Well, it did not take long for the first missing piece of 2024 to turn up, or rather, not to turn up (it’s a bit difficult to see, in a palm tree on the left). I seem to be having a some bad luck with missing pieces lately. Otherwise, the puzzle was enjoyable and I really liked the colours. It’s part of the Trefl Crazy Shapes-series, where starting with the edges is not an option, as you can see.
For my puzzle challenge, this will be #13, Moonlight.
Back to the Stenvall ducks. This was number 21/30, and I hope to be able to finish the rest of them this year. Puzzle quality was nice, although with a very loose fit. Only the dark area on top was a bit challenging.
I’m not a huge fan of Falcon, because even though the pieces are sturdy and there’s a good mix of piece shapes, it is prone to the odd false fit. But then again, I cannot resist vintage trams, and I’m not sorry I got this. It was a bit more difficult than expected, but enjoyable throughout.
Lovely little puzzle, and very fast to do. It says Made in the Czech Republic on the box, but the quality is the same as with Ravensburg produced in Germany.
The fit and cut is the same as with the previous Cherry Pazzi puzzle (that is to say excellent, except for the boring piece shapes), but there’s been a bit of a production snafu with this one – two pieces in the bottom left corner have doubles, and one piece is missing (on the left, between Neptune and Earth). I guess when you get a great quality puzzle for a very good price, some economies may have been made in production. I’ll still buy Cherry Pazzi puzzles, although perhaps not 500 piece puzzles (because of the boring cut).
I’m not sure if I’ve just been unlucky, of if there really are a lot more cases like this lately. Have you had more new puzzles with extra or missing pieces lately?
The second of the Star Trek Clementonis I got was thankfully complete, and a lot of fun to do. It was more difficult than I anticipated to know which piece belonged to which face, but still a fairly easy puzzle.
Clementoni has put out more 500 piece puzzles in VHS-type packaging, including some Star Trek images. This was otherwise lovely, but as you can see, there are 12 pieces missing in the bottom left corner. Looks like someone took a little bite out of the puzzle. I actually noticed that there are missing pieces really late, because I didn’t start with the edges, and got to the bottom left corner quite late. Oh well, these things happen.
My second Cherry Pazzi puzzle. The fit is still excellent, and the cut is nice and precise (no false fits), but unfortunately, all the pieces have the basic shape with two tabs opposite. Too bad, but it was still an enjoyable puzzle.
Not my kind of image, and that’s putting it mildly. I’m glad to finally have this done, it’s been sitting in my pile for a few years. Even though I don’t like the image, it was actually nice enough to do.
I did like the penguins, though.
This was one Christmas puzzle I really enjoyed (I’m not usually a fan). Not surprising, since I like pretty much anything kitchen-related as a puzzle image. I started with the Gelinis (except for the grey one, those pieces were impossible to pick out) and then started filling in the rest. Moderately challenging and great fun.
Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!
Puzzler1909 