Tag: MasterPieces

Father & Son

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Father & Son by Karen Burke – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

What a great image, it’s so adorable I don’t even have words to tell you how much I loved it. And with those handsome Boston Terriers is it any wonder that I couldn’t pass this one up? That little guy looks almost exactly like my sweet boy Buddy. šŸ¶šŸ’—

This was the best quality Masterpieces puzzle I’ve done in quite a while; fantastic fit, beautiful and crisp reproduction, and a great variety of shapes with a very nice cut. Usually there’s one thing or another I find with this brand, a loose fit or maybe the occasional problem with the image or cut. This time there wasn’t anything for me to complain about at all – and I love that!

I prefer to spend my time telling you all about great puzzles instead of being disappointed by less impressive ones. It’s more fun to let you all know which ones are awesome – and of course they’re also much more entertaining to assemble.

It was wonderful to put this beauty together – from the first piece to the very last – and I am definitely recommending this one if you can find it. Happy puzzling my friends. šŸ§©

60s Shows

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

60s Shows – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

Strangely I enjoyed this 60s puzzle much more than the 80s Shows, which is weird – the 80s was my era. Oh well, I’m certainly not complaining about enjoying a puzzle. My frame of mind was most of the problem with the 80s puzzle, I think I was in a better place emotionally when I assembled this one. It was great fun!

Very good quality for MasterPieces, and the fit was excellent. You could pick up a whole section of 20 pieces or more without anything falling apart! Great random cut too, which I enjoy (most of the time). Sometimes MasterPieces puzzles are ribbon or grid cut, and sometimes they’re random – both are fine with me. It’s nice to have a change of pace once in a while though, and this one was quite enjoyable.

Lost In Space – I loved this show as a kid! The scheming doctor always fascinated me, why couldn’t everyone else see that he was always only thinking of himself? Danger Will Robinson! Danger!

I was surprised to see these two images; when Walter Cronkite announced the death of a president, and his widow, daughter and others. Neither of these was a tv show – but it was a pivotal moment in the 60s, to be sure.

These were the only two shows that we didn’t recognize; between myself, hubby and my dad we knew all the rest of them. Can anyone help us out? I know it’s Bill Bixby on the right, but have no idea what the show is. And the one on the left has me completely stumped, no idea who the actresses are at all. Are there any other oldsters out there who can give us a clue?

Hershey’s Moments

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Hershey’s Moments – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

A challenging puzzle with a few quality issues that were annoying – still, as my mother used to tell me, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye. šŸ˜‰

The fit was spongy on this one, and there were quite a few pieces with bent corners and image lift. In addition, the poster that came with it did NOT show the complete puzzle – that one really threw me for a loop! Not the best MasterPieces puzzles I’ve done, in fact I was pretty disappointed with this one. But no manufacturer is perfect and there have been plenty of their puzzles that were extremely enjoyable and entertaining.

In addition to the problems mentioned above, you can see on the right side of the puzzle that there was an extra piece. Not good for whomever received the puzzle boxed up just before mine. My puzzle was complete, but I had someone else’s missing piece. Not good.

I was looking forward to this section, and thought it would be the most fun to assemble. It was fun, but interestingly another section was the most enjoyable for me….

Surprisingly, even to myself, this was my favorite section. Perhaps because it wasn’t too simple and I got to sit and look at the pieces for a bit figuring out the solution. Whatever the reason it was REALLY fun for me.

You can see here that not only does the poster cut off the bottom of the image, it also cuts off about half of the right side. What is the purpose of a poster that doesn’t show you the whole damn puzzle?

Do better puzzle companies. We deserve good quality puzzles and attention to detail.

Quilt Country

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Quilt Country by Lena – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

Beautiful, bright, colorful, and interesting – it made for a fantastic puzzle, and a fantastic puzzling experience! Hubby helped out with the border, even though I was trying to get away from him for a few minutes and puzzle alone with my music and my thoughts. Sigh.

This was a MasterPieces linen puzzle, and it was very good quality. Thick and sturdy pieces, very good fit, nice variety of shapes and beautiful reproduction. Only issue was that the pieces didn’t sit flat – in many places parts were slightly raised compared to surrounding ones.

There was a small blurb about the artist on the back of the box, and I was surprised to learn that Lena is a young Ukrainian illustrator and concept artist who produces a wide spectrum of art in differing styles including illustrations for films, games and advertising (in addition to her beautiful artwork shown here).

Of course you know I couldn’t resist this adorable little puppy. ā¤

I didn’t notice it at all when I looked at the box cover, or when I was sorting – even the inside of the barn has quilts everywhere – including the ceiling!

I don’t know what kind of bird this is, but it’s beautiful. The colors are amazing!

80s Shows

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

80s Shows – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

Sadly this wasn’t as entertaining as I’d hoped. There was nothing wrong with the puzzle, it was mostly my state of mind and partly the image. Even though I love the look of the puzzle as a whole it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. As I said yesterday photographic images aren’t usually my pile of pieces, but I was hoping the small images in collage form would be easier to work with.

The cartoon sections (Smurfs, He-Man, Thunder Cats) were among the first I assembled and I found them the most engaging even though they were NOT shows that I watched in the 80s.

It was relatively good quality, and an excellent fit; there were weird differences in piece sizes though – some were very big, some very small – but overall the quality was good.

I’ve never watched a single episode of MacGyver. I show you this section to point out that in between some of the pictures of tv shows were snippets of 80s video games. Donkey Kong is shown here, with a little bit of Pac Man in the lower right corner. Totally awesome dude!

Murphy Brown was one of my favorite shows in this collage; I found it to be very smart, but still funny. I love the smart shows, the ones where you have to pay attention and the language and issues aren’t dumbed down. I really enjoyed this show in the 80s, but it was one of the last sections I assembled – it was difficult finding all the pieces.

Not just shows, commercials too. Back in the 80s you couldn’t get away from the commercials, and if there was a great one everyone heard about it. The star of this Wendy’s commercial became CRAZY famous because of it, and I can still remember her name 40 years later. Clara Peller. I can still hear her voice too…….WHERE’S THE BEEF?!

I wish I had more enthusiastic things to say about this puzzle, but it was kind of a letdown. The image had me very excited for the assembly, but it just wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped. Most of that was my problem though; I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this one.

Funnily enough, I did the 60s shows puzzle a week or so later and had a fabulous time with it even though I didn’t know many of the shows. I think I just chose the wrong puzzle at the wrong time.

It happens.