The_President: Is it smaller than a bread box? Yes, generally
Vorian_Atreides: Is it alive or alive at some point in time? No
John.S.Mill: is it man made Yes
The_President: Is it decorative? Yes
John.S.Mill: can you cut it with a pair of scissors that depends, but probably
The_President: Would it be damaged if you dropped it on a hard floor from 5 feet? No
Vorian_Atreides: Is it generally found indoors (as a decorative item)? Yes
John.S.Mill: is it generally found in a specific type of room? No
The_President: Does the object have movable components? Yes
twig93: Is it typically found in a home? (given the object) Yes
The_President: Does the object contain or conceal other objects (if that is not its current state, is that an intended use of it)? No
twig93: Do most homes have this object? I doubt it
John.S.Mill: is most of it typically made of plastic/rubber? No
twig93: Is it made of wood? (Official) Not typically
The_President: Alright, is it made of fabric? No
Vorian_Atreides: Would this object be found in a public place (like a school, library, court house, etc.)? Sometimes, yes
John.S.Mill: does it have scent or odor No
The_President: Jigsaw Puzzle Yes
I dunno, you asked 5.
John S. Mill asked 6.
VA asked 4.
Twig asked 3.
But twig has the conviction:
So I guess one of you should take the next turn. I guess twig gets right of first refusal, since she was willing to officially guess.
I was afraid you wouldn’t guess, and I was going to give credit to one of Soy, John, or ThePrez, because I thought these were good guesses:
So, anyone here who hasn’t played with jigsaw puzzles?
Fwiw, most of them are cardboard, but i own several wooden jigsaw puzzles. And the first one i ever played with, a clock, was wooden. So i didn’t want to say “no” to that. (I have seen plastic jigsaw puzzles, but that’s really unusual, and i thought it would be misleading if i didn’t deny that.)
I honestly have no idea what fraction of homes contain a jigsaw puzzle. I tried googling, and based on the number sold annually, i thought it was ambiguous. Enough are sold that maybe most homes have one? But it seemed unlikely.
We have several. My wife enjoys them, so I end up getting her a couple every year as presents for different occasions. They get put together, then put back in the box and into the closet - most likely never to come out again.
I’ve thought that it would be nice to have a sort of “library” for jigsaw puzzles - but I can’t come up with an efficient way to figure out if the puzzle came back with all of the pieces. There would be very little more frustrating than finding out that the last piece you need just isn’t there.
I also have an old wooden jigsaw puzzle that was circulated in a (for pay) library during the depression. It says inside the box what the fine is per missing piece. I think it was 25 cents to borrow (which was a meaningful fee during the depression) and 25 cents per missing piece. And a late fee.
Yeah I’m trying to pinpoint the why but it’s not totally clear to me. I feel like I immediately think of a small robot when I read “moveable components” and it’s a long trek from small robot to puzzle - particularly when my next thoughts are, but it’s light, and unbreakable?!.. also TEMPORARY?! WHAT COULD THIS BE!?
I’m not into puzzles, but my brother got us one of these and it was as great as a puzzle can be. Of course they’re probably 10 billion back-orders because of covid.
Yes, I think they are the top brand in the US right now. I’ve “sold” so many Liberty puzzles by sharing them with friends that the company has given me a couple.
Artifact Puzzles
have nice art, and have a variety of styles of cut, but use a lower quality plywood that sometimes has awkward cavities making for a weak piece.
Nervous System | Generative Jigsaw Puzzles (n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com)
has some of the most interesting puzzles out there, and their technical quality is superb, but they are REALLY hard, and most of them are too small for it to be easy for people to work on them together.
I used to like Springbok Puzzles - About (springbok-puzzles.com)
because they had reliably good quality cardboard and had more interesting shaped pieces that most puzzles, but they’ve been resold and rebranded a few times. I’m not sure what they are selling today.
Unidragon - 3d Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles and Maps
is a brand I stumbled upon recently. I like Liberty more, but there seem to be a bunch of companies “going out of business” who were re-selling unidragon puzzles, and they were clearing their inventory at very low prices. Some of those deals may still be out there.
There are a bunch of people who hand-cut wooden jigsaw puzzles, but that’s prohibitively expensive.
