I don’t have much to say about this, except it was great quality as usual from Schmidt, and great fun.
Jams and Marmelade, 2022-12-10
Category: Helsinki
Schönbrunn, 2022-12-10
A collage of images of the imperial palace Schönbrunn in Vienna, and of the castles most famous inhabitants, the Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife, Empress Elisabeth. Elisabeth was a very popular figure, but she found it hard to adapt to the formality of the Austro-Hungarian court. She was eventually murdered by an Italian anarchist in Switzerland in 1898, aged 60. Her life (especially her youth as a glamorous empress) has inspired many movies, the most famous of which are from the 50s and starred a young Romy Schneider. The films were a huge hit in German speaking areas, and they were popular in Finland as well (my grandmother loved them). Netflix now has a TV-series about her called The Empress, and I just heard that there will be a second season.
The puzzle itself was nice. It’s an older Piatnik (I would say at least 20, maybe 30 years old), an Austrian brand. The quality is generally good, but you do get the odd false fit.
Celebrating Our Glorious Queen, 2022-12-04
This puzzle was released to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in the summer of 2022. I had been meaning to get a puzzle to do after the queen has passed, and I put in an order on August 28. Two weeks later the queen had died, but since my order contained a lot puzzles that were not in stock, I decided to wait. Well, I finally got tired of waiting and cancelled the remaining two puzzles that still weren’t in stock. So here, finally, my tribute to Her Majesty Elizabeth II, who was also a puzzler.
The puzzle was easy and fun. There are images of the Queen, her parents, her sister, and her husband.
The Liljestrand House in Winter, 1860, 2022-12-06
It’s Independence Day in Finland today, so here’s a painting by Finnish 19th Century artist Magnus von Wright. This was a very pleasant assembly, and as with many older Tactic puzzles, the quality was excellent. The Christmas tree in the image looks like it’s on its way out, which would make this January 1860.
Cobblestone Evening, 2022-12-01
There are lot of puzzles with paintings by Thomas Kinkade, but I think this is the first I’ve done. I got it cheap (3 EUR for a factory sealed copy), but I was expecting it to be really difficult. It wasn’t, really, and my dislike of green vegetation seems to be mostly about photographic images. The great quality helped too, of course. Like many Schmidt puzzles, it had a rather tight fit, which is pleasant while assembling, but a bit annoying when taking the puzzle apart. Anyway, I loved it!
Mystic Skies, 2022-11-27
My first puzzle from Ravensburger’s Nature Edition series, and I found it very enjoyable and relaxing.
I bought the puzzle used, and when I opened it, I thought I would have a pre-sorted puzzle:
It didn’t turn out quite like that, but the bags and trays were some help. One of the trays contained maybe 80 % of the edge pieces, and one of the bags had almost all of the bridge pieces, but otherwise, the bags and trays seemed rather mixed. Anyway, it was some help, and I did this one from top to bottom, starting with the sky and finishing with the bridge.
Desktop Murder, 2022-11-27
A mystery puzzle from the 80s (it says 1984 on the box)! There’s a story: a chauffeur to the rich and famous is writing a tell-all book, and Jessica Fletcher is helping with the editing, but of course the chauffeur ends up dead. There are some suspects, and Jessica gives us three tings to look for (or prove) in order to find the murderer. I could only work out one, but it was still great fun. The solution was inverted, so that you had to read it in a mirror 🙂
The puzzle itself was pretty dark, and Paul Lamond Games is not exactly great quality, but at 550 pieces it was OK. You can have a peek at the image here.
Sylvan Spectre, 2022-11-26
Hurray for Puzzles! recently made me aware that Heye has posted some upcoming puzzles on their webpage. There is still no full catalog for 2023. At least three of the puzzles (on the second page, so probably entered earlier than the rest) are already available, and this puzzle is one of them. The date on the bag was in June 2022, but the puzzle is not in the 2022 catalog, and neither are the other two puzzles that I got.
Anyway, this is an installment in Andy Kehoe’s Inner Mystic series. Like other puzzles in the series, they are not the easiest puzzles, but also not as hard as they look. I loved this, and I was happy to see Heye back to a proper grid cut with no false fits after another new Heye had a strange mix of grid and ribbon cut.
Amsterdam, 2022-11-20
Very busy image of Amsterdam, with lots of funny details, but pretty difficult. This one was on the table for a full week (it was also a week where I spent most of Wednesday to Sunday at a film festival).
Some of the children were wearing crowns, so there’s probably some local holiday going on. Google brought up the opening of parliament in September, Prinsjedag (prince day?), as a possible candidate.
This was my favourite detail in the puzzle! Frans Le Roux gives a nod to fellow Dutch artist Jan van Haasteren, who is known to always include a shark fin in his images. Van Haasteren is, of course, a prolific artist for Jumbo puzzles.
Le Nid Porte-bonheure, 2022-11-13
The title is in French, and as far as I can make out, it means “The Nest Lucky Charme”. I love the image, but it was much more difficult than I expected. Not as bad as my previous puzzle by the same artists 🙂 It took a while to get into, but I did enjoy it in the end.
Puzzler1909 