This puzzle has wooden pieces, but very thin ones. The fit was too tight, and I would definitely have preferred cardboard. The puzzle cost no more than a cardboard puzzle, and I don’t think it’s possible to produce a good wooden puzzle and sell it at a profit for such a price.
A 3000-piece world map with far too much water. On old maps, they used to fill in with monsters and pictures of sea wrecks, much better than endless blue. Around the map, there are pictures of notable edifices (including Neuschwanstein, of course). Also, there’s a picture with the phases of the moon, but I can’t stop seeing it as a dial on an old telephone 😀
Central Berlin cartoon style. This was actually quite difficult, except for the heraldics.
Despite being 50, I only very recently got a driver’s license and a car (I don’t really need  one, it’s more of a luxury), and on Saturday I drove about 100 km north to Hämeenlinna and spent the day going through local flea markets looking for puzzles. Exercising enormous self-restraint I came back with only six puzzles:
The prices were much lower than online or in Helsinki.
One thing has started to bother me: where are all the Heye puzzles? I hardly ever see used Heye puzzles on offer in Finland, but I know many new ones are sold. I’ve bought Heye puzzles since the 90s, and the local store where I got Opus 2 always has all the new Heye puzzles. In fact, I talked to their jigsaw puzzle expert once (they have a lot of board games, not just jigsaws), and he confirmed that they always get all available Heye puzzles. So where do they all go? Perhaps they get sold on eBay for large sums? Still, not everyone would realize some Heye puzzles are valuable, surely? It’s a mystery.
Most map puzzles are world maps, and it’s always good to have a little variety. Less water than on a world map 🙂
A collage of Victorian scraps. This took longer than expected, mainly because I was doing other things 🙂 The image was not easy, but the quality is fantastic. I did the edges first, and even though there’s a lot of pale pink pieces with nothing else on them if a piece fit, it belonged. The same was true for the entire puzzle. This puzzle was released in 2006, and it makes me sad how much quality has declined since then.
Bought in thrift store, but complete.
What you might call a very traditional puzzle. Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. It was, of course, easy to pick out the pieces for sky, water, boat, palace and vegetation.
I think there is more variation in piece shape in the newer Schmidt puzzles, this must have had about 80% two-pegs-opposite-type pieces.
I bought this used, and the pieces were in two bags. I thought it was going to be really easy at first, but then I found three corner pieces in the first bag 🙂 I think the puzzle is from the late 90s, it says 02 99 one of the bags, and it could be the one where the pieces originally were.
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My post from yesterday somehow got backdated to December, but I fixed it now.
Maps, especially old maps, used to be one of my favourite puzzle themes, but eventually, I got a little tired of them. The same thing happened before with Alpine landscapes, but I would be happy to do either of those again.
World maps from the 17th and 18th Century usually show the two hemispheres as circles, and around everything, there are various illustrations, sometimes of ancient gods and myths, sometimes of scientists or scenes from world history. The world looks pretty much as it does on modern maps, except that Australia is usually missing, or at least severely disfigured. The first known landing in Australia by Europeans was by a Dutch ship in 1606, and even before that there were theories that there is an undiscovered southern continent (often present on maps as Terra Australis, Southern Country). Information about the landing was probably not immediately available to the map makers at the time, and even if it were, it wasn’t nearly enough to produce realistic maps. Also, India often looks way too small, and the far east is somewhat disfigured. But all in all, you know it’s our earth, not, say, Middle Earth of Tolkien. Which can not be said for some of the really old (mediaeval) maps…
Here are some old map puzzles:
On Saturday I enjoyed myself so much looking for puzzles that I went back for more on Sunday.
Today I went to several different flea markets (some are like garage sales, some more like thrift stores) and managed to pick up 9 puzzles. I used to buy almost all my puzzles like this because I couldn’t often afford new puzzles. I got quite bored with Alpine landscapes. Then, for a long time, I bought only new puzzles, with exactly the motives I wanted. (This, in turn, resulted in my eventually having enough of old maps, but more about that later.) Anyway, now and then IÂ like to pick up some puzzles that I would probably never work on otherwise. Today’s haul:
The 500-piece beach is a Tactic-puzzle. Tactic is a Finnish manufacturer, and the quality is good, but I usually find the images boring. This is only my second Tactic puzzle.
Next to it is a German puzzle, the manufacturer is called Spiel Spass (“Game Fun”), and this is the first puzzle I’ve had from them ( I always thought they only make children’s puzzles). It’s a triptych, with 500+1000+500 pieces, and it’s still factory sealed! It’s called Poppy Meadow.
The Schmidt puzzle is also factory sealed. The quality will, of course, be great, but it will not be easy…
I’ve done a Ravensburger Colosseum, and here’s a Clementoni version. A few clouds in that sky would not go amiss…
I almost left the Educa with Sagrada Familia, it’s going to be difficult.
Variant is another Dutch brand, and I know it’s not going to be good. I’ve tried it before, but I can’t remember a particular puzzle. What I do remember is that the quality was not good. Still, nice image.
Finally, more Alpine views from Ravensburger. The box looks like it’s been through the wars, I’ll be amazed if all the pieces are there. This was the cheapest, 0,50 €, with the most expensive (the 3000 piece Clementoni) costing 3,50 €. Not bad!
Puzzler1909 