Rant Review: Magical Christmas 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, Art by MGL Licensing)

I've been really feeling the need for some relief from this miserable southern heat, if only in my mind! This is one of the Xmas puzzles I didn't get to this past year, so I pulled it from the stacks and went to work. I haven't had much time for puzzling the past few weeks, so I only really got to work on it (beyond sorting and building the edge) in the last day or so. I like the art very much, and it's such a nice, welcoming image! (I'd love to have a nice snowy view like this more than once per decade.) Care to guess which areas took me the longest? If you guessed "the millions of tree branches," you're absolutely correct! Those areas took me longer than the entire rest of the puzzle. It wasn't anywhere near the level of the arboreal hell of Be Wary the Silent Night, but I definitely put off those bits for last. 

The quality was typical Ravensburger, with one major exception: The reproduction of the art is very low-res and heavily pixelated. This made it basically impossible to examine pieces for details, making those oh-so-delightful masses of bare branches even more fun! I wouldn't be shocked to see such poor reproduction on a dollar store puzzle, but coming from Ravensburger, with their higher prices and pretensions to top-tier quality, this is unacceptable. I looked at some other reviews and saw none that mention this, so I'm not sure if I just got a misprinted puzzle, or if most people just don't notice such things. Whatever the case, the glow in the dark feature works quite well. Here's a bonus pic where the auto adjust messed with the colors a bit, which I thought looked pretty neat.

Rant Review: Puzzle Moment: Sydney 99 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, Art by Katinka Reinke)

This is another of the small Puzzle Moment puzzles I ordered last year. Quick and easy, with nice, colorful art. I really like the idea of these cheap little puzzle cubes; this is the sort of thing I'd like to see in the impulse buy section at checkout counters.

 

Rant Review: Ocean Lounge 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, Art by Dean MacAdam)

This one was pure fun all the way through! Love the setting, the art style, and vibrant colors. There's something interesting to look at no matter what part of the puzzle you're working on. The shark couple placed front and center draw the eye, but my favorite background critters are the sax playing crab, the blind fish using a cane to swim, the clownfish, the dolled-up dolphin, the jellyfish, and the blinged-out grouper. The skeleton in the diving suit adds a nice bit of creepiness, and I'm a little confused why the lady shark has boobs. 

I did one of MacAdam's puzzles last year, and liked it enough that I've picked up a few others on sale here and there. Like Jazzy, this is from my Black Friday order direct from Ravensburger. It was used at nationals last year, where I suspect it was completed rather more quickly than I did it. The typical Ravensburger quality is present, with all that entails. The masses of blue dust I sifted from the pieces helped set the ocean theme, I reckon.

Jazzy! 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, Art by Greg Paprocki)

This one instantly went on my wishlist when I saw it last year, and I finally ordered it when Ravensburger had their Black Friday sale. It's been chilling in my "to do" stacks until this afternoon. I love the bold colors and retro art style! It was a quick and fun completion, one I can easily see myself putting together again at some point when the mood strikes me. The pieces are typical Ravensburger quality, with their thick pieces that fit well together, slightly loose fit, and several pounds of dust. 

Rant Review: DC Collector's Edition: Superman, 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravenburger, artists uncredited)

Okay, let's just get this out of the way right off the bat: I've been reading DC comics pretty much my entire life, so I'll get out into the weeds a fair bit here. If you get a few lines into a paragraph and wonder what in the blue hell I'm going on about, feel free to skip down to the next one.

This is officially the most screwed Superman has ever been. Each of these guys-- Darkseid, Luthor, Henshaw (Cyborg Superman), Solaris, Brainiac, Zod, Bizarro, Mongol, and Doomsday-- has taken him to the brink of destruction multiple times, and one of them actually did kill him at one point! Solaris, the tyrant sun from the distant future, has eradicated many of Superman's descendants. This one feels much more lopsided than the other puzzles in this series! (Also, I just love how Superman is so epic that one of his nemeses is literally an evil star!) I would have liked to have less of a "boys' club" feel to things, though. Superman doesn't have a ton of villains who are women, but surely Silver Banshee or Livewire could have been added to the chaos! Both have great designs that would have livened things up even more. 

Superman is in his second Rebirth-era costume here, used for a brief period before reverting to his classic look. After DC's weird years-long obsession with banishing the red trunks, this was the design that finally achieved the right balance of colors to where he didn't look significantly off without them. So naturally, they ditched the look almost immediately! I was a little annoyed by this at the time, so it's nice to see that design used here, though it does date the puzzle's design a bit. 

I'm also not a fan of how artists continue designing intricate armor for Darkseid, though I do understand that instinct. The problem is that distinctive armor is completely counter to what the character is all about at his core; Jack Kirby created him as a sort of ur-fascist, of whom every tyrant that has ever been is but a pale shade. Darkseid's pursuit of the Anti-Life equation reflects his obsession with eradicating individuality throughout the multiverse, creating a reality where all is one with Darkseid. Kirby dressed him accordingly in very bland, simple clothing. Nearly every redesign has fundamentally missed this crucial aspect of the character, giving him the look of a generic alien conqueror, rather than the immortal enemy of all that lives. Sorry for the rant, this is just one of those things that annoys me every time someone gets it into their head to redesign him. 

Personal preferences about costume choice aside, the art is well done, with nice composition and a sense of energy. The linework is strong, and the colors are an appropriate mix of bright and muted tones that rarely become too dark or murky. Areas such as Darkseid and Doomsday's bodies, where light sources cast highlights that alter the colors from their normal ones, are different enough from one another that it's usually clear which of those areas each piece belongs in. One of the trickiest areas was actually the blue parts of Superman's uniform. The mix of varying shades of blue and black shadowed areas made it less easy that it appears at a glance. The toughest section was Darkseid, by a wide margin. The ambient lighting altering the appearance of every texture, overall darkness of large parts of it, and sheer size of that area led me to leave it for last. Thank Grodd for the Omega Beams bisecting that region of the puzzle, as they served as an anchor point and made that section considerably less tedious than it would have been without it! 

The quality is exactly what you'd expect from Ravensburger in recent years. The pieces feel nice and fit together well, though slightly loose. Tons of dust, with some coming off the pieces even after two rounds of sifting. As with the Flash puzzle I did several months ago, DC or Ravensburger made the unfortunate decision to leave the artist uncredited, and I can't find this information online.

Rant Review: Victorian London Christmas 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, art by Dominic Davison)

This one doesn't look tough, but its appearance is deceptive. There are a fair few textures mirrored on each side, and many of the pieces are much darker than they appear. It wasn't difficult on the level of one of the sadistic photomosaic puzzles I've tackled in the past, but it was one of those where I had to fight for every inch of space I filled in. I wound up liking the image a bit less as I worked it, as examining each piece up close made it appear that it's partly an assemblage of clip art. Elements such as the dog and lampposts really stand out when viewed in such detail. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it did sour me on the art just a bit. (It's entirely possible that no clip art was used, and this is simply the artist's style, and I will be happy to be corrected on this point if that is the case!) I still liked the overall image enough that I wanted to complete it. While perusing the MGL licensing site, I see that I have another winter-themed puzzle from the same artist. Hopefully I'll enjoy it a bit more! 

The quality is typical Ravensburger, sporting the slightly looser fit that's become standard for them, and plenty of dust. I still find their pieces among the most satisfying to handle and assemble. I rarely use a poster when working a puzzle, but I would have gladly used one with this one, with all the tiny and dark details I had to contend with! It's a shame that Ravensburger doesn't give its customers that option.

Rant Review: Enchanted Christmas 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, art by Demelsa Haughton)

A quick and easy one, this puzzle has appealing art and a great vibe. I love the cozy atmosphere, and it was fun spotting all the little characters and secret doorways. There's enough variety to make it very easy to see where each piece goes. I never time my puzzling, but this was definitely one of my quickest completions! The "toughest" part was the tree, and that was done within minutes. This is my first puzzle featuring Demelsa Haughton's art, though I'd had my eye on it for a while. The 50% off sale Target ran for Black Friday let me get it at a great discount!

Here Comes Christmas! 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, art by Ingrid Slyder)

This quick and easy 500 piecer was just what I needed after that last one! It also felt appropriate since we had just watched our town's Xmas parade, though it was not quite as grand as the one depicted here! (Ours did feature a whopping FIVE Grinches, though!) The red border made it simple to pick out all edge pieces during sorting, and the art was varied enough that there was very little ambivalence over which area each piece belonged in. The multiple trees, marching band, and crowds presented a mild challenge, but this remained a pleasant evening's puzzling. I had a good many bent tabs, though fortunately, none of them were splitting. This was definitely more lax quality control than I typically see in a Ravensburger puzzle, but none of the bent pieces were so bad as to prevent them fitting together, or mar the look of the completed puzzle. I might be more annoyed about the bent pieces if I hadn't gotten this so cheap. (Thank you Target 50% off sale!) I still have ten more holiday and winter-themed puzzles to go, so on to the next! 

Rant Review: Rockefeller Center Joy 1,000 Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, art by Pierpaolo Rivero)

This Rockefeller Center scene is my first Xmas-themed puzzle of the season, following the winter-themed one I did a few days earlier. The jovial mood is captured very well by the artist, and there are nice little scenes playing out all across the ice. I knew that tree was bound to be the toughest part of the entire puzzle, and it damn sure was! A few false fits certainly didn't help matters any. It's a good thing the tree only takes up a relatively small amount of space! After knocking it out, the buildings, which normally might have posed a bit of a challenge, were a joy to put together! 

The quality is more less typical of other recently-produced Ravenburgers I've done, with a slightly loose fit. The actual piece quality is as good as expected, though there seemed to be more dust than usual. Even after two siftings, there was still a noticeable amount remaining. I'm beginning to think Ravensburger has someone at the factory specifically to toss in an extra handful of dust before the box is sealed! The typical lack of poster is normally not an issue for me, as I rarely use them, but one would have been appreciated with this one. Still, I enjoyed putting it together, even as I cursed that tree a couple of times. I have more than a dozen winter and holiday-themed puzzles to do, so on to the next!  

Rant Review: Look Out, Little Pigs! 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Ravensburger, art by Dean MacAdam)

This was a pretty simple and straightforward puzzle. The only tricky parts were the apple-laden tree branches and the Big Bad Wolf's engine of destruction, and even those came together quickly once a few key pieces were placed. This is the first of MacAdam's puzzles I've done, though I've had a couple of them for awhile. The art is varied enough that I didn't feel the need to do any real sorting beyond pulling out the edge pieces. From there, it was easy enough to simply pull most of the pieces from any given section-- brick house, tree branches, stick house, etc.-- as I went through my trays that further sorting felt unnecessary. I quite like the art, but should note that the piece with the middle pig's open mouth and his little pointy teeth was oddly creepy. Its rendering is unlike his two brothers, and there's just something unsettling about coming across an extreme closeup of it when shuffling pieces around. I was glad to place it and be done with it! 😂

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: 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: 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.