Fraud!

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Yesterday I found a new charity shop close to where I live in Dortmund. They get everything as donations, and the proceeds go to charity. They have no prices, you get to decide how much you want to pay. They have mostly books, but there were a few puzzles as well. It’s a really nice, cosy, place, and they offer coffee and cookies. I went in and got a book and two puzzles. One of the puzzles is a 500-piece Spielspass puzzle with 3D effects. As soon as I opened the box I could see something’s wrong:

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That’s nowhere near 500 pieces! I counted them, there are 182 pieces in there. There was also a piece of cardboard in the box, otherwise, I might have reacted to how light it was, and I think that’s why the cardboard is there. I just can’t understand why someone would do something like this, it’s not like the charity shop pays anything.

Anyway, I’m not upset (just mystified), all that happened was that I gave some money to charity. There are worse things 🙂

I’m not going to try putting the existing pieces together, partly because there are less than half left, and partly because the pieces are all the same basic shape (boring and difficult). I usually don’t mind missing pieces, but this is just too much. It’s going in the bin, obviously.

I once did a puzzle with about 50 pieces missing (piece count about 1000-1500, I don’t remember exactly anymore) and I remember it fondly, actually. It was like a reminder that in puzzling, as in life, it is best to work with the pieces you have instead of looking to fill the empty places. I often think that the goal of putting a puzzle together is not to form a complete picture but to reduce the number of pieces until there is only one. That way it’s not a failure even if there are pieces missing. Except, of course, when there are so many missing pieces that you may end up with many small puzzle islands 🙂

The other puzzle I got seems fine:

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I’ll miss out on the augmented reality bit since I don’t have an iPhone or iPad, but everything looks to be OK with this puzzle.

Football History, 2018-06-21

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Football History by Alex Bennett, Heye, 3000 pieces, finished on June 21st, 2018.

During the world cup in the summer of 2018, I completed this puzzle while following the games. It came in two bags, and I didn’t mix them. This seems to be a new thing, having 3000-piece puzzles in two 1500-piece bags, this was the second I’ve seen (the first was a new Schmidt-puzzle).

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The puzzle is full of details from the history of football, up to the 2016 European Cup.

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During World War 1 the troops in the trenches take a break from fighting during Christmas and play a game of football.
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The old World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet trophy, in Brazilian hands. In 1970, Brazil won the World Cup for the third time and was then allowed to keep the trophy. Sadly, it was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.
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The new trophy, still in use.
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Marco Tardelli celebrates scoring in the World Cup final of 1982. Italy won the game against Germany 3-1.
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Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita, also known as El Loco, performing his scorpion kick (1995). Sometimes Higuita would take the ball off an attacker and go on the attack himself. That did leave his own goal vulnerable, but it was great fun to watch. I especially remember him from the 1990 World Cup. In 2018 he appeared as an expert on German television.
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French player Zinedine Zidane headbutts the Italian Marco Materazzi in the 2006 final. It was Zidane’s last game as a player, and he was sent off. Later, it became known that Materazzi had insulted Zidane’s sister to provoke him. The game ended 1-1 and Italy won on penalties.
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Mario Götze scores the winning goal for Germany in the 2014 final between Germany and Argentina. Götze played for Bayern München in 2014, but he is now back in Dortmund.
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I was of course interested to see if there was anything about my team Borussia Dortmund in the image. And there was: in 1999 Bayern München goalkeeper Oliver Kahn bites Borussia Dortmund player Heiko Herrlich during a game in Dortmund. Herrlich later said it was more of a nibble, not a proper bite. Kahn now works as a football expert on German television, and Herrlich was fired before Christmas at Bayer Leverkusen, where he was the manager.

In the 2019 Heye catalog there is an updated version of the puzzle, with scenes from the 2018 World Cup, but I’m going to stick with this one 🙂

The Witches Kitchen, 2019-01-31

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UPDATE: There are now further details and spoilers about the series on the dedicated page. There is also an individual spoiler page for this puzzle.

My second puzzle in the Exit series. Since the puzzle is a bit different than the image on the box, I’m not going to show the finished puzzle. There’s a photo on the Jigsaw Wiki if you want to see it.

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The Witches Kitchen, 759 pieces, Ravensburger. Completed on January 31st, 2019.

Again there was a backstory: you’ve eaten the wrong kind of mushroom, you find yourself in the witches kitchen and have to find an antidote.

Next, I completed the puzzle, and it’s a great one. Really enjoyed it! By the way, if you ever do a puzzle in this series, do NOT try to do the edges first. It’s would be almost impossible, and there’s a reason for that, but explaining it would be too much of a spoiler.

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There were also these strange extra pieces that are not part of the puzzle again.

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After the puzzle is done, you have to find and solve 8 tasks in the puzzle. I found and solved two by myself, and 4 more with just the first two hints (there is help online). Only one I didn’t understand at all. I did a lot better than the first time. The answer is always a number, just like last time. After the 8 tasks, there’s the final solution (you can find it in a closed envelope with the puzzle). The solution didn’t work quite as well as the last time, I think.

Anyway, I loved this puzzle, and apparently, some other people liked it too, because there are three more in the series now (bringing the total up to six), including a vampire’s castle and a submarine. I’ve already ordered all of them, but they are out of stock, so I’m going to have to wait.

Finally here!

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This was supposed to be delivered on Friday, but the package got damaged, and today I finally got the replacement. I knew I was going to get this puzzle almost as soon as I saw it, but there was no hurry. As you probably know, Amazon currently has some great deals on the really large  Ravensburger puzzles, and, as always, I like to take advantage of free shipping while in Germany 🙂 I love the images with collages from various decades.

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I’m not going to start on this yet, but I still had to open the box and go through the contents:

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I can’t believe how huge it is!

As in Heaven!, 2019-01-29

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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.

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As in Heaven!, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 29th, 2019.
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Many scraps appeared several times, this one three times, twice facing left and once facing right.
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Nativity scene, two appearances.

Boeing Advertising Collection, 2019-01-26

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Boeing Advertising Collection, Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 26th, 2019.

A collage of vintage aircraft ads. It occurred to me that aircraft ads are a bit strange. Airline ads I understand, but the customers of aircraft producers are surely airline execs, not the general public. You can, of course, try to make a type of aircraft so popular that airlines will want to buy it to satisfy customer demand, but it seems kind of a long shot.

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Several ads were from the war, here Mustangs are heading out to help in the battle of Britain.
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There were a couple of these with giant, athletic-looking men. A bit strange…
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… but not as strange as this! “War planes, too, need smooth complexions”. Are they selling aircraft or moisturizer?
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This was my favourite.

Historia Comica, Opus 2, In progress

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I got the border done! It was quite tricky, and it would probably have been more sensible to sleep a few hours more, but I really wanted to finish the border before leaving for Dortmund, where I’ve just arrived. I did the inner part of the border first and then added the edges. I had to switch pieces around right until the end to get everything in the right place.

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I also managed to complete my first “event pane” – the first Japanese Emperor, Jinmu, 675 BC.

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I like (re)watching movies and TV series while I puzzle, and I just had a new TV installed. Sorry, Wrong Number with Barbara Stanwyck, a great noir movie from 1948.

I’ll be in Dortmund for nine days, but this time I have to work and only have a few days off. I’m allowed to work remotely 4 days a month, and of course, I always spend those days in Dortmund 🙂

Mapamundi 1375, 2007-12-26

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Now, this is a really old world map!

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Mapamundi 1375, Educa, 4000 pieces. Completed on December 26th, 2007.

If you think taking a closer look will help you see something familiar on the map, think again:

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I could not make out a single place on this map, it could just as well have been entirely imaginary instead of a real map of the world. Regardless, it was a really fun puzzle to do.

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