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.

Titanic, 2023-02-23

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The last puzzle from my King box, and also probably the last King puzzle I’ll do for a long time. I can’t see myself buying more of these, the images would have to be really impressive and unique for me to even consider it. I shall no longer be seduced by vintage vehicles!

This was the most entertaining and also the easiest of the set (of five puzzles), there is even some text in there. The artist is Steve Crisp, and for my puzzle challenge, this is the second of two puzzles by the same artist (#28 and #29).

Titanic by Steve Crisp, King, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 23, 2023.

Next, I’m doing a Ravensburger!

Airshow, 2023-02-22

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Puzzle number four of five in my King box set. This was reasonably entertaining, and it was easy to work from top to bottom, which I like.

In my puzzle challenge, #28 and #29 are two puzzles from the same artist. I originally thought this meant that we were supposed to do four puzzles (two puzzles by the same artist twice), but have since realized it’s only supposed to be two puzzles total, and the whole challenge is 30 puzzles (not 32). Anyway, this will be the first of those two puzzles, the last puzzle in the box is also by Steve Crisp.

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Airshow by Steve Crisp, King, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 22,

Nostalgia, 2023-02-19

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When I started spreading out the pieces for this, they somehow felt sturdier and easier to handle than the two previous puzzles from the box set. I was a bit confused, but then I worked out that after doing two King puzzles, I’ve just gotten used to the subpar quality. This was no better and no worse than the first two puzzles in the box.

I’m especially fond of vintage vehicles, so I did find this really entertaining. The postman in the bottom left corner and his car also appear in Watching the Trains.

For my puzzle challenge, this is #18, vintage.

Nostalgia by Kevin Walsh, King, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 19, 2023.

Street Gallery, 2023-02-16

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I no longer buy King puzzles because the quality is poor, but about four years ago, I got a set of five 1000-piece puzzles. I already knew the quality was not great, but I caved because I liked the images. Since I will be able to use some of the puzzles for my puzzle challenge (not this one), I decided to finally get started on the set.

I chose to do the image that looked most difficult first. The pieces were thin, as usual, and they won’t lie flat, but I have to say, I didn’t have much trouble with false fits. Overall this was not as bad as I was expecting.

Street Gallery, King, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 16, 2023.

Most of the images are city or country landscapes, but there are some portraits, but my absolute favourite was this surrealist painting that looks like it could have been done by Dalí:

Here you can also see the cut, the pieces were either two tabs opposite, or they had one “wavy” side. I definitely prefer more variety.

Jaws, 2023-02-13

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This was a lot of fun! I remember complaining some time ago that there were too few puzzles with pop culture subjects available in Europe, but things have improved a lot lately. Especially Clementoni, but also Ravensburger have many puzzles with images from movies and TV-shows, and I’m loving it!

For my puzzle challenge, the shark in the middle makes this #21, a person or character I would not like to meet.

Jaws, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 13, 2023.

Student Days, 2023-02-12

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A very busy image, but it was fun to do. This is a new puzzle, so for my puzzle challenge, this will be #30, a puzzle published in 2023.

Student Days by Robert Howe, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on February 12, 2023.

Someone is on the phone, and the phone makes me think the artist must be as old as me 🙂

I especially liked this poster. I thought it was a piece of abstract art first, but I can now see it says “Jazz”, so probably a poster advertising a concert.

Kindred Spirits, 2023-02-11

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Sometimes, I get it wrong when choosing my next puzzle. Turns out, I wasn’t really in the mood for all this green, but I still finished it. It was slow, but at least the quality was superb. I did this for the monthly challenge in my puzzle challenge group. The challenge for February is “friendship”. (Valentine’s Day is called Friend Day in Finland, and it’s more about friendship and less about romantic love.)

Kindred Spirits by Anne Stokes, Clementoni, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 11, 2023.

Dortmund, 2023-02-06

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I’m back in Helsinki, but before I left, I finished this lovely puzzle with notable landmarks in Dortmund. I got it in a local bookshop, and the publisher (Landauf Landab Verlag) isn’t exactly known for puzzles, but they do swag for different cities. The quality was OK, but not excellent, I got the feeling that it will start to fall apart pretty quickly if you redo the puzzle many times. All in all, it was still really fun to do.

Dortmund, Landauf Landab Verlag, 1000 pieces. Completed on Fenruary 6, 2023.

Close-up of the stadium with a lot of black and yellow flags.

Snoopy & Woodstock: Professionals on the Ball, 2023-02-04

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This was lovely to do, but again, there’s a piece missing. No mystery this time, I got this puzzle from a charity shop, and most of the puzzles from there have missing pieces.

The sun, as well as the outlines of the characters and the goal glow in the dark, but not enough to get a good photo of it. For the puzzle challenge, this will be #22, the puzzle has some kind of effect.

Snoopy & Woodstock: Professionals on the Ball, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 4, 2023.