This is the one I wanted most of the lot of four. Ravensburger from 2006, wonderful quality. I would love to do more puzzles with Graeco-Roman images, but for some reason there are many more puzzles with images inspired by ancient Egypt. What there is of Greece and Rome is often in the form of baroque paintings.
Oh, and I’m back in Dortmund again, there’s a game on Sunday 🙂
Another one from the lot of four puzzles. Pretty picture, but I’m a bit annoyed that the girls have to cook and wash up. Oh well, it’s from 1990.
Time to put away Opus 2.
I usually use the image on the box as opposed to the poster, but that wasn’t an option here – the box image is a quarter of the usual size, and that’s too small to be of any use.
I was also reminded of why I’m not a fan of the posters …
Anyway, next up Mathmaniacs by Ryba.
I got this on Ebay, and the seller claimed to have counted the pieces and found three missing. There are, of course, complete, factory sealed versions out there, but let’s just say those are not quite in my price range… Because the image is rather dated with the Windows 95-look, I don’t think Heye will be re-releasing this one (it’s from 1996), but I love it. The pieces were in 20 plastic bags (apparently the seller used this as a counting aid). It will be interesting to see how many pieces are actually missing.
Ready to go!
This was part of a lot of four puzzles. I really only wanted two of them, but this turned out to be fun as well!
The puzzle has no brand as such, it just says “Made in China” and “imported by Tiimari” on the box. Tiimari was a Finnish chain of stores that sold hobby supplies, although they didn’t carry many puzzles (they went bankrupt a few years ago). The size is indicated in inches, so Tiimari probably forgot to specify they wanted centimetres instead 🙂
Although the puzzle is grid cut, there are no pieces with two pegs opposite. The large majority of pieces have either no pegs of four pegs, with a few pieces with three pegs or one peg.
I prefer this to the usual two pegs opposite style of cheap puzzles, but maybe just because of the novelty. It’s a change, anyway.
I wasn’t expecting a quality puzzle, but it wasn’t too bad, actually. The pieces are hardly thick but sturdy enough to stay flat, and you have to pay attention in order not to place pieces wrong, but it’s not too bad. A nice little puzzle.
The box had the shape of a book, and the lid doesn’t stay closed very well. In fact, it had opened during transport so that all of the pieces were loose inside the parcel, but, amazingly, all the pieces are still there.
Done! This was the kind of puzzle where the last 500 pieces took the longest to place. I was supposed to do so many things this weekend…
Hours cake
Not a great photo, but it was a lovely puzzle.
This puzzle was part of a series called Orient, and I completed one other from the series, called Touring Egypt – The Temple of Karnak at Luxor, in April 2008, but unfortunately no photo of that one.
This is an old Ravensburger puzzle from the late 70s that has obviously been completed many, many times. The pieces are worn, and the colours have faded, but it was still a joy to do because of the fantastic quality. Oh, and there were 11 pieces missing. I got it for 0,50 € in a thrift shop.
So, back to Opus 2. The centre is now connected to the edges!
This is going to sound really strange, but when I got this about 10 years ago (it was a gift), I didn’t think of it as a puzzle, but rather as a piece of art. Perhaps because it was already assembled 🙂 The artist, Kata Kissoczy, has a shop in Prague.
So, I took it apart, and found that four pieces were stuck to the board:
I decided to use a bit of force:
… and found out that they are supposed to be there – yes, that’s glue. Oops! I don’t quite understand why, though. There’s also a hole in the board, presumably to hang the puzzle on a wall, maybe that’s why some pieces need to be glued to the board, to stop everything from falling off?
Anyway, while the pieces don’t really form an image of anything in particular, every single piece is a woman:
There are 41 pieces. While putting it together, the images didn’t help at all, of course, it was all down to shape.
Obviously, I chose to do this now because of Valentine’s Day, although I almost missed it. It’s not such a big deal in Finland (or Germany), and it has only become popular in the last 10 years or so. In Finland, it’s called “friend’s day”, and it’s not marketed exclusively as a romantic event, but also as a day to celebrate friendship. Happy Valentine’s Day, friends everywhere!
Another quick and easy 500 pieces.
Trefl is another Polish brand, and quite similar to Castorland: the cardboard isn’t as thick as Ravensburger, the pieces are a bit smaller, but the fit is good, and all in all they’re very good value.
Puzzler1909 