This turned out to be just as entertaining as I’d hoped, although it also kept me up far too late one night 🙂 It reminds me of a game I played on PlayStation 3, called Alice – The Madness Returns, and I loved that game. Most of the time was spent in a beautifully done wonderland, some of it in steam punk style, and then there were some shorter interludes in Victorian London. Anyway, despite being a bit dark, the puzzle was great, and even though I don’t think the Cheshire Cat was in any way dangerous, this is going to be #3, a nightmare, in my puzzle challenge. Because the overall feel here is definitely nightmarish.
Adventures with Alice, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 11, 2022
Golden Solar System, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on January 8, 2023.
I’m taking part in a puzzle challenge in a Finnish Facebook group, where there are 30 different subject matters or other aspects of puzzles, and we will try to complete a puzzle for every point during 2023. This is for #8 Horoscope.
This is one of the original Alice in Wonderland illustrations by John Tenniel. Great image, and it made for a pleasantly challenging puzzle. I also liked the random cut. The New York Puzzle Company has been on the European market for a few years now, but I now noticed that they have production in Europe as well. This puzzle was made in Germany. The markings on the bag looked like markings I’ve seen before in Heye puzzles, although the cut is completely different.
Alice in Wonderland by John Tenniel, New York Puzzle Company, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 7, 2023.
I didn’t quite know what to expect from this, I’ve never done a puzzle quite like this before. Fortunately, it didn’t turn out to be all that difficult, and the hardest part was the middle.
Green Flashdrive by Robert Swedroe, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 6, 2023.
Not the kind of puzzle I often do, but I liked it. Much to my surprise, the red dress turned out to be the most difficult part, and it was the last thing I completed.
Swans by Cris Ortega, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 1, 2023.
I closed out 2022 with two WASGIJ? puzzles. First up, Strictly can’t dance:
This was probably the first WASGIJ puzzle where I didn’t really know where it was going until close to the end. Usually they’re pretty easy to work out, for example, you might have an image of some horrified poodles, and when you spread out the pieces there’s lots of grey fur and teeth, and then you know it’s wolves, and the rest is just filling in the details. (As far as I know, there is no puzzle with poodles and wolves, that was just an example). Anyway, this was great fun, even though there was one piece missing. You can have a peek at the finished puzzle here.
The second WASGIJ was Late Booking:
Here I did know immediately why the tourists are not happy, but it still turned out to be my favourite WASGIJ so far. In fact, I’m going to have to think about possibly keeping this to do again, I loved it so much. You can have a peek at the finished image here.
That was it for 2022, more to come in 2023, of course!
This was just as nice as it looks. I worked this from top to bottom, and it was of course easy to pull the pieces for each part of the puzzle. Loved it!
Rainbow Beach Huts, Clementoni, 1000 pieces. Completed on December 25, 2022.
Not the easiest 500-piece puzzle that I’ve ever done, but the fantastic Ricordi quality made it a joy to assemble. The painting itself is not my favourite type of art, but it still made for a nice puzzle.
The Lovers of Vence by Marc Chagall, Ricordi Arte, 500 pieces. Completed on December 22, 2022.
A friend brought me this old wooden puzzle, possibly from the 30s. The brand is NK (Nordiska Kompaniet, a large department store in Sweden), and i think it’s no later than the 30s, possibly even earlier. The box uses an old word for jigsaw puzzle (“läggspel”), whereas we now use the word “pussel”. (My friend said that the earliest use of the word “pussel” she could find was from 1919, but I don’t think this is quite that old.)
There was no image on the box (just the title in Swedish, written by hand). I have to say this must be one of the most difficult puzzles I’ve ever done. Some of it was fun, like working out how the pieces fit together when every piece is completely unique, but the less fun part was that since this is not interlocking, I had to be extremely careful, the slightest touch could push the pieces apart. Also, there were a lot of missing pieces, that also increased the difficulty level. I counted 19 holes, but at least one is so big that that there should probably be two pieces there.
Bullfighting, NK, 350 pieces. Completed on December 18, 2022.
There were many whimsies, here are some examples:
Part of the horse was cut so that it followed the outlines, making it quite tricky:
Anyway, it was fun to get to try a puzzle like this, even though it turned out to be more challenging than I expected.
This was a Christmas present from last year that I finally got round to. It was hard, but nor quite as difficult as I was expecting. The quality was very good, and the random cut hepled as well in the dark parts. Unfortunately, one piece is missing (top right corner).
The image is, of course, the most famous painting by street artist Banksy, where the British members of parliament are shown as chimpanzees.
Devolved Parliament by Banksy, The Gifted Stationary Company, 1000 pieces. Completed on December 14, 2022.
Puzzler1909 