Typefaces by Hugo Maciel – Ravensburger – 500 pieces
This very interesting and challenging image just grabbed me when I first saw it, and it’s going together really well. The artwork is very different – it almost looks as though it was done with a crayon! Still, I love a challenge, and a puzzle that is outside of the norm as well. It oughta be fun. 😉
David Bowie in Outer Space (Where’s Bowie?) by Kev Gahan – Smith Street Gift – 500 pieces
This is another puzzle that was gifted to me and I cannot remember who gave it to me. My sincerest apologies. My brain is mush. 🤕 It was more fun than I thought it would be – normally a crowded image isn’t my pile of pieces but this one was quite enjoyable.
Smith Street Gift is a company based in Australia, and I was moderately impressed with the quality. The chipboard used was quite good, and it had very nice image reproduction. There was, unfortunately, no variety in piece shapes, and many pieces fit where they did not belong. Along the top where there is just dark sky I was unable to finish the border before I started on the interior of the puzzle because pieces seemed to fit in many places.
I’m afraid I’m not much of a Bowie fan, so I’m certain most of the “jokes” or images in this puzzle went way over my head. Still it was fun to assemble and that’s really what matters most.
It must be difficult to tell if you’re being looked at when the thing has ten eyes! It’s most certainly looking at them with at least one of them. 👁
Waldo, Wallie, and Walter perhaps? That red and white striped shirt stood out to me; of course I think that’s the point. 😉
If this is the cuisine in outer space….I’m good here. A protein pill on a bun doesn’t do much for me. Major Tom can keep all those “burgers” for himself. And maybe some for ground control.
Unusual Animals by Allison Strine – Buffalo – 500 pieces
This was absolutely my kind of puzzle image – bright colors, collage, interesting artwork, informative, great quality – it had it all!
Do you ever have a puzzle that you know you’re going to love? Before you even put two pieces together you know it’s gonna be great? This was one of those puzzles! It was as fun and beautiful as I knew it would be – isn’t it fantastic when that happens? 💖
Excellent quality, as per usual for Buffalo. Lately I’ve mostly been purchasing Ravensburger and Buffalo puzzles; I’m too cranky these days to deal with crappy quality. I know when I buy a Buffalo puzzle that they care about whether or not their puzzles are entertaining and well made, and it is most definitely appreciated.
The color of both the background and the spider jumped out at me while sorting, and this was the first section I assembled. I wouldn’t want a Black Widow spider anywhere near me in the real world, but don’t mind at all it showing up next to all the other unusual animals. 🕸
I love all the information provided for each animal. Who has heard of an axolotl before? If you check out some images online you’ll see that they have the cutest faces (but they’re not brightly colored at all). Very unusual indeed.
This one I’ve definitely heard of before – there’s a whole family story about this bird – and we talk about the Blue-Footed Booby when we think something going on is ridiculous, or a waste of time.
When I was young (probably around 10 or so) my father was watching a documentary on tv about this bird, and he made me and my sisters come downstairs and watch it with him. We absolutely did not want to. Mom and dad had a “discussion” about forcing us to watch it; dad said it was educational so we should “learn something” and mom said it was stupid to make us watch it if we didn’t want to.
I don’t really remember any actual information about this bird, just the situation of being made to watch a documentary we weren’t interested in – and of course the bird’s ridiculous sounding name. It’s funny what memories stick with you, isn’t it?
The artwork by Allison Strine was excellent for puzzling, and both interesting and educational. If there are more of her puzzles out there anything like this one – I want them.
If you see this puzzle out in the wild, and you’re so inclined, I highly recommend adopting it and bringing it home. I don’t regret it, and in fact loved every single piece. 💝
Songbirds by Neiko Ng – Mudpuppy – 500 pieces
This is a cute image, but it really wasn’t as entertaining for me as I’d hoped. There’s nothing wrong with it, really, perhaps my mood wasn’t right. It just seemed like it would be more fun than it actually was. Just my own personal opinion.
The quality was good. In typical Mudpuppy fashion there is only one piece shape – what I call ballerinas – two prong/two hole pieces. Boring. The reproduction is good, but the finish is very shiny; and the backing is that “sharp” white backing that I do not care for. Overall it’s a good quality puzzle, it just wasn’t my pile of pieces.
Butterflies III – Cra-Z-Art – 500 pieces
Have you ever noticed how much orange coloring there is on butterflies? I’m not sure I ever have until now. It’s not a color one might normally say looks particularly pretty, but here it looks amazing. Just my weird observation.
When assembling these mini puzzle sets I almost never look at the box or poster, it’s more fun to just figure it out on my own. If I was looking for help it would take much less time and I enjoy getting to complete each one at my own pace.
The color of the purple one was my favorite out of all 18, just absolutely stunning! The blue one took me longer than it should have, I was expecting the shape to go upwards and it just kept getting wider and wider.
I’m not certain what the difference is between moth and butterfly, but some of these with their furry bodies seemed more moth-like. It doesn’t make them any less lovely, they just didn’t seem like butterflies to my untrained eye.
Aren’t the pastel colors on the one at the far right just amazing? Love the look of that one. 💗
My Jigsaw Journal 