Peanuts – Snoopy

Peanuts (Snoopy) by Charles Schulz – Vista Puzzles – 100 pieces

A miracle happened when I was assembling this puzzle – my youngest son came in and started helping me, and he stayed and was fully engaged until it was finished! It may not seem that miraculous to you, but to his momma it was an amazing blessing.

Both of my sons are autistic, but my youngest is more in his own world than my oldest. He does only the things he is interested in, and trying to get him to engage is quite difficult and sometimes upsets him greatly. For some reason this puzzle was different and he stood next to me and put pieces in until it was finished. AMAZING!

Anyway, this is another of the Peanuts puzzles that come in a metal tube, and they’re good quality. The color scheme is different than the previous puzzle, and obviously Snoopy is featured instead of Linus, but the comic strips in the background are the same.

We had a great time putting this puzzle together – myself and my newest puzzle posse member. 💖

Peanuts – Linus

Peanuts – Vista Puzzles – 100 pieces

Retail therapy isn’t something that I do, ever. But Monday the 11th was the worst day I’ve had all year, so I decided to give it a go and ended up with this puzzle. Shopping to feel better didn’t work for me, but at least I got a few puzzles out of it.

I thought I’d never done any puzzles from Vista before, but I was wrong. A quick search of my blog tells me that I’ve assembled 3 children’s puzzles from them before. It was about three and half years ago, so I’m giving myself a bit of a break that I didn’t remember. 😁

Anyway, this Vista Puzzle was good quality, although I was a little disappointed that some of the pieces were slightly warped. Not much, but enough that when you run your hands across the finished puzzle you come across several corners sticking up. (I do love the puzzle massage after that last piece goes in). It doesn’t detract from the enjoyment putting the puzzle together, it’s just a quality issue I feel obligated to let you know about. The pieces are a good thickness for a child’s puzzle, and the fit was very good.

Also, I don’t usually comment on boxes unless they’re quite bad or very cool; this one fits in the latter category. It’s a round metal container that reminds me of a thermos that we used to get in our metal lunchboxes back when that was a thing. It’s extremely sturdy and the top doesn’t come off easily, you have to be really trying to open it to get it off – perfect for a kid’s puzzle, it will be more difficult to lose the pieces, they won’t just fall out of the container.

How cute is Linus sitting there? To be honest, I wish there was one featuring Pigpen, as he’s the Peanuts character I identified with as a child. Being a tomboy, I was ALWAYS dirty or had stained my clothes no matter how I tried to keep clean. I wasn’t a big fan of baths either. 👎🛁

I’m intrigued by the text here, it makes me wish the entire set of panels for this strip were in the image. It looks like it would be a good one!

Anyway, I started and finished a puzzle in one sitting. I think I can hear the angels singing. Or maybe it’s Elton John…….

THE B*TCH IS BACK! 😎

Review: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles Schulz – USAopoly – 500 pieces

Super fun! The first Halloween puzzle I’ve done this season, and I enjoyed it very much. I’ve come around to shaped puzzles, I never really wanted to do them before. Now that I’ve got quite a few under my belt, I appreciate the nice change of pace that they offer. Their shapes make them very interesting to assemble.

I didn’t start with the edge of this one, although I normally try to find all the edges of shaped puzzles to see how much I can assemble. I started with Linus and Sally, they were the easiest to pick out. Then I worked on Snoopy’s silhouette and the moon. The pumpkins were easier than I thought they’d be! I enjoyed the challenge of this one, it wasn’t too easy. I had a great time with the entire puzzle; easy parts were quick and satisfying, challenging parts kept me entertained and focused.

I love the fall and Halloween. I don’t have too many Halloween puzzles, but I’m enjoying the ones I do have. Here’s hoping the thrift stores have some more after the holiday! 😉

Details:

  • Title:                  It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
  • Artist:                Charles Schulz
  • Brand:               USAopoly
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 19 x 19 in. (48 x 48 cm)
  • Purchased:      Used, thrift store

Quality:

  • Board:               Thin but sturdy
  • Cutting:             Good – fully separated, some hanging paper
  • Image:               Very good
  • Box:                   Collectible tin
  • Fit:                     Normal/Average
  • Puzzle Dust:     None
  • Piece cut:          Random
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Good,  recommended

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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Merry Christmas Everyone! by Charles Schulz- Springbok – 100 pieces

Adorable kid’s puzzle from the thrift store. Puzzles for my Christmas in July here on the blog seem to be falling in my lap. There are plenty of Christmas puzzles in the thrift stores lately, though I’m definitely not complaining.

This is a Springbok puzzle which has good quality with very thick pieces and nice image reproduction, the fit is what I’m not a fan of. Springbok puzzles usually have an extremely tight fit, so much so that you have to really press down to connect the pieces. This puzzle was so tightly fit that the finished puzzle curled up at the edges! I prefer a fit that doesn’t require upper body strength; to me, if I have to work that hard to connect two pieces it makes me question if they actually fit together. But that is my personal opinion, it’s really just a matter of taste. A lot of people prefer the tighter fit, isn’t it great that we’re all so different and there’s a puzzle out there for everyone? 🙂

This was a quick assembly that mom and I did after she finished showing me her latest finds from the thrift stores. We both enjoy putting together the kid’s puzzles – first we have to make sure all the pieces are there before I pass them along to my grandson. And second, we have both refused to grow up – so even though she’s in her 70’s and I’m in my late 40’s we are still little kids at heart who can still have a good time putting together a kid’s puzzle. 😎

Peppermint Patty was always my favorite of the Peanuts gang, because she had freckles and was a tomboy, just like me! I prefer hanging out indoors these days and there isn’t any running around since I was injured, but I’ve still got my freckles. 😉