Colorful Animal World Map

On October 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was a fun 100 piece puzzle that had a little bit of challenge to it. There’s lots of ocean and it wasn’t always easy to see what piece goes next. It doesn’t lay completely flat as you can see in the picture above, but it is a thrift store purchase so perhaps it was well loved before donation. Still, it is a very good quality kid’s puzzle that also glows in the dark! Check it out….

It doesn’t just glow in the dark, it glows in 3 different colors; red (hardest to see), green, and blue. I’m not always able to get a good glow picture, so I was pleased that this one turned out so well showing all 3 colors. How cool is that? Very!

I enjoyed putting this one together, I like it when a kid’s puzzle has a little bit of challenge to it. I think that’s good for kids too, if all their puzzles are too easy they get bored. It feels like a little more of an accomplishment if you had to work at it a little bit. Of course, that’s just my own personal puzzle addict’s opinion. 😉

Galaxies

On October 18, 2017October 18, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is our first Japanese manufactured puzzle! The quality is excellent, and the subject matter was very interesting as well. Had a great time assembling it, the very last part was a teensy bit tedious, but overall I loved this puzzle. 🙂

The pieces are quite thick and fit together extremely well. It’s hard to comment on the image reproduction as the entire puzzle was very dark, but it was very clear with no fuzziness at all. There are a nice variety of piece shapes too. Excellent quality all around, and I’d love to find more Epoch puzzles to assemble. Isn’t it amazing that these days it’s not too terribly difficult to find puzzles from all over the world? It’s so much fun for me to try all these companies from across the globe!

Most of the lighter sections of this puzzle glow in the dark, and I must say that it’s the strongest and nicest glow I’ve ever seen on a puzzle. It was amazingly bright and clear, but unfortunately it didn’t photograph well at all, and I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the glow. 😦

As you can see from the picture, there were lots of words to assemble, be still my heart! There were explanations of different types of galaxies, superclusters of galaxies, the anatomy of a galaxy, explanations of light travel time, etc. Educational and fun at the same time.

Mom helped a bit with this puzzle, and we had a good time working together, as usual. When I got to the end, though, I was working alone. The dark pieces around the edge of the galaxy shown slowed me down a bit and it was a little difficult at the end. Still, I enjoyed it very much. 👍

What TV Show Is That?

On October 14, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

This puzzle was even more fun than What Word is That? that mom and I did earlier this year. We knew almost all of the answers about tv shows; oh dear, what does that say about our intelligence? 🙂

Not only did we know most of the tv show answers, the background of the puzzle itself was also a little bit easier to see and use for help in placing each question and answer. It works almost like the Talking Jigsaw puzzles in that you can put together each question and answer, and then use the background to place them in their correct position in the puzzle. Buffalo Games makes both series, which is nice because the quality for both is very good.

We really had a good time with this puzzle, I would still love to find the rest of them. There is What Movie is That? and Who Said That? and more. Here’s hoping they’re coming to a thrift store near us!

I think the show on the tv set is Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, but it’s a bit before my time – mom wasn’t sure either. We also weren’t sure about the Gunsmoke answer, but apparently Burt Reynolds was in 50 episodes of the show! (He played Quint, for those of you old enough to have watched it)

Under the Sea

On October 10, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Wow this puzzle was big! I didn’t want to get my big 4 x 5 foot board out just for a kid’s puzzle, so I did this one on my bedroom floor. It’s over 50 inches tall!

The pieces are extremely thick and sturdy, with a finish that can be wiped down if your young child gets any of the pieces sticky. They fit together very well – all in all excellent quality from Melissa & Doug. This puzzle also had an informational insert that has the names of all the creatures shown in the puzzle. Some of them I’d never heard of, I love learning new stuff!

I enjoy working the educational puzzles we’ve found, especially because we now donate most of our kid’s puzzles to a school, and I get to learn cool new things! Plus, when I’m working on a difficult puzzle, it’s nice to pick up a kids puzzle and finish it without having to concentrate too much.

Solar System

On October 9, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Fun kid’s puzzle! I love seeing what kind of quality the larger companies put into their children’s puzzles. MasterPieces did well. 🙂

The pieces of this puzzle were very nice; thick and quite sturdy. They fit together well and the puzzle lays flat, which hasn’t always been the case with a lot of the kid’s puzzles I’ve assembled. Excellent quality! There’s even an informational poster included that has a picture of the image along with some planetary fun facts. This puzzle is being donated to a school and I know they’ll enjoy the educational poster.

My only issue with this puzzle is the paint or the powder mixed with the ink that glows. It almost feels like sandpaper to me, but not so rough that it would scratch your hands; it feels dry and like very fine sand. I detest the feel of sandpaper and for me this was almost like nails on a chalkboard! Of course, this is really only a big issue for me, but if you’ve got a child with any tactile sensitivities it may be something to consider.

Fun puzzle, and an excellent thrift store find! I love a glow in the dark puzzle, I enjoy seeing what parts glow. Usually it’s difficult to get a “glow” picture, but luckily this one worked out pretty well.