Author: puzzler1909

I share my time between my native Helsinki (Finland) and Dortmund (Germany), where my football team Borussia Dortmund lives. This blog is about my puzzling actvities in these cities.

Alice, 2023-07-30

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Disappointment doesn’t begin to describe my experience with this puzzle. I’ve had the odd Ravensburger with a missing piece where I’ve suspected that I maybe didn’t lose the piece myself, but I’ve never had anything even remotely like this. Seven pieces missing and two extra pieces (doubles) in a 300 piece puzzle. This is is a massive fail in quality control, and I’m shocked to see such a thing with a Ravensburger.

Alice, Ravensburger, 300 pieces. Completed on July 30, 2023.

I did contact Ravensburger, and they answered promptly, offering another copy of the puzzle. When I declined, they offered me a choice of any 300-piece puzzle (with normal pieces, like this one, not the XXL-pieces) currently in stock. I guess I’ll take them up at that.

The puzzle was produced in 2022, and it’s part of the Disney 100 series celebrating 100 years of Disney.

Cupcake Party, 2023-07-28

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This was just as much fun as it looks like. I was actually quite relieved to find that the puzzle had random cut, since some Eurographics puzzles now have a grid cut with just the basic piece shape. I was expecting to do the coffee first, but somehow the blue cupcake with silver sprinkles was the one that stood out the most.

Cupcake Partym Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 28, 2023.

The puzzle came in a pretty nice metallic box:

There was a poster as well, but I didn’t use it.

Hammer House of Horror, 2023-07-13

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There has been very little puzzling going on this month, I’m afraid, but this was an absolute pleasure. I’m not sure why, but I was a little suspicious of Aquarius, but based on this one puzzle, it seems to be an excellent brand. The pieces are thick and sturdy, and the cut is a grid cut with a good mix of piece shapes. I was prepared to put up with subpar quality, since a collage of horror movies is pretty much the best puzzle image I can think of, but happily, I didn’t have to.

Hammer House of Horror, Aquarius, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 13, 2023.

I have a DVD box set of Hammer films, and many of the films in the puzzles are included.

There was also a couple of extra pieces in the box:

The pieces fit with the image in the top row, but they were clearly meant to be discarded (and most of them were).

The Solar System, 2023-07-09

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I loved doing this! There were strong colours and a space theme, and even some text, although it’s so small that I can hardly read it. This was a Eurographics puzzle manufactured in Europe, but with a grid cut (previous European Eurographics have been random cut). There was a good mix of piece shapes and the cut was excellent, so no complaints.

The Solar System, Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 9, 2023.

In the image, each planet gets its own pane, and on the far right, there’s the sun, on the far left, a pane for dwarf planets. Here’s a close-up of Earth and Mars:

Milk Tooth, 2023-06-30

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Another Zozoville puzzle, this time not belonging to me, but loaned to be by friends. This was lovely, and quite easy to do. Notice how the tooth that’s come out also looks happy 🙂

Milk Tooth, Heye, 500 pieces. Completed on June 30, 2023.

Beach Boy, 2023-06-25

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Another adorable Zozoville monster. Like most of the Zozoville puzzles, this was pleasantly challenging. I did the monster first, then the sea, and finally the sand.

Beach Boy, Heye, 1500 pieces. Completed on June 25, 2023.

Fantasy Forest, 2023-06-19

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This was something different! A wooden Ravensburger puzzle. It’s manufactured in Poland, and it turned out to be very similar to the Trefl wooden puzzles. The cut is excellent, and the puzzle was a complete joy to put together. The pieces are a bit thinner than some premium brands, like Artifact, and they are also smaller (the finished puzzle is 40×27 cm, when a cardboard 500 piece Ravensburger is 49×36 cm), but the fit is great, and the price was very reasonable – I paid 24 EUR for this.

Fantasy Forest, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on June 19, 2023.

Here’s a close-up of the cut:

There were 40 whimsies, and with the exception of the wizard hat, I think every item can be found in the puzzle itself:

The owl whimsy is even part of the owl:

On the back, there was a pattern, similar to patterns on Trefl wooden puzzles:

It occurred to me that this sort of pattern would be really useful with a puzzle with an ambiguous cut, but it’s not at all needed with an excellent cut like this. Too bad the puzzles that need this never have it.

Portal of the four Realms, 2023-06-14

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Fantasy type image, although it seems more like the four seasons than the four realms. On the left, it is clearly winter on top, and an autumnal scene below. Not sure which is summer and which spring on the right though. The winter pieces were the easiest to pick out, but turned out to be the hardest to put together, so that I pulled them first but ended up doing that section section last.

Portal of the four Realms by Rose Catherine Khan, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 14, 2023.

Quality was, again, top notch. I’m getting more and more fond of the rather tight fit that Schmidt has nowadays, it’s very satisfying when putting the puzzle together, but a bit of a pain while taking it apart.