Latest News

29th May 2023

Just a reminder that I will be at the N.E.C. Hall 1 this coming Friday - Sunday for U.K.Games Expo (Stand 1-159).

This is the first time I have attended U.K.Games Expo as an exhibitor, so I am not quite sure what to expect! However, because of the nature of the event - and the limited space - I am not taking any jigsaws on this occasion. I will, however, have games by University Games/Paul Lamond Games including 'Stupid Deaths', as well as 'Zombie Kidz' and 'Zombie Teenz' by Scorpion Masque, 'Potion House' by Blue Orange - which has been shortlisted for 'Best Children's Game' at the event - some of the crime-solving 'Crime Scene' series by Tactic, and Subbuteo, amongst other things.

23rd April 2023

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun. No sooner was Christmas over than I found myself booking the 2023 Christmas fairs. Actually, I found myself agreeing to the 2023 events even before the 2022 ones were over...

Anyway, I have booked stalls at five events in 2023, the first of which, the Spring Homes and Garden Fair at Sudeley Castle (near Winchcombe) 27th - 30th April, is only a few days' away now!

These are the events I have booked for 2023: -

Spring Homes and Garden Fair at Sudeley Castle (near Winchcombe) 27th - 30th April (Stand A2)

UK Games Expo at the National Exhibition Centre 2nd - 4th June (Stand 1-156).

Christmas Gift and Fashion Fair, Cheltenham at Cheltenham Racecourse, 19th - 22nd October (Stand 89)

Festive Gift Fair at the National Exhibition Centre, 16th - 19th November (Stand D19)

The Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair at the Yorkshire Event Centre (near Harrogate), 30th November - 3rd December (Stand 42)

I am hoping to increase the number of jigsaw brands I carry in 2023 and I will have nine at Sudeley Castle - Bepuzzled, Educa, Eurographics, Falcon, Flame Tree, Heye, Jumbo, New York Puzzle Co. and Paul Lamond Games. For UK Games Expo, however, I will naturally be concentrating on games. I have booked corner stands at the three Christmas events to allow a wide range of jigsaws and games as well.

In addition, I now have a very small space - just a single shelf (No. 76) in a cabinet - at Whitemoor's Antique Centre in Shenton, between Nuneaton and Market Bosworth. There is very little room, but what space there is is currently occupied by money boxes by House of Marbles.

23rd December 2022

Well, it is almost Christmas and we are nearing the end of another eventful year - one that, in Britain, saw the celebrations of Elizabeth II's record 70 year reign - followed by the sad loss of this 'ever present' in most of our lives just a few weeks later. And whilst Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace on earth, and goodwill to all men, there seems very little prospect of either in Ukraine - either now or at the Orthodox Christmas in a few weeks time. This is perhaps not the place to dwell on this appalling, horrific, bloody and brutal conflict, but jigsaws and board games are made and enjoyed the world over, and Ukraine has its share of them. We hope to stock children's jigsaws by Dodo, who are normally based in Karkiv, in 2023.

There have been ups and downs for my little business too. The events at the NEC and Harrogate were not, I would have to admit, a total success, but I nevertheless expect to do both again in 2023. I am also hoping to have a stand at the Spring Homes and Garden Fair at Sudeley Castle (near Winchcombe) 27th - 30th April and at UK Games Expo at the NEC 2nd - 4th June (stand 1-156).

Whilst the stall at Missy's Emporium has been quite successful, I am afraid that, due to a dispute between the owners of the business and the site owners, Missy's Emporium will be shutting its doors for the final time later to-day. I am trying to arrange something else - which, initially, will probably be on a very modest scale - in the New Year.

In any event, we would like to wish all our customers and visitors a peaceful and happy Christmas, and a successful New Year.

David Knighton, 23/12/22.

2nd November 2022

I'm afraid I haven't been doing much with the website recently, being fully occupied with improving the stall at Missy's Emporium, near Billesdon, and, even more so, getting things organised for the Festive Gift Fair at the N.E.C., later this month, followed by the Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair at the Yorkshire Event Centre (near Harrogate) two weeks later.

There isn't going to be space for everything, of course, and I have yet to make a final decision on some things, but I expect to have jigsaws by Falcon, Eurographics, Paul Lamond Games (Beatles and Where's Wally) and Educa, with games by Iello, Paul Lamond Games, University Games, Lagoon, Gamewright, and Professor Puzzle, and some novelty items (money boxes and 'magic potion' bottles) by House of Marbles.

These are the details again: -

Festive Gift Fair at the National Exhibition Centre, 17th - 20th November (Stand C10 - not far from the entrance, to the left)

The Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair at the Yorkshire Event Centre (near Harrogate), 1st - 4th December (Stand 20)

27th June 2022

Following on from the last item, I have now confirmed that the new distributor of Cobble Hill are, in fact, still importing Cobble Hill's 500, 350 and 275 jigsaws, but only a limited range of them - at least at the moment. Aside from Pintoo, I have also had it confirmed that they are importing jigsaws from the New York Puzzle Co., and also the French brand Bluebird. I hope to be able to add examples of these to the website shortly.

24th June 2022

I have recently been in contact with the owners of the Cobble Hill jigsaw brand, who have confirmed that they have now changed their U.K. distributor.

I am now in the process of registering with the new distributor, but they will make their own decisions on what to import, so inevitably there will be some changes. In particular, early indications are that they will be concentrating on Cobble Hill's larger puzzles, rather than their 500, 350 and 275 jigsaws. Also, they do not seem to be intending to import Cobble Hill's sister, budget, brand, the Jack Pine Puzzle Co. - although there is only a limited range of these anyway.

On the other hand, they will be importing some of Cobble Hill's 2000 piece puzzles, which we were unable to offer before, and they also act as distributors for some other brands, such as the Taiwanese maker Pintoo, whose jigsaws are, unusually, printed onto plastic rather then cardboard.

I will provide further information on this development as it becomes available.

7th June 2022

We can now provide a photo of the new stand at Missy's Emporium near Billesdon.

Our Stand at Missy's Emporium (Photo courtesy of Missy's Emporium)

31st May 2022

In addition to this website, we now have a small retail presence, featuring some of our most popular lines, at Missy's Emporium. This is at Rushfield Farm (Rushfield House on O.S. maps) off the B6047 Melton Mowbray - Market Harborough road just north of its junction with the A47 near Billesdon in Leicestershire (LE7 9FE). Other activites at the site include Buttercups Tearooms and Smallville children's role play village.

At this time of year Missy's Emporium, which sells a wide range of collectables and craft goods, is open from 10am - 4:30pm, 7 days a week.

15th May 2022

Due to staff holidays there may be a delay in dispatching items this coming week (16th - 20th). However, all orders should be dispatched by the weekend at the latest.

21st February 2022

How many shopping days is it until Christmas?

I know, I know - it's a ridiculous - almost obscene - question to ask in February. However, the fact is that in retail, once one Christmas is over, one has to think about the next one, and, therefore, I am now booked in to two Christmas gift fairs later in the year. These are: -

Festive Gift Fair at the National Exhibition Centre, 17th - 20th November (Stand C10)

The Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair at the Yorkshire Event Centre (near Harrogate), 1st - 4th December (Stand 20)

Please feel free to put these in your diary if you would like to. However, if you feel it is still just a little bit early to be thinking about Chistmas - you know, with things like spring and summer to come first - don't worry! I will be mentioning this again nearer the time!

21st January 2022

Things have not been going well!

As you may have possibly noticed, the website went down on 12th November. This was due to the server it was on at the hosting company being compromised - the server was therefore immediately decommissioned, causing this website (and many others) to become unavailable. The website came back after 12 days, but there was some sorting out required, only to be followed by further IT issues that have only been finally resolved this week.

The only good thing I can say is that fortunately there has been no customer impact as a result of any of this.

3rd October 2021

It seems that these days one can hardly buy a product or service without being pestered to review it! It is partly for this reason we're not asking anyone to review our products!

But naturally people do like some re-assurance about the items they are buying. A useful site which does independent jigsaw reviews is Jigsaw Junkies, 'A Puzzle Blog by and for Puzzle Fans', as it puts it. Although an American site, with, therefore, and understandable bias towards North American publishers, it contains a wealth of information about different jigsaw brands.

2nd October 2021

I had the chance to attend a couple of trade fairs during September. One of the things that I learned is that the jigsaw supply problems of 2020 have not gone away yet. Certainly, we have far fewer Educa jigsaws in particular than I would like. But I also established some new contacts, so new products from new suppliers - both jigsaws and games - should be appearing on this website over the next few months.

20th September 2021

Hi! Welcome to our new website! We started trading at toy fairs in 2016, and it is possible that you may also recognise us from our eBay shop, which did a lot of business in 2020. However, those activities have now ceased, and we will be trading solely through this website for the foreseeable future.

We hope that for our initial offering we have a diverse and enticing range of products from British, European and North American jigsaw publishers, including the popular range from the Canadian maker, Eurographics, whilst other items include card and board games from Paul Lamond, featuring many popular children’s characters, escape room games from Professor Puzzle, and the famous Subbuteo table football game. Nevertheless, we are not resting on our laurels, and expect to be adding several more brands in the next few weeks. Look out for further news items to follow!