Rant Review: Ye Olde Spooky Shoppe 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Galison, art by Anne Bentley)

This new puzzle from Galison's fall lineup is a perfect kickoff to my Halloween puzzling! A vampire emerges from his coffin, presumably to begin his shift as store manager, as a ghost stocks and a skeleton serves as cashier. Candy corn is distributed liberally around the store to show that they know what true horror is all about. There are plenty of fun details scattered about; the severed finger in the tip jar is a particularly nice touch. This is the sort of cool little shop I'd like to have in my town. The slight risk of having my neck bitten or soul stolen while shopping would be a fair trade-off for not having yet another Dollar General or Starbucks in town.

The pieces have a different feel from other Galisons I've done, with a matte soft-touch finish that I quite like. This is a rare case where I didn't even bother to sort out the edge pieces, and just started putting it together right out of the box. The small piece count and colorful art made this a viable way to do the puzzle without any sudden realizations that I'd screwed up and needed to stop and sort. I dislike sorting, so this was a nice change of pace. Expect to see more Galisons soon as I delve further into my stockpile of Halloween puzzles!