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.

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!

Rant Review: Spooky Mansion 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Galison, Art by Katherina Castano)

After completing one of the worst (from a QC standpoint) puzzles I've ever done, I wanted to do something quick and easy as a palette cleanser, and this cute little Halloween-themed puzzle I picked for $8 at TJ Maxx fit the bill. Apparently Galison releases a bunch of these cute, cheap Halloween and Autumn-themed puzzles every year, but as I almost never go to TJM, I had never seen any until this year. Wish I'd known sooner! I was thinking this was my first Galison, but after checking, it turns out that one of the puzzles I got at Ollie's last year was also one of theirs. Unlike that one, this puzzle has a standard grid cut. I don't have a strong preference either way, so that was fine with me, since it was at a similar level of quality. The pieces are thin and sturdy, with white paper backing. Dust was practically non-existent. The pieces have a pretty snug fit, and I had no false fits. Assembling this puzzle was easy and breezy, and exactly what I needed after dealing with a puzzle that seemed to hate me. I'll have to keep an eye out for Galison puzzles in the future, and I will most certainly make a point to swing by TJM more often to check their seasonal section! Hopefully some Xmas and winter-themed Galisons will show up there soon, or if I'm very lucky, a restock of some of the Halloween ones I missed.