Jigsaw puzzle log

This serves as a running log and short review of the jigsaw puzzles we do at home.

Last updated 26 minutes ago

Dancing Houses, Amsterdam, Educa

This became the most "sectioned" puzzle we have. Water, sky, houses - roughly in that order. The two sides with the trees was easy to do, and the water was manageable with many different color reflections. The sky was a bit of a pain and the houses in the middle also quite a bit of trial and error. Still a very enjoyable puzzle from Educa.

Lakeside Retreat, Cobble Hill

A nice cozy picture with lovely colors and with great variety. Most pieces could be pre-sorted into sections, with the trees needing the most trial and error approach. Cobble Hill is a smaller brand, their boxes are a bit smaller and it came with a poster as well. Quality is good and they have the random cut piece design, which at first took a little getting used, but we realized it made the puzzle somewhat easier to do. Finding pieces by shape becomes several times easier. We might do these random cut piece style puzzles again, but probably only once in a while.

Steve Read: Colourful Bakery, Schmidt

Another colorful Steve Read picture and this took quite a while to get through. We did the floor and ceiling first, but most of the rest was generally very spread out. Sorting was difficult as many pieces looked very similar with similar colors and shapes, so there was hardly any complete sections. Just a ton of little bit here and there.

Sam Park: Rendes-vous on Mykonos, Ravensburger

This thing was a proper challenge as the oil painting style makes many piece look very similar. The letters and the table was quick enough to assemble, but the rest was basically one long trial and error and my pre-sorting was inconsistent with the very similar looking colors.

Cartwright: Trams in the City, Jumbo

A 500 piece by Jumbo which quality falls in the category of not great, not terrible. I liked the motive and the drawing style makes for a bit of a challenge, especially the top half. But the flimsy quality and many false fits makes Jumbo a brand we won't pick up again.

Braises Lake, Castorland

Been a while since we have done a classic nature picture, and it made for one of those cases where the sorting was easier than the fitting the pieces together. Almost everything could quickly be sorted into nice consistent piles, and the fence and mountains was quickly finished. Trees always take more time.

Wonderful Bookshop, Educa

A new brand and a rather challenging motive as sorting didn't help that much. Usually you can mostly complete sections, but this was all over the place as most the pieces could be anywhere. This thing by Educa had an interesting twist to their piece shape, with some pieces having one side with just a curve, while still maintaining the classic piece layout. In addition, there was virtually zero false fits. Definitely a brand worth revisiting.

Kevin Walsh: A Country Drive, Ravensburger

A nicely painted picture by Kevin Walsh and part of Ravensburger's Leisure Days collection. This motive was very enjoyable and pretty straight forward, with the two cars quickly done and the rest followed suit. Again the large tree sections took the most effort.

Wysocki: Frederick the Literate, Schmidt

A nicely painted picture and somewhat difficult with all the similar books, so progress evolved from finding the pieces that had some letters on them and going from there. The book titles are quite amusing. Something bothers me about how the cat is drawn, as it kinda looks like its body goes through the books and not behind them.

Kittens on the Roof, Castorland

A 1500 piece puzzle and Castorland is a brand that makes them in a size that is close to regular 1000 piece puzzles, so pieces were quite small. This took quite a while for us to get through and a little bit less fun than we had hoped. Probably not doing a 1500 again unless we find a picture we really like.

Promenade dans Paris, Ravensburger

A small break with a 500 piece puzzle and since it is Ravensburger, the quality is absolutely top tier. Can’t quite say the same for the motive though. It is a computer animated image and has an old PC game quality to its textures in my opinion.

When I grow up..., Schmidt

The kids are also doing their own thing and I really liked this 200 piece thing. Super top quality from Schmidt and a cute motive as well.

Steve Read: Naughty Puppies, Anatolian

Another quality drawing by Steve Read. A bit challenging with all the puppies, teddy bears and blankets all having similar looking “plush”-textures, so many pieces could be almost everywhere. The Anatolian brand seems decent enough, though slightly below in piece quality compared to Schmidt and Ravensburger.

Sunwapta Falls, Castorland

This 500 piece is a fairly standard nature picture with the usual difficulties of having plenty of pieces that are green or blue and thus could be almost everywhere. Castorland provides decent quality of puzzle pieces and I have already acquired more puzzles by this brand.

Steve Read: Puzzler's Desk, Schmidt

This picture by Steve Read was a lot of fun to do. A good variation of challenging section and easier sections, like the lamp and the wine bottle, making for a balanced difficulty. I thought it would be a good idea to start with the window framing, but turns out we did that last. Schmidt is really high quality and we enjoyed it so much that we have bought a handful more.

Lightning Venice, Clementoni

A nice picture of Venice and semi-difficult with many very similar looking pieces. However this wasn’t a pleasant experience as the piece quality is pretty poor. They lacked that perfect fit from the other brands and had an overall flimsy feel. Skipping this brand in the future.

Moreno: Coca Cola Store, Schmidt

This one by P.D. Moreno was a ton of fun, and surprisingly easy - for the most part. Most pieces had a very distinct place on the picture where they could be, so we managed to finish this quite quickly. Starting with the cars and the house, with the trees taking a bit more time in the end. Nice looking picture and we are big cola drinkers in the house, so we will likely seek out more of these Moreno Coca Cola puzzles by Schmidt.