Wondering if any of you have seen one of these before, picked it up today. I believe it's the 1970 puzzle but this one is uncut. If you look at the detail picture you can see that the pieces are intact, I thought at first that it had been glued or laminated but it does not appear so, if you look at the edge there are no cuts going through the cardboard. Also, the end pieces are not whole. It's about 11" x 16". Looks to me like a puzzle that has not been cut although I can't explain the end pieces unless it has been cut down further; but the quality of the cut on all sides looks the same.

It may be a salesman sample. I've seen a similar one of the 1950's Canadiens players puzzle... may have been either a Richard or a Bouchard puzzle...

Thanks for the reply, had not considered that but as good an explanation as any I guess. No one has ever seen an Orr like this I guess ?

Probably an in-store display piece, I don't know if many salesman went around in the 70's as they did back a few decades earlier, with items like this...

maybe its a puzzle that got away from the factory and an employee took it home in an uncut version.

Thanks guys, more good suggestions. Glad to hear that it does indeed appear to be a unique-ish item. If someone has this puzzle assembled I would be interested in knowing the exact dimensions - mine is 10 3/4" X 16" and the 16" seems odd since the puzzles pieces are not whole on the long end. For that matter, confirmation that the picture is exactly the same as the actual puzzle would be appreciated. Someone on here was into the puzzles, Ralph I think ?

al,i have all 5 puzzles of bobby orr.

yours is the 1972 300 piece puzzle varation that came out off a can originally.
my exact size for this varation is 11+1/4" x 17+1/4".

there is also the 500 piece puzzle with the exact same photo that comes out of a box,size of that one is 16" x 20".

are you shure yours is 16" tall.seems a little short but then again it is a different piece all together.

there where 5 puzzles in total,here is the break down
1971 white jersey and black jersey 500 pieces boxed.
1972 white jersey(same photo as 1971)and black jersey 300 pieces canned.
1973 super rare jumbo boxed puzzle with 84 pieces and measures a masive 2+1/2' x 4' black jersey.
all the phots are different except for the 2 white jersey puzzles from 1971 + 1972.

Thanks for the help Dan, appreciate it. Those are the exact dimensions (actually 10 13/16" x 16") but I had a closer look and it's been cut all around, not just on the long ends. So your dimensions are a possibility for mine as the original size. Of course it could be the 500 piece one cut down too I guess, if those two versions contain the same size picture of Bobby but with only a wider border on the 500. Does the picture of Bobby on mine come close to your 300 piece in terms of size ? i.e. is his right elbow cut off for example or his whole body visible ?

But two additional things of note - the cut is too good/clean to have been made by hand; so if this is how puzzles are made, i.e. pieces are traced out on a template and then cut by a machine, why was the border cut smaller than normal for this one ? Secondly, there is the remnant of a price sticker top right corner - this could of course have been put on at anytime, but it appears to say "reduced to .25" which would date it to the 70s I would think (could be some other # .25, hard to make out).

I think I might see if I can pick one of these up in a box and compare the size of the picture and pattern of the pieces next. Get the kids to put it together, fun for the whole family !

Thanks again.


On a semi-related note, saw Bobby at the Canada US game in Halifax on Tuesday, for the second time in my life I was standing across a rink from him; funny, I felt pretty much the same way this time too, like a 7 year old kid.

al,looking at the photo again.it is definetly the same puzzle as the 500 piece version.

i just double checked my puzzles and the 300 piece puzzle does not contain some of the pieces or parts of the photo you have there.

so i was mistaken.it is a shortened cut version of the 500 piece puzzle. where this came from is a mystery but unique.

I thought that might be the case since his image is so close to the borders; and would still be even if you allowed for the extra bit to make it the same dimensions as the actual size of the 300 piece. Thanks for that and for the breakdown of the different puzzles.