Tag: Puzzles In Progress

Tranquil Waters In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Tranquil Waters – Tuco – 408 pieces

I made a fantastic find at the thrift store this week – this amazing Tuco puzzle that was manufactured in 1958! I’ve never had the opportunity to work on one of these puzzles before, and I’m so amazingly thrilled to have found it.

The image isn’t anything like I would normally choose, but the very old box caught my eye. It doesn’t tell you a piece count, only that there are “approx. 425 to 990 Tuco king-size puzzle parts” and it also says it is a “100% Interlocking Picture Puzzle”; there was also the word complete handwritten on the front of the box. Well, I was intrigued. I’ve seen Tuco puzzles in other blogs or on resale sites but for the most part they were all puzzles whose pieces just push together and I usually just find that frustrating.

My mother and I developed a system for thrift store puzzle shopping – mostly for brands with quality that can be questionable. We always had a small pair of scissors or something sharp in our purses along with a small roll of clear tape. When a puzzle from a questionable brand was in a taped up box we could open it, check out the pieces to see if it was something we might want to assemble and tape it back up if necessary.

I still do this when shopping for puzzles at thrift stores and I opened this puzzle box to check out the pieces, to say I was stunned would be an understatement! The pieces are the thickest I’ve ever seen for a cardboard puzzle, they put Ravensburger and Pomegranate to shame…

That’s a piece from Ravensburger on the left, and a pre-pandemic Pomegranate on the right – the pieces of this Tuco puzzle are as thick or thicker than some wooden puzzles I’ve worked! (I think when I write up the post for this completed puzzle I’ll show pieces from premium cardboard brands along with wooden puzzle brands for comparison.)

Once I saw the thickness of the pieces, and that most of them had tabs that fit into other pieces there was NO WAY I wasn’t buying this puzzle. As an added bonus the color on the price tag was the “color of the week”, so it was half price, which means I paid $1.50 for this amazing find!

The image is mostly a dark landscape with lots of green and a pond or river in the foreground with even more green, but it doesn’t matter. It’s such an amazing puzzle to have found at the thrift store, and I am extremely excited to assemble it! 😍

Clue In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling27 Comments

Clue – Spin Master – 1000 pieces

I just finished sorting this morning and quickly put together the logo that goes in the middle – and I got all the pieces on the initial sort – way to go me!

The quality is less impressive than I was hoping for; the pieces are thin, the fit is very loose and there are a LOT of bent pieces. It’s quite different than Harmony Harbor by the same brand that I just posted about two days ago. That puzzle had quite a few bent pieces as well, but the chipboard was thicker, the finish was matte instead of shiny and the fit was very good.

According to the blog this is my first 1000 piece puzzle by this brand, and unfortunately so far I’m underwhelmed.

Apparently this is one of a series of six puzzles with images of classic board games, the others are Guess Who?, Monopoly, Battleship, Life, and Scrabble. They aren’t available online other than on resale sites; you can only get them in-store at Target and they seem to be extremely difficult to get. I wasn’t aware of any of this when I purchased it, and honestly I’m finding it quite frustrating just trying to get any information about this puzzle and/or the series.

Here’s hoping the assembly is less exasperating than the search for info about the puzzle itself. Fingers crossed!🤞

Wasgij In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Childcare! by Bill Houston – Jumbo (Wasgij Mystery) – 1000 pieces

It looks like whatever poor soul bought the Wasgij Mystery puzzle printed just before mine ended up with several missing border pieces – because they found their way into my box instead. I’m hoping that doesn’t mean that there may be missing pieces with my puzzle, this one looks like so much fun!

The box says “The two childcare assistants are doing their best to look after all these children, but what’s the worst that could happen? That is the scene you have to puzzle.”

I’m looking forward to seeing all the mayhem. 😁

Pixels & Pizza In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Pixels & Pizza by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

Well, sort of in progress. I’m still sorting it – and that’s a start, right? 1000 piece puzzles take a lot longer for me to sort these days; I get so antsy to start assembling and want nothing more than to be done with sorting, so I take frequent breaks. In the back of my mind, I know that if I get the sorting done that I’ll be happier with the assembly so I keep slogging through it little bits at a time.

I’m very excited to start working on this image; there are SO MANY words, it’s got a fabulous 80s feel to it, and the colors are so bright and bold – it’s gonna be a great time – I can tell!

Fun Fair Food In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Fun Fair Food by Lars Stewart – Buffalo – 300 pieces

There were several 300 piece puzzles I considered before choosing this one, it was the colors that decided it for me. It’s a Lars Stewart, so most likely it’s because it seemed as familiar as an Aimee Stewart. Thank goodness we have digital artists like the Stewarts and Ciro Marchetti to make us such colorful and entertaining images to puzzle!

There hasn’t been much work on this, but it got started because I needed some “me time” doing an actual puzzle in between writing up all the posts of the puzzles that we did on vacation.

My family and I assembled eight puzzles during our holiday; all I did was take pictures when they were complete. I’ve spent the past couple days writing up posts so I don’t forget any of the little things about the assemblies – my memory isn’t what it used to be – if I don’t get things written down now there will absolutely be forgotten details. But in this midst of typing up all those posts I felt the need to put my hands on an actual puzzle and fit some pieces together. 🧩💚