Another puzzle in the Disney Castle Collection. I have heard about Rapunzel, but I didn’t know Disney had done this story. They really went overboard with the enormous eyes this time, Rapunzel looks scary.
Rapunzel, 2024-08-08
Olympic Games, 2024-08-05
This is a puzzle from the Tactic Come to Finland series. It’s a poster for the Olympics that were to take place in Helsinki in 1940, but of course, there were no games in 1940 because of World War II.
The running man in the foreground is a statue of Paavo Nurmi, a middle- and long-distance runner in the 1920s, and the statue stands in front of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Paavo Nurmi won eight Olympic gold medals in three Olympics, five of those in the Paris Olympics of 1924. When Finland finally got to host the games in 1952, Paavo Nurmi lit the fire in the stadium.
The games in 1952 used the same poster, with just small adjustments for dates and the post-war borders of Finland.
Monkey Habitat, 2024-08-03
Another installment in the Funky Zoo series, I only have two left that I’ve not done yet. Unsurprisingly, I loved it!
The movie of the evening is, of course, Planet of the Apes:
There is some conflict, with some people wanting to put up luxury apartments, and the monkeys defending their current habitat:
In the Banana Bar, some monkeys start on a new puzzle, and I can tell that it’s Dog’s Life (by Marino Degano, of course), and beside the table, there are some Funky Zoo puzzles – I think I can make out Nile Habitat (I’ve not done that one yet), and Black Forest Habitat (which I have done, but I have no photo of it).
Here are some old acquaintances, the cleaning lady and the woman who has dropped her baby:
I did this puzzle for the monthly puzzle challenge for August, which is:
(The monthly challenges are communicated only as images.)
Surrealist Cat, 2024-07-31
Magnolia Puzzles was a new brand to me, but I had heard good things about it, and was not disappointed. It’s a Turkish brand with some interesting images and an excellent cut. There were absolutely no false fits, and the finish feels really nice. There was also no puzzle dust. The puzzles cost a bit more than Ravensburger, but if I look out for promotions, I can still get them for under 20 EUR.
The box is a bit smaller than standard (a good thing), and there was a small bag with white powder in the box. This is almost certainly puzzle glue, unless I’ve unwittingly been caught up in drug smuggling 😀 Strangely, there is no mention of the glue on the box (maybe it’s not glue, it just occurred to me it might be there to soak up moisture), but there is a mention that they have a replacement service for missing pieces, which is nice.
Athletic Fit, 2024-07-28
This was a nice puzzle to do while watching the Olympics 🙂 It has XXL-pieces, and the finished puzzle is as large as a 1500 piece puzzle, but it’s only 750 pieces.
Scotland Whiskey Puzzle, 2024-07-27
So, I finally got one of these Water & Wines puzzles, and I’m afraid the only thing I really loved about it was the image.
As soon as I spread out the pieces I noticed that they were quite thin, and quite a few pieces had some lift. This is not what I would expect from puzzles that cost an eye-watering 45 EUR. I got this for 31,50 EUR, which is still about double what I would expect to pay for a Ravensburger.
Here you can see a few of the damaged pieces – there were many more:
When I had a closer look at the box, it actually says that the puzzle is made by Trefl, and indeed, the cut turned out to be a perfectly ordinary Trefl cut, which means it’s also a bit prone to the odd false fit. Now, don’t get me wrong – even the ordinary Trefl cut is ok, if you pay about 10 EUR for the puzzle, which is what they usually cost. Trefl also do some really nice cuts, for example the Crazy Shapes series have much sturdier pieces and a better cut with no false fits, and of course, they also have nice wooden puzzles. In fact, I’ve got a few 1000-piece Trefl wooden puzzles, both of which cost less than 45 EUR.
The finish of the puzzle is called velvet-touch, and while it feels nice, it’s somewhat impractical, since it makes it harder to slide a piece into place over other pieces. In the box, there is also a poster, and a stand for the box (both unnecessary in my view, but I know a lot of people like posters).
What we are left with here is a mediocre product at an astronomical price. On the Water & Wines logo, it says “Puzzles made with love by sommeliers”. I realize that the expertise of sommeliers doesn’t come for free, but this is way too expensive. Above all, they should also have employed someone who knows about quality puzzles, not just sommeliers. The only thing that really works here is the image.
Magic Moment, 2024-07-22
I had almost given up hope of finding this puzzle. I occasionally do stock takes of all my puzzles based on my database, and a few years ago I noticed that this puzzle was missing. I searched for it both in Helsinki and in Dortmund, and now I finally found it – it had slipped behind some other puzzles on a shelf.
The puzzle was produced in 2014, and interestingly, it’s not the same type of fit or finish that Schmidt puzzles have now. The fit was looser, and the finish shinier than current Schmidt puzzles, in fact, it reminded me of Heye. I did know that Schmidt has changed, but I thought it was more than 10 years ago. Anyway, the puzzle was fun, if a little more difficult than I was expecting.
Our Special Place in Venice, In Progress
In Dortmund, I’m working on a 3000 piece Castorland puzzle. There were two bags, and i didn’t mix them, so it’s really more like two 1500-piece puzzles. I finished the left half on my last trip. The pieces are really small, the finished puzzle will be the same size as a Castorland 2K puzzle. I don’t mind small pieces in smaller puzzles, but with a large piece count, it gets a bit tedious.
Fantasy Toy Shop, 2024-07-17
This was a bit too busy for me, with lots of small objects. It was still enjoyable most of the time, even though I ended up looking at the box more than I prefer.
Chocolate Cupcakes, 2024-07-15
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Eurographics food collage, and I really enjoyed it. It was a fairly easy puzzle, made a bit more challenging by the random cut.
Puzzler1909 