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.

Birdwatching, 2023-05-02

puzzler19095 Comments

Schmidt has really upped their game in the last few years, especially with regard to images. The quality was always great, but now the images are as well. This year, they have a series with four Aimee Stewart images, and I already have three of them.

This puzzle was just as entertaining as it looks, I loved it. It was fairly easy to pick out the pieces for the different areas, the Victory Canary Songster with the red background was easiest and first, and the dark parts of the binoculars were last.

Birdwatching by Aimee Stewart, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 2, 2023.

As usual, the rather tight fit is very pleasant when putting the puzzle together, but makes taking it apart a bit of a chore. I had one damaged piece, but since the image layer piece is still there, it will be easy to fix:

Flower House, 2023-04-30

puzzler19091 Comment

Not my usual style, but I enjoyed it, and the colours are really nice. I have no idea where this puzzle came from – it turned up at my desk in the library, which means a colleague must have brought it in for me, but I have no idea who. Thank you, whoever you are!

Flower House, Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on April 30, 2023.

Titanic – First Accounts, 2023-04-23

puzzler19092 Comments

The name of the puzzle is also the name of a book, and this is the cover image. The book contains stories told by survivors of the disaster. I actually wanted to do this for the anniversary of the sinking on April 15 1912, but I missed by almost a week.

This turned out to be a bit more challenging than expected, there was quite a lot of sky, and the box was quite small and of the usual shape, meaning that with the panorama shaped puzzle, the image on the box was very small. I’m not usually a fan of posters, but this time, I could have used one.

Titanic – First Accounts, New York Puzzle Company, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 23, 2023.

All of the previous NYPC puzzles I’ve done had a random cut, but this was a standard grid cut, fortunately of good quality. I also found the explanation on the box:

It seems, it makes more sense to have production in Europe than to pay for shipping over the Atlantic. I’m a bit sad about the missing random cut, most of the puzzles I do are grid cut, and I like some variety. Eurographics also has production in Germany, but those puzzles are random cut, so not impossible, although my impression is that random cut is much more usual in the USA.

Coffee Time, 2023-04-16

puzzler19095 Comments

As I think I’ve already established on this blog, for me, no time is coffee time, but even though I don’t drink coffee, this made for a very entertaining puzzle. Especially the black background was challenging, and I had one tricky false fit. Still loved it!

Coffee Time, Trefl, 500 pieces. Competed on April 16, 2023.

Today is Mayday Eve (vappu in Finnish), when most people drink something stronger than coffee. To recover, we all have the day off tomorrow. Happy May Day!

Gothic Novels, 2023-04-16

puzzler19092 Comments

I’m not sure how many of these images are references to specific books, but I definitely see the portrait of Dorian Gray, maybe Wuthering Heights on the left, and both the coffin and the coach reminds me of Dracula. Fun, but maybe not quite as much fun as I expected.

Gothic Novels, Gibsons, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 16, 2023.

The puzzle is from the Gibsons Book Club series. Qualitywise, the puzzle was good, but I was sad to see that Gibsons seem to have gone back to their old type of waxy finish. I very much preferred the smooth, silky finish that they’ve had in the past few years. Oh, well.

Vintage Posters: Transport, 2023-04-13

puzzler19093 Comments

It’s been over three weeks since I last posted, but I’m still here. I haven’t been puzzling much lately, but I never stop completely.

This was, of course, great fun! There are three posters with bicycles, one with a car race and five with trains. Vintage trains is one of mt favourite subjects for a puzzle.

Vintage Posters: Transport, Piatnik, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 13, 2023.

It’s almost impossible to see in the image, but there’s a piece missing, from the middle image, in the black tree. I did actually find that piece after I had taken the puzzle apart.

Road Trippin’, 2023-04-01

puzzler19093 Comments

This was great fun! The puzzles in the Zozoville series often look more challenging than they are. and this was no exception. There is so much variation in the background that it never gets boring. The first thing I did was the map, and the last the rocks on the bottom.

Road Trippin’, Heye, 2000 pieces. Completed on April 1, 2023.

Toadstool Cottage, 2023-03-25

puzzler19092 Comments

This cottage looks so nice that it made me forget that I don’t usually like this much vegetation. The puzzle ended up much easier than I expected, because it was in two bags, so it was really two 1000-piece puzzles. I did the more difficult, left half first, but only the foliage on top was really hard. The second half was easier, but the flowers in the bottom right corner took a while.

Toadstool Cottage, Castorland, 2000 pieces. Completed on March 25, 2023.

Cheshire Cat, 2023-03-20

puzzler19093 Comments

There is no title on the box for this puzzle, but it’s clearly a version of the Disney Cheshire Cat (and indeed, there is a Disney logo on the box). The cat itself was pretty easy, but the background with the green and red dots took a while to do. Great fun!

[Cheshire Cat], Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on March 20, 2023.