Jigsaw Puzzle Reviews!

Jigsaw puzzle reviews!

One of the few things that I can do to pass the time here is a super nerdy pastime-- doing jigsaw puzzles. A few years ago I started to really get into it, when I was working at a Daycare Center. I found a few puzzles by a particular artist (my family had several of them), and I became totally obsessed with collecting puzzles by this artist (Bob Martin), and I collected several off Ebay. I also put them together in my spare time, becoming a "Bokker"- a person who greatly prefers Springbok puzzles over any other kind.

The deal is, there's two kind of puzzle-making "dies"- the metal tool that they roll over the cardboard to make the pieces. One type is "homogeneous"--all the pieces come out looking the same. YAWN! Now, Springbok does do this occasionally, and with today's puzzles, most are homogeneous.

However, with Springbok puzzles from the 1970's and 80's, the die is irregular, meaning the pieces come out uniquely. This is a huge boon for someone like myself, with very poor spatial relationship vision, ( I actually started doing puzzles to help strengthen my spatial relationship abilities), and I much prefer the art, the quality of the pieces themselves (made of heavy cardboard with a felt backer). Yes, I am a dork. I own it.

Anyhow, once I arrived here in the Philippines, I immediately sniffed out all the available thrift stores (my original boss had been here 2.5 years and was astonished that I had found two in her neighborhood when I was staying there. What can I say, it's a gift. I can locate a thrift store in the Amazon Basin with only a compas and a machete.) and I found a huge backroom stacked literally floor to ceiling with puzzles. It was a gold mine. I was like Indian Jones in the Temple of Doom. The first one I got was called "The Family Tree." (Fig 01). It's a 500 piece cartoon of cats (purchased to honor my new family members, Truman and Niffy) that I started and I talked Erwin into trying, and then he finished like the wind.

Fig 01: "The Family Tree"
A side note is that Erwin had to be talked into trying puzzles and by puzzle three was making videos of stop motion time lapse of the puzzle being put together. I created a monster! One of my favorite things to do is sit at the table and banter over a good puzzle. I have a tendency to introduce people to my private obsessions and make "converts" (Examples: Gossip Girl, the books of Jennifer Weiner, the Vampire Diaries, etc.)-- now if only I could use my powers for good and not trashy fun...

After "The Family Tree" was done, I ran back to the thrift store and picked up a MONSTER puzzle called "Penny Candy." Penny freakin' Candy was a headache in a box- the problem was two fold: we were probably missing about 100 pieces, and the colors were all alike- every piece looked like every other piece. "Penny Candy" beat us at our own game.

Fig 02: "Penny Candy"

After about 2 weeks and 3/4 into it, we gave up. The third puzzle was my favorite: "The puzzle of the Universe". This was one of the COOLEST puzzles I've ever put together. Missing only about 7 pieces, it is AMAZING. It's the best kind of puzzle- it has "markers" (sections you can put together easily and build out from) and tons of writing all over it, and it "tells a story"--it's pleasurable to see it come together. I wish I could do that puzzle all over again for the first time. It also came with a booklet about astronomy. That was from the "golden age" of Springbok- mid 70's to 8O's.

Fig 03: The Puzzle of the Universe

You can "like" them on facebook- facebook.com/springbokpuzzles.

After that, other puzzles kind of seemed blah. However, I took a chance on a bag of pieces that I recognized as Springbok that seemed interesting. It was like, tie dyed colors-- all kinds of colors. I bought a puzzle without a box or picture, people, that's how dedicated to Springbok ONLY I am.

So after "The puzzle of the Universe" was done, I started this new, box-less puzzle on a Saturday night, around 6 PM, and I finished it in about 5 hours, with four beers. I just turned on the radio to the dance station and worked it out. As soon as I put together the bottom part, I saw these perfect golden circles on a pale golden background, and I was like "what's all different colors and has circular bases?" Also, in a kind of Holmes-ian move, I also had a "feeling" for the type of photographic subjects and tone of the puzzles that Springbok makes, and I clicked on the image immediately: Ice cream cones in sugar cone bases. I was right. It was one of my favorite puzzle moments: after my correct guess, it all made sense- hyper close ups of peach, raspberry, mint, and vanilla ice cream really does look like tie dye. It was really fun putting that one together. It was called "Do yourself a Flavor".

Fig 04: Do yourself a flavor

It was complete! In an odd coincidence, I picked up a new puzzle a week later and inside it was the cover for the box for "Do yourself a Flavor" AND a bag of pieces for the same puzzle (not complete). So now we have backup pieces AND the cover (not that we need it, but it's nice to have).

So then came the dark days where there was no more Springbok to be had except puzzles that me and Erwin didn't want. We settled on "Roving Rascals" which remained unopened, it just didn't really catch either of our fancy. Erwin wanted a puzzle that "said something". I kind of know what he means- he wanted a more traditional puzzle, but a compromise usually lets down both parties, so Roving Rascals only pleased the cats, who slept on it for a week until we put it away.

Fig 06: Roving Rascals

Then I tried to bring home "Heirloom Quilts" which was also a flop. I'm not sure what it was, but it was just a snore. I never even really opened it. Just didn't feel it.

Fig 05: Heirloom Quilts
So I tried the store again recently, hoping that there would be new stocks, and there was one puzzle that caught my eye (not a Springbok, but close- Great American Puzzle Company), "Underwater Mardi Gras".
So now I'm in the middle of that one, which has the upside of having no repeat colors or patterns but has the TINIEST pieces on EARTH. They say it's "over 1000 pieces" but probably what they did was fold a 500 piece puzzle in half and then cut it that way because my GOD are these pieces small. And it ain't no Springbok.

Fig 07: Underwater Mardi Gras

Happy is the child who grows up remembering the feeling of running their hands through the box of pieces, over and over.