Milton Bradley Big Ben Puzzle: Cactus Slim and His Cowboy Crooners

"Cactus Slim," Milton Bradley Big Ben, 2000 pieces, 24 x 32 inches

I made my usual Sunday morning stop at a nearby Tuesday Morning store today, and walked out with a puzzle that still makes me smile to think about it. This is one of those rare times that two of my hobbies/passions collide in a way that seems just about perfect. Oh sure, I've got a bunch of puzzles featuring baseball (a perfect mesh for me) or books and/or bookstores (another perfect mesh for me), but this is a first for me: a jigsaw puzzle featuring old-time country music and singers.

I'm always on the look-out for unusual puzzles anyway, those that don't fit the list of usual suspects: puzzles featuring cats, dogs, wolves, fairies, unicorns, glitter, lighthouses, castles, Kinkaid, Wysocki...you know the drill. When I see something different, I almost always grab if it it's priced reasonably...but one featuring a country music band? I knew I would be buying this one no matter the price. As it happened though, "Cactus Slim and His Cowboy Crooners"  turned out to be a real bargain; a 2000-piece puzzle that was marked at $6.99, already a bargain price - and then I found out that the ding on the bottom of the box was worth another ten percent off even that low price.

Bottom of the box:

If you look carefully, you can see the tear around the tire and fender of the bus where the box-bottom got punched in by something. I haven't opened the puzzle yet, but I'll be making a repair from the inside because this is a puzzle I plan to add to my permanent collection.

Just another reminder of why I love puzzling so much.

Puzz3D Puzzle: The US Capitol

"The US Capitol," Puzzz3D (Milton Bradley), 300 pieces, 12 x 34 inches

I ran by a local Tuesday Morning store this morning before Sunday lunch to see if anything new may have hit their shelves last week. Although there was nothing new there, they still had this 3D puzzle/model of the US Capitol that has been on my mind since I first saw it there last week. I've seen several around town in the last few weeks, in fact, and have been wondering what kind of puzzle-building experience they offer...so only one way to find out.

Puzzles like this one do not seem to be very popular, but I'm hoping that's only because there are so few of them. Too, since they can't be framed or glued and placed out of sight, they are not nearly as appropriate for display (in the long term, at least) as the traditional jigsaw puzzle. 

Reviews indicate that some people love them and race right through them. Reviews also indicate that some people hate them and either cannot figure them out or do not like how "shaky" they are upon completion. Honestly, my big concern is that I was never very good at putting together those old plastic models (airplanes, cars, etc.) when I was a kid, and 3D puzzles seem pretty similar to those old model kits.  

If you have had experience with this type of puzzle, I would love to hear from you. How does solving one of these compare to solving a traditional jigsaw puzzle? What do you do with the finished product?

April 2018 Purchases (No Such Thing As Too Many Puzzles)

Let's face it, I buy way too many puzzles, so many in fact, that I doubt that I'll ever get to all of them. (We are probably all at least a bit guilty of that, I suspect.) I already have something over 80 puzzles now that are waiting for me to get to them...but I keep buying them.  After all, who can resist a bargain puzzle - or even just stumbling upon that "perfect" puzzle at full price?  Not me.

But for some reason (good or bad, I'm not sure), this is the only puzzle I've bought so far this month:

Spiritual Gathering, SunsOut, 1000 pieces, 27 x 20 inches

Native American portraits have always intrigued me, and this is a nice representation of some of the greatest chiefs of the nineteenth century, so this was a natural for me.  And the topper was that I picked it up at a Tuesday Morning store for only six dollars.  Honestly, I'm not sure when I will finally get around to solving this one, but I like knowing that it's there waiting for me.  This is the only one I've seen, so it's probably not a real popular puzzle that was printed in great quantity.

While I'm at it, I'm going to take time for a little rant about Tuesday Morning.  The company has two locations equidistance from my house, and until this week, both locations used a similar shelf-presentation for their puzzles (kind of messy and easy to browse). Well, today I went to the location I haven't found much at lately and found a big change.  The puzzles are now tightly crammed into shelving that barely leaves finger room to move them around to see what's at the end of the lines.  And the shelves are lower down then before, forcing a browser to bend over for minutes at a time while they try to figure out a way to see what's so tightly packed in there.  Very frustrating...and one of the dumbest "improvements" to a store I've ever seen.  Shame on you, Mr. Store Manager, shame on you.