Ok, I’m cheating a little bit here. Two of these puzzles were completed before 3/20, which is the date I started my jigsaw puzzle tracker. I had these sitting on my table for quite some time before cleaning them up to make space for the next two.
Old Grist Mill in Autumn, Vermont
Manufacturer: Puzzlebug
Pieces: 500
Christina and I like puzzles where we can pre-sort the pieces by color. With only 500 pieces and distinct sections in the red walkway, water, roof, building, sky, and two distinctive sections of trees, this one was a very quick and relaxing puzzle!
Hot Air Hero
Manufacturer: Ravensburger
Pieces: 500
Also a fun puzzle. It wasn’t as sortable (sky, hot air balloons, and a whole bunch of unique green/brown), but each of the pieces is very unique and easy to locate from the image on the puzzle box. At only 500 pieces, it was also an incredibly quick solve.
Escape Puzzle: Vampire’s Castle
Manufacturer: Ravensurger
Pieces: 759
I’ve been curious about this series of puzzles for a long time. The boxes are vague about how these puzzles work, and I was dying to try one out. How would an escape room puzzle work?
We had a funny misstep for the first half of the puzzle. We had heard the image on the box wouldn’t match the image in the puzzle, so we ignored the box for far too long. We had a ridiculous “aha!” moment when we finally had a few sections together to pull the box back out. Though the picture on the box isn’t the exact same as the puzzle, it’s pretty close. The puzzle is only changed slightly to prevent players from solving everything by looking at the box.
The puzzle has eight riddles or mysteries that each indicate a specific piece. Those pieces taken together form a separate mini puzzle that provides a surprise image that solves the predicament the story indicates you’re facing.
We enjoyed the experience quite a bit. The puzzle itself had plenty of unique shapes and areas we could sort out. The escape room elements were a short epilogue to the puzzle’s construction, but they were a good challenge; we had to use hints on three of the eight puzzles. One with Roman numerals didn’t make sense (calculating with improper numbers), but all the others worked well.
The final mysterious puzzle was a great touch and was very cleverly done. Once we found two or three of the eight pieces, it became apparent which other pieces we were going to need, but we still solved each of the eight puzzles before moving to the conclusion.
It’s a little bit different than other escape room home games, but for people who love both jigsaw puzzles and riddles, it’s a home run.
Manhattan Celebration
Manufacturer: Buffalo
Pieces: 750
This one called to us because of the colorful sky and unique building patterns. We started by sorting sky, buildings, water, and statue and building from there.
It was a great puzzle for multiple people to work on simultaneously. I started with the buildings, while Christina focused on the water. We moved quickly and never went more than thirty seconds without a click.
The only downside of the puzzle is that the fireworks pattern in the sky is identical on the left and right side of the sky. We didn’t notice immediately, but it made it harder to sort and piece together the sky when every color/pattern could be in one of two places.
Piece total since 3/20/2020: 2509
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