Cracking Castle

On September 6, 2017September 6, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Horrible Histories are a series of books published in the UK that are designed to engage kids in history by presenting the gory, unpleasant, or unusual aspects in an amusing way. I hadn’t heard of them before, but actually they sound like a wonderful read! I’d be interested in checking them out. 😉

This puzzle reveals some of the truths about living in a castle long ago, and it’s a pretty fun assembly. The pieces are very thick and sturdy and the image reproduction is very sharp and colorful. The only problem I have with it is that the finish is extremely shiny and you can have glare on any of the pieces. Other than that minor detail, this was quite a fun puzzle that went together rather quickly. It comes with a “loathsome leaflet” filled with “foul facts” that will make you want to read the books to learn more horrible things!

Galt Toy jigsaw puzzles are mostly large floor puzzles for younger children, they do have a few 100 piece puzzles and they carry 4 puzzles from the Horrible History series. They are a UK based toy manufacturer, so it may not be easy to find more of them here in the US. I’m hoping to find more though, the quality was excellent and I love the concept. I’d love to find the Rotten Romans puzzle. 🙂

What Word is That?

On July 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This puzzle was SO MUCH FUN! It’s an older puzzle from Buffalo Games that mom found in a thrift store. And even though someone’s child or pet chewed on one of the pieces it was still an excellent find!

This puzzle has you join words or letters with their definitions. Some could be tricky – the letters especially. Which letter is the most used in written English? What is the 3rd most used word in spoken English? It was a blast and we loved every minute of it! The best part was that you could also assemble the puzzle using just the pictures, so even if you aren’t the most loquacious raconteur you could still put the puzzle together while learning some new vocabulary. 😉

I’ve looked it up and they also made What Movie is That?, What TV Show is That?, Who Said That? and others. I bet they’d be just as fun. Here’s hoping we make another thrift store discovery like this one!

This puzzle had the typical Buffalo quality, nice thick pieces that fit together well and feel good in your hand. The background picture of what I’m assuming is the Library of Congress makes for a gorgeous puzzle that brightened our afternoon. 🙂

An awesome puzzle and a very entertaining assembly – if you can find one of these puzzles, go for it!

Shells of the South Atlantic Coast

On July 12, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another interesting thrift store find, and a very nice puzzle! There’s something unusual and fun about this image, for me at least, and I wanted to do it right away when I saw it!

Another new company for me to try, Heritage Puzzles. They specialize in coastal and nature puzzles, it’s a very interesting catalog! The pieces of this puzzle were very nice and I was impressed with their overall quality. I’d love to do more of their puzzles, here’s hoping we find more at the thrift stores. 🙂

The pieces were thick and sturdy and feel good in your hand, there were a nice variety of piece shapes, and they fit together quite well. The finish was matte and didn’t cause glare, and the image reproduction was sharp and detailed. All in all, an excellent quality puzzle.

If you read this blog regularly you know I love having words to assemble, I have no explanation for why this is; all I know is I love it when there are a bunch of words to put together, and I almost always start with them. There were PLENTY of words here and that’s part of the reason this puzzle was so much fun for me, plus I got to learn the names of many, many shells. King Helmet, Finger Sponge, Leafy Jewelbox, Minor Jackknife and lots more. The most challenging part of this puzzle was the edge, almost every piece was entirely white. 😮

Great puzzle that I enjoyed very much, if you find a Heritage Puzzle with an image you like I definitely recommend giving it a try!

The 50 United States of America

On April 28, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Yup, another kid’s puzzle and another new company! It only took a few minutes to assemble this one, but it was so cute!

Lafayette Puzzle Factory is a new one for me and I know they do adult puzzles too – I’m looking forward to trying one. The pieces of this puzzle were on the thin side but are extremely sturdy which is excellent for a kid’s puzzle. The colors were amazingly bright and pretty without being over the top and the pieces fit together very well. I’m very impressed with the quality!

This is an excellent informational puzzle as well, it shows the 50 states and their capitals-it even shows something extra in a few states, something they’re well known for. Oranges from Florida, grapes from California, farms in Iowa, etc. I will admit though that at first I had no idea what they’re showing in Nevada and I had to really look at it to figure it out!

Great first puzzle from this company, if the adult puzzles are as well made I’ll be a happy puzzler! 🙂

Stonehenge In A Nutshell

On December 1, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Interesting jigsaw. My first from this company, and I would say the quality is satisfactory; piece thickness was good, image reproduction was slightly fuzzy but I believe that was the artist’s rendering.

This puzzle is grid cut, with basically only 2 piece shapes. It was the first time I was unable to assemble all the edge pieces first. Most were a solid color, except the sides and certain parts of the bottom edge with writing. I connected what I could, and had to wait until the puzzle was almost complete before I was able to finish the edges.

Nevertheless it was a fun, informative puzzle. Lots of information about Stonehenge and it’s construction. Plenty of words to assemble, and there wasn’t really much wasted space or large areas of sameness that would make assembly difficult – especially with only 2 piece shapes. Excellent thrift store find!