Month: June 2021

Piitles, 2021-05-21

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I’ve arrived safely in Helsinki, and am now quarantining at home.

A cartoon version of the famous Abbey Road album cover with the Beatles. If you were to write down what “Beatles” sounds like to a Finn, you might end up with “Piitles” (especially if pronounced by a Finn). The background is completely different from the famous album cover.

Mauri Kunnas is most well known for his children’s books, but before those, he used to do cartoons for a youth music magazine called Suosikki (“Favourite”), and later he did an entire book about the Beatles.

Piitles by Mauri Kunnas, Peliko, 500 pieces. Completed on May 21, 2021.

Space Diner, 2021-06-24

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I finally managed to finish Space Diner, just in time before I again leave Dortmund for Helsinki. It was a lot harder than expected, and that was mostly because of the metallic effect that reflected light so that it was almost impossible to work on this except in daylight. It was very enjoyable, regardless, and I would buy other puzzles from the Cosmo Puzzle 2000-series if I ever come across any.

Space Diner by Jabo, Heye, 2000 pieces. Completed on June 24, 2021.

This definitely feels like a companion piece to the Happy 2000-puzzle. I already mentioned some similarities in my previous post about this puzzle, and I also remember a similar pint from Happy 2000.

There were lots of funny details throughout:

Dueling toasters.
Cops and robbers.
Here is something that from a 2021 perspective seems unlikely at a futuristic space diner: a phone booth 🙂

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers, 2021-05-13

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Great collage with book covers by Edward Gorey. Loved it!

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers, Pomegranate, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 13th, 2021.

Dracula is my favourite as an image, although I did the black and white images last.

There weren’t a lot of books that I knew in this collage, but at least I know this one!

Many of the books are non-fiction.

Gorey’s black and white covers are especially gorgeous, although more difficult to puzzle than the ones with more colours.

Children’s Games, 2021-02-01

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A painting by Bruegel from 1560 with children playing. The painting is incredibly detailed, and it worked well as a puzzle, although towards the end I relied on the box quite a lot.

Children’s Games by Bruegel the Elder, Piatnik, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 1, 2021.

Even though the painting is over 450 years old, there are games that I recognize from my childhood. The two “riders” are trying to pull the other one from their “horse”, and whoever stays in the saddle longer wins. Here the horse is formed by two children, but our “horses” were just one person and the “rider” rode piggyback. It was quite similar to this game.

This is not something that we used to do, but I think the children sitting down are trying to trip up the ones going through. There were lots of fun details, but definitely didn’t understand all of the games.

Pork Pies & Puddings, 2021-06-04

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Wonderful collage of British food and drink, from very old classics like haggis to more recent (at least in Britain) favourites like Chicken Tikka Masala. Thoroughly enjoyable as a puzzle, and also great quality. Gibsons is a bit of a mixed bag quality-wise, the previous Gibsons puzzle I did was shoddy with a poor fit, but this was excellent. I’m keeping this to do again.

Pork Pies & Puddings by Val Goldfinch, Gibsons, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 4, 2021.

Cakes, cheese, chicken tikka masala and drinks.

Sausages, tarts and tea time treats. I always love puzzling cake.

More cakes!

Space Diner, In Progress

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This Heye from the late 90s is proving a lot more challenging than I expected. It’s part of a series called Cosmo, all with space images and 2000 pieces (for the year 2000, I presume). The reason it’s difficult is that everyting except the black background has a metallic effect, making the pieces reflect light so that’s it’s almost impossible to make out the different colours unless there’s daylight. The poster is just a regular poster, without metallic effects. Since I do most of my puzzling late at night, this is going to be very slow, in fact I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish the puzzle before I leave Dortmund.

I’ve made a start.

A to Z of Rail, 2021-05-30

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I’ve arrived safely in Dortmund, and for my first puzzle I did this lovely puzzle with lots of text and great vintage images of trains. It’s only 500 pieces, but the pieces are really big, and the finished puzzle is as big as a normal 1000-piece puzzle. The cut was random, but not all that wild. Definitely a keeper!

A to Z of Rail, House of Puzzles, 500 pieces. Completed on May 30, 2021.

It’s difficult to pick favourites from these images, but I really enjoyed these three: