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, 2023-02-02
Category: Heye
Satyrs, 2023-01-19
This puzzle was originally released in 2011, but I missed it then. Six years later I managed to find a copy on Amazon. That makes this #23 in the puzzle challenge I’m doing, “a puzzle long searched for”. They probably didn’t make many if these, it seems to be quite rare.
Satyrs are creatures in Greek mythology. They were companions of Dionysus, and the image here is of a big party.
The band:
There’s not only a black sheep, but also a wolf in sheep’s clothing:
Those are stamps, right? Not sure why a satyr would think stamps are the key to seduction, but then they weren’t very smart 🙂
Ciao Bambino!, 2023-01-13
This is an older Heye, it says 1988 on the box. I like these old Loup images, they’re less busy than the newer ones. The Heye cut, however, is much better now. I’m not usually one to complain about loose cuts, but this could barely be called interlocking, it was so loose. Another thing that detracted from the enjoyment was that the previous owner was obviously a heavy smoker. As it happened, this was the last puzzle that I completed before a trip to Dortmund, so I’ve left it out on the table, hoping that a good airing will help with the smell of cigarettes.
Swans, 2023-01-01
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.
Heye 2023 Catalog
Thanks to Hurray for Puzzles!, who alerted me to the fact that the Heye catalog for 2023 is out! There are some nice puzzles to look forward to, I’m especially happy to see a new installment in the Funky Zoo series by Marino Degano. It’s called Cosmic Habitat, and I can see how it might become difficult to think of new installments in the series, but I hope Degano can keep it going a while yet.
There’s also a re-release of two Degano puzzles, the That’s Life series. I actually already have the one on the right, now called High Above, although my copy from 2008 is called The Way to Heaven. I also had the other puzzle, now called Deep Down (although it was Labyrinth of Life before), but I’ve given it away at some point. That was a mistake, and I will probably buy it again 🙂
Both of the new Zozoville puzzles look great:
Three of the new puzzles I already have, the Inner Mystic puzzle Sylvan Spectre, Room with President, and Space World. There are some other interesting puzzles in the catalog, like the In/Outside series, but none of the new cartoon puzzles look like must-haves to me. So, in addition to the three I already got, there are only four must-have puzzles (Zozoville x2, Cosmic Habitat and Deep Down). I call that getting off lightly 🙂
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.
Alpine Fun, 2022-10-08
Fun puzzle, but I had some false fits, unfortunately. I did the top edge with the sky first, and there were several cases where I had to redo a couple of pieces. It wasn’t just the edge, there was also a case where I had already put in the piece below in the second row, and both pieces fit on the left, but then I couldn’t find the next pieces on the right. What you might call a double false fit. Anyway, I only had problems with the top few rows, after that the image made it really easy.
Say Cheese!, 2022-08-18
Doro Göber and Peter Knorr have done several cartoon cities for Heye, but this is the first I’ve done. This is definitely a Dutch city, and most likely Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected to. It wasn’t the puzzle, it was me, the puzzle is fine, and has lots of interesting details.
I also found a football reference: on the newspaper boat, it says “Oranje in de finale”, The Orange in the final. Oranje usually means the Dutch national football team, and they were in the world cup final in South Africa in 2010 (they lost to Spain). On the larger boat you can also see fans dressed in orange.
Jarantine, 2022-08-12
Another adorable Zozoville monster. The note on the jar says “2 weeks quarantine”. I love those bunny slippers!
Off On Holiday!, 2022-08-08
As it happens, I do have the next three weeks off, and I have no plans, which is the best kind of holiday.
This great image by Loup is part of this year’s releases, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the first release of this image as puzzle. Great fun, of course!
Puzzler1909 