I ran out of puzzle puns (for now) [character/IP puzzles]

It’s me, slipping back in before the new year to review some puzzles, in this case a few puzzles with characters from various franchises. The puzzles were completed between June 2022 and October 2023 and range from 300 to 3000 pieces.

First up is a puzzle of the Mandalorian and his baby alien Grogu hanging out in the Razor Crest. I solved this puzzle well before seeing The Mandalorian, but I’ve since seen the first season and enjoyed it. The puzzle is a 1000-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, maker of jigsaw puzzles and board games since 1986. It was a fairly straightforward assembly, a bit on the dark side but with enough color variation and texture to not require resorting to shape sorting or brute force trial and error. Buffalo Games puzzles are often found at stores like Target and Walmart, and tend to be slightly cheaper than puzzles from dedicated manufacturers such as Ravensburger or White Mountain Puzzles (sub-$20 vs. $20-$25 for 1000-piece puzzles). The quality is good but not amazing, and pieces fit together tightly enough to pick up sections of the puzzle, maybe the whole puzzle if you’re careful. You may get some pieces that feel like false fits, but looking more carefully at the pieces is enough to see if they really go together or not.

 

Mandalorian and Child

Next on the list was Hidden Cows, featuring hidden (and not so hidden) cows in a Sandra Boynton illustration. This was a fun solve, on the easier side thanks to all the colors and clear lines, and it was borrowed from the library. The puzzle comes from Workman Puzzles, started in 2020 as a branch of Workman Publishing Company, which was founded in 1968 but as of 2021 is now part of Hachette Book Group, one of the “big five” publishers.

Hidden Cows

The largest puzzle (by number of pieces) I’ve ever solved is this 3000-piece puzzle of Marvel superheroes. It was another loan from the library, and is produced by Aquarius Puzzles, who seem to specialize in licensed puzzles (they’ve also got a couple Star Trek puzzles and some Lord of the Rings puzzles). Quality is similar to Buffalo Games puzzles, so quite reasonable for the price point. As is fairly typical for these kinds of images, the dark parts with seemingly random lines and body parts dragged a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. In the end, it took 9 or 10 days to finish, compared to 2-3 days for a similar image on a 1000-piece puzzle, so time scaled pretty linearly with number of pieces.

Marvel Cast

And the largest puzzle is followed by the smallest puzzle of this group, a 300-piece puzzle of scenes from The Office. It was a very fast solve on a Saturday morning, pretty average in terms of quality, and fun for fans of the show. From what I can tell, the puzzle is made by the New York-based Cardinal Games, but there doesn’t seem to be much information about this company. Overall, this was an entertaining group of puzzles, and I actually just finished another Star Wars puzzle, but it’ll have to wait until next time.

Scenes from The Office