Category: Dortmund

Ulysses and the Sirens, 2023-06-03

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I got my act together and finished it! The image is a scene from Greek mythology. Ulysses (now usually known as Odysseus) is going to pass a place where Sirens (birds with the head of a woman) lure ships onto the rocks. They do this by singing, and their song is irresistible to men. Odysseus wanted to hear the song and survive, so he sealed the ears of his men with wax and had himself tied to the mast (instructing the men they should under no circumstances free him until they were clear of the Sirens), and so Odysseus became the only man to hear the Siren song and live.

Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse, D-Toys, 2000 pieces. Completed on June 3, 2023.

While I really like the image, and especially the colours, much of the puzzle wasn’t all that pleasant, and it was mostly to do with the quality. I had quite a few false fits, and overall the fit wasn’t great. I was often unsure whether a piece really belonged where I’d placed it. I’ve done a few 1000-piece D-Toys puzzles, and those were definitely better. I probably won’t be doing any more 2K D-Toys puzzles.

Ulysses and the Sirens, In Progress

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I’ve been working on this 2000-piece puzzle for almost two weeks, and it’s not going that well. In fact, I almost certainly won’t be able to finish before I leave for Helsinki in a week, so it will probably have to wait until July. (One reason that it’s taking so long is that I’ve been playing a lot of computer games lately.) The image is a scene from Greek mythology by John William Waterhouse, and the pieces that are left are mostly shades of grey and brown. This is my first 2000-piece D-Toys puzzle, and it’s likely to be my last. I already knew that the fit can be ambiguous, but I think this is worse than the 1000-piece puzzles I’ve done before.

Fun Park Trip, 2023-05-16

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This was my second puzzle with an image by Swedish artist Anders Lyon, and while I enjoyed it, I liked Cruise a lot more. I started with the sky and the water, but after that I kept putting in pieces here and there.

Fun Park Trip by Anders Lyon, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 16, 2023.

Loved the rollercoasters:

The police are following a car with a chest of money on the roof:

[Life Magazine Covers], 2023-05-14

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This turned out to be even more fun than expected, I thought having the same word (“LIFE”) in the same font and colours over and over would be annoying, but it really wasn’t. Also, the background red is not always the same, there were variations, but even so, this was a rare case where I didn’t try to do the text first.

There is no title on the box, but all of the images are covers of Life magazine from the 1930s to the 1960s.

[Life Magazine Covers], Clementoni, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 14, 2023.

Here are some of my favourites:

I loved all of the space themed images (as usual), and the virus was so much fun (as a puzzle!). I was also surprised how much I liked the images with large crowds of people (it says Dodger rookies on this one).

Great puzzle!

Toadstool Cottage, 2023-03-25

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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

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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.

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.

Cosmic Dust, 2023-02-02

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Another puzzle from the Inner Mystic series by Andy Kehoe. Unfortunately, there’s one piece missing, and I can’t find it. Oh well, it’s a stunning image, anyway.

Cosmic Dust by Andy Kehoe, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 2, 2023.

[Astronaut], 2023-01-30

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Unfortunately, Clementoni hasn’t seen fit to name the puzzles in the Space Collection, but I’m calling this Astronaut. I’m especially fond of 500 piece Clementonis, and I also loved this image, so a great puzzle!

I’m sure that the equipment around the actual space suit is to help navigate and perform whatever tasks he will need to do, but it looks to me like he’s sitting comfortably in a chair 🙂

For my puzzle challenge, this is #27, space. And with that, I’ve already gone through half the list, 15 down, 15 to go! Not bad, considering the challenge runs for the whole year.

Astronaut, Clementoni, 500 Pieces. Completed on January 30, 2023.