Rant Review: Ophelia 300 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Buffalo Games, art by Laura El)

 

I don't often do puzzles smaller than 500 pieces, but when I ran across this in Target a couple of weeks ago, I simply couldn't leave it behind! I love the art style and the whole vibe of the piece. At only 300 pieces, and large pieces at that, it was dead easy to complete, but an enjoyable puzzling experience all the same. It served as a perfect buffer between the frenetic Flash puzzle I had just completed and the very busy puzzle I have on deck next. The quality is typical of Buffalo, i.e. not amazing but decent, and perfectly acceptable for a cheap puzzle from a big-box retailer. The large pieces are thin and sturdy, fit together well with no false fits, and there was very little dust. A poster is included. I rarely refer to a poster when doing a puzzle, but it's always nice to have the option! I know Buffalo's glued boxes are divisive, but I just slip my box cutter blade into the seam and run it around the box, and it opens it with no damage. It's not ideal packaging, but I've got no issues with it at this price point. 

On a semi-related note, I noticed after getting this that a puzzle I've had on my wishlist for a while now features art by the same artist. After enjoying this one so much, I may need to go ahead and pull the trigger on that one soon!

DC Collector's Edition: The Flash 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger)

I found out about these Ravensburger puzzles featuring DC superheroes recently, and slapped price watches on several of them so I could grab them when they went on sale. Looking them all over, I may have peaked with my first puzzle from the set, as this one may well be the best of the bunch! The Flash is the coolest of all superheroes; he's not my number one favorite, and he may not be yours, but I maintain that he is the coolest, regardless. The selection of characters makes for a vivid and interesting image, and the rendering of the Flash as he zips around faster than the eye can follow will be familiar to anyone who has read the source material. 

The pieces seemed a bit softer, and the fit a bit looser, than usual. Not enough to really ding the quality, but it was noticeable. The art is varied enough that it was generally easy to figure out where most pieces went, though it was easy to get some pieces of Grodd and the Black Flash mixed up. The Flash himself gave me the most trouble. All of the linework and cross-hatching made for a rather confusing jumble of pieces, so I found it easiest to simply set those pieces aside and assemble them last. 

This puzzle took me a bit longer than I expected, but I really enjoyed it. I'd like to see another one set at the Flash museum, featuring Wally instead of Barry, with a different assortment of rogues. Keep some of the most iconic ones such as Grodd and Mirror Master, but mix things up by adding villains such as Dr. Polaris, Girder, and Magenta, and replace Reverse Flash with the uber-creepy Zoom. I have no idea how likely that is, but I would definitely buy it. I wouldn't even wait for a sale! 

I spent some time trying to figure out who the artist was, but came up empty. There is no artist credited on the box, and I could find no credits anywhere online. There are areas where the inking style looks like Kevin Knowlan, but not consistently enough for me to be certain. While I wait for the rest of these puzzles to go on sale, I have another in the series that I snagged the day after this one. I'll be getting to it soon! 

Rant Review: The Mystic Maze 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Magic Puzzle Company, art by Boya Sun)

 Be aware that there are spoilers ahead for the final version of the puzzle! 

Magic Puzzle Company has been talked up quite a bit, and I'd been looking forward to doing one for some time now. It turned out that a recent Target sale that pretty much allowed me to get two for the price of one netted me my first pair of them! I've seen numerous people claim that MPC puzzles are the best they've ever done, enthusing about their quality and creativity. It was quite a lot to live up to, and I was a bit apprehensive that the experience might be a bit of a letdown after so much hype. 

I was immediately impressed by the quality. The packaging was well-designed and sturdy, the pieces contained within resealable envelopes. One of these cautioned that it was only to be opened after the puzzle was assembled. I'd avoided all discussion about MPC puzzles apart from general comments about quality, so I had no idea what to expect from this. I set it aside and dumped the pieces from the main envelope into the box top for sorting, and set about my work. I wound up not actually sorting much, and mostly kept all the pieces together. I separated out the edge pieces, some of which were clearly intended to go within the puzzle's interior, and the various oddly-shaped pieces into their own tray. I grabbed one of the two included posters to help begin assembly, and things went fairly quickly from there. The art has a simple style that belies the complexity of the overall design, and I greatly enjoyed taking in the details as I pieced it together. The scene depicting the hero weeping as he is forced to kill a monster struck a chord with me, as someone who has been in situations in which I had to hurt another person to prevent greater harm. Regardless of circumstances, hurting someone else hurts you as well. There are many notable scenes depicted throughout the puzzle art, but this one held a particular poignancy. 

Once the puzzle was assembled, I opened the secret envelope. Two more envelopes had to be opened to access the secret pieces, so there is definitely no possibility of seeing them by mistake! I knew by now that sections of the puzzle would need to be shifted around, and a sheet was included to show exactly which ones needed to go where. It was pretty obvious which ones needed to be relocated simply from looking at the art, but the sheet is a nice inclusion to ensure that anyone who does the puzzle will have a helping hand if they need it. Shifting these sections created an opening in the center of the puzzle, in which the portal is to be built. There is no reference image here, so box-peekers like me may find it a tad tedious to begin with, but the shape of the opening makes it easy to pick out the edge pieces. The art on those pieces gives you the clues you need to hit the ground running from there. 

The overall experience was a lot of fun, and almost completely lived up to the brand's hype. The box promises no puzzle dust, and while there is a tiny bit, it's about as close to "no dust" as is likely possible. (Seriously, it's about the amount of dust you get from five Ravensburger pieces!) The pieces are my favorites I've ever encountered, and were a joy to work with as I assembled the puzzle. My one gripe is that the fit of the pieces was rather loose. Given that the interior sections that need to be shifted around have their own edges, the loose fit is not necessary for the secret section. On the contrary, the loose fit makes it more difficult to move those sections without them crumbling! Given MPC's attention to detail in every other aspect of quality, I can only assume that this must have been a conscious decision. I really have no idea why they decided on such loose-fitting pieces. It doesn't ruin the puzzle or anything, though it can be a bit annoying at times. It certainly won't prevent me from doing more of their puzzles in the future!

Rant Review: Hammer: House of Horror- The Mummy 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Aquarius, art by Joseph Smith)

I enjoyed the puzzle montage of classic Hammer horror movie posters I did last year, so I've had the trio of smaller puzzles featuring some individual posters from that montage for some time now. I saw this for an irresistible price last week! While this poster isn't a patch on the poster art for the 1932 Karloff-starring Universal original, it's quite moody and atmospheric, with a striking image offset by bold, colorful lettering and the requisite recoiling actress. Aquarius have cropped out the bottom chunk of the poster, so the credits (along with a sizeable portion of the actress) are missing. 

Putting this puzzle together unfolded pretty much as I expected: everything went together quickly and easily except for the titular mummy and the dark sky behind him. The highlighted areas of the mummy went together fairly easily and served as a staging ground, and from there, it was a matter of buckling down and brute-forcing my way through all those dark pieces. This was made slightly more difficult than it should have been due to all the false fits. 

It had been awhile since I'd done an Aquarius puzzle, and I'd forgotten how loose the fit tends to be with their pieces. The wonky piece shapes alleviated this somewhat, giving fewer possibilities for false fits than would otherwise be the case, but it still led to some annoyance. Pieces were very glossy, and several were bent or otherwise damaged right out of the box. On the positive side, there was not very much puzzle dust. Given that their puzzles routinely cost about the same as puzzles of comparable size from companies such as Ravensburger and Galison, this is not really up to snuff with the level of quality I expect for the MSRP. For the sale price I paid, however, it's pretty much in line with what I'd expect. If you enjoy these movies, or just like the art, these puzzles are definitely worth getting. Just be prepared for glossy and rather loose-fitting pieces. 

Rant Review: Peace 300 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, art by Michael David Ward)

I recently grabbed a few smaller puzzles from Ravensburger's Puzzle Moments line to serve as palette cleansers between larger puzzles, and this is the first of those I tackled. I really like the serene, colorful art, and while there are areas that would be a challenge in a larger size, at 300 pieces, it all just flew together. The quality was on par with the Ravensburger I did last week, though there was much less dust owing to the much smaller size. I can definitely see myself picking up more of these in the future! 

Rant Review: Squishmallows Squish Squad 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Buffalo Games)

I was obliged to take this one over when my little niece ran out of patience halfway through the sorting. She's done fine with the few 100 piece puzzles I've given her in the past, but this one was a bit overwhelming. My mom had pitched in and helped her assemble about 2/3 of the edge and a teeny bit of the interior before tapping out as well. (My mom has assembled many a puzzle in her day, but she just really wasn't feeling this one.) I neither know nor care about Squishmallows, but the art is cute and pleasant enough that I didn't mind putting this together. It was quite easy, and took me only a couple of hours to assemble the remaining ~450 pieces. The only slightly challenging bits were the vines and letters. 

I've had several puzzles from Buffalo, bought on clearance, sitting in my to-do pile for some time, but this is the first of their puzzles I've actually put together. The quality was not exceptional, but entirely acceptable for a cheap puzzle you can grab for under $10 at a big box retailer. There was only a moderate amount of dust, always a good thing! The pieces were akin to the thin, sturdy pieces you find in Galison puzzles. The fit was a bit loose, however, and false fits occurred more often than I would have liked. I had to reassemble parts of the edge due to this. This wasn't a pervasive problem, though, and I've encountered far worse-fitting pieces with puzzles that cost more than this one.  It actually passed the lift test, for a few seconds, anyway! 

Rant Review: Disney Villainous: Prince John from Robin Hood 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger)

Don't check your brightness setting; this puzzle really is that dark on the left side! I struggled to get a decent photo of this puzzle, and I finally just accepted that, with my less-than-stellar photography skill, this was as good as it was gonna get! I knew from looking at the images online that one side of this puzzle being so dark would make this one a bit tough, but I went for it anyway. I'm not really interested in Disney much at all, but their 1973 animated Robin Hood has been one of my favorite movies for as long as I can remember. When I came across this-- on clearance, no less!-- I had to have it. 

The art is quite nice, and the dramatic lighting properly sets the mood of the piece, even as it makes parts of it much tougher than they would otherwise be. Some of those pieces on the left side are so dark that I had to shine a flashlight on them to make out any detail at all! While this made that section of the puzzle a bit difficult, it's tough to argue with the look of the final product. All those frames also ramped up the difficulty, as some are quite similar to one another. I knew those frames had potential to get rather tedious, but they were more difficult than I expected. Still, most of the puzzle is straightforward enough that I would rank the overall difficulty at slightly above average. I won't be running to do any of the other puzzles in this series, but if there is one featuring a character you really like, the tough bits are worth the trouble!

This was my first Ravensburger puzzle, and I was interested to see if its quality lived up to their reputation. There was a moderate amount of dust, certainly nowhere near what I was expecting based on what I've heard. I quite like the thickness and texture of the pieces, though the fit was not as snug as I expected. False fits were rare, however, and the puzzle passed the lift test! I have a few more Ravensburgers on my to-do pile, and the quality of this one is definitely encouraging. It was a nice change after a couple of my recent puzzles had a tendency to fall apart if I looked at them. 

Rant Review: Movies 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (White Mountain, art by James Mellett)

This was a quick one, taking only a few hours over the course of two days. I like these collages, as they offer plenty of visual interest, and basically impossible to run up against a wall with them. They always serve as a nice respite between more demanding puzzles. (And the next one I have on deck is a DOOZY. I'm considering delaying it until closer to Halloween, though. We'll see.) 

The art is nicely done, with good likenesses and well-chosen scenes and items to represent each movie. I do wish the gigantic MOVIES was not present; it's completely unnecessary, and takes up a great deal of space that could have been used to represent even more movies! I also found some of the movie choices rather odd. For example, horror was clearly not off-limits, as evidenced by Jason's hockey mask, but there's not a single Universal monster! Superman and Wonder Woman are represented, but not Batman? Godzilla is here, but not King Kong? I assume these and other such oddities that stood out to me were likely due to licensing issues. There were several of my favorites represented, however, including This is Spinal Tap, The Big Lebowski, Blazing Saddles, Fargo, Jurassic Park, The Godfather Part II, and actors and characters such as James Bond and John Candy. 

This puzzle has the typical WM quality, with big, sturdy pieces that fit together well, leading to a completed puzzle that easily passes the lift test. There was only a moderate amount of puzzle dust. Like Galison, this is a very reliable brand, and I have no reservations about buying their puzzles. Fortunately, I have a craft store nearby that puts them on sale every couple of weeks! I just wish they had a larger selection.

 

Rant Review: Garbage Pail Kids: Thrills and Chills 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (OP Puzzles, art by Joe Simko)

I came across this while perusing OP's other offerings after ordering the Simpsons puzzle I finished last weekend. Garbage Pail Kids were absolutely huge in the '80s, and I was a little kid at just the right time to be totally hooked on them. As a small child who was immersed in the endless comedic gross-out fare so common at the time, people vomiting unexpectedly seemed to me the very height of comedy. So naturally, Luke Puke was my favorite. I remember being so dismayed when my friend Dana peeled the border sticker off of my Luke Puke sticker card! 

OP produced a pair of puzzles featuring the GPKs, and I settled on this one for two reasons: First, it prominently features two of my favorites. (The aforementioned Luke, along with the multi-tongued Nasty Nancy.) Second... well, that requires a bit of a story. My little niece went through a phase a few years back when she, too, thought that vomiting was hilarious. (I promise that I had no influence on that, as it had lost any comedic effect on me by the time I was 8!) One of her favorite games was for us to sit on the big wooden swing on the porch. I would count down, then launch us into a big back-and-forth swing. We pretended it was a roller coaster, and I had to do the voices of various characters that she decided were riding the roller coaster. This was usually a mix of Masters of the Universe, Batman, and Simpsons characters, with an occasional wrestler or Mr. T thrown in for good measure. One of the characters would quickly get sick and vomit, with the forces involved swooping it right into another character's face. This character would vomit in turn, until everyone had tossed their cookies. With the sole exception, that is, of whatever character she was voicing, usually Catwoman, who was the only one who did not get sick. She would scold all the silly boys for being so gross, then roll and cackle with laughter. When I saw a nearly identical scene depicted on this puzzle, how could I do anything but buy it instantly? She's past the "puke is funny" phase now, but she recognized the scene immediately, and got very excited about it.  

The puzzle was tougher than I expected. I knew the yellow areas and the expanses of solid red and wood pattern would be more difficult than the rest, but I wasn't worried about it since those were a relatively small portion of the puzzle. The sky had enough variation that I knew it was unlikely to present a problem. What I didn't expect was how tough the kids themselves were! Some areas went together instantly-- Luke was the first one I completed, since his pieces were immediately identifiable as his-- but much of them didn't coalesce until quite late in the assembly. Bad Brad, the devil boy at the front, was the toughest of the kids. His face and hair took me so much longer than expected, and he was the last one I completed. The variations in his skin tone were very deceptive on the puzzle pieces. Once he was done, it was just a matter of filling in the remaining background, which took only  bit longer than he did. I expected the yellow-tinted areas to be the toughest of these, but surprisingly, that went together pretty quickly. It was the large wood-textured area at the bottom that gave me the most trouble. Even with Brad's shadow as a guide, the patterns on these pieces deceived me time and time again. What I expected to be the easiest part of the puzzle, apart from the kids themselves, wound up being the hardest!

The piece quality was good, with the same matte texture I appreciated on that Simpsons puzzle. The fit seemed looser, however, and I had a fair few false fits in several areas. The fit was so loose that I was unable to move even two or three pieces without them crumbling apart. That Simpsons puzzle didn't hold together like a Galison, but it was not this loose! I thought I might want to frame this one at some point, and splitting it into sections and stacking them in the box without it all crumbling was a bit of an ordeal. (Several sheets of paper were used to move them over mostly intact.) Still, I've had puzzles with looser fits, and there was very little dust, and that's always nice. While the quality was a slight step down from that Simpsons puzzle, it was decent enough that I'll probably be buying their other GPK puzzle in the near future.

Rant Review: Welcome to Spooky Town 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Mudpuppy/Galison, art by Stephanie Birdsong)

I chose another cute Halloween-themed Galison puzzle to serve as a palette cleanser between 1,000 piecers, and I enjoyed this one even more than the last one! The art is vibrant and very cute. The themed colors for each zone made for a very easy puzzling experience, as it became a series of mini puzzles tied together by the road. I nearly completed this in one sitting, but I made myself stop and wait until the next day to complete the final third so I wouldn't blow through it too quickly. I like the art enough that I was tempted to keep it intact for framing later to put with some of my Halloween stuff, but I'd rather have it available to put together again next year!

The quality is typical of Galison, with their usual thin, sturdy pieces with white backing. There was little dust, and I had no false fits. Pieces fit together snugly, and the completed puzzle passed the lift test! In my experience, Galison is one of the most reliable brands out there. 

Rant Review: The Simpsons: Cast of Thousands 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (OP Puzzles)

I don't know how this puzzle came and went a couple of years ago without my knowledge, but as soon as I found out it existed, I had to have it! I saw an earlier iteration made by another company years ago, but at the time, I had just finished a giant photomosaic Simpsons puzzle, and the mental scarring from that ordeal left me less than enthusiastic about immediately diving into another sea of yellow. I didn't do puzzles as often in those days, so quite some time passed before I thought about that puzzle again. By that time, it had gone out of production, and the secondary market prices were well on the other side of ridiculous. I've always kept an eye out for one at a reasonable price since then. This one has now ceased production as well, but recently enough that I was still able to find a sealed one for just a bit more than MSRP. 

There's not much sorting you can do with a puzzle like this, so I separated the edge pieces and the interior solid yellow pieces, then just grabbed a random piece and got to work. There's obviously a hell of a lot going on in this image, and while someone like me with an encyclopedic knowledge of the characters has an advantage, it's not as big as you may think. Recognizing the characters from whatever bit of them is on a certain piece doesn't make it any easier to locate their position within the chaotic image, after all! I don't normally use a reference poster, but one would have been very helpful in this case. So naturally, OP did not include one! It was slow going at first, but once I was able to sit down and spend a couple of hours placing pieces in the area where they belonged, then slowly building out those little sections, progress sped up considerably. In a change from most puzzles, the border was the last thing I finished, as I had left all those solid yellow pieces for last.

The image itself is a dream for a Simpsons lover, with so many characters to find among the crowd. Some of the characters are a bit off-model compared to how we're used to seeing them, skewing toward portrayals from early in the show's life. (Hans Moleman's skin tone is a good example. He was only that dark in his first couple of appearances.) A few guest stars who appeared as themselves are present, most notably Stephen Hawking and Matt Groening. (You could say that Groening technically appears twice if you count his design from the 138th episode spectacular!) And of course, no assemblage of Simpsons characters would be complete without the Inanimate Carbon Rod! In Rod we trust! 

OP is a brand that is new to me, and they have a few other puzzles of interest to me. (You'll be seeing one of them soon!) The quality is decent. Pieces fit together well, and false fits were very uncommon. (It certainly helped that the only places where a false fit would even be feasible were along the solid yellow borders.) There was a moderate amount of dust, certainly nothing like what you get with a modern Springbok. The pieces have a matte texture that I like, though that may not be the best match for such a colorful, animation-based image. There were no missing pieces, though several were slightly bent right out of the box. The puzzle would crumble when I tried to move sections of more than two or three pieces. I had to use sheets of paper to disassemble and stack it into the box in sections so I can easily reassemble it for framing later on.

This is one of those puzzles that I was rather sad to be done with. I have the itch to do another Simpsons puzzle-- OP also made a Treehouse of Horror-themed one that is very appropriate for the season-- but there simply don't seem to be many to choose from. I do still have that photomosaic one from all those years ago, but I don't want to do another Simpsons puzzle quite that badly! 

Rant Review: Vintage Halloween 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Cavallini & Co.)

 This is another first, as I've had my eye on Cavallini puzzles for some time now. I couldn't resist this one with its vintage Halloween art, so I sprung for it, even though it costs more than I like to spend on a 500 piece puzzle. Cavallini are known for eschewing the traditional box in favor of a canister. This has a nice matte finish, and it really stands out among a sea of puzzle boxes. The pieces are contained within a thin muslin bag, so there is no waste with this packaging. (Unless you trash the canister or bag, you monster!) The pieces are thin and sturdy, though there was one with a "peg" part that was splitting. False fits weren't pervasive, but they did happen, especially among the plain orange pieces. Still, there weren't a ton of these, so it wasn't a big issue. Pieces fit together with a satisfying snap, and the completed puzzle passed the lift test! There was no puzzle dust. A poster displaying the full image is included to aid in assembly. Once disassembled, the puzzle fits neatly back into the canister with no issues. 

I quite enjoyed this one! The art is very appealing, and the feel of the pieces is very nice. I appreciate the slightly premium presentation, even though I still feel it doesn't quite justify the price. I'd feel okay paying what I did for a 1,000 piece puzzle, but it feels about $5 too much for a 500 piecer. Still, I expect this will be one I do annually in the run-up to Halloween, so I'll definitely get my money's worth out of it eventually! I look forward to doing more Cavallini & Co. puzzles, but I'll be waiting for a sale to buy my next one.