When I’m in Dortmund I like to order puzzles from German online shops and take advantage of free shipping. This time I ordered from puzzle.de. I try to order right before I leave for Dortmund so that there is as much time as possible for delivery.
For the first time, I had a bit of trouble with delivery (I expect DHL is quite overworked in these weeks before Christmas). The package was supposed to arrive on Friday 30th, but I didn’t get it until Wednesday 5th. I needed to stay inside waiting for the package for several days, but fortunately, it’s been raining a lot, and I wanted to stay in and puzzle anyway 🙂
There were 20 new puzzles:
Castorland, Pomegranate, Grafika and a Ravensburger puzzle from the Exit-series. The small cube is a wooden, 30-piece puzzle by Puzzle Michele Wilson (French).Mostly Grafika, also Clementoni, Trefl, Eurographics and Ravensburger.
I went to my local puzzle shop in Helsinki and was amazed to see some of the new Heye puzzles already on the shelves. They are not yet available in the German online stores where I buy most of my puzzles! No Opus 2 yet, though.
Gradient was the puzzle that I actually went in to get, but I picked up a few others as well…
The Zozoville puzzle is my first in this series.
Romantic town (by Ryba) is a new series where several puzzles form a larger image (like the Zoo-series by Marino Degano). I got one of the two puzzles now available in the series.
Inner Mystic is not the kind of puzzle I usually get, but it’s just so beautiful. Going to be difficult, though. I sort of thought I had gotten over buying puzzles that seem difficult even though the image is beautiful, but apparently not 🙂
On Saturday I enjoyed myself so much looking for puzzles that I went back for more on Sunday.
Lighthouses by Clementoni. Factory sealed and great images!The Royal Castle Drottningholm in Stockholm, Sweden.I like these old views of cities, this is probably from the 60s or 70s, Edinburgh. I don’t think I’ve ever had puzzle by Ingham Day before.The pieces are stored according to section, so this is probably not going to be too difficult, regardless of quality 🙂This has no title, and the Dutch brand, Wild Horse, is unknown to me. I got this for free, otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken it.Another unknown brand, Sure-Lox, is apparently Canadian. The picture is of the Royal Palace in Madrid.Some Star Wars fun courtesy of FX Schmid.And one more Tactic puzzle. I will be writing more about this soon.
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:
Definitely the best of the bunch. 3000 pieces, Clementoni. Good quality. I’ve never had one from the Mosaico-series before, only newer Clementoni puzzles. Oh, and I’m fine with Alpine landscapes again. I’d just had too much at one point. This is going to Dortmund.Play Time is a Dutch manufacturer, and all the pieces are the same basic shape. Not too hopeful about this one…
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 