Category: Heye

Footballissimo, 2024-06-15

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Euro 2024 started on Friday, and I already finished my football puzzle for the tournament! A newer version of this image by Mordillo is currently available as a 4000 piece puzzle, but I’ve decided long ago that that’s more than my sanity can handle. This is an older version, and since it says 1982 on the box, it was probably produced for the 1982 World Cup in Spain. I don’t think I could handle more than 1500 pieces of this. The fit was, by the way, very loose, even for Heye. I started with the colourful text at the bottom, and then I completed the goals and the audience. The most difficult part was the playing field, and I relied on the image a lot.

Footballissimo by Mordillo, Heye, 1500 pieces. Completed on June 15, 2024.

There were lots of players that I’ve never heard of, but some old favourites as well. On the fence there’s a banner for Beckenbauer (Germany), who had already ended his career as a player by 1982. He died in January this year. Also on the fence is a banner for Platini (France), who was one of the stars of 1982. Roberto de Vicenzo is not a footballer, but an Argentinian golfer – Mordillo was also a fan of golf 🙂

Paolo Rossi (on the umbrella) turned out to be the tournament winner for Italy in 1982, and I had quite a few pictures of him on my wall.

I love the little guy in the middle!

Masquerade, 2024-06-07

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When I was spreading out the pieces for this one, I was expecting it would be a bit of a chore, but I really liked it. With this kind of image, you do end up looking at the box image quite a lot, but I didn’t mind.

Masquerade by Sven Hartmann, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 7, 2024.

There are a surprising number of cats in the puzzle, and many masks were worn by cats, not by people:

Here are some of my favourites:

This puzzle was produced in 2016, just around the time that Heye had a bit of a drop in quality. Unfortunately, this puzzle is affected, and the pieces were on the thin side, and the puzzle feels uneven when you run your hand over it. Not too bad, but the current Heye puzzles are better.

Car Cemetery, 2024-06-03

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This was a new Heye puzzle, from this year, and the artist Lectrr is new to me as well. The puzzle was fun, although I ended up looking at the box more than I was expecting.

Car Cemetery by Lectrr, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 3, 2024.

The police seems to be looking for a cat:

There something rather alarming in the car crusher:

The ice cream truck looks really good to me right now, we’ve had an unseasonable heat wave in Finland:

Plant Paradise, 2024-05-29

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A Heye puzzle from the Exotic Garden series. I’m not usually a fan of vegetation, but this is stylized enough to be interesting. It was OK, but I don’t think I’ll be getting any of the larger puzzles in the series. It was surprisingly challenging, despite the colours.

Plant Paradise by Marie Amalia Bartolini, Heye, 500 pieces. Completed on May 29, 2024.

History River, 2024-04-28

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This was a blast! Scenes from world history, with older times on top. I think the oldest event is the extinction of the dinosaurs in the top left corner.

History River by Hugo Prades, Heye, 1500 pieces. Completed on April 28, 2024.

Here are some of the older stuff, including Egyptians, Romans, and the eruption of Vesuvius.

Titanic on the left, Hitler on the right.

Some political commentary, showing refugees in a dinghy alongside a luxury cruise.

Very fun puzzle!

Jurassic Habitat, 2024-04-22

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Another puzzle from my favourite series, Funky Zoo by Marino Degano. I only have three more of these, and there will ne no new one this year, so I’m making them last.

Jurassic Habitat by Marino Degano, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 22, 2024.

Some rabbits want to usher in a new era (Dinos out – Mammals in):

The dinos also seems aware that they’re in danger:

Some of the recurring characters are here again, like the cleaning lady, and the mother who drops her child:

Stop-and-go, 2024-03-11

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I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, even though I ended up looking at the box quite a lot. I started pulling the pieces according to colour, first the yellow cars, I think, but at some point I gave up on that and just placed pieces here and there. This was an older Heye, it says 1998 on the box.

Stop-and-go by Mordillo, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 11, 2024.

There were some puzzle deliveries stuck in traffic:

In addition to normal cars and buses, there were some more exotic vehicles as well, like a train and a few tractors.

I really liked all the different vehicles, and the drivers and passengers were all individuals with their own style and facial expressions.

Grande Amore, 2024-02-29

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I finished it! And in the end, it wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be, I actually enjoyed most of it. I worked the puzzle from the bottom upwards, and it really helped that the background on the bottom was first green, then a lot lighter than higher up. About 2/3 in I sorted the rest of the pieces according to shape, but only two or three times did I resort to trying all theoretically possible pieces in a spot. It also helped that the fit was perfect, probably the best I’ve ever had with a Heye puzzle.

Grande Amore by Mordillo, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 29, 2024.

As I wrote earlier, for the puzzle challenge this is #23, out of the comfort zone.

Paradise, 2024-02-24

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I started this puzzle in Dortmund back in December, but I’ve had very little time here since then (none in January and a few weekends in February), so I’m actually quite surprised to see it finished already.

Paradise by Ryba, Heye, 2000 pieces. Completed on February 24, 2024.

On the left, it’s winter, and the people (all with halos) are doing winter sports and partying, while the on the right, they seem only to be partying.

At the table on the right, I think the man in the top hat is supposed to be Elvis, and the woman with the pink glasses Marilyn Monroe. On one of the trees, someone has carved Marilyn ❤️ Elvis.

There are some other familiar characters as well: poor Donald is about to be eaten by a snow man, but on the winter side, Goofy looks quite happy.

As a puzzle, this was quite challenging, especially the summer half, but there were lots of funny details to keep me entertained. I finished the winter half much earlier, and the last things I did were the two green trees.

I got this in 2017, and currently, the image is available as two separate 1000-piece puzzles (also by Heye).

Grande Amore, In Progress

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I’m in Dortmund for the weekend, but before I left, I started on what will be #23 in the puzzle challenge, “out of the comfort zone”.

I happened to find two factory sealed, vintage Heyes (they’re from around 2000) for a very good price, and that is the kind of situation where I tend to buy fast and repent at leisure. The swirling branches in this puzzle are no help in deciding where a piece belongs, and to me, this is much worse than just an area with the same colour. The only good thing I can say about it is that as long as you keep your eyes open there is virtually no risk of false fits.

Grande Amore by Mordillo, Heye, 1000 pieces.

There is a small part on the bottom that was easy, and I’ve done that:

I’ll get back to the rest of this on Tuesday. Wish me luck!