Escape From Alcatraz by Albert Lorenz – MasterPieces (Mythic Mazes) – 1000 pieces
I’d never heard of these Mythic Mazes puzzles, but it was a lot of fun! There are apparently more, including Escape from Merlin’s Dungeon and Escape from the Haunted House. It looks like they’re definitely out of print, so we’ll just have to hope that we are able to find more in the local thrift stores.
MasterPieces quality can sometimes be hit or miss, this one was very interesting. The thickness of the pieces, the fit, and the image reproduction were excellent but there was no variety in the piece shapes. They were all ballerinas. Sigh. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but then again I have no actual knowledge of what goes into manufacturing a jigsaw puzzle. Still, it’s a bit disappointing; the quality was very good otherwise.
You can’t see it well in the picture, but there are plenty of words to assemble, which I love. And even though there’s no variety in the piece shapes the good news was that there were almost no pieces that were just one color. There was plenty of shading and writing so that there weren’t large areas of one color. It made working with just the one piece shape a little more palatable for me.
The bright colors, interesting maps, and the actual information regarding the real life escape from Alcatraz made this puzzle even more fun. I enjoyed it very much, and would love to do the others in the series if we’re able to find them. Thumbs up for the Mythic Mazes! 👍
Barnyard Dreams by Dan Hatala – MasterPieces (Childhood Dreams Collection) – 1000 pieces
Another in the Childhood Dreams Collection, and I absolutely love them! The images are nostalgic and sweet, and they make for excellent puzzling.
This one really reminds me of my youth. We lived out in “the boonies” and my dad had a John Deere tractor that he absolutely loved. He would use it to split wood, mow the lawn, drive the kids around the property teaching us how to drive it, and pull city people out of the ditch. (They had no idea how to drive on the back roads in winter!) This puzzle brings back fond memories for me. *sigh*
Mom and I worked on this puzzle together, although I think she did much more of the work than I did. We started it together, but it wasn’t complete when I left so she finished it by herself. Great job mom!
Besides the finish being a little too shiny, the quality of these puzzles has been very good. They fit together very well and are a good thickness, and you can see that the image reproduction is beautiful – very crisp and detailed. We have several of these Childhood Dreams puzzles yet to do, and I’m looking forward to every single one of them.
If these are your kind of puzzle images, I highly recommend them. They’re wonderful to work on, and they make me smile. 🙂 🙂
Solar System (Glow in the Dark) – MasterPieces – 60 pieces
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.
Winter Aspen by Henry Holdsworth – MasterPieces (World’s Smallest) – 1000 piecesThis is as far as I got 😦
Winter Aspen is a “world’s smallest” puzzle with VERY small pieces that comes in a collectible tin. The finished puzzle is 16.5 x 11.7 inches (42 x 30 cm) which is quite small for 1000 pieces. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this puzzle for the average puzzler, as you can see I didn’t finish it. 😦
I’ve done quite a few MasterPieces puzzles lately, and I haven’t had a problem with the quality. They have an excellent catalog, the quality is quite good and they are very reasonably priced. Many of their puzzles are a random cut which gives a great variety in piece shapes, and they fit together very well. Even though this puzzle didn’t float my boat I don’t have a problem with MasterPieces; I think they’re great quality at a great price.
I guess everyone who reviews a product has to deal with their first bad review. You must be tactful, but truthful and let people know specifically what the problems you found were. With puzzles, so much of the like or dislike of an image or puzzle itself can be subjective; I may not care for photographic puzzles, but many people do. Therefore, I must put aside my own personal preference as much as I can and review it, keeping in mind that the review should take into account what others may like or be looking for in a puzzle.
I find it hard to separate my feelings here, this puzzle was maddeningly frustrating and tedious for me. The image would make for an extremely challenging averaged size puzzle, but when you add in the small pieces it really ramps up the difficulty level in my opinion. For someone in their late 40’s or older as I am, it was a difficult puzzle to work with, irregardless of the image. The pieces are so small it was sometimes difficult to hold them, and it’s even more challenging to see the detail to compare shade and colors.
I can’t speak for everyone my age, but it was difficult for my aging eyes to work with this puzzle, and the sameness of the entire image was mind numbing. There are quite a few of the puzzles in the “world’s smallest” series that perhaps wouldn’t be so difficult, this wasn’t one of them. The image is just too challenging for such small pieces, it needs colors and shapes – at least for me.
The quality of this puzzle was good/fair. The pieces were a good thickness and sturdy; all the pieces were ballerinas which added to the difficulty. (2 prong/2 hole) The fit was ok; because all the pieces were the same shape it was easy to put in a wrong piece and not know until surrounding pieces were inserted. The image itself was most to blame for this in my opinion, everything looks so similar. The image reproduction was good, even with such a small image. There was a poster enclosed that was almost as big as the puzzle itself, which was extremely helpful and a must when working with such small pieces.
I’ve never not finished a puzzle for review, but I just couldn’t continue with this one. I put just over 400 pieces of the 1000 together. It was too difficult to see and handle and made me feel quite inadequate. I’m not really a fan of monochromatic puzzles, or overly challenging images. I found that I was bargaining with myself while I worked on it – to make myself keep going; once I get x number of pieces put in I can do something else. For me puzzles are a way to relax and de-stress, if the image is so challenging that it feels like work it isn’t worth it for me. Puzzles are supposed to be fun!
If you enjoy a challenge, check out the World’s Smallest Puzzle series by MasterPieces. Literally any one of those would have been easier for me to do than these trees! I’d be interested in working one of the less challenging images to see how it compares, but don’t ask me now – I need a little time to cool off. 😉
If you are one of those people who enjoy a super-challenging puzzle, Winter Aspen may be the puzzle for you! If you are like me and use your puzzling time to relax and relieve stress then perhaps you should pass right on by this puzzle.
I received this product at no cost to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions are truthful and 100% my own.
Policeman Dreams by Dan Hatala – MasterPieces (Childhood Dreams Collection) – 1000 pieces
There’s something about this image, I love it! I haven’t had enough coffee this morning to articulate exactly why, all I know is that this image makes me smile and was a pleasure to assemble.
I went about assembling this puzzle backwards – I started with the more difficult sections. No idea now why this was, but I started with the sidewalk/road and then the sky. The rest of the puzzle wasn’t as challenging, although the cars did take a bit more concentration.
MasterPieces quality has been improving, in my opinion. The pieces fit together very well and are a good thickness. The finish is still a bit shiny, but overall that’s really my only issue. Every once in a while I get a puzzle where the pieces aren’t completely separated, but I’ve seen that with every puzzle manufacturer. There’s never going to be a company that is perfect every single time.
The Childhood Dreams collection by Dan Hatala is nostalgic and heartwarming and focuses on moments between parents and children. There are at least 11 more in the series that I’ve seen and I would love to do every single one of them; they are absolutely gorgeous! My black belt thrift store shopper has been given instructions to buy any of this series that she can find. 🙂
My Jigsaw Journal 