Purchased TWO Identical Puzzles But They WERE NOT The Same - Different Cuts

During the holidays, my girls and I enjoy doing puzzles on the down time when most of the family has left and there are just one or two girls home. 


Here is a post about us doing some last year. 
Here is a post about us doing some the year before. 

When I was searching for those posts to link, I realized that our family does puzzles during the same time each year. We have our church general conferences biannually in April and October and we usually put out a puzzle for those events. 

We also have lots of puzzle posts in July for some reason. Maybe it is just a down time usually mid summer when there weren't many camps. Anyway, I got off subject. 

Over the past year or two, I purchased the same puzzle twice. I didn't realize it until going through some of the games and puzzles recently to clean out. I have a favorite artist, and her art has been made into puzzles. I have a few of her puzzles, and I guess I purchased two of this, birth of Christ in a manger puzzles. Here is a link to Liz Lemon Swindle's post a few years back on my blog.

I figured we could get rid of one of the puzzles and wanted to make sure we kept the one that had all the pieces and was in the best shape. 

We did puzzle one in an afternoon and even though it had lots of dark area, the pieces were different enough that we could get it done. Puzzle two was pulled out and Princess Four started doing it and commented to me while I was cooking in the kitchen that all the pieces were the same. 

I couldn't understand what she meant. Of course the pieces would be the same, it was the same puzzle. She said, "No, all the pieces are the exact same cut, there are no odd shaped pieces. It is not the same puzzle." 

I went over and looked and sure enough, the pieces are all the same. She did most of Mary and Jesus in the center and then she left town. I did most of the straw portion, but it took hours to get a few pieces done because I had to pull pieces out that she put together that in the end, didn't go together. That was on the outside edge. I then had to pull apart some I did in the middle that didn't go together, but looked as if it did. 

It was the same nightmare we had with the shark 3D puzzle from National Geographic I blogged about recently. She sat down after returning to town tonight and put in one piece after many minutes and I told her I didn't have time to finish it as she is headed back to school and I have much to do so we decided to scrap the puzzle and I asked if we labeled them "easy" and "hard" should I keep both and she said she wouldn't ever want to do the hard puzzle with all the same pieces as she wants to see it progress and not think about it much. 

I agree as that was how I felt about the shark puzzle and I had already spent many hours on the puzzle and didn't see much done so we chose to not finish the puzzle and to get rid of it. 

No sooner had we finished cleaning up the puzzle when I got a notification of someone posting on my shark puzzle on youtube. I laughed out loud for quite some time at the comments. Here they are combined for your enjoyment. "You have exactly the same done as I have hahahahahahahhaha. Hahahahaha dammit I was hoping you would show me the way but you’re just as lost as I am .. i have this damn shark ..im even going to the second floor to look at it from a distance to even get a different view Hahahahahahaha  well good luck."

Here is a link to that shark puzzle video. I have had many comments on that shark puzzle, so I know I am not the only person feeling frustrated about the stupid design in pattern of all the pieces fitting in every spot.

I just couldn't get over that the same company made both of the exact same picture and puzzle and size and piece count and there was NO indication on the box that one was multiple shapes and the other all the same shape. 

If I had just purchased that second "Young Messiah" puzzle and realized the pieces are all the same, I would never purchase the other puzzles by that artist made by the same puzzle company thinking they were all that crazy stupid pattern having all the same pieces. I think they should put some indication of the difficulty level on the boxes to warn you. 

No small child or young child could help on the more difficult puzzle as all the pieces fit into every other piece. It would be horrible to have to try and figure which was right with a child thinking they were getting somewhere putting all the pieces together. 

So, buyer beware when it comes to puzzles. Maybe check out reviews. I had someone thank me on the review I did on the shark puzzle on youtube as they were ready to purchase it for a Christmas present and then watched my review so perhaps, check out reviews on puzzles you are going to purchase unless you really like wasting time on puzzles. If so, I have given you two that will drive you crazy! ;-)

Have a Blessed and Puzzling Day!