My Favorite Types of Puzzles for Relaxing Days

During the pandemic I rediscovered two hobbies I allowed to fall by the wayside. The first was cross stitch. And the second was assembling jigsaw puzzles.

I’ve always liked puzzles. I enjoy taking chaos and slowly enforcing order on it. It isn’t just seeing the pictures come together either. There’s something about the process that pleases me. It settles my brain and allows me to think through other problems (such as plot holes) that have been otherwise giving me trouble.

I’m pretty sure my love of cross stitch and my love of puzzles are connected. Putting together a cross stitch feels like a small puzzle in its own right. I have to look at the picture and the threads I have available and come up with the most economic way of using the resources to make the desired picture. And like a jigsaw puzzle, I get to watch it come together in slow motion.

But unlike cross stitch, jigsaw puzzles are a large undertaking. Where I can chip away at a cross stitch day by day and find that relaxing, bigger puzzles gnaw at my brain until I get them finished. When they’re in process, I feel an urgent need to return and work on them. Which means I generally save them for breaks instead of working on them regularly.

Which works out really well, because each puzzle can feel like its own big event, something I look forward to.

Since I’ve been doing these for a few years now, the speed at which I can tackle a 1,000 piece puzzle has increased. That has allowed me to move onto larger sized puzzles. I’ve also branched out and tried a bunch of different types of puzzles – which is what I want to share with you today.

Magic Puzzles

One of the first new puzzles I discovered belonged to The Magic Puzzle Company. They crowd-sourced their first round of puzzles with the philosophy of cutting the pieces around the art to better preserve the image. This means that there are no awkward cuts through the center of a person or an object. It also means a lot of odd-shaped puzzle pieces. But I’ll get to that in a moment.

The main draw for me was that each puzzle has a story. You put together the puzzle on the poster to see the set up. Then you re-arrange the puzzle and open the special envelope inside the box (which contains more pieces). This gives you the answer to the story, which is pretty neat!

I’ve found most of the puzzles from this company I’ve put together to be charming. The stories aren’t spectacular but do tend to be cute. Some of the revelations change the entire feel of the puzzle, which makes it fun to go over all the art again.

These puzzles are challenging though. Because in order to shift them, they have to have a lot of straight edges. Enough to cut the puzzle into three pieces. And until you get used to looking for those odd bits, it can be frustrating to figure out how to sort the pieces or what you’re supposed to do with them.

The Magic Puzzle Company really leans into those odd-shaped pieces as well, creating different shapes with some of the middle pieces. (Such as music notes or dice.) And while sometimes that adds a little extra charm, the later puzzles go a bit overboard with it.

Still, these puzzles are fun. And I would for sure check out the first few series. (I think they’re up to 4 now!)

Odd Pieces Puzzles

Similar to the Magic Puzzle Company’s puzzles, Odd Pieces add an extra layer to the puzzle and tell a story. I’ve actually only done one of these so far. (It was a gift from a friend for my birthday.) But I’m excited to try more.

Odd Pieces puzzles come with a small comic that sets up the story by introducing different characters featured in the puzzle. There’s also a poster depicting the puzzle you’re about to do. But there’s a catch.

The picture you have to guide you is from 30 seconds before the puzzle you’re putting together. This means several people and perhaps even objects have moved in the puzzle you’re assembling.

This might make you think that the guide you’re using to assemble the puzzle is useless. But it’s actually very clever. The basic outline of the puzzle background is the same. That allows you to spot where the different puzzle pieces might go. But since they don’t exactly match the picture you’re looking at, it’s still a challenge to figure out what belongs where.

After several hours of puzzling, and becoming quite a bit speedier at assembly, I found my Odd Pieces puzzle to be an extremely refreshing challenge. It kept me on my toes without being over the top difficult. And as an added bonus, you get a second comic showing the outcome of the story to open after you finish the puzzle.

This one doesn’t move around like the Magic Puzzle Company ones do. But that also means more standard piece shapes. So it balances out.

Pintoo / Piece Relax

I tend to buy most of my puzzles based on the images I’ll be assembling. I want something with a lot of visible variation. 300 pieces of sky or sea looses my interest fast. But I also like to have a vested interest in the overall image, since I’m going to be staring at it for several hours.

Pintoo and Piece Relax puzzles don’t have a special gimmick. They’re just normal images. But they’re still really cool and worth mentioning because these companies use plastic to cut their pieces. This makes them smaller and less prone to producing dust. It also means that once you snap them together, they stay together. Once the full puzzle is assembled, you can pick it up and walk around with it.

They’re designed so you can frame them and stick them on the wall without having to screw around with glue. If that’s what you want. I usually don’t leave my puzzles together for very long. I eventually break them down and return them to the box for later assembly. Puzzles, for me, are meant to be temporary endeavors.

But I’ve really enjoyed all the puzzles I’ve done from both of these companies. The first I found was a mythological mashup divided into four sections. Each matched a different season of the year as well as representing a different mythology, and they formed a sort of Eisher-maze in the center.

The second was a group of veggies chilling in a pool. And the most recent one I assembled was from Piece Relax. It was called “Halloween Town” and featured a massive Halloween celebration in an old cartoony style.

My Dream Puzzle

Last August I found my dream puzzle. It’s a Pintoo puzzle that I found it while generally browsing their store. It’s called “The Night House Maze.” I thought at first that it was Halloween themed. But on closer inspection, it’s clear that it’s actually a tribute to horror movies. I’m not a horror movie buff, but I have managed to spot a few on the big poster guide.

“The Night House Maze” perfect for me because I love the spooky atmosphere. Horror movies might not be my jam, but Halloween is my favorite time of the year. And puzzles don’t include jump scares, which is a bonus.

Also, I love puzzles that are compartmentalized or form mazes. This one won’t be as challenging as the last maze puzzle I did – where you had to solve the maze to properly assemble the puzzle. But it is clear that once it’s put together there will be a maze contained within it, and I’m excited about that. A puzzle with a bonus puzzle? Always a yes from me.

But the most exciting thing about “The Night House Maze” is that it’s 4,000 pieces.

When I first started looking into puzzles, I wanted big ones. I was looking for 2,000 pieces or more, but I struggled to find anything bigger than 1,000. I’m not sure if I’ve gotten better at searching or if puzzles have just become more popular, but I’ve noticed a steady influx of larger puzzles now. And I think I’ve had enough practice with smaller ones that I’m ready for a big one.

“The Night House Maze” is going to be my special challenge to myself this Christmas. It’s the only puzzle mentioned in this post I haven’t put together yet. But I’ll report back on how it goes!