Month: October 2023

Forgotten Arcade, 2023-10-28

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Another puzzle from the Abandoned series, and probably the most difficult one of the ones I have. It was the last puzzle I completed in Dortmund this time, I am now back in Helsinki with my car (I took a ferry from Travemünde).

The puzzle was rather slow, but still a complete pleasure. At first all the pieces looked so dark, but it wasn’t long before I started to see different shades. I think this would be very difficult to pre-sort, but fortunately, I don’t do that.

Forgotten Arcade by Eduard, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 28, 2023.

I did the slightly lighter bits, like the popcorn and the clown, early:

At some point, I started to put aside all pieces with text on them, but many were so dark it wasn’t easy to see if there were text or not. Most of the games had names, here we have Truck Monsters, The Wizard of Oz and Hydro Speed.

The creepiest game of all, is, however, nameless:

Loved the puzzle! Also, WordPress reminds me, that it’s the fifth anniversary of my blog.

The Halloween House, 2023-10-10

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Lovely little Halloween puzzle with large pieces. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this all that much, but it was nothing to do with the puzzle. I had a cold and was running a fever when I did this, and was really incapable of enjoying anything. This puzzle deserves better. Anyway, I’m all better now. Happy Halloween!

The Halloween House, Ravensburger, 300 pieces. Competed on October 10, 2023.

Squid Game, 2023-10-24

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Another Clementoni puzzle with a Netflix series. I haven’t even watched Squid Game, but I thought this would be an entertaining puzzle, and I was right. I started with the green on the left, then the yellow ball and the doll. I was somewhat surprised to find that I did the red overalls last, but that’s how it turned out.

Squid Game, Clementoni, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 24, 2023.

Queen’s Gambit, 2023-10-22

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Queen’s Gambit is a Netflix series about a female chess prodigy. Doesn’t sound that interesting put like that, but it’s a brilliant series, and I was happy to see that Clementoni has a few Queen’s Gambit puzzles. This was also a really interesting image for a puzzle. I did the hair and skin first, then I pulled the yellow pieces for the chess pieces. The black dress was last, of course, and I did sort the pieces by shape at that point. Loved it!

Queen’s Gambit, Clementoni, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 22, 2023.

Mandatum for the Fatherland, 2023-10-17

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A duck is sleeping under a duvet with the Finnish flag. As usual, I have no idea what this is in reference of. I know the painting is from 2004, and I had a look at things that happened in Finland in 2004 and late 2003, but nothing stood out. Anyway, the puzzle was moderately challenging, but not too bad. I did the blue bits first, then the white, and finally the green grass.

Mandatum for the Fatherland by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 17, 2023.

Lightly at Midday, 2023-10-15

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Back to the Stenvall duck puzzles. The sky took quite some time to finish, but the rest was easy. No cranky ducks this time, this one looks pretty happy.

Lightly at Midday by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 15, 2023.

Space Above Lunar Horizon, 2023-10-11

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Cherry Pazzi was a new brand for me, and it turned out to be excellent. The pieces are thick and sturdy, and there is a good mix of piece shapes. There were no false fits, and the fit was tight, but not so tight that it was difficult to take apart. The finish is very smooth and pleasant. There was no puzzle dust. All over excellent quality from this Polish brand.

I loved the space themed image as well, of course. This was a great puzzle.

Space Above Lunar Horizon, Cherry Pazzi, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 11, 2023.

The VW Beetle, 2023-10-08

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This is, in theory, my kind of puzzle, but there were a few things about the design I wasn’t too happy about. For example, there is some text under every image, but it’s so small that you can’t even see that it exists in the complete image.

The VW Beetle, Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on October, 2023.

My favourite images:

Another thing I wasn’t too happy about was the amount of empty space. There were many images with tiny cars and a lot of background colour. I don’t really understand why.

Despite the few quibbles, it was still a very enjoyable puzzle.

The Whole, 2023-10-06

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Another image by one of my favourite artists for puzzles, Kandinsky. Obviously, I did the smaller images first, and things slowed down considerably when I got to the black part in the middle. In the end, I had about 120 pieces that were all black. I had a problem with a false fit, but managed to sort it out. D-Toys is not, unfortunately, all that good quality, but they have some nice images.

The Whole by Kandinsky, D-Toys, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 6, 2023.