Galison All Are Welcome Here 1,000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle ($13.14, originally $16.99; amazon.com) ... and its pieces are shaped drastically different than normal jigsaws.

The Puzzle Alarm Clock ejects three different shaped puzzle pieces when it goes off in the morning and the only way to stop the sound is to complete the puzzle. It's a frustrating but effective ...

Each puzzle piece must be uniquely shaped, to avoid one accidentally fitting into the wrong place. That means 1,000 different shapes for a 1,000-piece puzzle, each drawn by hand by workers.

It consists of 14 puzzle pieces that can fit together in the form of many different shapes. There are 536 different ways to fit the pieces together as a square.

Grouping pieces by shape, I made a bit more progress. ... After another day or so, I filled in the rest of the puzzle. A sparrow-shaped piece was all that was left.