Review: Rainbow Marbles

On October 23, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Rainbow Marbles by Julie Seabrook – Galison – 500 pieces

I am a fan of color blend puzzles like this image; unfortunately, this one was a bit disappointing for me. When mom brought her recent thrift store purchases for me to look at and I saw this one I was so excited to start assembling it. I love the image! Galison puzzles, sadly, have just the one piece shape – what I call ballerinas (2 prongs, 2 holes). The lack of variety made this puzzle more difficult and less entertaining for me. And I wanted so much to like it! 😕

Many people are only concerned with the image itself, and the puzzle doesn’t need to have premium quality to entertain. I am sometimes the same way; if the image is fun for me I can overlook quality issues that might drive me crazy with an image that, for me, is less entertaining. Rainbow Marbles is perhaps the exception that proves the rule – although I love the artwork on this puzzle, it was still a disappointing assembly for me because of the piece shape. That said, I am still recommending it for others who might only be looking for a great image.

Galison puzzles have good quality board that is thick, and the pieces fit together well. The image reproduction is excellent, with sharp focus and no blurring or fuzziness and a slightly shiny finish. I don’t normally comment on boxes unless they are exceptional in my opinion, but the box with this puzzle was extremely sturdy and well made. The lack of variety in piece shape may be problem for some, but if the image is one that you like it may not be a concern for you.

All reviews are just opinions. I try to at least be as objective as I can, and even though a puzzle image or quality may not be my taste, I try to give a detailed accounting of those things that I feel other puzzlers may want to know. We can’t all love the same puzzles for the same reasons. If variety in piece shape isn’t as big a deal for you and you love this image, I’m confident in recommending this puzzle. It’s got good quality, and it really is a beautiful picture!

Details:

Title: Rainbow Marbles
Artist: Julie Seabrook
Brand: Galison
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 20 x 20 in. (51 x 51 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Good
Image: Excellent
Box: Sturdy
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Poor, no variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Good, recommended

Rainbow Marbles was assembled in August, but got lost temporarily due to my old lady brain or medication fog. Usually once I finish a puzzle and take pictures I do three things; 1) the image is put onto the completed puzzles page for that month, 2) I start a new blog post page and put all pictures there also with a few notes about the assembly (and puzzle info if I’m writing a review), and 3) I add the pieces and puzzle to the running total for the year.

I’ve usually got 2 weeks worth of puzzles already completed and waiting to be written up and posted, so I didn’t really notice that I messed up one of those steps. When I thought I was starting a new blog post page, I clicked the wrong button and started a whole new page for the site (like one of the monthly completed puzzles pages). Since puzzles normally don’t get published right away it was saved as a draft, but not with all the other post drafts of other puzzles.

It wasn’t until last week when I was starting to write up new site pages for brand reviews that I noticed this little guy hanging out in the site pages drafts where he wasn’t supposed to be! How could I have missed this for 2 months? And if I hadn’t decided to start writing reviews of puzzle brands how long would it have been before I found this little guy? Heaven only knows!

Fallingwater

On February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

This isn’t my typical choice for a puzzle image, but the fact that this is a double sided puzzle and that the blueprints for this building is the image on the back piqued my interest and I couldn’t walk away from it. What an excellent idea!

I had a couple of issues with the quality of this puzzle, the first being the very shiny finish on the picture of the house; there was way too much shine, making it very difficult to work on under artificial lights. In fact the shininess of the pieces was part of the reason that I did the majority of the assembly with the blueprint side facing up. Secondly, the fit at times seemed a little mushy; when you tried to fit the pieces together you couldn’t always tell if the fit was correct.

I looked at other Galison puzzles at the store, luckily I was able to take the lid off and look at the pieces in the bag. There was another image that I liked very much, but the pieces were all ballerinas (2 prong, 2 hole) Blech! I prefer pieces to have more than one shape. On the plus side this puzzle had a good variety of piece shapes and once it was assembled correctly the fit was good enough to lift the entire puzzle. Here’s the image on the back…..

I was all over the place when I assembled this, the edge was put together picture side up then I flipped it over to assemble the blueprint in the center. I thought assembling the blueprint would be interesting, and it was! Once the majority of the blueprint was assembled and the only pieces left were all blue I flipped it over again and let the image assist in completing the remainder of the puzzle. I make no apologies – it was fun!

Telephones

On February 26, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another new manufacturer – Galison. I liked it! Not love, but not bad at all. 🙂

I love this image, because I love collages and also my dad used to work for the phone company back when everyone had actual land line phones in their houses. We had plenty of phones to play with when we were kids, old phones that would have been thrown away we got to play with. Doesn’t seem that fun in this world of computers and tablets and smart phone apps but children used to play with things that required their imagination. Wow!

I tried assembling this puzzle once before, put together the edge pieces and then put it away – I just wasn’t in the right mood for it. Second time was the charm and I really enjoyed it. I love how a picture like this is so easy to get sucked in to. You pull the pieces for one of the squares, and that leads to the square next to it and so on and so on. So much fun!

The piece shapes were not bad, there were very few pieces that were 2 prong 2 hole. Lots more different shapes! The pieces were on the thin side, but sturdy. The coating was matte and I had no problems with glare at all, and the image reproduction was very good – the colors were crisp and bright. Very good quality overall in my opinion. I love trying new companies!