, but there are a couple of positives: the image reproduction is very nice, if a little shiny, and the fit is actually quite good – whole sections could be picked up and moved with no problems at all, and they have some amazing, colorful images to choose from. On the negative side; there is no variety in piece shape, every piece is either a long, thin or a short, fat ballerina, the chipboard used is very thin, there were many pieces still attached and with hanging chads, and the puzzle dust wasn’t really dust, it was bigger pieces of paper from the chipboard and there was a lot of it. I don’t normally speak about boxes because I’m not a collector and I don’t care much about them; but their boxes have a flip top, made of very thin cardboard, and if you were someone who keeps puzzles it’s the type of box that makes losing pieces easy.

The assembly was a little disappointing, but still it was fun to watch each box fill up with the chosen food as the assembly went on, and it wasn’t so easy as to be boring. I can see the draw for those people who don’t work as many puzzles as some of us and don’t know all the different brands and qualities available, or for those who don’t have as much to spend on non-essentials like puzzles. Puzzlebug has many images that look extremely entertaining to assemble, and you can’t beat the price of less than $2 brand new in most dollar stores.

There’s no judgement here if you buy this brand, however you puzzle and what puzzles you buy is none of my damn business. I enjoyed this assembly, and if you enjoy working this brand then more power to ya, truly. It’ll probably be a while before I assemble a Puzzlebug again, but I was a little more impressed with this brand than I was the last time. And honestly if I see one of their beautiful images at the thrift store (they really do have some gorgeous, colorful pictures to choose from), I just may buy another one! 😮

In fact…

The fit was so good that I got one of my favorite pictures!

I saw a post on a Facebook puzzle group recently where someone had taken several 350 and 500 piece Puzzlebug puzzles and glued each one to make placemats for the kitchen table. They looked so good, it made me stop and think it just might be a good idea to try. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Puzzle Complaints

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Puzzle Complaints by Sandra Boynton – Workman – 500 pieces

Here’s a new one for me – I checked this puzzle out of the library! My youngest asked for a ride to a library about 8 miles from home (because I don’t like for him to ride his bike that far in serious traffic), so being the fabulous momma that I am we took a ride to the library. Not wanting to sit in the car during the Florida summer while waiting, I looked around inside and to my surprise found that they have quite a few puzzles that can be checked out. I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while, so I jumped at the chance; it’s just too funny not to give it a go.

This is my first Workman puzzle, but I don’t think it’s fair to speak too much to it’s quality as it has obviously been assembled many times, and it looks like it wasn’t treated very well at some point. But I think I can confidently say if this puzzle were new it would most likely gotten a good/very good rating from me. There are a good variety of piece shapes, the image reproduction is very nice, the pieces are a good thickness and sturdy, and the backing actually feels soft if that makes sense. It’s got a blue paper on the back but it doesn’t feel “sharp” like that white paper backing on many puzzles, it actually feels soft to me. I can’t speak to the fit other than to say if it were new I think it may have been good. Again, this puzzle has been at the library for more than three years and has most likely been put together a LOT.

I had to show you this close up, it makes me smile. This puzzle was assembled with no help from the box image, so this random pieces was floating around, at first I thought I’d be able to find the pieces that went around it – no luck. Then I checked the back of the piece and it had the same backing so I figured it was definitely part of this puzzle, I just missed the surrounding pieces. It wasn’t until the very end of the assembly where I actually processed the words I had put together and tried it next to the words “quality control”, of course it fit. They did VERY well setting up the die, there was absolutely no help from any other pieces, this piece was all it’s own and fits perfectly. That can’t be very easy to do.

As I was assembling the border these pieces jumped out at me, obviously. First I thought perhaps they became delaminated and someone tried to fix them and did a crappy job. Then during the assembly I found the whole section in the upper right hand corner was warped and didn’t fit together well at all. My theory is that something was spilled on the puzzle and someone fixed it poorly; I don’t believe this had anything to do with the puzzle’s original quality at all, it was definitely user error; or as my husband calls it – an ID-10-T error. 😉

I’ve seen this image around for years and have wanted to assemble this puzzle, but not enough to spend money on it apparently. Not sure why. But finally I got the chance and I’m glad I did it. Even though this puzzle has been pre-loved a LOT it was still in relatively good shape, was missing only one piece, and it was very entertaining. I really enjoyed it!

Check out the library, there may a puzzle or two you could check out! 📚✔🧩

Disney & Pixar Color Palette

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Disney & Pixar Color Palette – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

For some reason I was a little apprehensive about this puzzle, but there was no need to be – it was an excellent assembly. For the second puzzle in a row I found myself wishing it was a larger piece count because the fun was just over too quickly.

Most excellent Ravensburger quality, the fit was exceptional, the image reproduction was beautiful, there were a nice variety of pieces shapes – in short I’m saying it was an excellent quality puzzle and it made for a highly entertaining assembly.

The only drawback, again, was the puzz fuzz. It takes no time at all to shake the pieces in a colander (take a tip from me though and don’t do it over the garbage can in case you get a little too aggressive with the shaking and a piece jumps out into the trash). Then I leave the pieces in the colander sitting inside the box while I’m laying them all out so that my reaching in and getting a handful of pieces moves things around and gets rid of any remaining blue fuzz. I don’t consider it much of a problem but some people do so I want to be sure to let them know. To be honest I’d rather deal with puzzle dust on an excellent quality puzzle than work with a lesser quality brand with that sharp white backing. But that’s just me, you have to decide what works for you and what doesn’t.

I assembled this one without using the box image, so other than the characters around the edge I had no idea where anyone went. As an added bit of challenge there are many characters that I have no idea who they are! My kids are all in their 30’s, so we stopped watching Disney and Pixar movies together quite some time ago and many of the characters are very new to me.

I also did something different with this assembly; the only thing I sorted was the edges, I didn’t pull any colors or characters, all the pieces were just laid out on trays. Each little character is pretty small and pulling out pieces for sections would have taken lots of time so I just put all the pieces on trays and once the border was assembled I started on the far right and assembled each column. Here and there I found a piece that I knew where it belonged and put it in, but for the most part it was put together one column at a time. I enjoyed it very much!

I chose three characters from Winnie the Pooh, because it’s one of my most treasured memories as a child. I had a book that came with a cassette tape that “acted out” the book, which was voiced by the actors from the short films. In addition we had an 8 track of the same short film to play in the van on long trips to tournaments that my dad was umpiring. My sisters and I knew all the words to every song, and especially loved to quote from it. Winnie the Pooh and his friends bring back happy memories and make me smile.

I wasn’t always sure why I liked Piglet so much, but now as an adult with severe anxiety issues perhaps it was recognition of a fellow traveler. He was always shaking and stuttering and full of anxiety, so of course I loved him. And Tigger. Silly, sweet, bouncy Tigger, he always made me smile and I identified with him too. He had so much energy! You know what they say about Tiggers don’t you? They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!

This puzzle was great quality with a great image that made for a great (if too quick) assembly. It was much more fun than anticipated and I loved it. It was put back in it’s box and sent off to Penny – here’s hoping she has as much fun with it as I did!