I’ve been buying quite a few of the Kaj Stenvall puzzles by Tactic, featuring Donald Duck lookalikes. Yes, that’s a black duck in the bed, although you can’t see it very well.
Good Morning or Good Night by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 27th, 2019.
I used to avoid these because of the large monochrome areas, but sometimes it’s nice to work on (moderately sized) areas where you have only the shape to go on, if the quality is good, of course. I only sorted the last 100 pieces according to shape, so this was actually pretty easy. And enjoyable.
I did the orange bedspread first, then the darker pieces, then on to the white, and finally the last 100 pieces in between.
Believe it or not, I actually shortened the original German title a bit 🙂 This is my second Calvendo puzzle, and it shows the Airbus with which the team of Borussia Dortmund fly to away games in. When it’s not used by the team, it’s used as any other Eurowings plane so that if you’re really, really lucky you can get to fly in it. Unfortunately, Eurowings doesn’t fly to Finland, so I’ve never had the pleasure, but I’ve seen it quite often in Düsseldorf. (The team flies from Dortmund, of course, but there’s a larger, international airport in Düsseldorf, which is where I fly to, and then I take a train to Dortmund. )
Eurowings Airbus with Borussia Dortmund Special Livery Starts in Düsseldorf, Calvendo, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 26th, 2019.
As a puzzle, it was, of course quite difficult, with all the dark background. The Calvendo puzzles are good quality though, and it wasn’t too bad.
There were about 150 pieces left when I finally had to sort the remaining pieces by shape.
I’m at the airport in Düsseldorf now, and thanks to this puzzle I only slept three hours 🙂 No sign of my favourite aircraft today, but here’s a picture I took in October:
A puzzle with my adopted home town, and a Ravensburger at that! There is so much variety in the sky and water that they were no problem – the buildings were actually more difficult.
Dortmund, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 23rd, 2019.
I bought it in a hypermarket called real (yes, they write it like that), and it seems that the puzzle was commissioned by them:
They probably have puzzles with local scenes in other places as well. Nice idea!
I was very unsure of what to make of this before I started, I thought it could be really difficult, or quite easy. Well, it turned out to be one of the easiest 1000-piece puzzles I’ve ever done! The brand, Cloudberries, was new to me, but it turned out to be good quality. Great cut (no fear of placing a piece wrong), cardboard not as thick as Ravensburger, but all in all good.
This was one of the most straightforward assemblies ever, I started in the red corner…
.., then worked myself down to the blue …
… then sideways towards the green …
… and last the yellow. This practically assembled itself!
This is the one I wanted most of the lot of four. Ravensburger from 2006, wonderful quality. I would love to do more puzzles with Graeco-Roman images, but for some reason there are many more puzzles with images inspired by ancient Egypt. What there is of Greece and Rome is often in the form of baroque paintings.
Antiquity, Ravensuburger, 500 pieces. Completed on February 21st, 2019. It says 500 pieces on the box, but it’s actually 572 pieces.
Oh, and I’m back in Dortmund again, there’s a game on Sunday 🙂
I usually use the image on the box as opposed to the poster, but that wasn’t an option here – the box image is a quarter of the usual size, and that’s too small to be of any use.
I was also reminded of why I’m not a fan of the posters …
Anyway, next up Mathmaniacs by Ryba.
I got this on Ebay, and the seller claimed to have counted the pieces and found three missing. There are, of course, complete, factory sealed versions out there, but let’s just say those are not quite in my price range… Because the image is rather dated with the Windows 95-look, I don’t think Heye will be re-releasing this one (it’s from 1996), but I love it. The pieces were in 20 plastic bags (apparently the seller used this as a counting aid). It will be interesting to see how many pieces are actually missing.
This was part of a lot of four puzzles. I really only wanted two of them, but this turned out to be fun as well!
White Terrier, 300 pieces. Completed on February 17th, 2019.
The puzzle has no brand as such, it just says “Made in China” and “imported by Tiimari” on the box. Tiimari was a Finnish chain of stores that sold hobby supplies, although they didn’t carry many puzzles (they went bankrupt a few years ago). The size is indicated in inches, so Tiimari probably forgot to specify they wanted centimetres instead 🙂
Although the puzzle is grid cut, there are no pieces with two pegs opposite. The large majority of pieces have either no pegs of four pegs, with a few pieces with three pegs or one peg.
I prefer this to the usual two pegs opposite style of cheap puzzles, but maybe just because of the novelty. It’s a change, anyway.
I wasn’t expecting a quality puzzle, but it wasn’t too bad, actually. The pieces are hardly thick but sturdy enough to stay flat, and you have to pay attention in order not to place pieces wrong, but it’s not too bad. A nice little puzzle.
The box had the shape of a book, and the lid doesn’t stay closed very well. In fact, it had opened during transport so that all of the pieces were loose inside the parcel, but, amazingly, all the pieces are still there.
Puzzler1909 