April Fool's Day

It’s April Fool’s Day! I’ll tell you about all the times I was fooled by a puzzle!

Puzzle Twist puzzles are designed to enhance the puzzle experience. The image is slightly different from the box, so there’s a surprise every time! I know some people really like to rely on the box image while solving, but I encourage everyone to think “outside the box” (pun intended) and try something new!

For this blog I got to do 2 500 piece puzzles: Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox - What’s Up?, and MinneSNOWta - Something’s Amiss!

Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox - What’s Up? by Puzzle Twist

MinneSNOWta - Something’s Amiss! by Puzzle Twist

The puzzles are a random cut, so they don’t all have 4 sides. There are diagonal cut-offs, tiny pieces, giant pieces, and false edges. Now, of course as I wrote this, I realized that the Paul Bunyan puzzle really has standard shaped pieces that overlap a bit so it’s not a perfect grid, however the MinneSNOWta puzzle does have some wonky shapes as seen below:

shapes of puzzles

Random Shapes

If you have done a Cobble Hill puzzle, you can expect the same quality, as they are manufactured in the same warehouse. There is a nice linen-type finish and the pieces do stay together pretty well, which is important because in these puzzles you have to shift sections around quite a bit!

What’s Up? Is a collection of 4 puzzles. For Paul Bunyan, the item description on the Puzzle Warehouse website says, “Piece together the larger-than-life characters of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox as they navigate the snowy landscape.” That ends up being a hint to the puzzle twist! But I’ll wait until the end before posting spoilers! The Puzzle Twist website has a section where it posts the reveals. There are 10 differences between the box image and the puzzle image, plus a bonus: The little Maynard logo is hidden in every image!

Scroll to the bottom for a progress picture, the full image, and Maynard

Something’s Amiss is likely the most popular series, as there are the most to choose from (over 75 total!) “What you see is not always what you get when the image on the box is more than a bit different from the one you build!” MinneSNOWta boasts a whopping 30 differences between the box and the actual puzzle! This adds a whole extra layer to the puzzle experience, a puzzle within a puzzle! And Maynard is hiding here too!

Scroll to the bottom for the reveal, and Maynard.

Another special puzzle in the Something’s Amiss collection, is Intentional Kindness, illustrated by our very own Puzzle Warehouse ambassador Robin Decaire! Be sure to check out her blog where she discusses the creation process and a bit more about the brand here: Intentional Kindness Blog.

Intentional Kindness by Puzzle Twist

In addition to the What’s Up? And Something’s Amiss styles, there are a couple other varieties of Puzzle Twists:

“Mixed Up!”, is another popular collection with over 20 titles. Most have a collage style puzzle, and the sections are jumbled. I participated in my very first team speed puzzle event in November 2021, which was a fundraiser for the Autism Society of Minnesota. We were tasked with Fresh Fruit. The fruits are the same, but they appear in different order. In some panels, other details are changed, such as a different background color, and the presence or absence of a number or fruit name.

Fresh Fruit by Puzzle Twist

I have also done the Space Travel puzzle which was out of this world!

4 More! Is a style that adds 4 additional images to the scene. I have not tried one of these yet, but I have Wild Wonders on my wish list.

Wild Wonders by Puzzle Twist

My guess is they have added 4 more furry forest friends to the image, but I will have to puzzle it to find out!

Now, Puzzle Twist also has a Signature Series, and these are Artist-focused images WITHOUT a twist. I did First Avenue and 7th Street not knowing this, so I kept waiting for the twist, but the image is just delightful as it is! They are actually labeled on the box “Maynard’s Signature Series” - it does not say Puzzle Twist on the box, so as to avoid this confusion, but the quality is otherwise the same!

Here is the stunning finished product!

First Avenue and 7th Street by Puzzle Twist

For other puzzles with surprise endings, you can check out Wasgij puzzles from Jumbo. These puzzles show a cartoon image on the box top, but the finished puzzle image is typically the same scene, but from a different perspective, or a future outcome. For example, Wasgij Mystery 19: Bingo Blunder (And I’ll let you in on a secret that took me way too long to figure out: What is Wasgij? It’s Jigsaw backwards!)

Wasgij Mystery 19: Bingo Blunder by Jumbo

Galison also has Surprise puzzles, Shelf Life and Wild Tropics. You are provided with a picture of some of the frame of the puzzle, but the center ends as a surprise!

Shelf Life by Galison

Wild Tropics by Galison

And finally, because there truly is a puzzle for every occasion, I grant you Saturday Evening Post - April Fools puzzle by Masterpieces! This image by Norman Rockwell contains 53 silly things and clever visual jokes.