Review: Paws Gone Wild

On June 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews4 Comments

Paws Gone Wild is a wonderful puzzle for children, and it has fantastic quality! Such great quality is hard to come by in puzzles geared towards children; I find that most of them aren’t as sturdy as they need to be, but this one was a delightfully sturdy surprise!

Vermont Christmas Company has one of the largest catalogs of puzzles for children that I’ve seen; there are plenty of puzzles for holidays, but regular images too. The pieces are wonderfully thick, have a great variety of shapes, fit together well, and have absolutely gorgeous image reproduction. They are in the top two brands for children’s puzzles that I’ve ever worked with, and I’m very picky about puzzles for kids.

I always give puzzles as gifts to younger children, they are not only entertaining and great for getting kids away from all the screens in their lives (phones, tablets, tv, etc.), they help developing brains learn essential skills that they will use the rest of their lives. Problem solving skills, spatial awareness, fine motor skills, dexterity, concentration, patience, setting goals, and soooo much more. And in my humble puzzle-nerdy opinion, kids need to do more jigsaw puzzles – puzzles are the best!

Paws Gone Wild 1

Ok, we all know I’m not a cat person, but this is adorably cute. Kittens are just so sweet. Those tiny little paws and the innocent look on that face – awwww!

Paws Gone Wild 2

I mean, come on! That face! Part of the reason I took this closeup is to show the detail in the reproduction – you can read this paper! The overall image is bright and colorful with clean lines and no fuzziness unless it’s part of the image. I was delighted with the quality of the puzzle, most especially the image. (The other reason I took this closeup is…..that sweet face!)

Paws Gone Wild is one of the best kids puzzles I’ve put together in quite a long time, and I’m happily looking forward to assembling another very soon. The quality is wonderful, the image is fun, and I highly recommend it. Two thumbs and four paws way up! 👍👍🐾🐾

Details:

Title: Paws Gone Wild
Artist: Sergio
Brand: Vermont Christmas Company
Piece count: 100 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 13 in. (48 x 33 cm)
Purchased: Swap/Used

Quality:

Board: Excellent
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Good
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Excellent, highly recommended

Review: Fresh Picked Flowers

On May 8, 2020May 8, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews16 Comments

The beautiful, bright colors of this image made this puzzle so much fun; and the quality was so much better than the previous Sunsout puzzle that I assembled. Don’t you love it when a puzzle is so much better than you anticipated? I do!

The last Sunsout puzzle I assembled – Rainy Day Sketch – was purchased at the same time, from the same store. The difference in quality between the two was striking – and that is NOT a good thing. When you don’t know for sure what you’re going to get, it makes it difficult to trust that you’re getting your money’s worth. I’m not a fan of having to guess or gamble when it comes to the quality of the puzzles I buy.

Fresh Picked Flowers had very good quality, in fact I was surprised at how good. Having had a much different experience with the previous Sunsout puzzle, I was dreading this one a little bit thinking it would be equally as disappointing. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case! This puzzle had thick pieces with a very good variety of shapes, and a truly wonderful fit. As you can see the reproduction is bright and crisp, with clean lines – it was a joy to work with.

Fresh Picked Flowers 1

For some reason the dullest colored thing in the puzzle, this brown bird (I have no idea what species this is), was one of the things I really enjoyed putting together. For some reason I can’t really express this bird was lovely to assemble.

Fresh Picked Flowers 2

This bowl of cherries is bright and fun, and was really challenging too. When I look at it the first thing that comes to mind is Erma Bombeck; she was a humorist and columnist that I used to really enjoy reading when I was younger. I’m sure if I had one of her books here now it would still make me laugh. She had a book entitled “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits?” and it seems to pop into my brain whenever I see this.

The artwork by Jane Maday made for an excellent puzzling experience, and the quality of the puzzle itself was wonderful to work with. If only all Sunsout puzzles could be this good! If by some miracle you find this puzzle out there, it’s definitely recommended. I loved it. 💖

Details:

Title: Fresh Picked Flowers
Artist: Jane Maday
Brand: Sunsout
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Review: Baked With Love

On April 19, 2020April 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this puzzle, other than the thickness of the pieces was very good. It’s a pretty picture I suppose, but it’s really not my cup of tea/pile of pieces. Those are all the good things.

Usually MasterPieces has good quality; in fact, the puzzle completed immediately before this one – Quilting Country – was a MasterPieces puzzle with excellent quality. This one however, perhaps because it was a special edition (The Cake Boss), was less than optimal. There was terrible cutting, imperfect image reproduction, and not a great fit.

Baked With Love 1

You can see that the cutting was not up to par. Not that the pieces weren’t cut all the way through, it looks as if the die wasn’t even and it didn’t come close to getting the whole piece cut completely through. And this happened on many pieces, not just this one.

Box Image

Actual Puzzle

You can see the color difference between the box image on the left and the actual puzzle on the right. Actually the box image flowers look much more pink than even my picture shows. It doesn’t show as much here, but there was a big difference between the color on the box and the completed puzzle. In addition, while you can see each of the petals in the box image, on the puzzle itself they are just fuzzy, indistinct blobs of color.

Again, I have found that MasterPieces puzzles are normally good quality, but this special Cake Boss edition puzzle fell below their usual standards. In my mind they’re still a company that puts out good puzzles and it won’t stop me from continuing to buy them.

But if you run across a Cake Boss puzzle from MasterPieces, be wary. Baked with Love is definitely not recommended.

Details:

Title: Baked with Love
Artist: Unknown
Brand: Masterpieces
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Poor
Image: Poor
Box: Fair, opens at the top
Fit: Fair
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Poor quality, not recommended

Review: Rainy Day Sketch

On April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews11 Comments

I was quite disappointed in the quality of this puzzle, particularly the fit. Even though it’s adorably cute, it wasn’t enough to make up for pieces that seem to fit where they do not belong and a mushy feel that doesn’t let you know whether or not you’ve got the right piece. The image is great, the rest of this puzzle – not so much.

Sunsout is one of those companies whose puzzles can range from excellent to poor quality; you never seem to know what you’re going to get. Because of that I normally do NOT purchase this brand retail, but I admit to buying this and one other Sunsout puzzle last month in an attempt to stock up a bit before….well, you know.

I’ve done several puzzles with artwork by Tricia Reilly-Matthews, and they’re always sweet and cute, she captures the innocence of childhood and it makes for beautiful puzzles – that must be why I caved and bought the two puzzles. If it weren’t for the quality, it would have been quite an entertaining assembly. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, image-wise, but the challenge kept me on my toes.

The way jigsaw puzzle pieces fit together is one of the most important aspects of quality, and when it is lacking it makes for an assembly experience that is less than optimal. It was an extremely frustrating assembly that might otherwise have been entertaining. Even with chipboard that was a good thickness, a good variety of piece shapes and lovely image reproduction, the poor fit negated most of the pluses and I am not recommending this puzzle.

Usually what I tell myself is that it won’t happen again. That the next time I’m in a store near the puzzles I will remember my bad experience with this brand and will not buy any of their puzzles. The problem is that the brand isn’t consistent with it’s quality and I always want to believe that the puzzle I want to buy is going to be one of the good ones; sometimes it is, but sometimes it isn’t. Did I learn my lesson this time? Only time will tell.

Details:

Title: Rainy Day Sketch
Artist: Tricia Reilly-Matthews
Brand: Sunsout
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 19 in. (48 x 48 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Good
Cutting: Good/Fair
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Poor
Puzzle Dust: Large amount
Piece cut: Grid cut – offset
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Fair/Poor, not recommended

*These days finding any jigsaw puzzle in stores or online is almost a miracle, so if you find this puzzle out there you have to take my recommendation with a grain of salt. All reviews are only opinions; my puzzle and my opinion of it might differ from yours. So if you come across this one and you’re out of puzzles….you do what’s best for you.

Review: Butterflies * Vintage Stamps

On March 29, 2020March 29, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews12 Comments

This is where I would usually show you a picture of the completed puzzle, but as you can see I’ve taken a picture of the box instead. Why? Because this puzzle had terrible quality, and once I’d put together six pieces of the edge that was all I needed. Life is too short to waste on crappy puzzles.

The entire time I was sorting my brain was telling me to really think about whether or not this was a puzzle I wanted to assemble. There were MANY pieces still attached, not because they just didn’t get broken up, but because they weren’t cut all the way through – not even close to all the way through. There were groups of 2, 3, and even 4 pieces still together, and to separate them without damaging them would have required a sharp craft knife and lots of time. 😐

The thinness of the pieces was a concern as well, I don’t ever remember a Eurographics puzzle having such thin, bendable pieces before – and there have been many a puzzle from this brand on my table through the years. If I hadn’t purchased it new myself, the quality would lead me to believe this was a dollar store puzzle.

Once I started putting the edge together I knew this puzzle was going to be horrid to assemble and that it just wasn’t worth it. The looseness of the fit was crazy, there was way too much play in the pieces.

Butterflies 1

This is the pieces pushed together tightly.

Butterflies 2

This is how much play there is within the fit. You couldn’t lift two assembled pieces.

I’m not sure exactly when Eurographics quality went downhill, but the last few puzzles of theirs that I’ve assembled have been quite disappointing. They used to have nice, thick pieces with a random cut that made for an interesting assembly. The newer puzzles I’ve assembled have had thinner pieces with only one piece shape. This puzzle just put them on my naughty list, because I absolutely cannot recommend this brand anymore.

It may seem odd to review a puzzle I haven’t completely assembled, but there were so many quality issues that I felt a responsibility to let my readers know – a review seemed to be the best way to do that. It isn’t coming as a shock, I’ve expressed disappointment with the last few Eurographics puzzles that I’ve assembled; but this was by far the worst quality puzzle of theirs I’ve ever seen.

Once I decided to review this puzzle I gathered the pieces for the two yellow butterflies and put them together to be sure about the quality of the whole puzzle. Absolutely awful. Perhaps my puzzle was just one from the very end of the run when the die is dullest, but when you put this disappointing quality together with the problems of the previous ones it all adds up to a brand that has major problems, in my opinion.

Please remember, all reviews are only one person’s opinion. I do my best to be objective, but in the end this review is only about my puzzle and my experience; take it with a grain of salt. Far be it from me to tell you what to buy or not to buy; but for myself I know there won’t be any more Eurographics puzzles in my shopping cart anytime soon. It’s such a shame too, they used to be such nice puzzles. 😥

Details: