Hot Air Balloon Sunset – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces
My daughter took me puzzle shopping last week, and while I don’t normally care for hot air balloon puzzles this one was only 500 pieces and the colors were so pretty that I couldn’t resist it.
I’ve been finding a lot of these Milton Bradley puzzles lately, they’re pretty good quality and they have some really nice images to choose from. I especially appreciate the nice fit and variety of piece shapes. The feel of the pieces is smooth and pleasant, and I enjoy working with them. Good thing too, since almost all the smaller piece count puzzles I’ve been finding have been this brand.
The colors are quite striking and they all work together to make a beautiful puzzle; although there’s no mention of the artist anywhere on the box. This seems to be a theme lately, why are puzzle companies not crediting the artist? It isn’t just Milton Bradley, it’s been the case with several puzzles from different manufacturers. Not cool if you ask me.
How many hot air balloon puzzles have you seen or done?
Sunset Glory by Jeff Wilkie – Ravensburger – 500 pieces
This is a beautiful puzzle, but not one I would normally choose. I don’t usually gravitate towards sea life puzzles, I’m not sure why, they’re just not images I normally go for. Luckily I disregarded my prejudice and assembled this puzzle anyway; it was almost a meditative experience for me and I enjoyed it very much.
It’s a Ravensburger, and the quality was top notch. The pieces fit together beautifully, and the image reproduction was stellar. I think it was the colors that attracted to me to this puzzle, especially the colors in the sky. They’re just gorgeous!
Other than the sky, the fish were the most fun for me to assemble. They aren’t very big, but the bright colors and the number of small fish made them very entertaining. I zoned out when I was assembling this puzzle, I just let my brain do all the work. It was almost like meditating (or what I think meditating must be like). I enjoyed this puzzle even more than I thought I would – I love it when that happens. 🙂
You’d think I’d learn after putting together so many different puzzles that you never really know how entertaining an image will be until you actually assemble it. I still have my preferences, but I’m trying to do better about giving certain puzzles and images a chance. I’m usually wrong about how much fun a puzzle will or will not be – so I should give all of them a chance, right? Of course right!
Aphrodite’s Vista by Sam Park – Ravensburger – 500 pieces
This image scared me a little bit, I was sure it was going to be very difficult, tedious, and time consuming. Luckily – as usual – I was wrong! It went together much more easily than I thought, and I enjoyed myself very much. 🙂
I purchased this puzzle more than a month ago, I absolutely couldn’t pass up a brand new Ravensburger 500 piece puzzle for only $5.99. It’s interesting how price affects your thinking, isn’t it? If I were shopping online for puzzles I would pass by this image quickly with little to no thought about it. There’s nothing wrong with it – actually it’s quite beautiful – I just normally prefer brighter colors and more distinct lines. But put it in front of me for an extremely discounted price and I won’t be able to leave it behind. I’m a cheapskate and proud of it!
I enjoy the larger piece Ravensburgers very much; for some reason a 500 piece puzzle with the large pieces seems to go together more quickly for me than one with pieces that are the “average” size. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps because assembling a small section nets a larger finished area, giving one the sense of a bigger accomplishment. The more a puzzle is complete, the more I am encouraged to keep working on it to see the finished image.
As usual, the quality of this Ravensburger puzzle was outstanding – thick pieces, wonderful fit, and lovely image reproduction. This is a beautiful puzzle with excellent quality. Definitely recommended!
Old World Map Calendar – Buffalo Games – 520 (+160) pieces
This puzzle is a very interesting concept; it’s a calendar within a puzzle, and you are supposed to be able to reassemble it every month. Cool idea, but not at all practical in my opinion.
I like vintage map puzzles, I find they can be intimidating and tough to put together, but I love the look of them and enjoy the challenge. This map was no exception, with beautiful colors and an interesting background.
The fit is extremely tight so that you can hang the finished puzzle with no glue or taping needed to keep it together. There are basically only 2 different shapes of pieces; this is so all the pieces can be interchangeable when you need to reconfigure the calendar each month. This is where the it becomes impractical; any puzzle made from cardboard isn’t going to be able to withstand multiple disassembling and reassembling – especially when the fit is so tight.
You can see below that the tabs are lifting and the image is coming off, and in some places the image is actually torn off. Perhaps a plastic puzzle would be a better way to go with this idea. With cardboard, no matter how sturdy it is, it will start to come apart after many assemblies.
I assembled it for this month, June. The 10th is a family birthday, the 17th is Father’s Day, and the full moon this month is on the 28th. The extra 160 pieces are for the major holidays, and extra days and spaces.
It was fun to put this together, and while I like the idea and the finished puzzle it just isn’t at all reasonable for a cardboard puzzle. Still it was an excellent thrift store find and I’m glad it was all there and I was able to try it out.
59 National Parks – Wilderness & Wonder – True South Puzzle Co. – 500 pieces
This is a brand new company for me, mom found it at a thrift store in Texas. It’s a really cool collage and I was impressed with the quality. It was a fun puzzle and if you find one from this company I definitely recommend you give it a try!
True South Puzzle Company is based in Nashville, Tennessee and was created to combine a love of jigsaws, the South, and local and regional artists. Their catalog is quite interesting with some collages, map, scenic images, posters, and more. The pieces were quite thick with a random cut that produces a very good variety of piece sizes and shapes. The fit was somewhat loose, but not too much so. The image reproduction is excellent with bright colors and crisp lines; the finish is a bit shinier than I like, it causes glare even with lighter colored pieces under artificial lights. The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished image, which isn’t ideal if you plan on displaying it, but doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the assembly. Overall I was very impressed with the quality.
I started with the emblem in the center of the puzzle, and from there I started assembling words. Each of the 59 posters have words so there were plenty to work with. There are lots of shades of browns, yellows, and oranges which made the assembly a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. Each of the posters is it’s own little 9-12 piece puzzle, but finding the right pieces wasn’t always easy. It was a fun challenge.
True South puzzles are a bit on the pricey side, but that’s normal for smaller puzzle companies. If they’re a bit much for your wallet, perhaps you can find one at a thrift store like we did. If you see one, I recommend giving it a try; this one was a lot of fun!
