Announcing UnofficialPuzzler.com!

We hope you enjoyed our April Fool’s Day little transgression. We need to be able to laugh.

We’ve now been sheltering in place (a.k.a. staying home) for 18 days due to the worldwide Coronavirus crisis. That certainly makes it difficult to write a ski blog! We’ve been trying to tone down our weather reporting so we’re not encouraging you to go out skiing, or becoming even more despondent about missing skiing.

So today, were are announcing the launch of UnofficialPuzzler.com. We know that many of you are staying at home and enjoying some time with family and a jigsaw puzzle or two…or a dozen. The last time we checked local stores, many had a very low stock of puzzles. This indicates that puzzles are very popular right now! There is no better time than today to launch our new site, dedicated to jigsaw puzzles and those who puzzle.

Is it possible that we can dedicate an entire blog just to jigsaw puzzles? We promise you that is true. We won’t be doing any posts about crosswords, nor any videos of Rubik’s Cube solutions. We still can’t figure out Sudoku ourselves! What can you expect in the coming weeks from UnofficialPuzzler.com?

Unbiased Puzzle Reviews

Here’s three to start:

White Mountain Puzzles are known for quality screen printed graphics and tightly fitting pieces. You won’t be frustrated. Unfortunately, the Alpine Meadows ski badge was not included in this puzzle.

Fit & Finish: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finish-ability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reusability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Price: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

 

 

Buffalo Puzzles are another quality puzzle product with great fit and finish. Unfortunately, they are not carried in local stores around Tahoe. We’ll note that our Corgi ate two pieces of this puzzle before we completed it.

Fit & Finish: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finish-ability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reusability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Price: ⭐️⭐️

 

It’s sad that Cra-Z-Art has co-opted the Kodak name for puzzles. There is poor color matching between the box and the puzzle itself. One drop of water will make a puzzle piece explode into 10 layers of paper. The price is right at $8.99.

Fit & Finish: ⭐️

Finish-ability: ⭐️

Reusability: ⭐️

Price: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

 

 

Puzzle Hazards And How To Cope

We’ve probably all been there. Dogs, cats and beer spills are all known hazards when it comes to puzzling. One friend just posted that their dog Sasquatch recently ate 6 pieces  of their latest puzzle. A spill at our house today ruined at least 25 pieces of our latest work. When should you carry on and when is it time to pull the plug? Is it okay to pass these defective puzzles on to others? What is the proper protocol for disposing of puzzles that will never be completed? We will explore these issues in coming posts.

Custom Puzzle of The Week

Each week, we’ll be sharing a custom puzzle of the week. This week’s puzzle consists of 21 photos from this season at Alpine Meadows. It’s our second annual version of this puzzle. This 1014 piece was created at Shutterfly for the princely sum of $48. While it’s awesome to build a puzzle based on your own pictures, we have to give the Fit & Finish a rating of ⭐️⭐️. The pieces do not fit tightly together, so it’s easy to knock things loose as you puzzle. However, the base material is plastic based, so these puzzles have better than average ability to resist spills. We give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for durability.

Pro Tips From Professional and Semi-Professional Puzzlers

Each week we will bring you at least one new “Pro Tip” that will make your puzzling faster, more efficient and more fun for your entire family. Here’s this week’s tips:

We’re super excited to be transitioning to this new subject of puzzling since we can’t be skiing. We feel like this is the perfect day to be making this announcement! Make sure you add UnofficialPuzzler.com to your bookmarks and share this post with your puzzle loving friends. See you next week!

Hey…it’s April 1st and we thought people needed a laugh…