Month: February 2024

Paradise, 2024-02-24

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I started this puzzle in Dortmund back in December, but I’ve had very little time here since then (none in January and a few weekends in February), so I’m actually quite surprised to see it finished already.

Paradise by Ryba, Heye, 2000 pieces. Completed on February 24, 2024.

On the left, it’s winter, and the people (all with halos) are doing winter sports and partying, while the on the right, they seem only to be partying.

At the table on the right, I think the man in the top hat is supposed to be Elvis, and the woman with the pink glasses Marilyn Monroe. On one of the trees, someone has carved Marilyn ❤️ Elvis.

There are some other familiar characters as well: poor Donald is about to be eaten by a snow man, but on the winter side, Goofy looks quite happy.

As a puzzle, this was quite challenging, especially the summer half, but there were lots of funny details to keep me entertained. I finished the winter half much earlier, and the last things I did were the two green trees.

I got this in 2017, and currently, the image is available as two separate 1000-piece puzzles (also by Heye).

Grande Amore, In Progress

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I’m in Dortmund for the weekend, but before I left, I started on what will be #23 in the puzzle challenge, “out of the comfort zone”.

I happened to find two factory sealed, vintage Heyes (they’re from around 2000) for a very good price, and that is the kind of situation where I tend to buy fast and repent at leisure. The swirling branches in this puzzle are no help in deciding where a piece belongs, and to me, this is much worse than just an area with the same colour. The only good thing I can say about it is that as long as you keep your eyes open there is virtually no risk of false fits.

Grande Amore by Mordillo, Heye, 1000 pieces.

There is a small part on the bottom that was easy, and I’ve done that:

I’ll get back to the rest of this on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Alice in Wonderland, 2024-02-20

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This is easily the most fun of all the Disney puzzles I’ve done. Lovely colours, and the details are not too small, or too big, but just right 🙂 I think I may be keeping this to do again.

Alice in Wonderland, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 20, 2024.

For the puzzle challenge, this is #17, Disney / fantasy.

Lekking, 2024-02-17

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Lekking is a mating ritual where male animals (often birds) show off. I had to look up the English word for this. The title of the puzzle is given only in Swedish, and it’s “Orrspel”, which is specifically the lekking of black grouse, a bird that is found mostly in Northern Europe.

The puzzle is wooden and probably from the 50’s. It was quite difficult, as there was no image on the box (as is usual for the period and brand). The sky, ice and snow mostly looked the same, and there was a lot of it.

Lekking, Nyckelpussel, 600 pieces. Completed on February 17, 2024.

As you can see, the bottom right corner piece is missing, but that happened while I was working on the puzzle. It was there, and then I noticed it was gone, and I can’t find it anywhere. I’m usually pretty chill about missing pieces, but knowing it’s in the flat and not being able to find it is much more annoying then just having a missing piece.

For the puzzle challenge, this is #9, done without looking at the image.

Krypt Silver, 2024-02-16

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One of the more difficult items on the puzzle challenge list is #24, “fits no item on the list”. That means a long list of things that are not allowed to be in the puzzle, including letters, fruit or a forest. Especially letters ruled out a lot of puzzles. Some would count this as #23, “out of the comfort zone”, but large areas with the same colour don’t really scare me, I have something much worse in mind for #23… For me, this is #24, “fits no other item on the list”.

Krypt Silver, Ravensburger, 654 pieces. Completed on February 16, 2024.

I did the edges and the innermost part of the circle first. After that I started using the map where you can see the exact cut (so that you always know exactly what piece shape you’re looking for ), and I also sorted the pieces by shape at that point. Then I started filling in the corners, and finally I did the circle from the outside in. At first, I found it a bit boring, but in the end I couldn’t stop and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it.

Fruits, 2024-02-14

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Lovely collage from the Eurographics Seed Catalogue Collection. It was a good mix of colourful fruit and text. Loved it!

Fruits, Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 14, 2024.

For the puzzle challenge, this is #6, fruit.

!§#¤!! good morning, 2024-02-08

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Another duck on a bed. The cut was not quite as good as with the previous one, it’s not bad, but a bit off. Some of the duck puzzles are like that, unfortunately, and I’m doing the newest puzzles last, so it’s likely to become worse. Despite the less than excellent cut, I enjoyed the puzzle a lot.

!§#¤!! good morning by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 8, 2024.

The Finnish title contains a non-censored swear word (Helvetin hyvää huomenta), and I might translate it as “Bloody good morning”.

For the puzzle challenge, #28-29 is two puzzles from the same series, and this is #29.

Distance Between a Near and Dear Friend, 2024-02-06

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Back to the Stenvall duck puzzles. I hope to have them all finished this year. This was actually a really entertaining puzzle. Doing these duck puzzles, I’ve come to realize how much I enjoy puzzles with large areas of similar colour, where there is a gradual change in colour tone, like the wall (and some other parts as well) that goes from very light on the left to quite dark on the right. The quality was also excellent, and the puzzle was factory sealed.

Distance Between a Near and Dear Friend by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 6, 2024.

For the puzzle challenge, #28-29 is two puzzles from the same series, and this is #28.

Supervised Feast, 2024-02-04

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This was a fun and reasonably easy. Some mice are having a party, feasting on ham, cheese and sausages.

Supervised Feast by Alexander Wolf, Piatnik, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 4, 2024.

I wondered about the title, but there really is someone keeping an eye on the feast:

For the puzzle challenge, this is #8, a party.

The Messenger, 2024-02-03

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#5 on the puzzle challenge list is “a jewel in my collection”. I actually have many puzzles that would fit, but the one I most felt like doing again was this lovely Artifact wooden puzzle, gifted to my by Stacey at My Jigsaw Journal. It was just as much fun the second time around, thank you again, Stacey! You can find close-ups of the whimsies in my first post about this puzzle.

The Messenger by Kevin Sloan, Artifact, 313 pieces.

Some other puzzles that I consider jewels in my collection: German Champions 2011, Balancement, Happy 2000, Space Odyssey, Space Travel Posters and lots of Heye puzzles by Marino Degano.  This is just off the top of my head, the list would become a lot longer if I were to consult my database…