Month: July 2022

United States Presidents, 2022-07-30

puzzler19092 Comments

I borrowed this puzzle from work. We used to have a puzzle out for the customers in our library, but that was discontinued because of the pandemic, and it’s not started up again, but the puzzles are still there. Many of them were brought in by me, but this is from someone else.

While I usually love text in a puzzle, this was almost too much. There were definitely more pieces with text than without, which made the text less helpful. For a while, I consulted the box quite a lot, but this was still a fun puzzle, perhaps a bit more challenging than I expected.

United States Presidents, White Mountain Puzzles, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 30, 2022.

Many of the presidents are, unsurprisingly, unknown to me. I knew all the more recent ones, starting with FD Roosevelt, but only a few of the earlier ones. The last president on this puzzle is the younger Bush.

Nefertari Preceded by Goddess Isis, 2022-07-27

puzzler19094 Comments

This was fun, and much easier than it looks, mostly because of the excellent Ricordi cut. I bought this puzzle in 2008, when some online stores still carried them. The lady in front is the goddess Isis, and she’s leading Nefertari (born. ca 1290 BCE), wife of Ramses II.

Nefertari Preceded by Goddess Isis, Ricordi Arte, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 28, 2022.

Happy World, 2022-07-25

puzzler19094 Comments

Schmidt currently has a series of puzzles with images of candy from German candy manufacturer Haribo. Most of them – in fact all except this – look way too difficult. There’s one with a heap of gummy bears – and they’re not sorted according to colour. With this, of course, it was easy to pick out the pieces for the various stripes, although assembling them turned out to be a bit more challenging than I had expected. Still, a really nice puzzle, I loved it.

Happy World, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 25, 2022.

Room with Deer, 2022-07-24

puzzler19092 Comments

This year’s Heyes include two puzzles by South African artist Norman O’Flynn that I just had to get. This one turned out to be a very entertaining assembly that was just the right amount of challenging. I was a bit surprised to find that the gorgeous pink chair was, in fact, the hardest part.

Room with Deer by Norman O’Flynn, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 25, 2022.

Paying the Price!, 2022-07-24

puzzler19092 Comments

This Wasgij-puzzles was great fun, as usual. They really do manage to keep the puzzles relatively easy even though you don’t have the image.

Paying the Price!, Jumbo, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 24, 2022.

If you want to see the finished puzzle you can click here, but below is a little spoiler that I think we can all relate to:

Lofoten, 2022-07-22

puzzler1909Leave a comment

My second Ravensburger featuring this beautiful Norwegian place (see the first one here). I don’t often do traditional landscapes like this, but when I do, I mostly find them enjoyable. This was nice, although all the blue was a bit tricky, and it wasn’t always possible to tell the sky and the sea apart.

Lofoten, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 22, 2022.

Star Trek: Films, 2022-07-19

puzzler19096 Comments

Cobble Hill has a new series with Star Trek puzzles, and I immediately bought the three that were available. There should be two more in the series, and I hope to find those as well.

Star Trek: Films, Cobble Hill, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 19, 2022.

The puzzle was great fun, and indeed, I’ve never seen a movie poster puzzle I didn’t like. I was a bit worried about all the dark bits, but it was pretty easy in the end.

Solar System, 2022-07-18

puzzler19092 Comments

Another novelty Trefl, this time with the pieces arranged in a spiral, as if the puzzle were round. I liked it, although it was quite difficult to make my brain understand how smaller, completed sections aligned in the puzzle. I kept trying to put them in as if it were a grid cut 🙂 All in all, very enjoyable.

Solar System, Trefl, 1040 pieces. Completed on July 18, 2022.

Beauty Lips, 2022-07-16

puzzler19093 Comments

I did this puzzle in 2018, and then I took it into work, where I’m sure it’s been assembled a few times. Last year, I was reminded of it when Stacey assembled it, and a few weeks ago I saw it at work, and took it home for a second go.

Beauty Lips, Piatnik, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 16, 2022.

It was still a lot of fun, and I did it more or less in one sitting, with just one short break. I did the panels with blue lips first, and finished the red lips last. After all the lips were finished, I still had to fill in the borders, which was my least favourite part of this puzzle. All in all, a great puzzle. By the way, the German title of the puzzle means “lip service” (Lippenbekenntnisse).

The World of Jane Austen, 2022-07-15

puzzler19092 Comments

I’ve seen puzzles in this series before (there is one about Shakespeare), but I was suspicious of the quality and they’re also expensive, so never bought one. This was lent to me by a friend, and so I finally got to try it. There’s a poster included, and on the other side of the poster there are explanations about the buildings and characters in the puzzle.

The World of Jane Austen, Laurence King Publishing, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 15, 2022.

As expected, the quality was not all that great. I’m pretty sure that if there had been large areas of one colour, it would have been a problem, but with an image like this, it was fine. The pieces were sturdy enough, but all of the same basic shape with two tabs opposite. Did I say all? Well, not quite. Bizarrely, there were two pieces that were different: one with three tabs and one with one:

I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Doesn’t exactly add up to a good mix of piece shapes 🙂

Despite the boring piece shapes, this puzzle was a blast. It came together very fast, and was a lot of fun.