This MT Blanc France puzzle is SO vintage and it had all the pieces which is amazing. You can see large areas of blue sky, white snow on the mountains and the big chunk of dry field in the forefront making this one have very testy areas. It is also ribbon/grid cut adding an additional layer of challenge. I am impressed with the outcome! |
Overall Experience: not good Cut Quality: Good Board Quality: too thick Shape Cut: Grid-like Image Quality: OK Hardest Area: blue sky Puzzle Dust? Lots & very smelly |
Finish Quality: Smooth Box Quality: OK Sealed Pieces Inside Box: No Was this purchased new? no Price: Thrift Store find $1.00 Recommend Level: No Time: 14 hours |
I did not do my usual sorting routine with this one as it was 700 pieces and basically blues, browns and white/greys but I did sort them into piles. I followed the box and due to the gridlike cut I found myself rearranging the edge pieces to fit correctly. |
I've been around so many Thrift Store puzzles and have had very few bad experiences however this one will be labelled the worst yet. I get the age of the puzzle has a lot to do with it too. Surprisingly ALL the pieces are there but some are peeling off and the color layer of paper is peeling off the back pieces too as shown below.
As you can see in the first photo below just how thick the triple-thickness pieces are and the particular piece compared is a Ravensburger piece which is most standard.
Next image shows a close up of the paper image which gets glued onto the triple thick board and it is aligned poorly. Perhaps that is where the smell comes from though I am not sure.
Assembling puzzle pieces with this thickness is very difficult but that also was due to the age of this puzzle too. I found that trying pieces into other pieces was basically breaking the tips off the pieces - again an age thing.
The completed image on this MT Blanc France puzzle actually looks pretty good and you can see in the close up images below the typical traditional grid-like cut used. Of course you would not think that it was a smelly experience where I found myself washing my hands after a session with it. And the crumbling pieces left very little to be desired about this puzzle other than the images looks good on the computer.
Perhaps I will think twice about buying another TUCO Triple thickness puzzle unless I open the box first to see the condition of it. I do have another TUCO in my collection which I have not assembled yet however it does not have that 'black-mold' smell. Needless to say, this one will not be forwarded to anyone ever again.
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