Balloons Over Cottage Cove

Balloons Over Cottage Cove
Balloons Over Cottage Cove by Nicky Boehme – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces

This hot air balloon image is very different to me than most of the others that you see on jigsaw puzzles. Most balloon images are very bright and colorful, this one is muted and understated; I love an image that’s different from the norm. 😉

Pastels and understated colors aren’t my first choice, but I find they’re fun to work with every once in a while.The nature of the artwork made this a bit more challenging, but in the end it’s such a pretty picture!

Doesn’t it look like a lovely place to visit? I love the look of the house, it feels so homey. And the balloon in the foreground has the brightest colors; but all the rest are very understated and more pastel-looking. It’s quite unusual for a hot air balloon puzzle; at least as far as the ones that I’ve seen.

All the greenery and flowers were much more difficult than I bargained for, and took more time than I thought they would. Being only 500 pieces I’d assumed it would go together quite quickly but that just wasn’t the case.

The quality was very good; there were a good variety of shapes, thicker pieces, and a beautiful image. The pale colors aren’t usually my thing, but I enjoyed this puzzle very much. It’s nice to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while. 🙂

Colorful Glass

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Colorful Glass – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

This puzzle was much more fun than I anticipated, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought; and finding all the different colors kept my mind engaged. I definitely recommend it!

It was great quality, which makes me very happy. I’ve worked some Milton Bradley puzzles lately with questionable quality, but this one was great. The pieces were a good thickness with a very nice feel. There were an excellent variety of shapes and the fit was great as well. Excellent all around quality. 👍

Mom has a White Mountain puzzle with a marble image, and I’ve never had the urge to assemble it at all. Usually they’re ones I stay away from. Having only 300 pieces, this marble puzzle seemed achievable – and it was! I can’t really say what my process was assembling this puzzle, because it’s one of those images where you don’t get to put together large sections at a time. It was great fun though.

Interestingly, I’m working on another marble image puzzle today and YIKES – it’s really difficult! I love the image itself, but the fact that it only has one piece shape makes it much harder than it would be otherwise. (I’m reviewing it, so don’t look for a favorable review – it won’t be getting one)

Yellow and Black Labs

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Yellow and Black Labs – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

These adorable puppies were just too cute to pass up! It was more difficult than I bargained for, but sometimes that’s a good thing, at least it was here. The quality was very good as well – an excellent puzzle all around!

Just look at those faces! Who could leave these two sitting on a shelf in a store? Definitely not me. It’s a Milton Bradley, and their puzzles more often than not have good quality. Sometimes I come across one with poor quality, but I take my chances when the image makes me happy, and these little guys make me very happy!

It seems to me that the 300 piece puzzles usually have better quality than a larger piece count by the same brand – especially when it’s an EZ grip. I guess us oldsters who do these 300 piece puzzles need thicker pieces too hold onto. I’m not complaining mind you, I love the extra thick pieces. 🙂

Both of the puppies were easy  enough to put together, but the background and foreground where the challenging parts. It’s one of those images that makes you say “Aww!” Definitely recommended – two pups way up! 🐶🐶

Bright Red Barn

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Bright Red Barn – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

An uninspired name for a puzzle, but an accurate one. It’s a great image for a puzzle, but unfortunately it was terrible quality – even though it was mostly fun to put together.

The image itself made for a pleasant assembly, the flowers were a bit of a challenge and kept me on my toes; the barn itself was very entertaining, and the windows and roof helped break up all the red. It was a great couple of hours putting it together, even with the quality issues.

This Milton Bradley puzzle was purchased new, and right out of the box there were problems. Many of the pieces had extremely bent tabs, so much so that when the edge was assembled one of the tabs broke off completely when the piece was connected. The tab stayed in the hole of the adjoining piece, but the image had lifted and remained on the original piece…

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It was quite disappointing, the quality of this puzzle. Milton Bradley joins Ceaco on my list of companies who can’t seem to regulate their quality control. Some of their puzzles have been excellent, and some – like this one – have been less than stellar.

There are always occasional problems, even with the premium puzzle companies; no manufacturing process is perfect. But companies like Ravensburger, Jumbo, Heye, and Pomegranate have managed to produce excellent puzzles almost all of the time. I know you get what you pay for, but if a puzzle company is at least consistent with their quality then I know what I’m buying. If it’s a gamble, I’m less likely to take a chance unless I’m buying used.

Thus ends my rant for the day.

Pattern 1

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Pattern 1 by Patchwork – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

These puzzles make me so happy, they’re beautiful, fun to put together, and they remind me of the pattern/coloring books that mom used to get for us. For me they were so much more interesting to color than your “regular” coloring books for children.

I would love to do this pattern in a larger piece count, they are the perfect image for me; bright colors, fun patterns, and they’re a collage. The quality is excellent – thick pieces, good variety of shapes, excellent image, and a great fit. I’ve found and assembled all 3 of the 300 piece patterns that I could find. There’s a similar 500 piece puzzle available that I would definitely like to get my hands on.

If I could find these patterns in 1000 pieces or even more I might get over my issue with larger piece counts at the moment and dive in!