Rant Review: Presenting Yellow! 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Springbok, artist uncredited, 1993)

The occasional Springbok puzzle discovered at a yard sale was a treat when I was little. I loved the little poems on the backs of the boxes and their funky piece shapes. They were the only puzzles I knew that could actually be picked up once they were complete! Vintage Springboks are something I always keep an eye out for when visiting thrift stores or garage sales, but I never have any luck. However, I've suddenly found a trio of them at three different places in the past couple of weeks! This puzzle is the newest of the three. The poems had apparently been dropped by 1993, as the back of the box is blank. 

This is the old Springbok quality that I fondly remember, with thick, sturdy pieces that fit together snugly. The puzzle had clearly been worked at least once, as several chunks of it were still assembled, but there was no noticeable wear on the pieces. It wasn't as tough as it may appear, as there are a few large items that serve as anchor points. Once a few of those were built and the area around them expanded enough to connect to some of the others, it became ever easier to forge ahead. 

Items of interest include the Old Salt statue, Napoleon sour lemon drops, Mr. Peanut alarm clock, George Harrison pin, yellow-haired troll doll, a packet of Anacin, one of those big yellow chip clips that were ubiquitous well into the '90s, and an issue of National Geographic. The Cliff's Notes appear to be for Les Miserables, but that's just a guess based on the three visible letters. 

A pair of inserts show off other puzzles in the Springbok catalogue, and there's an order form for various puzzle accessories. That 1,000 piece travel caddy would cost more than $50 in 2026 money! I try not to wallow in nostalgia, but looking over these inserts made me wish I could simply walk into a store and buy some of these puzzles. One of the others I found over the past couple of weeks is listed on one of the inserts, still on the catalogue after more than a decade. It must have been popular! A similar color-themed puzzle in blue is another that caught my eye. A quick web search reveals that they also did red and green ones. It would be very cool to stumble across one of the others sometime soon!