Rant Review: Doughnuts & Coffee 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (White Mountain, Art by Lars Stewart)

My niece wanted to choose my next puzzle, and selected a donut-themed one from my garage sale haul from a couple of weeks back. I had to decline doing it since it's a 2,000 piecer, and I currently don't have the space for one so large. I remembered that I had this one from an old Goodwill haul sitting in a cabinet, and she accepted it as a substitute. While not difficult, it was more challenging than I expected. There are many different colors and textures, but several are repeated in multiple areas, and some are very similar to one another. I got the edges done very quickly, then took far too long to do maybe 10% of the puzzle. It required far more sorting than I normally feel like doing, which resulted in me putting off returning to it for a few days. Once I finally sucked it up and did a much more thorough sort, I quickly finished the remaining 90%. I've done deeper sorting with other puzzles when it was necessary, but I just WAS NOT feeling it this past week!

I've found White Mountain to be a reliable brand with above average quality, and this was no exception. There were a couple of slightly bent pegs, but I chalk that up to it being put together previously. The pieces were clean, there no odors or hair, and no pieces were missing. For a cheap used puzzle, I call that a win!

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.

 

Halloween Season 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (White Mountain, art by Lewis T. Johnson)

This is the second puzzle I got during last week's visit to TJ Maxx. It had been on my wishlist, and finding it there for $9 cheaper than MSRP was quite a nice score! (The thrift stores here are terrible, so I have to take my wins where I can get 'em!) I've only done one White Mountain puzzle previously, and liked the brand well enough based on that experience. This puzzle did nothing to blemish my opinion of them. There was little dust, the pieces were thick and sturdy, and they fit well together. False fits were certainly possible, but the design generally made it very easy to avoid them. The collage is fun to look at, and putting it together revealed plenty of details I'd missed from viewing the box, as many of the of the best puzzles do. My favorite bits are some of the most obvious ones, however, such as the Aurora Universal Monster models and the vintage greeting card art. I really like the often funky piece shapes, too. I can easily see this puzzle becoming a favorite that I rebuild annually during the lead-up to Halloween! I have a few Xmas-themed White Mountain puzzles in my to-do stack, and based on my experiences with the two I've put together, I'm looking forward to assembling them in a couple of months!