Rant Review: The Awakened Artifacts 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Magic Puzzle Company, art by Kathleen Fu)

It's been a few months since my last Magic Puzzle Company puzzle, so I took a detour from my fall puzzles to dive into this one. We have a fun museum scene overrun with all sorts of mayhem, and several notes notifying us of a party. As ever, there are seemingly endless fun scenes and details. Some dislike puzzle art that is super busy, but I love it because there's something interesting to look at no matter what part of the puzzle you're working on! This one may be my favorite MPC puzzle yet, but I admit that I feel that way about every one I put together. some of my favorite bits are the mice and dog working on a puzzle, the mouse using a mystic staff to make a dog and other mice walk like Egyptians, and the two dogs on a date. 

Shifting the three sections, opening the mystery envelope, and assembling the final pieces reveals that the party is for a dinosaur, possibly an Allosaurus. (Too many fingers to be a T-Rex.) The attendees make it clear why so many of the museum's exhibits have been smashed open or abandoned! It's a very fun scene, and the reveal is well worth it. 

Thick and sturdy, with a very nice matte finish, these remain my favorite puzzle pieces to work with. The fit is not as loose as earlier MPC puzzles I've done. I was able to fold sections and lift them back into the envelope during disassembly, which simply wasn't possible with The Mystic Maze, for example. The loose fit was my only gripe with these puzzles, so this is a most welcome change! The puzzle doesn't meet its claim of no dust, but there isn't much of it. 

As usual, two posters are included in case you have a friend or family member to work on the puzzle with you, and there's a sheet with a list of things to find. I found most of these while putting the puzzle together, with only the third snoozing dog eluding me until I went looking for it. I nearly missed a nice black and metallic gold sticker in the nested envelopes that house the mystery pieces, only finding it when I was packing everything back up. It's a nice little bonus, so I'm glad I finally noticed it!