Musicals – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Musicals went together VERY quickly, even after I tried to slow myself down a bit by taking more breaks; but in the end it was just too entertaining and was finished the day I started it. Oh well, having fun was the point, right? (If you answered yes to that question, go and get yourself a treat – that was the correct answer!)

This was an excellent quality Re-marks puzzle, the fit was very good, the image reproduction was lovely and everything “worked” the way it should. The only thing that was a drawback was the shiny finish, when I was working on the darker sections I had to turn my overhead light off so that I could see what was what. I’ve only got two more Re-marks collages here in the to-do pile, perhaps a shopping trip is in order sometime soon.😇

With these types of collages I usually let you know how many of the books or movies shown I have read or seen, this one was an impressive 24/50! My parents loved music and musicals so I grew up on those wonderful old movies, plus there are quite a few I’ve watched with my kids. Anyone feel like reminiscing?

This is the first musical that I can ever remember seeing. My parents loved this movie and whenever it was showing as a matinee somewhere they would pile us all into the car and off we’d go to see the movie – again. My father, who was and is a big softie, would always cry when they sang Edelweiss, and it took me a long time to understand why. Now I know, and if I saw the movie again now I would probably cry at that scene as well.

Grease was an excellent movie and I have seen it many, many, many times. I also had the double album of the soundtrack, on vinyl of course, and could still sing every song without missing a word, and also tell you which song comes next. I wasn’t in love with John Travolta as many girls were at the time; I identified with Rizzo played by Stockard Channing, she was my favorite character in the movie. She looked a little like me, we both had freckles, and I thought she was the coolest of the cool even if she was a little mean sometimes. I still love this movie, hubby even bought me a 40th anniversary edition of the dvd that came with a little leather jacket for the dvd case.

Grease came out in theaters when I was 10 years old. Oh my gosh, how in the world is this movie 48 years old? Oh my gosh, how in the world is this woman in the mirror almost 58 years old? 👵

Prince was one of my favorite musicians back in the day, his music got me through some tough angsty teenage years. I watched this movie a lot back then, but mostly fast-forwarded to the musical parts (we had a copy on VHS). A few years ago my husband wanted to do something nice for me so he got me a copy of this movie because I was looking for it on the streaming services and I couldn’t find it. Isn’t that sweet of him? Well, it had been some time since I’d last seen the movie, so I watched it from beginning to end – then I remembered how I used to fast-forward through most of it, because the movie is TERRIBLE! The music is great, don’t get me wrong, and Prince Rogers Nelson was a musical genius, but that movie was just awful. It makes me laugh to think of it now; I knew back when I was only a stupid teenager with wildly fluctuating hormones and a not-yet-fully-formed brain that this movie was bad and the only parts worth watching were the songs.😂

So there it is, singing nuns and Austrian families, greasers and female “gangs”, and a horrid movie with great songs. What a collection, huh?

Monsters – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This was a wonderfully entertaining puzzle that was even better than I’d hoped. I enjoyed every part of this puzzle – even the sorting if you can believe it. 😮 I’m letting my weird brain take over while I’m puzzling these days, and whatever way it decides it wants to assemble is what I do.

Don’t want to sort? Don’t! Want to puzzle without using an image to assist? Go for it! Want to let your OCD out to play and revel in lining up pieces on the trays and keeping everything neat and tidy? Of course you should! (See, I told you my brain was weird)

Re-marks has such a wonderful catalog of collage images; book covers, travel posters, movies, decades, themes like this one, etc. Almost every one of them looks good to me. The quality is good/very good, and this puzzle especially had an excellent fit which made me quite happy. The image reproduction was crisp and clean, and the random cut made for piece shapes that were varied and interesting. This was one of the best quality Re-marks puzzle I’ve assembled in a while.

There were so many sections that brought back memories that it was difficult to decide which ones should get a closeup. This collage isn’t just movie monsters, it has novels, comic books, tv shows, cereal, songs, albums, and even candy! If I let myself go on and on about all the panels that I wanted to talk about this would be an unbelievably long post and you would most likely get quite bored before the end. In the end I narrowed it down to only three, but trust me I could talk about MANY more than ones shown below.

As a dyed-in-the-wool comedy nerd, of course Young Frankenstein (pronounced Fronkensteen) was going to be one of my choices. It’s an excellent movie, and besides being extremely funny it also makes me think of my boys – they both love this movie and they also love to quote from it, sometimes ad nauseam. Additionally, seeing the movie poster has me feeling my age a bit today, as every one of the talented actors shown here are now gone and it’s a bit sad.

Still, the movie makes me happy and I can’t hear “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and not think of Peter Boyle and Gene Wilder singing and dancing and in general being ridiculous. It makes me laugh out loud every single time I see it. 😂

My youngest son picked out this puzzle for me to assemble, and after I said I would do it he went to his room and brought me back a copy of Frankenstein with this exact cover that he had just gotten out of the library that day. He then proceeded to tell me ALL about the book, Mary Shelley, and the many Frankenstein movies that have been made. I got a 15 minute Frankenstein lecture! None of this was new to me, when I assembled The World of Frankenstein almost three years ago I got almost the same lecture about the book, it’s origins, the author, etc. But any time my baby boy wants to engage with me is good and I’d happily sit through the lecture again to spend time with him talking TO me instead of AT me.

When I saw this section of the puzzle it made me so happy! I can’t even begin to count the number of times I read this book to my kids – complete with voices and over-the-top acting on my part – they loved it, and so did I. We didn’t read it much at bedtime though; they got more excited the closer we got to the end of the book, I got louder too, and it wasn’t really conducive to winding down and going to sleep. This puzzle brought back such a good memory of sharing this book with my babies. 💕

I had the best time with this puzzle, the whole process made me happy. I don’t really want to take it apart yet, it was too much fun!

Rebels – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This puzzle was an absolute joy to put together, and I found myself constantly trying to make it last longer. I wanted nothing more than to sit in front of it and assemble away, but I also wanted it to not be over too soon. Of course no one around here is surprised when a collage puzzle makes me happy.

The Re-marks brand is good quality in my opinion, and although there are sometimes issues with fit or reproduction I find they don’t bother me as much when they’re attached to a fantastic collage image. I’ll put up with a lot to be able to work a fun collage. Luckily there wasn’t much to “put up with” on this puzzle, it was very good quality all around.

It was difficult deciding which areas of the puzzle I would use for a close up, and in the end I chose three different rebels that remind me of three different generations of my family.

If you’re a long time reader you know that not only am I a puzzle geek, I am also a self-professed comedy nerd. My parents are to blame, in my house we had just as many comedy records as we did music albums. A good laugh was always around when my folks were near, partly because they adored comedy and comedians. We weren’t allowed to listen to Lenny Bruce of course, as he was about as “blue” as a comic could be, but I found myself fascinated by him when I was younger. By the time I was old enough to listen to his comedy my life was taken over by teenage hormones, boys, cheerleading, etc. But my parents never shied away from anything controversial and I distinctly remember talking to them about Lenny Bruce, censorship, drug addiction and people trying to gatekeep what others read and heard and did. Lenny Bruce died before I was even born, but seeing this image reminded me of my youth as a child of comedy connoisseurs and people who taught me to fight for ALL of my rights. I had exceptional parents. 💖

Now we go forward to my own generation; as a child of the 80s and a bit of a rebel myself of course I loved Joan Jett. Loved her with The Runaways, loved her solo work, and of course Joan Jett & The Blackhearts were amazing. Put another dime in the jukebox baby!

I never listened to musicians just because everyone else thought they were great. I was an odd child who liked what I liked and didn’t apologize for it; in addition to the music of the 80s I also LOVED Elvis Presley, Allan Sherman, girl groups of the 50s and 60s, Ray Stevens, etc. – in general I appreciated all kinds of music and didn’t just pretend I liked what was popular. If it made me happy that is what counted most. My friends thought I was weird, but I think weird is a good thing; and my true friends loved me, weird and all. Who wants to be like everyone else? Boring! I loved that Joan Jett didn’t try to conform to what everyone else thought femininity should look like, she was just herself and that made all the difference to me. She was my Pippi Longstocking, along with Cyndi Lauper, they were women who were just themselves no matter what the world thought and that made them ladies I looked up to.

This one reminds me of my daughter, who absolutely adores RuPaul and RuPaul’s Drag Race. We’ve spent many an hour watching it together; I don’t love it as much as she does, but spending time with her is much more important to me than getting to watch what I want on tv. When I was putting this puzzle together I texted my daughter a picture of the partially completed RuPaul section and she immediately replied wanting to know what this was from and what I was working on. She was very interested in my puzzle that day. 😎

My gorgeous daughter was also raised by parents who taught her to fight for herself and for others. She is an outspoken, honest, kindhearted, generous, amazing woman who also likes what she likes and doesn’t try to fit in just to make others more comfortable. I’m immensely proud to have raised a rebel like her, and as RuPaul has taught us to say, she’s my “Best Judy”; she’s my ride-or-die, my closest confidante, and my beloved sweet Baby Princess. 💕👑

---

I’ve picked out one more section to show you, I wonder, do you see the same thing I do or am I putting my attitude onto this…?

When I look at this book cover I see a man who thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips. Look at that smug face! Is it just me? Perhaps it is. I’ll be seeing him again soon though, because both this image and another one from this puzzle (Harriet Tubman) are part of another collage yet to be assembled that I have here. It’s another collection of book covers, Biographies. I won’t mind seeing Harriet again, but Oscar here has a face that I consider extremely slappable. Like, EXTREMELY slappable.

Wow, I really do have an attitude today! Maybe it’s my menopause rearing it’s ugly man-hating head, there’s no way to be sure. Doesn’t matter though, I embrace the hormone-riddled insanity. 🤪

Dark Academia – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

When this puzzle was started what I really wanted was a book cover collage, good thing I had just received a BIG order of mostly collage puzzles. This one jumped out as the one begging to be put together; thankfully it was highly entertaining and exactly what I was hoping for.

Re-marks is right up there with White Mountain as far as having an excellent catalog of collage images – I want almost all of them! The quality is quite good, and the interesting piece shapes and good fit make them great fun for me to assemble.

As I mentioned when I posted an in progress update on this puzzle, there’s only one book in this collection of 50 that I’ve read – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. There are a few classics here; Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wuthering Heights, etc., but many of them are much newer releases. Regardless, it was surprising that 49 of these I haven’t read. It doesn’t matter much though, what was most important to me was how the covers looked in the image and how much fun it was to assemble.

Being the only book in this whole image that I’ve read, it seemed a shame not to show the cover. Seeing this reminds me of the set of Harry Potter book cover mini puzzles my daughter gifted me one year for Christmas. They were so fun to assemble and makes me want to get them off the shelf and start putting them together again. ❤

I’ve never heard of this book, but in addition to it being a fun cover to assemble it’s got a quote from a favorite author at the top – Margaret Atwood. Maybe it’s one I should look into!

Isn’t this just a beautiful book cover? The colors are exquisite! It was one of the first ones I noticed when I was sorting, just stunning. 😍

This puzzle was such fun that I didn’t want it to end and found myself taking extra breaks so that it wouldn’t be over too soon. Even the sorting didn’t seem as tedious and endless as it usually does for me. An excellent puzzle all around that I would happily put together again. Loved it!