Shaped Jigsaw Puzzle Reviews

Welcome to our jigsaw puzzle website and thanks for stopping by to read our Shaped Jigsaw Puzzle Reviews. 

Brand: Great American Puzzle Factory, Title: Cruisin' Classics jigsaw puzzle, Artist: Lewis T. Johnson, Pieces: 500+, Size: 36"x 11.25" or 92 x 28.5cm

When I saw this Cruisin Classics jigsaw puzzle for $1.00 I just had to grab it! Being a Classic car and a shaped puzzle painted by Lewis T. Johnson was perfect for me!

Board ALERT! The length of this one is 36" being 3 feet so prepare the puzzle workspace accordingly.

I sorted the colors as best I could into piles and even attempted to sort out edge pieces.

First I attempted to put the border pieces into place not really expecting to complete it. It's rather rare that border pieces on a shaped puzzles are easily determined.

Since this was only 500+ pieces I simply laid out all the pieces out around the bigger workspace board as the width is less than a foot (12"). It did take a good portion of time to get the border completed. I started with the white roof-top and 2 tires. The front hood and back trunk were next.

Picking out the text for the Diner-stores-buildings and the people in the diner went fairly quickly. The bigger, main color cars were next. The most meshy area was the cars at the inner parking lot and was the most time consuming.

On the back of Cruisin Classics jigsaw puzzle box is the image with the vintage cars numbered and then a list with the title of each car. It too gives a much clear image of the cars than the front of the box. The close up images on the front of the box did not really help me.

But the overall experience was fun for the price paid. The quality of the board was good but the cut was loose which meant moving completed sections one piece at a time. I really do like the old vintage cars so I was thrilled to see that this one had all the pieces since it was a previously loved puzzle. The Great American Puzzle Factory sure has a winner here!

Brand: Master Pieces jigsaw puzzles, Title: Pony Tales Shaped Puzzle, Artist: Jenny Newland, Pieces: 550, Size: 19.25x24.75 or 49x63cm.

Pony Tales Shaped Puzzle Review

Overall Experience:  Great Cut Quality: Very good 

Board Quality: Medium thickness Shape Cut: random

Image Quality: Great Hardest Area: greenery 

Puzzle Dust? none         Finish Quality: Smooth shiny

Box Quality: Solid         Sealed Pieces: no

Was this purchased new?  No         Price: $1 Thrift Store

Recommend Level: Highly Time: Under 4.5 hours

Being a shaped puzzle there was no doing the border first. It also includes special shaped pieces - 8 to be precise. I am always a little out of my comfort-zone when I don't have a border to guide me so I just started to throw areas together. I did not even sort the pieces at first and I kinda regretted that because I find the pieces sorted by color is most  helpful to me.

Eventually the pieces started to fill in by doing the butterflies first, the kittens and ducks. Then I worked the Pony's head and tail, then moved onto the purple/yellow field areas. 

The cat and white/green flowers were the trickiest areas to complete but overall the experience was quite delightful. Take a look at the closeup images below.

Pony Tales Shaped Puzzle Comments

This Pony Tales Shaped puzzle is by Master Pieces and it has been quite some time since I have assembled one in this brand. The pieces are random cut and sturdy. However being a shaped puzzle some of the pieces just 'butt' up to each other and some were cut a little on the loose side.  

My Hubby bought this one at the Thrift store for $1.00. Maybe the thought was this was a good one for children but that is not really the case. Perhaps for an older child but I feel it is quite suitable for an adult or a Senior. However, there are several little whimsies shapes within the image so the children may enjoy playing with those ;) 

Highly recommended for great colour, fun pieces and interesting image.

I have also had the pleasure of assembling another Master Pieces which is a  Series titled Legend of the Silver Screens, Legendary Crossroads at 750 Pieces and the Size is 24" x 18" (61cm x 46cm).

Brand: Paperhouse, Title: Mixed Flip Flops jigsaw puzzle Pieces: 500, Size: 21" x 27" or 53.34 x 68.58cm

The Flip Flops Jigsaw Puzzle is actually called Mixed Flip Flops and of course you can see why due to the pattern on the flip flops. I sure enjoyed the creativity of this shaped puzzle although it does make it tricky to get started. The big whimsy pieces were pretty cool. The quality is mediocre and I know I did not pay big money for it because it was at the Thrift Store which is where the bulk of my collection comes from....that said, this is a perfect fun one!

The Flip Flops Jigsaw Puzzle was tricky to get started. There was no sense in doing much sorting although I did try. I pulled out the whimsies - that was the easy part. Attempting the border was out of the question. So for sorting, I just laid the pieces out onto the foam boards and picked from there.

I tried to start with the solid line parts of the Flip Flops jigsaw puzzle pieces. Then I tried to form the shape of the Flip Flops according to the image.

The jigsaw puzzle appears much larger than the measurements when completed. I just continued to build on the solid colors until I had enough to attach the 2 Flip Flops together. I also looked for ways to build around the 6 Whimsies. They were fairly odd shaped which made that process a little easier.

Finally it came down to the whites which had very little-to-none color difference so it was a lot of 'feel-fit'.

This one was lot a trickier than I thought it would be. I figured it might be a quick fix but such was not the case. It took about 8 hours which is longer than usual for me but I was insistent on completing it because I really like it - it's perfect for the summer season. 

Brand: Ceaco, Title: 52 Pickup jigsaw puzzle, Pieces: 500 shaped puzzle, Size: 23.5 x 17.5". 

Overall Experience:  Great Cut Quality: Very good 

Board Quality: Medium thickness Shape Cut: random

Image Quality: Great Hardest Area: red cards

Puzzle Dust? none         Finish Quality: Smooth

Box Quality: Solid         Sealed Pieces: no

Was this purchased new?  No         Price: Buy Online

Recommend Level: Highly Time: 9.5 hours

52 Pickup jigsaw puzzle Assembly...

I did not do my usual sorting routine with this 52 Pickup jigsaw puzzle however I did do some color sorting only for organization purposes.

Forget trying to do the border - I never accomplished that until I was 2/3's done the puzzle.

I kinda played around with the idea of which would be the easiest approach - should it be the red cards with borders or should I just work as much black pieces as possible. The King-Queen-Jacks were just too complex and there were not too many so I did not even bother with them till near the end.

If you like the idea of Playing Cards you may like this Piatnik Cards puzzle Amazon Link

So I continued with working just patches of cards into different areas - pretty much whatever I could find to match. Eventually I was able to place enough card-patches to organize them into the actual image.

It ended up that I finished as much black cards as possible, then the reds, then the Aces-Kings-Queens-Jacks which left the red cards. I tried to use the 'biggest' white patches on the pieces first, then the pieces that defined the card-borders, then I had the left over pieces lined up according to shapes.....that went much better than I thought it would.

52 Pickup jigsaw puzzle Comments

Ceaco calls these the CONVERSATION PIECES line and this one was produced in 1999. "They are known as Trompe-l'œil which is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. Forced perspective is a comparable illusion in architecture." (Wikipedia)

I have owned this puzzle for a few years in my collection and maybe saw it done once before July 1st of this year. However, I have ALWAYS wanted to see it completed and on my wall. So that Jigsaw Puzzle Connections Group member inspired me to tackle it. 

I have to admit - it was challenging THAT's for sure. Of course it took me longer than a usual 500 piece puzzle would normally take but I have to admit - this was like one 'big-juicy-steak' of a puzzle and I am not sure if it was my determination or what but I was not discouraged at any point - I just kept forging on forward to assemble it.

Now it is on my wall where it belongs.....I also had the pleasure of assembling the Classic Car and the Glow in the Dark puzzle by Ceaco.

Brand: Ravensburger Collection Silhouette, Title: Heart Shaped Puzzle, Artist: Ulrike Schneiders, Pieces: 948, Size: 26.378"x26.378" (67 cmx 67cm) 

Overall Experience:  Great Cut Quality: Very good 

Board Quality: Medium thickness Shape Cut: random

Image Quality: Great Hardest Area: white roses

Puzzle Dust? none         Finish Quality: Smooth

Box Quality: Solid         Sealed Pieces: no

Was this purchased new?  No         Price: Gifted

Recommend Level: Highly Time: Under 10 hours

After I completed the border and the inside hearts I headed straight for the solid dark red roses and assembled them into their positions on the board as shown below. Then I attempted to work around the hearts that were already on the board as those pieces where shaped slightly different than the more common standard shaped pieces. Some of the pieces were actually a 'stretched' variation of random/grid-like and not so much as extremely random.

I continued to build around the heart shapes that were already in place and I started to add the pinks, whites and the small amounts of green colors into place. There were actually some 'almost' black pieces that filled the background. Then there were some 'sprigs' of white leafy-petal type pieces that were a little tricky too.

The Ravensburger Heart Shaped Puzzle is a such beautiful shaped image produced in 1999 and  the image is by Ulrike Schneiders, who was born in Germany, and (like her father) is internationally recognized as one of the foremost still-life photographers. Her images can be found in many brands of jigsaw puzzle companies.

Brand: Sure-Lox, Title: Northern Exposure Puzzle, Pieces: 1000 shaped puzzle, Size: 37.25" x 22.5"

Overall Experience:  Great Cut Quality: Very good 

Board Quality: Medium thickness Shape Cut: random

Image Quality: Great Hardest Area: gray areas

Puzzle Dust? none         Finish Quality: Smooth shiny

Box Quality: Solid         Sealed Pieces: no

Was this purchased new?  No         Price: $1 Thrift Store

Recommend Level: Highly Time: Under 10 hours

Northern Exposure Puzzle Assembly

Since this was a shaped puzzle I sorted the pieces as best I could for color but did not lay them out onto the foam board. 

I could easily identify the border pieces as they all had a white edge which ended up having the missing piece.

After the border, I did the red pile for the flag, then the purple pile for the water on the other wing, then the black/white for the goose head. The rest was mixed colors that went easily into the correct places.

I have been doing Sure-lox jigsaw puzzles for quite some time now. They are known for great images but the jigsaw puzzle board material used is most often thinnish and sometimes the cut is loose and/or curls. 

However! They claim the 'pieces fit snuggly together for the perfect fit' which is true as long as the pieces are lying flat. You would not want to try to move it like some other jigsaw puzzles brands -- and that means when moving sections while assembling it too.

Brand: Heye, Panorama, 2012, Title: Herd of Elephants puzzle, Size: 54" x 19" each, Pieces: 2000

Overall Experience:  Great Cut Quality: Very good 

Board Quality: Medium thickness Shape Cut: Grid-like

Image Quality: Great Hardest Area: grey sky 

Puzzle Dust? none         Finish Quality: Smooth 

Box Quality: Solid         Sealed Pieces: no

Was this purchased new?  No         Price: $5 Thrift Store

Recommend Level: Highly Time: Under 30.5 hours

I started with the lines on the blue water and built straight across the water first then the dark green grass along the bottom border. The 2 biggest colour areas were the elephants and the bolt of thunder. Then the brown shrubbery/grass behind the elephants were next followed by the brush and trees leaving  only the cloudy sky.

I experienced a couple of humps with the  Herd of Elephants puzzle where the word 'daunting' was entering my mind. It seems that more often the pieces just fell into place and I was unsure if they were correct. This ribbon/grid type cut tends to have pieces that fit into more than one place with very little difference. I was really stumped with the trees and the sky so the first half was slow going and the upper portion took a lot more patience.

It was my drive for achievement that kept me moving on as I have been eyeing this one up for a few years now and was determined to see it assembled by me. It was also seeing it assembled by other Group Member Puzzlers that inspired me to tackle it.