Month: June 2019

Dublin City, 2019-06-19

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So, I managed to finish my Dublin puzzle. Even with the different patterns, it was still pretty difficult, and I ended up relying on the image quite a lot. The only thing that really annoyed me was that pieces wouldn’t stay together, I felt like they’d spring apart as soon as I looked in their direction. Even that became less of an issue as I had larger and more stable “islands” as I progressed.

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Dublin City by Colin Giles, Wardsback, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 10th, 2019.

The pieces were very thin, but I liked the cut, it was a bit whimsical, but not in a way that made the puzzle more difficult. There was never any danger of a piece fitting where it didn’t belong. My favourite piece type was the one with two tabs really close to each other. Somehow the pieces made me think of the three-eyed fish near the nuclear power plant in the Simpsons 🙂

Some of the sharp corners on the pieces were a bit frayed.

Overall a very enjoyable puzzle, even though the quality wasn’t all that good.

It will be old photos for a while now, a friend is visiting me in Dortmund 🙂

Dublin City, In Progress

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I tend not to buy puzzles with grayscale images, but this was a gift from my brother’s family, a souvenir from their trip to Ireland. The box is just big enough to hold the pieces, which I always appreciate (most puzzle boxes are far too big).

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The puzzle is grid cut, but some of the pieces are funny, the one on the left looks like it was really badly cut, and many pieces have “extra” knobs or holes.

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I started with the easiest bit, the text, and it was very enjoyable, although the pieces are a bit thin and don’t hold together that well. I don’t think pieces fitting where they don’t belong is going to be a problem, though.

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Feline Frenzy, 2019-06-16

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I’ve never been a big fan of Gibsons, but every now and then an image is so good that I cave and buy one anyway. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised this time, there was no sign of the old problem of pieces fitting where they don’t belong. It may just be the image, of course, but I don’t think so. Based on this I would even be prepared to try an image with a large area of the same colour. Still not a fan of the waxy finish, but that’s a minor quibble.

I loved this puzzle, it was fun from start to finish.

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Feline Frenzy by Steve Read, Gibsons, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 16th, 2019.
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There’s also a dog in there among the cats.

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Dog’s Life, 2016-10-09

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Hilarious image by Marino Degano of a dog and the fleas who live on him. My favourite is the tourist bus bringing more fleas for a vacation. There’s also a reference to German football: the dog is wearing the logo of Hamburg based team St. Pauli, and the skull and crossbones  on the scarf are also a reference to St. Pauli, as they are known to fly the Jolly Roger. Marino Degano was born in Italy, but he grew up in Germany, and he now lives in Strasbourg (France) and Hamburg.

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Dog’s Life by Marino Degano, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed October 9th, 2016.

Divinity in the Antechamber, 2011-10-13

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Impronti Edizioni is an Italian brand that I seldom see, in fact, I think I’ve only ever done two of their puzzles. Unfortunate, as the quality was great. It’s possible that there was no English title on the box (I don’t have this anymore) since I’ve only recorded the Italian title, Divinitá nel vestibulo.

The gods in question look to be Osiris (white hat), Anubis (jackal’s head) and Isis (sun disk on top). In between is presumably the deceased pharaoh. Definitely genuine ancient Egyptian art.

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Divinity in the Antechamber, Impronte Edizioni, 1500 pieces. Completed on November 13th, 2011.

[Dancing ducks], 2017-09-15

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This puzzle was brought in to work by a colleague, and a lot of people worked on it. It’s an old Schmidt puzzle, I would say probably from the ’70s. The cut is different from the current puzzles, the tabs on the pieces were smaller and less round. The border was a pain, otherwise not as difficult as it looks.

I didn’t make a note of the title, it’s probably not Dancing Ducks.

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