Puzzles with lots of tiny details are not usually my favourite type of puzzle, but this was quite fun, and it fits right in with the puzzle challge as #22, “there are letters in the puzzle”.
Awesome Alphabet: C & D, 2024-01-28
Month: January 2024
Puzz’ Art Bird, 2024-01-27
Another brand that is new to me, it’s called Djeco. I’m unlikely to get any more Djeco puzzles, because the pieces would fit pretty much anywhere, I had to look very carefully at the image to get it right. I bought it at the recycling center for 1 EUR, and there was a note on it that one piece may be missing. Turns out, it’s complete, but it was still a mostly infuriating puzzle
Puzz’ Art Bird, Djeco, 500 pieces. Completed on January 27, 2024.
For the puzzle challenge this is #26, a shaped puzzle.
Giraffes, 2024-01-24
This is part of of Heye’s Tinga Tinga series showcasing African art. It’s a beutiful image, and it was an engrossing and quite challenging puzzle. Loved it!
For the puzzle challenge, this is #7, Africa.
Travel, 2024-01-21
Not sure why, but I thought this was going to be easy. Well, it sort of was, until I had done the grey, red and green suitcases, then it became a lot harder. Fortunately, it was a Clementoni of excellent quality, so it remained fun until the end despite being more difficult than I was expecting.
Jellyfish, 2024-01-19
This was my first Cavallini puzzle. They have some nice images, but they are very expensive, around 28-30 EUR for a 1000-piece puzzle. I got this one second hand for 5 EUR, and it was complete and in good condition. I worked it more or less from top to bottom, doing the parts with lighter blue background first, and the bottom right hand corner last.
I really liked the smooth finish, and I had no false fits. While there was a mix of piece shapes, the large majority of the pieces were of the basic variety. What I like least about this puzzle was the packaging: it comes in a tube:
This obviously doesn’t fit with any other puzzle packaging, making it difficult to store and as annoying as the Heye triangular boxes. The pieces are in a cloth bag, and I thought I had two missing pieces at one point, because two pieces had stuck to the cloth. If I ever do another of these, I will turn the bag inside out, not just pour the pieces out.
For the puzzle challenge, this is #18, a (vintage) Educational poster.
Talking about packaging, I’m happy to see that both Cobble Hill and Clementoni have put out smaller boxes recently:
On the right, a smaller new box, on the left, a standard box. I hope this catches on!
Back to the Future, 2024-01-19
This is from the Cult Movies Puzzle Collection by Clementoni, with packaging that looks like a VHS cassette. The black parts were a bit tricky, and I sorted by shape at the end, but still fun, relatively easy puzzle.
For the puzzle challenge, this is #21, a vehicle that I’ve never travelled in / would like to travel in. It would be great to be able to visit the past 🙂
I recently spotted a puzzle, while watching another movie from the 80’s. This is from John Carpenter’s excellent The Thing (1982):
An MB puzzle, looks like 1600 pieces (CORRECTION: the puzzles in the series had 1500 pieces), and it says “super challenge” on the box, I think. I couldn’t get a clearer image, I’m afraid, the puzzle was not exactly the focus here 🙂
Heaven and Hell, 2024-01-18
I had a look in my database to see what puzzle has been sitting in my to do pile the longest, and it turned out to be this Heye puzzle that I got in 2008.
It was great fun, with lots of funny details. I thought the piece on the left was part of a Madonna with child statue, but it turned out to belong further down 🙂
Surprisingly, the devils have been able to sneak into heaven, although there are some fierce looking nuns with clubs that try to keep them in line:
Apparently, the bosses both upstairs and downstairs have a telephone, and they seem to be on a call with each other:
I hadn’t planned on using this for the puzzle challenge, but since I noticed that there are several religious buildings in the middle part of the puzzle, I’m counting this as #13, a religious building.
Tropical Island Charter, 2024-01-15
It’s always such a pleasure to start a Ravensburger puzzle after doing other brands for a while – I guess there’s not much doubt what my favourite brand is. This was every bit as entertaining as it looks – I loved it.
For the puzzle challenge I’m doing, this will be #3, a dream (the Finnish word means something that you’d very much like to do, not the kind of dream you have at night).
By the way, I found one of the missing pieces I was complaining of around New Year. I’ve started wearing oversized fleece hoodies at home, and they all come with a giant pocket in front. You can probably see where this is going – I found the missing piece from Miami Beach, 2024-01-06 in one of those pockets. Unfortunately, I had already passed on the puzzle, and I have no way of finding out who got it (I used the recycling room in our building).
Comedy Illuminating Florence, 2024-01-14
This painting from 1465 by Domenico di Michelino was commissioned for the Cathedral in Florence, and it is now housed in a museum beside the cathedral, along with a lot of other art that was originally in the church itself. The image shows Dante Alighieri presenting his famous work, the Divine Comedy, to Florence.
There was no brand name on the puzzle, just the name of the museum, but it turned out to be OK. The fit was so tight, that I often had to to use force to get the pieces into place, but otherwise it was fine. I really enjoyed the image, and I wish there were more puzzles with renaissance art.
With 384 pieces, this was the same size as regular 300-piece Ravensburger, and for my puzzle challenge, this makes it #10, a puzzles with pieces smaller than usual.
Monopoly, 2024-01-14
Monopoly is not, in my experience, a game that promotes harmony at home, but it does make for a good puzzle image. This is the German version, since I bought it from puzzleoffensive.de. The puzzle was published by Winning Moves, and they seem to be a producer (or distributor) of games, not so much puzzles.
The quality initially seemed good, with sturdy pieces, and a grid cut with a good mix of piece shapes. Unfortunately, there were quite a few false fits. The cut was also strange in a way that I don’t remember having seen before. In the image below, you can see that every piece has a long side and a short side, and the knobs and holes on the long side always have a square shape, whereas the knobs and holes on the short side have a round shape, and are also smaller.
The false fits made this much harder than you would expect from the image. I’m glad I decided straight away to do the edges last – it would have been impossible to get it right without the rest of the puzzle already done.
For the puzzle challenge I’m doing, this will be #16, a game.
Puzzler1909 