Tag: Puzzle reviews

Review: Dog Stamps Quilt

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews2 Comments
Dog Stamps
Dog Stamps Quilt by Barbara Behr – Bits and Pieces – 300 pieces

Dog Stamps Quilt – hmmm, a collage with dogs, I wonder if I liked it? It won’t be much of a spoiler for me to tell you I adored it! It had everything going for it before I even opened the box, and luckily once it was opened the quality was just as good as the artwork.

Bits and Pieces is a brand I normally only buy second hand because of some very bad experiences with their puzzles. When I saw this image though, and the fact that it was only 300 pieces, I had to throw caution to the wind and give it a try. And I’m very glad I did! The pieces were very thick, with an excellent variety of shapes that fit together very well. The offset, almost wavy grid cut made for some fascinating piece shapes that sometimes seemed almost geometric, and the interesting way they fit together made for an absorbing and entertaining puzzle.

Dog Stamps 1

These adorable puppies jumped right out at me when I was sorting; first of all, their little faces look like they’re about to get into a lot of mischief, and secondly the background is a beautiful shade of blue that stood out in a sea of brown and tan pieces. Their faces and expressions are just too cute!

Dog Stamps 2

This little guy had such sad, sweet eyes. I had to take a close-up picture of this stamp; it’s just too sweet to pass up, and I think it would make a great puzzle image on it’s own.

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of this puzzle. I find that many 300 piece puzzles with large pieces have thick chipboard that is quite sturdy, even if the larger piece count puzzles from the same brand aren’t as thick. Bits and Pieces is a brand I don’t usually endorse, but in this piece count I have no reservations in giving this puzzle a thumbs up. It’s great quality and an excellent image, and if the artwork makes you smile it is definitely recommended. Two doggie paws way up! 🐾

Details:

  • Title:                  Dog Stamps Quilt
  • Artist:                Barbara Behr
  • Brand:               Bits and Pieces
  • Piece count:     300 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

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

Overall Rating:      Very good, highly recommended

 

Review: Save The Whales

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews2 Comments
Save The Whales
Save The Whales by Robert Williams – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 515 pieces

There aren’t enough words in my vocabulary to describe how much I adored Save The Whales. It made for the most enjoyable puzzle assembly and to say I loved just doesn’t do it justice. This puzzle was such great fun!

This is the second of two puzzles I was sent for review from Mr. Bob Puzzles, and I am quite impressed with the quality. The pieces are thick 4.5mm wood, and the fit is not as loose as some other wooden puzzles. The pieces have a good hand feel, and the cut is deceptively challenging; it looks easy, but it most definitely isn’t. They also have been infused with essential oils, giving them a lovely, relaxing scent. The whimsy pieces fit the theme of the puzzle, and range from quite large to very small. I knew what to look for this time, and found all the pieces that spell out the Mr. Bob logo on the first try! 🙂

Save The Whales whimsies

I did find that this puzzle had a quite a few pieces that had the image ever so slightly lifting at the edges, and relayed this information to the Mr. Bob team through emails. The 100 Icons puzzle didn’t have this issue at all, so I wanted to let them know that there was something different about Save The Whales. They believe they may have “overdosed” some of the pieces with the essential oils, and that’s what caused this problem. Easily remedied with careful application of the oils, or if the customer prefers it the puzzle could be scent free. (I for one love the added scents, and found them to be pleasant and relaxing.)

I also gave some feedback on the whimsy pieces; some tails on the sea creatures were quite thin, and to prevent breakage and image lift the suggestion was made to thicken them. I was pleasantly surprised at how eager the team was to hear suggestions and make changes to improve the quality of their puzzles. As an avid puzzler it’s nice to see that a company is striving to make the best puzzles they can; I appreciated their willingness to address the small issues that I found.

There was one more suggestion I had for the team, and that was to please put more of Robert Williams’ artwork on their puzzles. Robert is the “Bob” in Mr. Bob Puzzles, and I think his artwork is just beautiful! I was drawn to this image right away, it reminds me of the artwork of Edward Kinnally, which I also adore. It’s just my opinion, of course, but I certainly hope they consider my suggestion. 😉

There was only one in process picture, I was having too much fun to stop and take pics. To be honest, the only reason I took the picture was for a post about the progress of my assembly. The colors and the movement of the image was quite compelling, and once I got to assembling it was difficult to walk away and leave the next piece undone. It must be easy to find, don’t leave yet, just one more piece…

Whales IP

The bottom line for me is that this puzzle was completely engrossing, entertaining, and both beautiful and beautifully made. I had so much fun putting it together that even though I want to frame it and hang it as artwork, I took it apart. Hubby is planning to make me a custom frame, but I really want to assemble it again; there aren’t many puzzles I can say that about! 🐳

If you’re a wooden puzzle fan I absolutely recommend giving a Mr. Bob puzzle a try. They have some stunning images to choose from, and they’re well made and very entertaining. As an added bonus, depending on where you live, the exchange rate could give you a discount right off the bat – as of today the Australian dollar only costs 68 cents American!

Details:

  • Title:                  Save The Whales
  • Artist:                Robert Williams
  • Brand:               Mr. Bob Puzzles
  • Piece count:     515 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 23 x 17 in. (54 x 43 cm)
  • Purchased:      N/A, sent for review

Quality:

  • Board:               4.5mm wood
  • Cutting:             Excellent
  • Image:               Very good, some slight image lift
  • Box:                   Excellent
  • Fit:                     Excellent
  • Puzzle Dust:     None
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut, whimsy pieces
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Excellent, highly recommended

 

I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

 

Review: 100 Aussie Icons

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews5 Comments
Aussie Icons
100 Aussie Icons by Jim Tsinganos – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 515 pieces

100 Aussie Icons is a fantastic image, and made for a wonderfully interesting puzzle. This is one of two wooden puzzles sent to me for review, and I had an absolutely great time with the assembly. I’m so looking forward to the next one!

Mr. Bob Puzzles is an Australian puzzle company that has switched over from producing cardboard puzzles to making wooden ones. They primarily focus on the artwork of Australian artists, and are trying to avoid the well-worn path of puzzle images; I think that pitfall has been avoided, their catalog is full of interesting and not seen before images to choose from. The quality is excellent, with thick wooden pieces that feel good in your hands, and a cut that looks easy, but offers more of a challenge than you think.

There’s one thing I can’t show you with a picture – the smell. Mr. Bob Puzzles uses aromatherapy essential oils to give their wooden puzzles a wonderful smell. I can’t tell you what it is, because I have no idea the exact scent; all I can tell you is they smell amazing! Mr. Bob Puzzles believes in the health benefits of puzzling (there are 10 health benefits listed on the back of their boxes), and they are adding aromatherapy oils to their puzzles to enhance the assembly experience and add to the health benefits. It’s something I’d never heard of before, but I think it’s great and the scent in my puzzle room was truly lovely.

The first picture is after one day’s assembly. The second is when it is almost complete, all that’s left is the sky. The cut is seeming a simple one, with regular “puzzle” shaped pieces, but it’s quite deceptive. There are many straight edges on the inside of the puzzle, and it makes for a much more challenging assembly than I thought. I loved the added difficulty and it went together much more slowly than a 500 piece puzzle usually does for me. In my book that’s a plus!

Aussie Icons whimsies

According to the box, all Mr. Bob puzzles have Australia themed whimsy pieces, I love the kangaroo inside the shape of the country – very cool. Of course my favorite has to be the Sydney Opera House with my initials inside! 😍 I’m not sure if that’s something they do for everyone, but I loved it.

Aussie Icons 3

I’m sure a good Aussie could tell you exactly who all these people are. I was almost positive that the flag bearer was Ian Thorpe (Olympic swimmer), but of course I was wrong; he’s one of the surf lifesavers. Other than that I have to confess to being an uninformed American who had no idea who the rest of these people were until Mr. Bob sent me a legend with most of the icons. I would suggest that perhaps there be a page on their website with a legend of them all so that we could see the ones we missed. This image is one of their bestsellers, and I’m sure a list would be appreciated by those of us who aren’t up to date on our Australian history.

Also, you can see in the top right of the picture that Mr. Bob has put his logo into the puzzle, very clever!

The artwork is so detailed and full of interesting people and things and it made for a most entertaining assembly. The puzzle is quite large, about the size of the average 1000 piece cardboard puzzle, and I found the large pieces are quite nice to work with. I was impressed with the quality of this puzzle, and it is most definitely recommended. I will add that I was equally impressed with their very quick shipping – this puzzle was at my door 5 days after it left Australia. Amazing!

Details:

  • Title:                  100 Aussie Icons
  • Artist:                Jim Tsinganos
  • Brand:               Mr. Bob Puzzles
  • Piece count:     515 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 23 x 17 in. (54 x 43 cm)
  • Purchased:      N/A, sent for review

Quality:

  • Board:               4.5mm wood
  • Cutting:             Excellent
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Excellent
  • Fit:                     Excellent
  • Puzzle Dust:     None
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut, whimsy pieces
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Excellent, highly recommended

 

I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

 

Review: Big World

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews5 Comments
Big World
Big World by Ciro Marchetti – Milton Bradley – 750 pieces

If I’m being honest I’d tell you I was a little bit scared to start this puzzle. Look at the image, it’s gorgeous – but I didn’t know where I would begin. Once I started sorting the pieces though, I found a few sections to pull out and start with; when they were assembled it didn’t seem so daunting to keep going and filling in from there. Sometimes I have to just jump in and get myself going, most of the time it’s never as difficult as I think. 🙂

Milton Bradley puzzles seem to have improved their quality quite a bit, I was thoroughly impressed with this puzzle and it’s quality. The pieces are on the smaller side, but not too much so. They had a good hand feel, fit together quite well, and had a very good variety of shapes. The image reproduction is excellent and did the artwork justice in my opinion, the colors are beautiful with no blurriness or fuzzy areas. Overall a very good quality puzzle.

Big World 1

There’s just something about peacocks, they make for wonderful puzzle images. This one is beautiful, and I wish the picture did it justice. It was one of the first things I assembled after the edges and even though there weren’t many pieces to it, it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.

Big World 2

This flying fish balloon and the ship below it –  great fun to put together! The use of colors by Ciro Marchetti brings to mind images by Aimee Stewart – both artists produce absolutely gorgeous artwork. This one especially has a dreamy quality, a fantasy image that makes no sense but definitely looks like a world you’d want to visit (or at least I would).

I’ve been a little obsessed with assembling panoramic puzzles lately. It’s much easier on your back to not have to reach so far to put pieces in at the top; having the entirety of the puzzle very close to you is somehow comforting and I am completely enjoying working with them. I only have one more panoramic here in my stash, I guess that means I might have to arrange a shopping trip – these puzzles are good for my mental health.

Big World was more fun than I expected and had much better quality than I anticipated. If you’ve got a long enough workspace to assemble a panoramic puzzle this one is absolutely recommended – two peacock tails way up! 🦚🦚

Details:

  • Title:                  Big World
  • Artist:                Ciro Marchetti
  • Brand:               Milton Bradley
  • Piece count:     750 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 11 x 34 in. (27 x 86 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

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

Overall Rating:      Very good, recommended

Review: Pets Rock

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews4 Comments
Pets Rock
Pets Rock by Takkoda- Ceaco – 550 pieces

Pets Rock is actually the second puzzle in this series of three that I’ve done, and they all have the same name. They’re highly entertaining (at least they are for me), and go together quite quickly. I very much enjoyed this assembly, and it was the perfect puzzle to help get my puzzle mojo back after more than a week of no puzzling.

Ceaco isn’t a favorite brand; I find that sometimes the quality is quite lacking and sometimes it’s very good – there’s no consistency. The pieces of this puzzle were on the thin side, and had a tendency to bend. They fit together well though, there were a variety of shapes, and the image reproduction was very good. There was a lot of puzzle dust, so much so that I had to vacuum the puzzle board when I was done. A bit annoying, but for the most part didn’t detract from the assembly. Ceaco has a large and interesting catalog of images though, and some are too cute or gorgeous for me to pass up.

I didn’t enjoy the image as much as the first Pets Rock that I assembled; most likely because I’m now a little old lady, and I prefer the personalities that I know and relate to. Elvis, David Bowie, and Michael Jackson are more my style than Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Katy Perry. Personalities aside, having six sections that are easily sorted and assembled is easy and entertaining. I started with kitty Katy Perry – that blue hair stood out and was fun to put together.

Even though the pieces weren’t the thickest and tended to bend a little, the assembly was quick, fun, and extremely entertaining. If the image is to your liking, it’s definitely recommended. I don’t think a puzzle has to be premium quality in order for you to enjoy it – and I absolutely had a great time putting this one together. 🙂

Details:

  • Title:                  Pets Rock
  • Artist:                Takkoda
  • Brand:               Ceaco
  • Piece count:     550 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 24 x 18 in. (61 x 46 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Fair, thin and easily bent
  • Cutting:             Good
  • Image:               Very good
  • Box:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Very good
  • Puzzle Dust:     Large amount
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Good, recommended