What Would You Do?
This afternoon I decided to open the Rizzi City box just to see what it looked like and feel some of the pieces. I LOVE how Ravensburger puzzle pieces look and feel. So much nicer than most puzzle makers. But then now I have a dilemna, and I wanted to get other puzzling enthusiasts thoughts.
I bought the puzzle used through Amazon from a guy who had completed and disassembled it and put it back in the original box before selling. When I opened the box, I discovered that there are several large “chunks” of puzzle pieces already assembled that he didn’t break apart completely before returning to the box. Here’s the big question…would you take these already assembled pieces and break them apart before starting on the puzzle yourself, or would you consider them a “gift”, knowing that these are already done for you and all you have to do is add to them? Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about…
I’ve just scratched the surface of the box and already found several of these chunks so I’m sure there will be even more as I dig deeper.
My initial thought is that yes, I should pull them apart and mix them in with the rest of the pieces so I am truly doing the entire puzzle by myself. However, I’ve always been told “never look a gift horse in the mouth” so maybe I should leave them intact as much as possible and just consider myself lucky that there are these little gems in the box.
Hmmm…..
12 thoughts on “What Would You Do?”
Hi Penny, I can understand your dilemma! If I had a gift like yours that completed the sky I would have been lucky. I still work on a 3000-pc. Castorland-Puzzle.
But considering the Rizzi-Picture I would pull them apart. Maybe you could leave 1 or 2 clusters of pieces, but most of them should be pulled. My humble opinion 🙂
Kind regards
Lia
I agree with Lia! I'd pull them apart as well. When I get puzzles that are brand new and a few are stuck together that didn't separate in the manufacturing process, I still pull them apart.
That's also why I mixed then LIFE puzzle bags. I didn't want to do 4-6,000 piece puzzles. I wanted to do a 24,000 piece puzzle. To me it's the same concept. But that is my personality. You have to do whatever you feel comfortable doing regardless of our opinions.
Bottom line? Have fun and enjoy!
Thanks for the opinions, ladies. I am planning on taking the clusters apart, but for a minute or two I did contemplate just leaving them and considering it a gift from the seller. LOL
It is always more fun knowing that you completed the entire thing by yourself without "hints".
I know what you mean about Ravi puzzles, they feel great and I like the matte linen finish compared to educa (well life, I havent really jumped into another large one from them). I think you should do whatever makes you the happiest. Puzzling is supposed to be fun!
PS seeing those pieces are fond memories. So far that was my favorite puzzle.
I would take them apart too, because I feel the best part of doing a jigsaw puzzle is the construction. I get a real sense of pride when I put that last piece in knowing I did it all by myself. If I didn't enjoy putting them together I wouldn't puzzle, its my way of de stressing and it slows my brain down so I can relax. I wouldn't feel its a gift to have it already partly constructed, I would feel like I was being cheated or robbed.
I agree…the matte finish and linen feel are so nice on the Ravensburger puzzles. The Educa pieces for Life, as you will soon see, is not as nice, but they do interlock pretty well. For me, it was sometimes hard to tell if the piece really fit to another piece until I held them up to a bright light together to see if there was any gaps or tiny spaces between the pieces. Most of the time though it was pretty easy to tell if the two pieces went together or not.
Interesting…so you would still consider the Rizzi puzzle more fun than the wooden Liberty one you worked on?
Thanks, Dianne. I always love seeing what other people think when it comes to this. There are those die hard people who feel it would be cheating to keep the already partially assembled pieces together, and others who wouldn't really mind having a few nuggets alraedy done for them (especially on large format puzzles). I am kind of somewhere in between those two extremes. I'm kind of torn because part of me definitely wants to take them apart so that I can truly say I did it all myself, and then the other part of me is like, hmmm…this thing is already 5,000 pieces that will take you forever to put together, what's wrong with a little help?
However, I think the pulling apart of the pieces will win out in the end. It just seems more legitimate that way. LOL
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Take them apart. I would. I mean, the feeling of accomplishment when done won't be the same knowing you were given an unexpected boost. And I'm not really sure that it was a sort of "gift" from the previous owner. I really think he was just too lazy to undo the puzzle completely!!!!!! Or maybe not. Who knows. Whichever the case, I would almost certainly start from scratch.
Thanks, Charly. I do plan on doing that. I just wanted some others opinions, but my conscious would bother me if I didn't pull them all apart cuz then I would have had "help".