Tag: 2018

Dumbo, 2018-01-29

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This is silly, but I just had to get this puzzle because I love the way the water is drawn here 🙂 I’m not up for the enormous Disney moments-puzzle, but I have some of the small, individual ones. I liked this as a 1000 piece puzzle, but it would be really difficult as 4000 pieces.

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Dumbo, Ravensuburger, 1000 pieces. Completed January 29th, 2018.

Copy of Water Mill Cottage, 2018-08-16

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Many Castorland puzzles have titles that begin with “Copy of…”, but I’m not sure what that means, exactly. Anyway, the puzzle was nice and reasonably easy.

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Copy of Water Mill Cottage, Castorland, 2000 pieces. Completed on August 16th, 2018.

Olga, 2018-07-19

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Sorry about the horrible photo (again). There’s a Wagner opera in full swing, and for some reason, there’s also a dragon in the chandelier. This version was released in 2005, but it was originally released in 1997 as a 4000-piece puzzle called Opera Germanica.

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Olga by Ryba, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 19th, 2018.

BVB Saison 2017/2018, 2018-02-02

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The Borussia Dortmund team photo for the 2017/2018 season (sorry about the bad photo). 2017/2018 turned out to be a very disappointing season for Borussia, and of the 29 players on this photo, only 11 are still at the club. The trainer, Peter Bosz (on the far right) had to leave before Christmas, and he was gone before I completed this puzzle (he is now at Bayer Leverkusen). We barely made it to 4th place to secure a place in the Champions League.

Anyway, the 2018/2019 season was a lot better, and today is the first Bundesliga game of the new season. We play at home against Augsburg, and I’m expecting a win 🙂

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BVB Saison 2017/2018, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 2nd, 2018.

Salsas, 2018-01-25

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This was one of those many, many puzzles that turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. The salsa in the middle was especially difficult, but the rest wasn’t easy either.

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Salsas,  Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 25th, 2018.

Lustratio, 2018-07-25

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This is the second puzzle with the same theme. The photo is not good (sorry!), but you can see additional characters to the right. Also, more of the border on the top and the bottom is visible.

As a puzzle, it wasn’t all that easy, but not too difficult either. Quite enjoyable.

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Lustratio, Ricordi Arte, 1500 pieces. Completed on July 7th, 2018.

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 🙂

Puzzle Balls

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I don’t really like puzzle balls, but I am, of course, prepared to make an exception if it says Borussia Dortmund somewhere on it 🙂 This puzzle ball also works as a night light if you take out 4 pieces at the bottom and place it on the light provided (as I have done). You activate it by clapping your hands.

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Borussia Dortmund puzzle ball, Ravensburger, 72 pieces. Completed on December 29th, 2018.
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I started with the logos, but then I looked at the numbers at the back of the pieces and saw that some of the pieces were wrongly placed…
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…which is hardly surprising with virtually identical pieces.
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I then started doing it by the numbers, without looking at the picture. Boring, but the only way to get it right.

My first puzzle ball was considerably larger, 540 pieces.

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The Earth, Ravensburger, 540 pieces. Completed on February 20th, 2009.
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I did the land first, using the image…
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… but then I did the rest by the numbers. I remember the pieces fitted so tightly that my thumbs were sore when I was done. Getting the last piece in was also a bit difficult.