American Girl – Molly

On September 1, 2023August 27, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

American Girl – Molly – Mattel – 150 pieces

This set of three puzzles was quick and entertaining to assemble, but unfortunately one of them was missing a piece. That’s the chance you take when you purchase thrift store puzzles, but honestly I would say somewhere around 97% of all my pre-loved puzzles are complete. When there is a missing piece or two it isn’t too much of an issue for me; I still got a great deal for my money.

There were two American Girl puzzle sets at the thrift store, and this is the second set that I’ve assembled. The first one, Josefina, was put together in March of last year. That one was complete, and honestly was a little bit better in the quality department than this one.

The fit was much looser with this set, which made the assembly a bit frustrating. The finish is extremely shiny which is a problem under artificial lights, but the image reproduction was otherwise quite good. There were a nice variety of piece shapes, and the chipboard is thin but sturdy.

This was my favorite of the three images, and I wanted to put it into the frame, but the looseness of the fit caused it to crumble when I tried to put it in the tray. I was too frustrated to re-assemble it just for another picture. Sorry…sort of.

Normally the image with a dog would be the one I’m drawn to, but for some reason I cannot verbalize this was my least favorite of the three.

A missing piece. A bit of a disappointment, but I finished the puzzle by putting together all the pieces I had – so mission complete!

The set of three puzzles comes with one frame, so it seems that you display whichever one you like best, or you can rotate the puzzles.

If you’re lucky enough to find one of these sets at a thrift store or online and you’ve got a youngster who enjoys the American Girl dolls and books, they would be a nice gift. The quality is fair/good. It was nice to give them a try, and I enjoyed them very much.

American Girl – Josefina

On March 4, 2022March 1, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

American Girl – Josefina – Mattel – 150 pieces

This was quite a unique set of puzzles I haven’t seen before; they go along with the American Girl dolls and books. It comes with three puzzles that are 50 pieces each and a frame so that you can display whichever one you’re feeling like showing off at the moment. There’s only one frame to go with all 3 puzzles; you can assemble one puzzle at a time in the tray, place the clear cover over top of it and slide it into the frame.

They were pretty good quality, better than I expected. The pieces are on the thinner side, but are very sturdy, the finish is extremely shiny and hard to work with under artificial lights, but otherwise the reproduction is very nice and there are a good variety of shapes. Overall I was impressed because they were nicer than I thought they would be.

Love the blue dress, and that it looks like there are three generations of women here. 💗

I love the brightness of this one, and the beautiful colors. It was the easiest of the three to assemble.

I love her shawl, and the adorable little goat she’s cradling. So cute!

This is the frame that comes with this set of puzzles. If you had a child who enjoys the American Girl dolls/books/toys this might be a nice set of small puzzles for them. I found two sets of them at the thrift store, maybe you might get lucky and find some too!

Surprise Party for Pooh

On September 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Excellent quality kid’s puzzle by Mattel. It’s only a 24 piece puzzle and even though it literally took just a few minutes to assemble I still found it enjoyable. And who doesn’t love Winnie the Pooh?

This image has bright, fun colors and is appropriately easy enough for a 24 piece puzzle. The pieces are thick and sturdy and fit together amazingly well. Great quality!

These are the characters I remember from my childhood – they haven’t been “updated” thank goodness! I don’t care for the makeovers so many older Disney characters seem to be getting. In my opinion they should be left the way they were originally drawn. It makes me sad that the characters I remember so fondly from my childhood are different now or prettied up. Perhaps this is equivalent to “you kids turn that awful music down!” Some things seem better as they were in our memories.

Geez, I sound old! 😮

Going To Church

On June 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This image jumped right out at me when Mom was showing me her latest thrift store haul, and it was the one I wanted to do first. Not only because the image is striking and interesting, but because the manufacturer was a new one for me, Mattel.

This artwork by William H. Johnson is compelling, and makes for an excellent jigsaw puzzle! It’s not as easy as it looks however, it was more difficult to assemble than I assumed. Surprisingly sturdy pieces with very nice image reproduction – I saw “Mattel” and thought they wouldn’t be very good quality (I was wrong, and shame on me). They weren’t as thick as Ravensburger, but the pieces were quite sturdy and there was a good variety of piece shapes.

The only issue I had with this puzzle was that the pieces fit together way too loosely. I work on a fabric board which helps stop pieces from sliding too much, but even with the fabric board the pieces were easily upset when bumped.

Although the puzzle wasn’t as easy as I’d assumed it was still great fun. I love working a thrift store puzzle that is something you wouldn’t necessarily choose and it ends up being more fun than you expected. It happens quite a bit, so I don’t know why I’m surprised every time. Thrift store puzzles rock! 😎