Glow-in-the-dark celestial map. This was quite tricky, with lots of dark blue. Unfortunately, no picture taken in the dark, but it’s difficult to get those pictures to work anyway.
Celestial Map, 2007-11-24
Coca Cola, 2019-01-11
My expectations were very low, but this was still worse than I expected. Very thin pieces and all pieces the same shape, that was no surprise, but the image looks pixelated in some places and blurry in others. As if a picture that was too small was blown up to make the puzzle.
Obviously, the pieces would also fit pretty much anywhere, but that was only a problem with some of the edge pieces on the horizontal borders. I’m pretty sure it’s not put together exactly right, but whatever.
Shame really, vintage Coke commercials look great. I don’t know why the Coca Cola Company would licence something like this when there are excellent brands out there to work with.
The puzzle was factory sealed, and I mean SEALED. There was no way to open the box, I eventually cut around the bottom to get it open. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
Lighthouses, 2019-01-10
So, I finally managed to finish a puzzle. Fresh content!
This was a triptych in the form of three separate 500-piece puzzles, each with an image of a lighthouse in a raging sea. I usually prefer a bit more colour, but I especially enjoyed doing the water. The images are, of course stunning, the photographers are Philip and Guillame Plisson. No idea where these lighthouses are located, though.
Ramses I with Gods of the Underworld, 2007-11-09
Unlike the earlier fake Egyptian art, this is the real thing, a photo from the tomb of Ramses I in Luxor. Here’s a photo taken in 2004.
Ramses himself is in the middle, facing him is Anubis and behind him Horus. Since Anubis is associated with mummification and the afterlife, I assume Ramses is being escorted to the underworld.
Soft Rock, 2007-11-02
So, I’m back in Helsinki and working, and with less time to puzzle, there will again be more of my old photos.
This puzzle was released by Heye in 2007, but there had actually been a 1000-piece version in 1993, called Soft Rock Café, with almost the same image.
It’s good to know that good images can be released again even after many years!
Cross the Alps with VW, 2019-01-04
A so-called panorama puzzle, measuring 98×38 cm instead of the usual 70×50 cm (for 1000 piece puzzles).
The Brenner Pass is located on the border between Austria and Italy, and it is one of the most important connections between southern and northern Europe. It is a well-known route to crossing the Alps since prehistoric times, and the Romans used it; now there’s a 4-lane motorway.
I liked the panorama format, I can reach all parts of the puzzle easily without stretching. This was a fairly easy puzzle, only the alps and the rocks in the foreground were a little slow. I really enjoyed it!
Mashup, Vol 4
I brought in a third puzzle to the mashup, Cactus family from the Lovely Times series. I did that earlier but put it away in sections. The orientation of this puzzle is landscape, whereas the other two are portraits.
This doesn’t really mesh, the contrast is too big somehow.
Eyes on the cactus work a bit better.
The cactus puzzle didn’t actually fit perfectly into the other puzzles, you had to push hard in some places.
When I was putting away the puzzles I put the Forest Cathedral in the Hi Monsta! box by mistake, but I left it as is. All that means I now have pictures of Zozoville puzzles on the bottom of the Forest Cathedral box and Inner Mystic pictures on the bottom of the Hi Monsta! box. Oh well.
I tried putting the puzzles away in sections, but some of them broke up. Heye has a fit that is not exactly loose, but lifting large sections is difficult.
I put the eyes on top – I doubt you’ve seen the last of them 🙂
Mashup, Vol 3
The Inner Mystic and Zozoville puzzles turned out to have the same cut, which of course means mashup time 🙂 This may be really obvious, but the fastest way to check if a puzzle has the same cut is when you’ve completed the first puzzle is to find a corner piece from the other and try it out (bearing in mind it can also be upside down). It may not be 100%, but if the corner doesn’t fit, you can definitely put the first puzzle away.
This was again a case where the puzzles where one puzzle was upside down in relation to the other, going by the cut.
It would have looked better having those eyes on top, looking down on the scene, but not too bad. Except now I feel I should probably apologize to Andy Kehoe for ruining his beautiful picture 🙂
The troll is thinking about the forest.
I have to admit, when I bought the Zozoville puzzle I was thinking how great those enormous eyes might look in mashups. You can expect to see them everywhere I can fit them in 🙂
Monsta Hi!, 2019-01-03
My first puzzle in Heye’s Zozoville series. Very enjoyable and easy. Even though there is quite a lot of red(ish) background there’s enough variation that even that part was easy. I started with the eyes, then the rest of the monster and finally the background.
Shopping
I just bought two puzzles at the only thrift store I’ve found in Dortmund so far:
The absolute best news acquisition wise comes from Finland, though. I looked in on the website of my local puzzle shop in Helsinki, and they have Historia Comica Opus 2 in stock! I ordered it immediately, and also got the new Funky Zoo instalment, Australian Habitat. So, I’ll be getting my hands on those next week, probably.
Puzzler1909 