Month: June 2022

Cute Owls, 2022-06-02

puzzler19095 Comments

According to my googling, Pintoo is a Taiwanese brand, but their puzzles are available in Europe, and I’ve been wanting to try one for a while now. The pieces are plastic and the fit is very tight, in some cases too tight, and I had to use quite a lot of force to get pieces into place. Obviously, the pieces hold together really well, in fact, I had to take them apart one by one. Not really my kind of thing, but if you’ve always wanted to do a puzzle in the rain, or while bathing, this would definitely be a good choice.

The edge pieces came pre-assembled in a separate bag. I couldn’t be botherd to attach them. The piece count (300) was without the edges, since the part I completed was exactly 300 pieces.

Cute Owls, Pintoo, 300 pieces. Completed on June 2, 2022.

Cult Movies Puzzle Collection, 2022-06-02

puzzler19098 Comments

I’m not usually a fan of novelty packaging for puzzles, but Clementoni’s new series of puzzles with movie posters in the form of VHS video cassettes is awesome:

The boxes are a bit bigger than actual VHS cassettes (they have to be for the pieces to fit in the box), but otherwise, they’re look quite convincing, right down to the “handwritten” labels and that little plastic square that you could remove to prevent the cassette from being recorded on.

The box is just big enough to hold the pieces, and that is my favourite feature in a puzzle box 🙂

I did the Blues Brothers first. The black parts were a little tricky, but with just 500 pieces it was OK.

The Blues Brothers, Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on June 1, 2022.

Jaws was more entertaining as a puzzle, there was enough shades in the blue to keep it intersting.

Jaws, Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on June 2, 2022.

I hope there will be many more puzzles to come in this great series!

Ave Caesar!, 2022-05-31

puzzler19096 Comments

I finally managed to finish the Caesar puzzle, and I have to say, the audience was really difficult. I would have preferred to have something easier waiting for me when I got back from Dortmund this time, but I was too stubborn to start anything else before this was finished. There’s one piece missing, but it’s impossible to see from this photo (it’s in the shadowy part of the image).

Ave Caesar! by Loup, Heye, 2000 pieces. Completed on May 31, 2022.

There seems to be both gladiatorial combat and chariot races in progress. In reality, these two forms of entertainment actually belong in different venues, chariot races in the circus and gladiatorial combat in the amphitheater. Not sure if the audience used to throw water melons at contestants 🙂

The emperor looks bored.

Some of the wild beasts were in trouble…

… while others were doing just fine.

The puzzle is from 2004, and it’s excellent quality with a great fit. The arena part was great fun, but the audience was a bit too difficult. Still, I’m really glad that I got to do this puzzle, I thought I had missed the train on this one.