About my ratings

Perhaps because of my day job, I'm a tough rater. Everything 3/5 and above I consider worth the time and money. If I purchase on Etsy or a similar platform and the puzzle is as expected, I will give a top rating on the platform because of how seller ratings work, but here "as expected" is probably a 3/5 in most cases.

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Old Jerusalem

 Stave, approx. 150 pieces. Beautiful colors and fun edges; Old Testament/Torah-y whimsies. 6/10









Bookshop; Winter & Sledges; Christmas Stories

 A bunch of cuties: DaVici, 60 pieces.



Winter & Sledges 60 pieces.


Christmas Stories, 80 pieces




Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Under the Sea

 Elms, 1006 pieces. The box says "unknown" artist but I have my suspicions. It's big for a hand-cut puzzle--my sweet spot is probably closer to 500-600 pieces--but it was a lot of fun. The small bubbles throughout added difficulty, as did the repeated colors with slight variations throughout. 8/10









Tiger & Romantic Birds

 Goldbird Creations, 200 pieces each. I liked my first Goldbird enough to order more, despite being a little worried about the combination of geometric cut + areas of black around the corners. It turned out that the areas were small enough that it wasn't very difficult to figure out which piece went where. Unfortunately, however, both puzzles had a missing piece. I'm pretty rigorous about this--not that I've never dropped a piece, but I try very hard, and I'm pretty confident that they were both missing. Unfortunate! Other than that, definitely worth a try. 3/5


all black pieces






Krampus & St. Nicholas, Lyon Aksamit

 Liberty, 276 pieces. A neat idea, though it's a little sad that you can't flip to see the cut more easily. I only did the Krampus side due to lingering discomfort with Christmas-themed puzzles, but it was fun and easy to distinguish which side was which. FWIW, there seems to be a lot more color variation on the St. Nick side. 3/5



I'm guessing there's some pickle tradition?



wreath around head


Friday, December 22, 2023

Aaron Wolf, Siege of the Cranes

 Artifact, 437 pieces. This colorful image clearly struck the whimsy designers the way it did me: wow, those are definitely dinosaurs! I have to say I'm not as sanguine about the hominid/cave pictures type whimsies; I'll give you the time traveling DeLorean, I guess, but the cave people are literally 65 million years away from the dinosaurs. Still, they were neat enough to get me to flip an Artifact.




A recognizably Artifact-style push-fit multipiece figure




Dog-Gone It

 Stave, approx. 50 pieces. Teaser, I'd estimate two or three swords--a lot of fun with the extended profile and surprisingly difficult distinct areas for placement. 6/10





Sunset: Pool of London, David Newton

 Liberty, 507 pieces. Fantastic puzzle: the colors and cut are outstanding. There's an alternate solution, though, true confessions time, I don't actually love most of these (the dreidel is the exception). 5/5











I just love the traditional innies and outies here

and the grace note of the girl sitting on the Liberty eagle (menaced by the giant rat)