Doing a Holographic Jigsaw Puzzle

Hi everybody welcome back to karen puzzles. The puzzle that we are doing today is going to be highly highly difficult, but i’m really excited because these puzzle pieces are some of the most beautiful i have ever seen in my entire life. This is the prismagic puzzle. This was released by springbok in the early 80s and it is a holographic puzzle. So let’s dig into it, so i can show you exactly what we’re dealing with.

So this right here is the image that we’re putting together. You can see that it’s not really an image at all. It is just this texture of you know this holographic silver paper with this hexagon pattern all over it. So this hexagon pattern is actually textured like. If you run your fingers over it, you can feel where those lines are, and it is just so beautiful.

Look as i turn the box, the colors change. You just see a whole rainbow. Oh my gosh, i love looking at it. I could look at this all day, so here on the box, this isn’t printed onto the box. This is a separate sheet of paper that has been glued onto the box, so you can feel the edge right there and then, if we open it up and look at the pieces, the same exact paper has been glued onto the pieces, but one sec before i Get to the pieces, i love this box so much.

Let’S just go ahead and read this little uh warning that they’re giving us warning working on this puzzle may cause minds to boggle eyes to spin stomachs to churn and patience to snap. Take a break every so often wear sunglasses as needed with care and persistence. You’Ll get it together. It’S worth it. I feel like any time the puzzle box has to tell you to take a break.

That’S how you know you’re in for a very difficult puzzle, also on the side here they call it possibly the world’s most difficult jigsaw puzzle number one in a series: i’m not entirely sure what numbers two three four in that series are but um. You know for now we’ll just do number one and then, of course a springbok has their little poem on the back of the box. So you can go ahead and pause to read that if you want to so as i’ve been saying these pieces are just so beautiful, they look like little jewels. You know they look like pieces of jewelry. It is one of the most beautiful puzzles.

I’Ve ever seen as this is a springbok puzzle from the 80s. The quality is top-notch. The pieces are super thick um. We have that springbok green cardboard on the back, and while this is going to be a difficult puzzle, i do feel like. I have a little bit of an advantage just because i did do both of the puzzler puzzles from springbok, which were some of the most difficult puzzles.

I’Ve ever done so i’ll link that video right down below, if you haven’t seen it yet, but because i’ve done those puzzles, i feel like i have kind of a grasp of how the springbok pieces fit together. You know it’s a random cut puzzle, but i feel, like i, you know, have a sense of the types of cuts and how the pieces are gon na you know fit together, so i think i’m going to do all of the sorting and then i will be Back to tell you what the plan is like what my strategy is going into it, i’m not too too worried, but we have definitely seen in the past. When i have thought a puzzle was going to be easy and then you know it was not. So, who knows how long this is going to take me? Let’S just start the sorting, [ Music, ], [, Music ], all right.

So i just finished the sorting and, as you can see, i put down black wrapping paper on the table just because it is so much easier to see these like silver puzzle. Piece shapes on black rather than on the white table and for this puzzle where it is all about the piece shapes i need every advantage i can get so, as you can see in the middle here, i have all of the edge pieces um. You know there are a handful where it’s pretty obvious that that’s definitely an edge piece. There are a few with these tiny little edges that might be inside pieces, but i just wanted to have them all in one place so that, even if i don’t use all of them at least i have them here to pick from over here i have all Of these tiny little pieces with the two knobs on the sides and then the flat top and bottom and a lot of these might be edge pieces, so i just have them laid out. So i can see what i’m working with in case.

I need to grab one and then over here. The thing with this puzzle is that, even though it is a random cut puzzle, there are still a lot of pieces that are the traditional puzzle piece shape, so i am still able to sort them into like that shape, and then this one with the four ins And then this like standard puzzle piece, shape, um this castle type of shape, and then this one which has the two knobs and then the two ends. And then we have this piece which is all of the random like weirdly cut puzzle pieces. So, let’s see how the edge goes and i will continue to check back in with updates [ Music ] all right. So after 35 minutes, i’m starting to you know begin to make progress at the beginning.

I realized that, with all the edge pieces mixed together, it was just gon na take forever, so i had to sort them down further into um. You know the two outs and then the two ends and then the in on one side and the out on the other side and vice versa. So i had four categories and that made it a lot easier to kind of find the pieces. I was looking for and be able to just try one right after the other. It is also really nice that, since the cardboard is so thick, you can fully pick up large sections.

I mean i can throw this around and it stays together. Um, the springbok puzzles fully fully lock together. This is like rock solid. I also have a lot of little sections like this with two ends on each side and that’s because i think a lot of these connect with these little pieces up here, but that’s just a lot to go through a lot to try. So the edge is definitely going a little faster now that, obviously, now that i have fewer pieces to work with, so i’m going to go ahead and finish that up [ Music ] is [ Music, ], [, Music ].

Well, i finished most of the edge. There are two edge pieces that i don’t have in place, but i figured i should just start working on the middle and then, as i have fewer and fewer pieces left, those will hopefully become more apparent instead of trying like every single piece that it could potentially Be i just need to move on, so the thing about this puzzle is that it’s basically a solid color puzzle with a texture over it. So it’s basically you know a plain puzzle with this hexagon texture. Those lines are the only image that we have to work off of, because the inside of each of the hexagons is exactly the same across the entire puzzle. So when i would be looking for a piece on the edge, i would have to be like i’m looking for a knob that is plain on the edge, but it has a line running through the center or maybe like i’m looking for a square knob with no Lines on it whatsoever, you know, at least with the puzzler puzzles, even though the image was so crazy that it was like hard to see what you were looking at at times, at least, there were different colors to go off of with this literally, all we have Are the shapes and these hexagon lines?

So that’s why i have divided everything up by shape from the beginning. I have a lot of pieces here inside the edge because i’m planning to start from the bottom and work my way up, because obviously it’s easier to see the section that’s closest to me. So hopefully, as i get pieces in, i can move these out of the center of the puzzle and off to the side. But this is where oh, my god, it’s gon na get even harder. The edge was already so difficult.

It took me an hour and a half just to get to this point, so you know i have all afternoon to work on it, we’ll see how many tens of pieces i managed to put in today. Oh my god, what what have i gotten myself into? Why do i keep doing this to myself? [ Music ] is [ Music ] for me, [ Music, ], [, Music ], all right, so it is 5 40 p.m.

I just worked on this for four hours straight and i put in a grand total of 76 pieces. That’S just the inside pieces, not counting the edge that i did this morning. So here we are day one progress, i’m not sure how much you’ll be able to tell from the time lapse, but i at first was really surprised because i put in a few pieces or really quickly and then i would just get stuck for like minutes on End and then put in i don’t know like two or three pieces really quickly and then just get stuck again. There are definitely a few sections that i just cannot figure out. So like this little corner here, i have not been able to find this entire time and it’s so frustrating because i want to fill in this corner, but with only like one side to work off of it’s like.

I just have too many pieces left to be trying every single one on spots like these. Also up here, i managed to fill in this entire edge, but i think that this one is actually gon na be split up a little like. If i put one of these sideways, i might have two pieces that fit in here, but i just haven’t been able to find them. So just like the puzzler puzzles, i mean just like any puzzle really the further along. I go the faster and faster it should go like the fewer pieces that there are left to pick from.

So i feel pretty confident that i should be able to finish this tomorrow. I mean as long as i start early and work on it all day long. I feel like i could keep going tonight, but my camera battery up there just died and i had to replace it and my phone is also dead. I just had to plug in a portable battery, so i feel like that is the universe telling me that that’s enough for today i need to get some rest and then, tomorrow morning bright and early, i will be back to keep working on it good morning. Everybody.

It is day two of the prismagic puzzle. It is actually um 7. 30 in the morning. I just could not wait to get back to this puzzle like all of last night. I could barely sleep.

I just kept thinking about the puzzle. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just can’t have an unfinished puzzle in my home. It’S like all that i think about. I even skipped my morning, crossword puzzle just so that i could get back to the jigsaw puzzle sooner.

I’M such a nerd anyway. Last night i posted a picture on instagram of my progress and i asked if you guys thought i would be able to finish it today about two-thirds of you believe in me, and one-third have no faith in me whatsoever. But i really do think that if i work on it all day today, i do think i can get it done. Yesterday i wore my sparkly shirt to try to match the puzzle, but today is all about comfort. I am going to be in this room all day, long so yeah.

I think it’s time to get back to the puzzle: [, Music, ], [, Music, ], [, Music ] all right, so it is about 2, 30.

Here is my progress so far, and i really think it is starting to come together as i was working on it this morning i kept being like oh no. This is going so slowly. There’S no way. I’M gon na finish this today and then i’m gon na have to come back on here and tell everyone that i’m not going to finish it today, but now i think i might finish it today since i’m like halfway done.

The pieces are definitely starting to go in a lot faster. I have fewer times where i end up completely stuck. I will say this is a puzzle where i do find myself resorting to the brute force method. Quite a lot. You know where i just like grab a piece that i need to find what it connects to and then i just try it on every single piece which i don’t love doing.

I prefer to use my smarts to try to recognize the piece that i’m looking for, but sometimes when you’re just totally stuck and not seeing the piece like that’s all that there is to do so, i’m going to get back to it. It is 2 30. Now did i already say that um anyway, i have a good like three or four hours this afternoon to try to finish it up. So i think i can do it. Let’S do this [ Music, ], [, Music, ], [, Music, ], [, Music ]!

Oh, my god, i’m actually gon na finish it today like for sure now. This is all that i have left just this little bit up here. The pieces have started just going in one right after the other, so i think it’ll only be another like 10 minutes. Until i’m done here are all of the pieces that are left so really not that many, it is 4 30 right now. So as i suspected it took all day, but i can’t believe i’m going to have done this in two days.

This is honestly one of the most difficult puzzles i have ever ever done all right this is it the home stretch, time to finish it up, i’m so excited it’s so pretty [ Music, ], [, Music, ], so [, Music ]. Here we go the very last piece: [ Music ], oh my gosh, i did it. I can’t believe i did this entire puzzle in two days literally. The last two days have simultaneously flown by and also it’s like. This is my entire life now well here it is look at how pretty that is all of those rainbow holographic reflections.

This is one of the most beautiful jigsaw puzzling experiences. I’Ve ever had as i was working on it. I wasn’t really sure how much was picking up on camera, but from the angle of me looking at it from this direction. I could just see all of these rainbows the entire time that i was working on it, and it was just so so pretty, and the cardboard is so thick that this all just holds together really well like. I can pick it up, it’s not going anywhere.

If you wanted to hang this up for display, you wouldn’t need to glue it. I think you could literally like lean it against the wall, and it would probably be fine. So how long did it take me in total on day one i spent almost six hours on it and then, on day, two i spent eight and a half hours on it, so my total was 14 hours and 21 minutes, which seems like a lot for a 500 piece puzzle, but it’s actually faster than i imagined, so i’m really happy with that time. This puzzle definitely did use. All of my like mental brain power, though like this was one of the most difficult puzzles i’ve ever done.

It was a little hard to film because it was just so many hours that just looked like this, where i was just trying piece after piece or just like staring at the pieces and not putting anything in for a good 10 minutes at a time i bought This puzzle off of a viewer named jan, and there were so many times when i was working on it, where i was so tempted to send her an email and just be like jan. I need you to check your house because clearly you did not send me all of the pieces like this piece that i’m looking for is not here, but i mean they’re all here, so i just had to puzzle my way through it. So, as i mentioned before, i think i did have a little bit of an advantage just because i had done some springbok puzzles before from around this same time frame. I think the image on this one is more difficult than the puzzler puzzles, but since i had done the puzzler puzzles before i think that made this one a lot less frustrating and that’s because they do some really tricky things with some of the piece cuts. And this time i knew to look out for them and i knew sort of what to be expecting so i’m going to flip it over and let’s take a look at some of these beautiful piece cuts.

So, as you saw before, they have a lot of these little guys in the puzzle and if you’re not familiar with the springbok piece cuts. You might think that this is your typical. You know two outs and two ins piece shape, but i knew from looking at the pieces that none of the pieces were this large, so i knew it had to be made up of two separate pieces and that this one would probably be one of these little Guys so you can see how those fit together they make this piece shape and it just fits right in there. I also like areas like this, where it is a full random cut puzzle. You know these weird pieces are so satisfying every time i found a spot for them and then they also have a lot of pieces that kind of split over the knobs.

So if we look at these after doing the puzzler puzzles, i recognized that a curve like this meant that it was going on one side of another pieces out. So you know this looks like you’re kind of funny shaped standard puzzle piece but um. You know again, this is a really really large piece of a puzzle piece, and i knew none of the pieces were quite this large, so i knew it had to be split up into two pieces like that. Look at how pretty that’s so satisfying to look at and then really quick. I also just wanted to show you these corner pieces because i don’t think i’ve ever seen corner pieces that are shaped like this, but these actually weren’t all that tricky because they do have a corner on them and none of these false edges in the middle actually Have a 90 degree corner, so i was able to well this one is a diagonal line that one’s not a corner, but for these other three i was able to pull them out and recognize them as corner pieces pretty easily.

So this puzzle was the definition of satisfying number one, because the cardboard is so thick and it’s just so satisfying to press a piece into place, especially if it’s completely surrounded already by other pieces and then also if there was a piece that i had been looking For for so long – and i finally found it or if i’d been stuck for a while and then i finally found something to move forward, it just was such a relief every time. Also, the piece cut is unique enough that it’s pretty much impossible to have a piece in the wrong spot, because it is immediately obvious. So every time i did find something – and it like very clearly was the correct piece. It was just so extra satisfying. So, in terms of my strategy, i would say that i used the hexagon lines about half of the time, the other half i was going solely on the piece shape if you want to learn more about the strategies that i use for difficult puzzles like this, i Have an entire video called how to solve difficult puzzles, and that is where i go through all of my strategies in a lot of detail.

So i’m going to link that video right down below if you haven’t seen it yet so if you want to get one, this puzzle isn’t super rare. There are a couple for sale on ebay right now. They’Ll run you about like 40 50. Maybe, but this is one of the most unique puzzles i’ve ever seen, and i think it would make a really good gift for the holidays. You know as long as the person you’re giving it to is already good at jigsaw, puzzles and kind of knows what they’re doing so.

I would love to know. Is this a puzzle that you would want to attempt and how long do you think it would take you to put together if you’ve watched all the way to the end? Your code word for the comments will be holographic, so happy puzzling, and i will see you all in the next one.