Normal Rockwell 500 Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle Boy Reading Sears Catalog

love doing puzzles

Poor quality. Thin, poorly fitting pieces.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  I love puzzles and I have done hundreds over the years. I've completed puzzles claiming to be the most difficult in the world, two sided puzzles that had the same image on both sides, solid color puzzles, etc.This one takes the cake. This 500 piece puzzle is the hardest one I've ever tried to complete, and it has nothing to do with how tricky the image is.The slightest touch scatters these pieces. The shapes on most all pieces do not "lock" in. A couple do, but the bond is very, very fragile. If you put slightly too much pressure, it will tear this thing apart. The pieces won't actually break, but they will separate and you'll have to carefully press them together again. The damage won't even be limited to the area you're working on, if you touch it in one place wrong it will break in five. A cat jumped on the table while I was assembling this and it was a nightmare.Now that I've mentioned the cons, let me talk about the pros:1. These pieces feel nice, honestly. I loved the way they sounded and felt the moment I opened the box. It sounds, looks, and feels like hundreds of SIM cards in a box. Somehow this is very pleasing.2. How can you go wrong with Norman Rockwell? It's a good picture. I hope to finish it some day.3. It's a puzzle. I like puzzles. That one's fairly straight forward.All in all, if the pieces actually locked together, this would probably be my favorite puzzle because of how much I love the pieces. But, unfortunately, it's not. I don't recommend it to anyone who is not seriously in love with doing puzzles and can put up with it. Until this puzzle is finished I fear the wing beats of gnats will scatter the pieces to all four corners of the earth and I'll be forced to do some sort of quest to find them all before a curse brings the end of the world.Three stars because once this puzzle is done I'll probably keep it as a desk toy. It's very stimmy and it sounds nice when you shake the box.

1. Many pieces do not lock together, they can just be pushed together. And accidently pushed apart, over and over and over.2. Picture on front is incomplete. There is a complete picture on one side, but it is tiny.3. Some pieces in the red top and bottom borders are so close in shape it is almost impossible to determine which is correct for a particular spot. I completed the painting portion in the middle but was so annoyed with the poor design of the top and bottom that I quit.I'm all for difficult, but I need to be reasonably sure whether a particular piece fits or not in a particular place.