Before joining the All Jigsaw Puzzles team I had never heard of WASGIJ and had no idea what they were about. I was very quickly educated that they are some of our most popular and quirky jigsaw puzzles, right up my street.
I’ve never been an avid jigsaw puzzler, I’ve only ever done puzzles passed down by my Grandad that were so dusty you could be forgiven for thinking they were ancient artefacts, so this WASGIJ would be a big challenge for me.
If you haven’t heard of WASGIJ before, they are a jigsaw puzzle range made by Jumbo and illustrated by an artist called Graham Thompson. Pronounced “WOZ-GIDGE” or JIGSAW spelt backwards, they are unlike any other puzzle on the market. The puzzle you are given does not match the image on the box; I can’t tell you how many times people have bought WASGIJ’s from us and been completely thrown when they start puzzling and none of the pieces match the reference image.
I chose the “WASGIJ Destiny 19: The Puzzler’s Arms” 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle for my challenge. Knowing the image on the front of the box was set in the 80s and the image I would be puzzling would be set in the future, I got to work finding the edges and corners.
(Just a side note here: I used a jigsaw puzzle roll mat for this puzzle and it definitely made life easier as I could roll up my progress and put it away when I wasn’t working on it.)
Once I was happy I couldn’t find any more edges, I used Hint 1 on the front of the box to create one of the forefront characters and worked outwards from there. I found that whenever I got stuck, it was best to collect up similar patterned pieces and start building small areas which I could place in the puzzle nearer the end.
Honestly, once I got started, I barely looked at the reference image. I found that it just confused me more, but I’m sure for some people it would be a great help. Because of my ignorance of the box however, it wasn’t until I had nearly finished the puzzle that I noticed the other hints on the box… I definitely should have looked over everything first, that’s something I’ll be doing differently for my next WASGIJ!
In the end after hours of frustrated but strangely addictive puzzling, it took me 5 days of going back to the puzzle to get it finished (I did say I wasn’t an avid puzzler!).
It was a challenge, but definitely a challenge I enjoyed and would actually do again… give it a year.
Emma, Graphic Designer at All Jigsaw Puzzles