Another instalment in Marino Degano’s Life-series. I’ve done the dog, and have the cat still to do.
Elephant’s Life by Marino Degano, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 29, 2020.
There were many funny details as usual. Here some young birds are reading about elephants. I know Barbar, there are both books and animations, but I’ve not heard about Elmar before.
Some of the stuff was a bit too gruesome for my taste, though. The hacked off leg was definitely in this category. Perhaps I’m just in the wrong mood.
Birds campaign against ebony trade.
This was one of the releases from this year, and I was very happy to see that the quality was excellent and the pieces thick. I had a bad experience with a Heye from 2016 recently.
Danger Mouse was (apparently) a British animated series, originally from 1981. From the puzzle, Danger Mouse looks like a James Bond for children, but I don’t really know the series.
Danger Mouse: Cripes!, Paul Lamond Games, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 5, 2020.
The image was fun, but, unfortunately, the quality of the puzzle was not that great. The pieces are sturdy enough, but they will fit where they don’t belong so that I had to be really careful while placing pieces. Sometimes I had two candidates and wasn’t sure what piece was the correct one. The brand, Paul Lamond Games, was new to me and I wouldn’t want to do a puzzle with large monochrome areas by them, but with a good image, it’s OK. Not great, but acceptable.
I was not exactly looking forward to this (I got it with a lot of other puzzles), and it turned out to be quite difficult. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the quality of Peliko puzzles isn’t all that great, but mostly, the problem was the image. After I had spread out the pieces only the pink tongue jumped out at me, but after I had connected those four pieces I was a bit like “Now what?”.
[The Dogs of Winter], Peliko, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 7th, 2020.At first, I couldn’t even tell what pieces were part of the dogs, but when I looked at them long enough, I began to see the difference between white dog pieces and snow pieces. I enjoyed the puzzle a lot more than expected. At this point I was pretty pleased with myself:
The snow on the bottom half was pretty easy, but the final 200-250 pieces, the blurry trees in the background, turned out to be quite difficult. I ended up sorting according to shape but there were still variations in colouring, so it wasn’t like I had to resort to brute force. There was no title for the puzzle, as happens a lot with Peliko.
A lovely Mordillo image on a ’90s Heye puzzle. It’s less busy than many Modrillo images, but there were enough variations even in the grey areas so that it was pretty easy. Fun!
Dry Cleaning by Mordillo, Heye, 500 pieces. Completed on March 22, 2020.
This was the last from a lot of 500-piece puzzles that I got very cheap. There was one Heye that I particularly wanted, but it turned out that I actually enjoyed all those other puzzles more, especially the Clementonis with images that I would never have chosen myself. That’s the way it always goes 🙂 The only thing I didn’t like was the long, blond hairs that I found in every box.
The Mischief, Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on March 21, 2020.
This was so much fun. The image is a bit unusual, but it was nowhere near as difficult as I expected. The desk, the flowers and the water were the easiest parts, the rest might have been difficult in a larger piece count, but this was just right.
This is a new puzzle, very new, actually. Heye marks the production date on the bag, and this was made in April this year. It’s unusual to get puzzles so fast, but when it happens, it’s always from my local puzzle shop Lautapelit.fi in Helsinki. They often have German puzzles available here before even the German online stores do.
Anyway, the puzzle is from the Zozoville series. When the puzzles with adorable monsters first appeared, I wasn’t all that interested, but they’ve grown on me.
Banjo, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 6, 2020.
This is probably not the easiest of the series. When I first spread out the pieces, they all looked the same, but after staring at them for a while I began to see the differences. There’s enough variation even in the background, it just takes a while to see it.
The quality was excellent again, which is good news. I had a Heye from 2016 with very thin pieces, but they seem to be back to their old, great quality again.
A collage of playbills for Broadway musicals. This was a great puzzle and my first from Endless Games. I’m happy to report that the quality was excellent and the cut random.
Broadway Musical Collection, Endless Games, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 18, 2020.
Most of these musicals are known to me either through movies, or not at all. I think the only one I’ve seen as a live performance is Cats. It wasn’t on Broadway, of course, but in Helsinki, probably in the early ’80s. I wasn’t all that interested, but a friend wanted to go.
I think Mary Poppins is the best image. I’ve seen the movie, obviously. Also, it’s one of only two entries with the text showbill – most of them have playbill, and I have no idea if it’s the same thing or if there’s a difference.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels also has a good poster.
I love Monty Python, I think I have all the movies and the TV series.
No title? Seems a bit pretentious to me. Is it supposed to be the Phantom of the Opera?
I’ve seen the movie Hair by Milos Foreman, and I was impressed as a teenager, but I rewatched it a few years ago, and it hasn’t aged well, at least not for me.
I didn’t realize Grease was originally a Broadway musical but I guess I should have known. The movie was a big hit and I was a huge fan. I had a cassette with all the songs. While doing this puzzle I was listening to Christine by Stephen King, and there’s a mention that the movie version of Grease came out 🙂
Another movie I really liked, Cabaret with Liza Minnelli. Seems like a bleak picture to represent Cabaret.
It probably goes without saying that I loved this puzzle!
This wasn’t all that easy, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. It turned out to be one of my favourite Mordillo images. It’s a classic, the oldest edition I can find is a 2000-piece version from 1991, but this is from 2016 (it said October 2016 on the bag, but on the box, it says copyright 2017). I managed to lose a piece.
Wildlife by Mordillo, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 16, 2020.
The crocodile was the easiest to pick out the pieces for.
Newspaper readers.
Lion and sheep waltzing along 🙂
The pieces were thinner than usual for a Heye, but not as bad as this. The fit was excellent, but I prefer a bit thicker pieces. Thankfully, it seems that the Heye releases from this year are back to the excellent, old quality 🙂
My first Pelikan puzzle. I know Pelikan only as a maker of ink and pens, and I don’t think they make puzzles anymore. And that is a pity, as this was a very good quality puzzle with thick, sturdy pieces. Some of the pieces were a bit worn, this puzzle has been put together many times before, but I think it can go a few more rounds 🙂
Potsdam, Pelikan, 500 pieces. Completed on April 13, 2020.
Puzzler1909 