Summer Surprise by Mary Ann Vessey – MasterPieces – 500 pieces
Summer Surprise was not the best quality puzzle, but for some odd reason I really wanted to finish it. I have no explanation for my completion obsession other than I found the assembly to be somewhat entertaining even though the quality was lacking.
I’m surprised at the variation in quality that I’ve found from MasterPieces. This puzzle was quite thin, there were no variety in piece shapes at all, and it was grid cut. I’ve also worked several of their space saver puzzles and found the quality to be quite good; with good thickness, a random cut, and very nice images. Their EZ grip large piece puzzles have excellent quality with very thick pieces that fit together wonderfully and lovely image reproduction. From “meh” all the way up to “excellent” – hmmm, what is the reason for such fluctuation? Perhaps their different puzzle lines are produced by different manufacturers?
I liked the image well enough, thought it doesn’t wow me. It took me a couple of days to finish, and was entertaining at times. I wouldn’t recommend this puzzle though – the quality just wasn’t up to snuff.
Preamble by Mike Wilkins – Pomegranate – 1000 pieces
Preamble is a beautiful, interesting puzzle that I can’t recommend enough – I had the best time assembling it! It’s a little more challenging than I thought, but it never became tiresome or frustrating; it was fun for me to the very last piece.
I first bought this puzzle last year as a gift for my favorite sister-in-law; she had many family members coming to stay at her house for several days (including my husband and myself) and I sent ahead a hostess gift of a couple of jigsaw puzzles. When there’s a puzzle in progress it’s difficult not to stop and look, and you end up adding pieces if you can – before long people are working together, talking, laughing and really enjoying themselves. I was hoping the puzzles would help take the pressure off feeling as though her guests needed to be entertained all the time, and they absolutely did – we entertained ourselves and enjoyed the time spent together. ❤
Although we weren’t able to assemble this puzzle on our visit, I loved the look of it so much that I wanted one for myself. When it came time to pick a few puzzles for review I jumped at the chance to take this one off of my wishlist. I was not disappointed; it was tougher than I thought (especially when it was only white license plates left) but always entertaining.
Pomegranate puzzles are the cream of the crop in my book, the quality is superb. The pieces are wonderfully thick, fit together exceptionally well, and there are a very good variety of piece shapes. The image reproduction is lovely, with a matte finish that reduces glare; and even the boxes are sturdy and gorgeous. As an added bonus, the puzzles come in a resealable plastic bag for storage and the image of the puzzle on the front of the box is complete and unobstructed – we puzzlers love the extra details like these that make things easier! Click the link above to see all their puzzles currently available at Puzzle Warehouse, they’ve got a gorgeous catalog of images to choose from.
If you haven’t looked closely, the 51 license plates in this puzzle from the 50 states and Washington, DC phonetically spell out the preamble to the US constitution in abbreviated “license speak”. They wouldn’t make sense on their own, but together in alphabetical order they re-create the beginning of one of America’s most famous documents. What an interesting and well-executed idea!
If you’re a fan of collages, or just interesting images that make for entertaining puzzles I highly recommend Preamble. It’s a bit challenging, but only in a fun way if you ask me – too easy can be so boring!
Details:
Title: Preamble
Artist: Mike Wilkins
Brand: Pomegranate
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 25 x 25 in. (64 x 64 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Excellent
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Excellent
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: Excellent, highly recommended
I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.
Fancy Nancy by Robin Preiss Glasser – Briarpatch – 100 pieces
When mom showed me this puzzle from her latest thrift store finds I was excited to assemble it, even though it’s a kids puzzle. I absolutely love the image, that little girl is so me!
This was my second Briarpatch puzzle, and the quality of this one was completely different than the first. They were both thrift store purchases, so you have to take into account that they’ve been assembled before – possibly many times. My first puzzle from this brand was an I Spy puzzle, mom and I were impressed with the quality of the pieces; they were thin but very sturdy and fit together quite well. This puzzle also had thinner pieces, but they were easily bent, didn’t fit together well and the finished puzzle didn’t lie flat. A bit of a disappointment for such a fun image. 😦
Four missing pieces was quite a bummer. Not only because I wouldn’t be able to pass this puzzle along to the school my daughter works for, but because I liked the image so much and would love to have seen the entire puzzle assembled. That’s the gamble with used puzzles though. Wait – does that mean my sweet little old lady mom and I who love buying thrift store puzzles are degenerate gamblers? Nice!
I’ve never read the Fancy Nancy books, but she looks like a little girl who’s slightly weird (not a negative if you ask me) and loves who she is even if that’s different than everyone else. That’s the impression I get from this image, and it makes me smile every time I look at that adorable face. We weird girls have to stick together and be ourselves no matter what – you go girl!
Lakefront: Milwaukee, WI by Hannah Jablonski – HANmade Milwaukee – 500 pieces
This was an interesting puzzle mom got in a swap with another puzzler from her facebook puzzle enthusiasts group who lives nearby. We love having words to assemble, and the image is so unique and fun!
HANmade Milwaukee is a small company that produces souvenirs and gifts that are Milwaukee and Wisconsin themed. They don’t have a large catalog of puzzles, but we found their quality to be quite good and enjoyed assembling this puzzle. The pieces were a nice thickness with an excellent variety of shapes, and fit together very well. The image reproduction was clear and crisp, the random cut kept us on our toes, and the overall first impression was very good.
We’ve been having a tough time lately finding enough smaller piece count puzzles to do together on our visit day, so we were happy to find this one farther back in the stacks of puzzles to be done. I enjoy map puzzles and knew we’d have a good time with this one – I was right! (That doesn’t happen as often as I’d like to believe) It’s always so interesting to try out new companies and see how they compare; we were completely entertained with this puzzle and impressed with the quality. 👍
I’m always excited at the opportunity to try new companies and see what their puzzles are like. For the most part the new companies I’ve never heard of are makers of puzzles for children, and Butzi Games is one of them.
My first thought when looking at this puzzle was that it’s an interesting image choice for kids. It’s not your usual subject matter and made me wonder about the company. After doing a little research I found that the company was founded by a mom with a child who loves puzzles; she wanted to find puzzles that celebrated their hometown of Vancouver, and Whistler, their favorite place to ski. When she couldn’t find any puzzles like that she decided to make them herself and Butzi Kids was born.
The quality of this puzzle was pretty good with thick pieces that fit together very well. The chipboard is a little bendable though as the finished puzzle didn’t lie completely flat. That may be the result of Florida humidity or many, many assemblies; so I wouldn’t make a final judgement on quality until I’ve seen and assembled one that was brand new.
Cute puzzle, good quality, interesting subject matter, and a fun assembly – what more could you ask for?
My Jigsaw Journal 