Another adorable Zozoville monster. I was expecting this to be more difficult than it was, it turned out to be pretty easy.
Love the rat (?) making a sketch of the main character:
Neighbourhood, 2022-06-06
Category: Helsinki
Cute Owls, 2022-06-02
According to my googling, Pintoo is a Taiwanese brand, but their puzzles are available in Europe, and I’ve been wanting to try one for a while now. The pieces are plastic and the fit is very tight, in some cases too tight, and I had to use quite a lot of force to get pieces into place. Obviously, the pieces hold together really well, in fact, I had to take them apart one by one. Not really my kind of thing, but if you’ve always wanted to do a puzzle in the rain, or while bathing, this would definitely be a good choice.
The edge pieces came pre-assembled in a separate bag. I couldn’t be botherd to attach them. The piece count (300) was without the edges, since the part I completed was exactly 300 pieces.
Cult Movies Puzzle Collection, 2022-06-02
I’m not usually a fan of novelty packaging for puzzles, but Clementoni’s new series of puzzles with movie posters in the form of VHS video cassettes is awesome:
The boxes are a bit bigger than actual VHS cassettes (they have to be for the pieces to fit in the box), but otherwise, they’re look quite convincing, right down to the “handwritten” labels and that little plastic square that you could remove to prevent the cassette from being recorded on.
The box is just big enough to hold the pieces, and that is my favourite feature in a puzzle box 🙂
I did the Blues Brothers first. The black parts were a little tricky, but with just 500 pieces it was OK.
Jaws was more entertaining as a puzzle, there was enough shades in the blue to keep it intersting.
I hope there will be many more puzzles to come in this great series!
Ave Caesar!, 2022-05-31
I finally managed to finish the Caesar puzzle, and I have to say, the audience was really difficult. I would have preferred to have something easier waiting for me when I got back from Dortmund this time, but I was too stubborn to start anything else before this was finished. There’s one piece missing, but it’s impossible to see from this photo (it’s in the shadowy part of the image).
There seems to be both gladiatorial combat and chariot races in progress. In reality, these two forms of entertainment actually belong in different venues, chariot races in the circus and gladiatorial combat in the amphitheater. Not sure if the audience used to throw water melons at contestants 🙂
The emperor looks bored.
Some of the wild beasts were in trouble…
… while others were doing just fine.
The puzzle is from 2004, and it’s excellent quality with a great fit. The arena part was great fun, but the audience was a bit too difficult. Still, I’m really glad that I got to do this puzzle, I thought I had missed the train on this one.
Ave Caesar! in Progress
I’m working on a rather tricky 2000-piece Heye from 2004. I was very happy to find it cheap, because I remember it from when it was available, but never got around to buying it, and then it was too late. Some puzzles are available for years, even decades, and others are gone so fast. It’s hard to know what to buy immediately, but my current policy of buying everything immediately is not really sustainable 🙂
It’s slow, but enjoyable. It will be miracle if all the pieces are there, the pieces were floating free in a Heye triangular box, and a couple jumped out when I brought the box in and put it down. I don’t mind, it was only 5 EUR. There’s no way I’ll be able to finish this before I leave for Dortmund on Friday, so it will have to wait until June. Here’s a better look at the image:
Rome, 2022-04-26
This puzzles is part of the Trefl Golden Cities series. I bought it used, but apparently, when new, these puzzles include some gold paint and a brush that you can use to put some finishing touches on the puzzle. This has not been painted on, the text “Rome” and the helmet doodle are part of the original puzzle, but there was no paint or brush. Fine by me, I only want the puzzle anyway 🙂 It was a nice and very enjoyable puzzle, even though the image is very traditional.
Insta-Girls Life, 2022-04-24
My first of the new Heyes from this year. This was one of the very few Marino Degano-puzzles that I’ve found to be just OK, instead of wonderful.
Almost the same image has previously been released as Pin-Up (1500 pieces), although there were some post me-too additions, like this:
Pac-Man, 2022-04-23
This was fun, and some serious 80’s nostalgia. While this seems to be an arcade version, Pac-Man was also available for home computers (probably the Commodore 64), and while I didn’t play much (that was more my brother’s thing), I can certainly remember the infuriating music (if that’s the right word) that accompanied the game. I’m sure you can find the sound online, but I don’t recommend you go looking for it. I definitely won’t 🙂
Staged Happiness, 2022-04-22
I’m back in Helsinki, and I finished the puzzle that I started before my Easter break. Another Kaj Stenvall duck image, but this one wasn’t as much fun as the previous one. The cut is extremely boring, with only the basic piece shape with two tabs opposite, and I also managed to place some pieces wrong. I really hate it when I have to go back and take apart pieces that I already placed. Anyway, this should be the last of my Stenvalls with this boring cut. I’ve actually seen a photo of this puzzle, completed, with a different cut and some variety in piece shapes. I must say, I’m at least glad it was this puzzle, and not the white one that had the bad cut 🙂
Coca Cola: Evergreen, 2022-04-10
I managed to find a Buffalo puzzle! I bought it used, and unfortunately, I forgot to ask the seller where she got it. Buffalo puzzles are not usually available in Finland, and this is only my second.
I was expecting this to be quite difficult because of the many white ColaCola texts against a red background. It wasn’t the easiest puzzle I’ve ever done, but when I got to the white-on-red texts (I did those last), I found it was possible to pick out the pieces for a particular logo.
I really liked this puzzle, and I actually also like coke – too bad you can’t get a bottle for 5 cents anymore 🙂
Puzzler1909 