I'm a sucker for snowy scenes, cabins, and aurora, so adding this to my cart during the recent sales was a no-brainer. I decided to tackle it after finishing that Rockefeller Center 1,000 piecer last week, as I often like to do a smaller puzzle as a bit of a palette cleanser between larger ones.
This took me twice as long to put together. Really.
Looking at the art, there are obviously some rather dark areas, but nothing that looks particularly problematic. The central area with the cabin, deer, and much of the surrounding snow flew together practically on its own. From there, things got trickier. Still, I've done far more complex puzzles, so nothing to worry about. Just do a bit of simple shape sorting and power through it, right?
This is where I was reminded the hard way that Buffalo is a value brand marketed toward casual shoppers in big box stores. False fits were all too common, and not easy to spot when many of the pieces were a dark smear of some shade of blue. Thus, whenever a piece seemed to fit, I had to second-guess myself, then go through every other piece of the same shape to see if there was one that seemed to fit just a bit more snugly. This was indeed the case with annoying frequency. I finally grabbed my high-powered flashlight and used it as an aid to better see the dark smears of paint on each piece to help me complete the darker areas. From there, the gradient in the sky made it a breeze to assemble, and the puzzle was done at last!
I've done a couple of other puzzles from Buffalo recently, but the art on those made it very easy to avoid false fits. I won't be avoiding Buffalo, as I still find the slightly loose fit and overall level of quality perfectly acceptable for the price point, but this puzzle served as a reminder to be vigilant of the difference between a pretty puzzle and a fun puzzle in the future! A challenging design can be fun, but you have to be able to trust the puzzle itself not to throw in an additional handicap that turns it into tedium.
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