Tag: Thrift Store Puzzle

Tea Time Terrors

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles10 Comments

Tea Time Terrors by Steve Crisp – Hua Cao Shu Mu – 300 pieces

This is a very cute image (especially if you’re a cat person), but unfortunately it was attached to a puzzle of pretty poor quality. This is another of my thrift store purchases, and I was excited to try a new brand – I’m sorry to say it wasn’t good at all.

Hua Cao Shu Mu is a new company to me, and I don’t know how long they’ve been in business. Perhaps they’re a company that popped up during the pandemic to take advantage of the run on jigsaw puzzles. The puzzles are made in China, and unfortunately the quality left a lot to be desired in my opinion. All the pieces were almost exactly the same shape and there were false fits everywhere – one of my pet peeves. The image reproduction was quite fuzzy in some places and the finish was extremely shiny. It comes with a poster that was exactly as big as the assembled puzzle – perhaps that would be good for older puzzlers with eyesight issues. The chipboard was thin, but sturdy, and had the “sharp” white backing that I am not fond of. In addition, the back was lettered from A to F, to assist in sorting and/or assembling the image.

I’ve done a puzzle before that had printing on the back to help with assembly – an image of Noah’s Ark by Eric Dowdle that was a “Jigsaw Puzzle for Dummies”. That one was more designed to help you put it together piece by piece, this puzzle seems to have the letters to assist in sorting more than actual assembly.

Wanting to get a sense of it I did sort out all the “A” pieces and then put them together. It’s fine if it helps you enjoy your puzzles, but it really isn’t for me. I put together the rest of the puzzle as I normally do without regard to the letters on the back. (It could be helpful though, especially with this brand and all the false fits that this puzzle has to offer.)

This came in a box with three separate cat/window puzzles, I think they may all be by Steve Crisp but haven’t done too much googling to be certain. There is no mention of the artist anywhere in or on the box or poster, I had to look it up myself – which makes me question whether or not this image was actually licensed to this company.

There’s been quite a bit of theft from artists in the past few years, and with the run on puzzles during the pandemic and new companies jumping into the market…well, you know what I’m saying. I have no proof that’s what went on here, but I’m skeptical about whether or not these images were actually sold to this company.

As usual when working with a new brand I was hoping for a great quality puzzle, but was quite disappointed in this one; it was nowhere near as good as I’d hoped for. At some point I’ll get to the other two puzzles in this box, but at the moment I’m just not feelin’ it. 😢

Tranquil Waters

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

Tranquil Waters – Tuco – 408 pieces

This puzzle was quite the fantastic thrift store find, and I’m amazed that a 65 year old puzzle in the original box was still complete! I had a great time assembling it even though the subject matter wasn’t the usual type of image that I like to puzzle.

You can see in the image above that most of the pieces have at least one wavy side that just sits next to adjacent pieces, that’s the Tuco cut that I have seen in the past; but this puzzle says on the box that it is 100% interlocking, so every piece also interlocks with at least one other piece as well.

The quality was excellent and I was very impressed with this puzzle. The chipboard used is described on the box as wood-like pieces made from Upson Laminated wood fibre board. In my post about this puzzle in progress I showed the thickness of the pieces against current premium puzzle brands Ravensburger and Pomegranate…

That’s a Ravensburger on the left, and Pomegranate on the right. Their pieces seem ridiculously thin compared to this Tuco puzzle, don’t they?

I also wanted to show the thickness compared to wooden puzzle brands. Starting from the left these are pieces from Liberty, Artifact, Wentworth, and the cardboard Tuco. They’re all very close to the same thickness!

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to find and assemble this amazing puzzle. It was quite a challenging assembly for only having 400+ pieces, the painterly style made it difficult at times; but I enjoyed it very very much, and will be sending it on to Penny so she can have the opportunity to try it out as well.

Garden Study In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Garden Study of the Vickers Children by John Singer Sargent – Laurel Ink – 500 pieces

I finished sorting and started assembling this thrift store purchase yesterday, and made very good progress if I do say so myself. Fine Art puzzle images can be notoriously difficult to assemble, and this one is no different – but for some reason this one seems more enjoyable than others I’ve done.

The only pieces that are left now are shades and shapes of green, so they have all been sorted by shape and then we’re off to the races. Wish me luck!

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! 😍

Fireplace Cuddle

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles12 Comments

Fireplace Cuddle – Karmin – 100 pieces

Such a sweet image! Perfect for my first day back at the puzzle board. It went together super quickly, and honestly, as I was putting it together I told myself “Hey, you’re still pretty good at this”. It was my very own little internal pep talk, and at the very least it made me smile.

I’m pretty sure that Penny was the one who sent me this puzzle, but I can’t be 100% positive. The memory definitely isn’t what it used to be, that’s for certain. Although, being that this is an image of a Boston Terrier puppy, it is almost doubtless that Penny sent it to me – we both have a deep and abiding love for Boston’s. ❤🐶

It might have been better to save this little puzzle for after my surgery, but I also needed a smaller one to get myself back into the swing of things to start recovering my puzzle mojo. No worries, there are PLENTY of smaller cardboard and wooden puzzles that have found their way to my puzzle room in the past week.

The PADS is severe and I self-medicated with a few online and in-person shopping sprees. 😇

I told hubby that this month I was spending a chunk of my disability money on a bunch of puzzles for myself. Being the awesome man that he is, he said “It’s about time you spent some on yourself.”

💕I love that man.💕