Tag: Mini Puzzles

Hello Kitty and Friends – Day 3

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Hello Kitty and Friends – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

Two of these characters seem happy, one definitely does not. It’s almost funny the look on the penguin’s face – he looks so disgusted!

I had NO IDEA the Hello Kitty world had so many characters, it’s amazing how detailed all their stories are and just how many of them exist. It’s been quite the deep dive into this world of Sanrio (the world in which Miss Hello Kitty lives).

Badtz-Maru is a male penguin with spiky hair. His birthday is April 1 (April Fool’s Day). He is one of the few Sanrio characters that is marketed to both males and females. In Japanese, “badtz” is a term for “X”, the cross signifying a wrong answer. “Maru” means circle or “O”, and signifies a correct answer. Thus, his name figuratively means “wrong-correct,” and is frequently represented by “XO”. Badtz-Maru has many different facial expressions and poses, but a common expression is of pulling one eye down and sticking out his tongue, a gesture equivalent to blowing a raspberry.

He was mostly black and white, with a bit of yellow – and not the easiest of the puzzles to assemble. But once you get in the groove of these puzzles it isn’t too bad.

Cinnamoroll was born on March 6 on a cloud far up in the sky, and is a white and chubby puppy with long ears that enable him to fly. He has blue eyes, pink cheeks and a plump and curly tail that resembles a cinnamon roll. You can barely see his tail in this image, but I’m taking their word for it that it looks like a cinnamon roll.

With barely any color and the length of this one it had me confused for a little bit, and the way the border went together meant it wasn’t easy either. Still, I really enjoyed all of these little guys.

Little Twin Stars is what these two are called; the boy is Kiki and his sister is Lala. They were born on December 24 on Omoiyari Star in the Dream-Star Cloud. To learn how to be the shiniest, best stars they could be they traveled a long way to Earth. Kiki loves star fishing and inventing things, and Lala loves cooking, drawing, and writing poems.

This was the first of the puzzles that I put together, and it was one of the easiest for me even though it was the largest. They’re adorable little things, I enjoyed it very much.

One more day to go, and don’t worry, Hello Kitty herself will be there!

Hello Kitty and Friends – Day 2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Hello Kitty and Friends – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

Super cutesy images aren’t usually my thing, but these mini shaped puzzles were fun – and deceptively difficult at times. Enjoyment is the most important though, and I definitely got my money’s worth from these.

Let’s jump right in to learning about our newest friends…

Tuxedo Sam is a dapper young penguin from Antarctica’s Tuxedo Island. Sam owns 356 bowties, tends to overeat, and sometimes makes clumsy decisions (don’t we all though?). He is from a distinguished family, attended university in The United Kingdom, and speaks English very well. He also has two younger brothers, named Pam and Tam, who are doppelgangers of him; and his closest confidante is a seal named Chip.

It’s amazing how when I look at the completed puzzle it doesn’t seem like anything difficult at all. Assembling it was another matter altogether. I don’t look at the poster or the box when I’m assembling these mini puzzles, and my lack of familiarity with these characters meant I had no idea what the finished image was going to look like. This one was harder than it looks!

This is Keroppi, a frog friend of Hello Kitty. He enjoys swimming, baseball, playing with boomerangs, and singing. He lives with Pikki, his sister and Koroppi, his brother, his mother (a housewife and a professional chef), and his father (a doctor) in a house on the edge of Donut Pond.

This cute little guy wasn’t as difficult as some of his friends to assemble. Besides, I love frogs! 💚

This is a white rabbit named My Melody (often shortened to My Melo) and she is Hello Kitty’s best friend. She is an honest, good-natured girl whose favorite food is almond pound cake. Her birthday is January 18, and she was born in the magical forest of Mariland, home to many of her friends.

With basically just the colors pink and white, this took a little more time than you would think to assemble. Still, isn’t she cute?

Hello Kitty and Friends – Day 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Hello Kitty and Friends – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

It’s been a while since I’ve done a pack of mini shaped puzzles from RoseArt; these were much more enjoyable to assemble and much better quality than the last set I put together. Plus, I’ve learned so much about the world of Hello Kitty – I had no idea there were so many characters!

Overall the quality was quite good, I was happy to find this after the not so great quality of the Peanuts puzzles I did earlier this year. The pieces fit together well, there was no damage to them, and none of the pieces were still connected. The pieces are much bigger now than the puzzles I began doing all those years ago, and they make for bigger mini puzzles. The finish is a bit shiny, but the colors were bright and fun, and made for excellent puzzling.

Many times when I’ve done a puzzle like this I create names and backstories for each little puzzle, but that won’t be happening this time. These characters already have names and extremely detailed backstories, so I’ll just be sharing what I’ve learned about them online and letting you know how each puzzle was to assemble.

This is Monkichi (his full name is Osaru no Monkichi, which means “Monkey’s Monkey in Japanese). He enjoys puns, and has a sunny easygoing personality. He loves bananas and apparently can eat 10 of them in just one minute! He lives on a mountain in the Japanese countryside with his Mama who is a very good cook, and his Papa who is the Pun-Master.

This little guy was one of the easier puzzles in this set; he was smaller, and the colors made it less difficult to assemble than some of the others.

Chococat gets his name from his chocolate-colored nose; and his whiskers are like antennae that help him pick up information so he usually the first to know about things. He loves to fool around with his best friends, but he can be a little scatter-brained at times. His parents (Rory and Catrina) are divorced, and he lives with his mom.

Although this was the smallest of all the puzzles at only 24 pieces, it was by no means easy to assemble! Almost every piece was just black and white, and it took me much longer than you’d think to put everything together properly.

Pompompurin is a good-natured golden retriever dog who was born on a sunny day on the 16th of April. He lives in his very own basket in the entrance hall of his sister-owner’s house and his favorite food is his Mama’s cream/caramel pudding. His trademark is his brown beret that is always on his head. He loves collecting his owner’s shoes, sleeping, and hanging out with his friends (a hamster named Muffin, a mouse named Scone, and a bird named Custard). He’s a laid-back dog who easily makes friends, and he loves soft things.

This was one of the few puzzles that I had to assemble the edges first in order to make progress. All those yellow pieces were a LOT.

Hope you enjoyed your introduction to these Hello Kitty characters, I enjoyed learning about them. Stay tuned for more new characters on Day Two!

Postcard From Paris

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles13 Comments

Postcard From Paris – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

It’s a lovely apartment with a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower, but it did not make for easy puzzling at all. It’s VERY brown. This one was a bit of a letdown for me as I really didn’t care for the image at all. Still, it feels like an accomplishment that I finally completed it.

I’ve got to be more selective about the MicroPuzzles that I assemble in the powder room and which ones need to stay here in the puzzle room. This one never should have left the bright lights that sit above my puzzle board, there was just not enough color. Or perhaps I should say there was not enough bright color and too many browns and muted colors. From now on if it doesn’t look colorful enough it’s staying right here!

The theme of this month’s subscription box was travel/international destinations. There were two travel themed puzzles and an aluminum luggage tag. One of the puzzles is double-sided…and thank goodness it was this one!

On the back is the image of a blank postcard. Normally it wouldn’t help much with the assembly since most of it is blank, but this puzzle came already assembled so that you could write your own message on the back before you took it apart – that way whatever you write would be helpful when putting it back together. Wanna see what I wrote?

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I thought I’d send you all a virtual postcard. Happy puzzling to the entire Puzzle Posse! 🧩💚

Grin & Bones

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Grin & Bones – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This is such an adorable Halloween puzzle, it was much harder than it looks! Still, it’s bright and colorful and was highly entertaining to assemble.

I’ve never had an issue with MicroPuzzles quality before, but this puzzle had a printing issue. Things happen, no manufacturing process is ever perfect so I don’t find it to be that distressing at all. I’ve emailed the company and have alerted them to the problem in the hopes that they can resolve whatever issue caused this. They offered their apologies and a replacement puzzle, but I don’t need a replacement, and asked that they not send me one as that wasn’t why I contacted them.

You can see below the dark substance/color across part of the lower portion of the image (across the porch of the house)…

I’ve had similar issues like this with other puzzle brands, and though I’m not sure what causes it – it really didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the assembly. I’m not one of those people who immediately wants a refund or a replacement. If that is something that you do, I’m not disparaging that at all – you’re well within your rights to ask for those things if you wish – I’m just saying that it isn’t normally what I do.

If I assembled the puzzle and enjoyed myself, that’s enough for me. I have so many puzzles already here, and almost never assemble cardboard puzzles more than once. If I received another copy of this puzzle I wouldn’t even assemble it, it would be wasted on me.

I let the company know about the problem; they were apologetic and offered a replacement and told me they would look into the issue – which is all I wanted. If I can help in some small way to make sure others get good quality puzzles then I’m a happy puzzler. 😎

MicroPuzzles has always provided me quality mini puzzles that I enjoy assembling, and my opinion of the brand and their puzzles hasn’t changed. I love them!