Calypto was a new brand for me, a French one, and the puzzles are manufactured in France. It started out well, a grid cut with a good mix of piece shapes, and the cut is nice. The pieces have a waxy finish. There is also a poster that is as big as the finished puzzle. On the box image, the clouds in the sky are different from the puzzle, but poster and puzzle are the same.
I’m sure you can see where this went wrong – there are seven pieces missing.
La Provence, Calypto, 500 pieces. Completed on May 25, 2024.
There were also two pieces with doubles:
This is not a good look for a new brand, I’m afraid.
After the immensely difficult and frustrating Borussia Dortmund puzzle this was such a pleasure. The usual Ravensburger 300-piece puzzles are also nice, but I especially like the series with XXL pieces. I’m keeping this for my old age when I will need the large pieces.
The Pharao’s Legacy, Ravensburger, 300 pieces. Completed on May 23, 2024.
This vintage Ravensburger with a pre-Soviet collapse map of Europe was less entertaining than I was hoping. First of all, there were a lot of hairs in the box, both human and animal, I think. While I don’t wear a hairnet while puzzling, I do try to remove any hairs before I pass the puzzle on.
Another thing was that the compass was much further north in the puzzle itself than on the box, which caused me to think I must have some false fits somewhere, even though the fit was the usual great Ravensburger quality. It also didn’t help that the two missing pieces were from the sea.
The actual countries was fun, and unsurprisingly, Finland and Germany came together first.
Map of Europe, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 16, 2024.
This was actually more difficult than I was expecting it to be. I started with the flowers, pulling the pieces for one colour at the time, and filled in the rest here and there.
Gardener’s Paradise by Dona Gelsinger, Ravensburger, 2000 pieces. Completed on May 11, 2024.
Sometimes I enjoy a traditional landscape, and since this was more sea and stones and less vegetation, I really liked this. I got it from a charity shop in Dortmund, where almost all puzzles seem to have missing pieces. This was no exception, but there was also one piece with a double, so maybe this time, it was more Ravensburger’s than the previous owner’s fault.
Seaside Beauty, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 4, 2024.
Movie poster collages always make for enjoyable puzzles, and this was no exception! I have actually seen most of the movies in the image, there are only about five that I haven’t seen or am unsure about. I could have done without the popcorn and other movie paraphernalia in the image, but it was still a really nice puzzle.
Blockbuster Movies of the 60’s, Master Pieces, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 2, 2024.
This was a blast! Scenes from world history, with older times on top. I think the oldest event is the extinction of the dinosaurs in the top left corner.
History River by Hugo Prades, Heye, 1500 pieces. Completed on April 28, 2024.
Here are some of the older stuff, including Egyptians, Romans, and the eruption of Vesuvius.
Titanic on the left, Hitler on the right.
Some political commentary, showing refugees in a dinghy alongside a luxury cruise.
I seem to have taken some weeks off blogging, but I have been puzzling, at least a bit. Before I get into those puzzles, I thought I’d show you this untitled puzzle from the Borussia Dortmund fanshop that I finished today. Unfortunately, all of the pieces had the same basic shape, and the cut was not good, so that I had a lot of false fits. I’m usually not a fan of posters, but this time I really needed it, and every piece had to be carefully checked against the image to make sure it really belonged. There was no indication on the box who actually made this puzzle.
Untitled, Borussia Dortmund, 1000 pieces. Completed om May 22, 2024.
Borussia Dortmund wrapped up the domestic season (that was almost as infuriating as this puzzle) in fifth place last Saturday, but amazingly, in the Champions League, Dortmund has managed to reach the final, to be played at Wembley (London) on June 1, against Real Madrid. It’s only the third time in the club’s history that they’ve reached the final. I won’t be in London, but I did manage to be at the home legs of both semi- and quarterfinal, and those were some amazing games.
Oh, I almost forgot: this is post number 1000 on the blog!
Puzzler1909 