puzzle 3Seeing as you’re reading this on the Good Games website, I’m sure I don’t have to point out to you what a deep and fulfilling hobby miniature painting and collecting is. But the more I thought about it, the more I found parallels between the two.

It’s a small, mindful activity you can have set up on your dining room table. You can tend to it and add to it at different points through the week, and ultimately you’re creating something.

I love having a jigsaw set up in the house. I’ll do a little in front of TV at night with my better half, the kids will tinker with it whenever they walk through- and the cats love ruining the whole damn thing. I’ve framed one I’m quite chuffed at having finished. You may not have made something from scratch, but you’ve brought it to life.

Unlike miniatures, jigsaws are more accessible to a wide range of people. They make a perfect gift for someone who’s tastes you’re unsure of. Given the wide range of designs, you can always find a puzzle suitable for ages 5 to 95.

And I don’t just mean the art. There are a variety of puzzles for folks not content with assembling a large picture.

There are 3D puzzles that make artistic sculptures, buildings or comic book characters. There are also a fun range of puzzles where the image on the box depicts what happened a few moments before the image you’re trying to construct- turning the jigsaw into an excellent little brainteaser!puzzle 3

Good Games Salesperson Rob Cafini has even found a way to get jigsaw puzzles to appeal to those of us who are more competitively minded.

‘What I love doing in a relationship is competitive puzzling.’ Cafini told me. ‘I buy her a 1000 piece puzzle. She buys me a 1000 piece puzzle. We give them to each other but keep the boxes so you don’t know what you’re putting together- and race!

‘It’s a load of fun,’ he said, ‘and you come to appreciate the image and puzzle that you’re putting together more because you’re having to follow the image and design lines, as opposed to just copying a box lid.’

Jigsaw puzzles have seen a resurgence in the past 18 months, almost as a result of the huge growth of the tabletop gaming industry.

As a result, more and more of our Good Games stores are now stocking a huge range of jigsaw puzzles for you to check out!

puzzle 2We also have a range of accessories, including the spray-glue which will seal your puzzle together once you’ve finished (and make it perfect for framing, as Jaime did with his), and my personal favourite, the jigsaw mat- a wide cloth you can lay your jigsaw on as you work on it, and then simply roll up the mat -puzzle and all-, to put it aside when you need your table space back!

 

We have a huge range of puzzles available right now on our online store– and as always, we’re offering free delivery Australia-wide for orders over $100, so stock up today!