Tag: Ravensburger

Trick or Treat! In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Trick or Treat! by Dean MacAdam – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This absolutely fantastic Dean MacAdam artwork is my Halloween puzzle this year. You won’t see a post about it until then, but it has been so fun! The colors, the entire image basically, everything makes me so happy. I’m no longer young enough to trick or treat for real, or even take my kids out as they’re all in their 30’s now, but this holiday always makes me feel younger if not young. 🎃🧡

In addition to how happy the image makes me, the quality of this puzzle is phenomenal. Truly, one of the best Ravensburger puzzles I’ve assembled in quite a while. The fit is fantastic, the reproduction is stunning, and in general it feels like joy in my hands.

Holding a piece, contemplating it’s placement, absentmindedly rubbing my thumb over the top to enjoy the hand-feel, Ravensburger puzzles feel like happiness for me. I remember how many of their puzzles mom and I have assembled together, how many I’ve done on my own; the 40,320 piece behemoth that was mainly me – but my momma came to my house 10 different times specifically to help with every single section. Ravensburger is puzzle love for me.

Assembling this gorgeous puzzle for my favorite holiday has cheered me up like nothing else could. I’m loving what I’m puzzling today – how about you? Puzzling something fun? Challenging? Beautiful?

Mysterious Owl

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Mysterious Owl by Pixie Cold – Ravensburger – 150 pieces

So I finally decided to try out one of Ravensburger’s wooden puzzles, and I was very happily surprised by how good the quality is! Perhaps because they’re my favorite brand I didn’t want to tarnish my perception of them so I stayed away purposely; whatever the reason, it makes no difference as I thought the quality was excellent!

Many puzzle brands that go from cardboard to wooden don’t seem to understand that the way you design the pieces of a wooden puzzle is very different; Ravensburger doesn’t seem to have stumbled over that problem. The thickness of the wood, the image adherence to the wood, the image chosen, the design of the pieces, how they fit together and most especially how they fit around the whimsies – all of these things are fantastic!

Beautiful whimsy pieces that match with the image perfectly, although to me that owl in the lower right corner looks somewhat like a cat.

Yes, this is the back of the puzzle. You can barely see the lines of cutting, which to me tells me they wanted to be sure that the fit of the puzzle wasn’t too loose – and it wasn’t. It’s a little sad that you can’t see all the piece shapes and whimsies on the back, but it also shows that it’s a well made puzzle.

This puzzle was excellent, and much better quality than I gave it credit for. Shame on me for waiting so long. This puzzle was stunning and fabulous all around!

Aristocats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Aristocats – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

There’s just something about a great quality Ravensburger puzzle, I cannot keep my hands off of it! Even before this one was finished I found myself absentmindedly running my hands over the completed sections – over and over again. I know there are many excellent puzzle companies out there, and some may even have better quality than this brand, but it’s still my favorite puzzle brand and I think it always will be.

This movie has wonderful memories associated with it, and I absolutely adore this image. If you look at the box image, it seems a bit darker than the actual puzzle. In reality, this puzzle was bright and beautiful and it was fun from the border all the way to the last piece of the harp. It’s a gorgeous Disney image, and I’m so happy that they didn’t change how the characters look, as they do with some of the other older movies.

Marie was always my favorite character in the movie, she was sassy and smart and tried to be ladylike, like her momma. Of course the sassier side of her was the best in my opinion. To quote this lovely little lady – “Ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them!” 😇

Ah, Duchess and Thomas. I was enamored of Duchess just a little bit, because I loved her accent. Little did I realize as a young child that Eva Gabor’s accent was Hungarian, not French! Still, I thought it was grown-up and beautiful – just like Duchess. Thomas on the other hand, well I guess I should use his full name; Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O’Malley. He was also a favorite because he was also Baloo from The Jungle Book and Little John from Robin Hood. Phil Harris gave voice to all those characters and he was an amazingly talented man. The whole time I was putting this puzzle together I kept singing “Abraham de Lacy Guiseppe Casey, Thomas O’Malley, O’Malley the alley cat”. It wasn’t as well sung as Phil would have done, but it made me smile.

I loved this puzzle much more than I thought I would, it’s so much brighter and more fun than the box shows. It certainly gave me hours and hours of happy fun puzzle time, and that’s all I ask for. 💖

Admont Abbey Library

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Admont Abbey Library by William Carr – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This is an absolutely beautiful image, and even though photographic puzzles aren’t my usual fare this one was completely enjoyable. I remember that I bought this one new, but when and from where is completely erased from this old lady brain. It’s been floating around the puzzle room for years because it just looked too difficult, or too dull, or not enough of something else; I’m glad I finally decided to give it a go, it was well worth the wait.

Excellent Ravensburger quality, as usual, with an exceptionally good fit – almost good enough to stand on it’s edge, but not quite. The colors seem muted, but in reality are brighter than shown on the box. My one peeve about this puzzle is that the image on the box was covered in two different places, and there was no poster on the inside of the box to make up for that. Honestly, why companies continue to cover up parts of the image with their redundant branding is so confounding and annoying. It is for me anyway.

This is another puzzle where a closeup isn’t really needed, you can see what there is to see. It’s a beautiful picture of a stunning library that looks too beautiful to have people traipsing in and out and touching things. It made for a wonderful build that I am so glad I finally tried. Loved this one!

Midnight in the Garden

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Midnight in the Garden by Ute Thonissen – Ravensburger – 368 pieces

Um…..you may be shocked to hear this, but I didn’t like this Ravensburger puzzle at all. It’s one of the Escape series and it was my first time with these puzzles; I didn’t really understand the concept and I don’t think the instructions are helpful at all. I won’t be writing a lot about this. It’s another type of mystery puzzle and I don’t like to spoil things for others who may enjoy them, so I don’t discuss solutions or show the entire finished image.

This puzzle made me feel stupid because I don’t think that you are given enough information to begin with, and I found it extremely confusing.

If you just want to assemble the puzzle you can do that, but I have a warning for you – do not assemble the border first. It’s very dark, it’s hard to distinguish if you have the correct piece because all the pieces seem to be interchangeable. It’s frustrating if you try to start with the edges, so just don’t.

I really wanted a fun puzzle to play with today but this was not fun for me. 😥