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.

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

An Ocean Party

 Whimsy, 425 pieces. I really like this upgrade to their oceanic cut--the border adds a lot of interest and some difficulty. Nice wooden box, too. 3/5

trying out a new puzzle table--it might be too small for my preferred habit of spreading out



submarine

dolphin and manatee?

closeup on edge

shipwreck and shell


Monday, December 26, 2022

David, Coronation of Napoleon

 Elms, 1004 pieces, marked as difficulty 9 in their old scale. I think that's mostly from the size, which leads to large areas of highly similar color, though as is standard with good-quality puzzles, the colors start to show distinguishable variations as you work through the puzzle, leaving more manageable areas for assembly. Four pieces have been replaced, with some related dulling of the pieces around to make the replacement less noticeable. So there are some color variations that weren't there originally, but it only occasionally was noticeable to me. Lots of internal false edges as well as some color line cutting around the figures. 7/10

two-piece whimsy





replaced piece, multipiece horse and rider

replaced piece, single horse and rider

replaced piece, interacting flowers

replaced piece

another horse and rider, some internal edges

shoe and starburst

shield

nearly interacting figures (up top), three fleurs-de-lis, horseshoe/horsehead


doggo

Snowflake XIII

 Stave, 100 pieces. A Tormentor, with some guidance once you figure out one area (since it's symmetrical) but the pieces vary a fair amount so you will still have to do advanced pattern matching. 8/10 




Friday, December 23, 2022

The Legend of Moth Island, Shachi Kale

 Hidden Piece Puzzles, 548 pieces. A nice Liberty-style laser-cut puzzle, with good colors and nicely themed whimsies. Whimsy placement on this one is mostly symmetrical. A worthy market entrant; I'd be happy to do more from them. 3/5


I like how the beak is cut to get a beak splash of color







multipiece moth closeup




Thursday, December 22, 2022

A Basket of Bunnies

 BCB, approx. 120 pieces. Fun teaser-style puzzle with larger than average teaser pieces. 6/10 Stave scale.




This may show up behind a cut--we'll see!

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Cat

 DaVici, 20 pieces. Cute little postcard style puzzle. Would make a nice host/ess gift. 




Starry Night, Van Gogh

 Unidragon, 1000 pieces. I think 1000 pieces may be too many for my maximum pleasure with MDF--among other things I find it frustrating to try to move big segments around my puzzle table--but that doesn't detract from the serious accomplishment here. Disclosure: Unidragon sent me this puzzle for free to review. Great whimsies recreating famous Van Gogh images, fun themed connectors (there's a picture of a particularly vicious one below) and really interesting printing on the front that gives a facsimile of brushstrokes. I particularly liked the Sunflowers and the mini Starry Night. Definitely a step up for Unidragon in this series (and I'd love to see them try the same thing at 500 or 750 pieces too). 4/5


a figure from the front

OK, i realize this is hard to see, but there's a cup and saucer connector, and in this picture it's only slantingly intersected by another piece, making recognizing the connector incredibly difficult. Respect!















why is this one upside down when the others aren't, Google?