An old Schmidt puzzle, probably from the ’80s (the box says West Germany, so should be from before German reunification, October 3rd, 1990). Even though the image is conventional, it was still a very enjoyable puzzle, and the quality was fantastic. Unfortunately, old puzzles are usually better quality than contemporary ones of the same brand, and that’s definitely the case here. The images tend to be a bit boring, but the superior quality more than makes up for that.
Judging from the musty smell, this had spent quite some time sitting in a basement, but all the pieces are still there, after all this time.
Bavarian Farmhouse, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on August 23rd, 2019.
Vintage travel collage with one piece missing (bottom edge). I don’t have many MasterPieces puzzles, this is the second with the wrong number of pieces – one puzzle had an extra piece. In this case, I’m fairly confident that the piece wasn’t there to begin with because I noticed it was missing early on. It’s an edge piece, and especially the blue is pretty distinctive. Otherwise, it’s a great puzzle!
Safe Travels, MasterPieces, 1000 pieces. Completed on August 22nd, 2019.
I usually puzzle alone, but I had some help from friends with this one.
Finished. This was my first Bluebird Puzzle, and overall my impressions are positive. The brand is based in France, and this puzzle was produced in Turkey. The pieces were much smaller than usual, this 3000 piece puzzle is the same size as a 2000-piece Ravensburger or Heye. There was a good mix of piece shapes, and I don’t think the two-tabs-opposite type was even a majority. The fit was also good (pieces only fit where they belong), but tighter than with Ravensburger or Heye. I enjoyed it, there was this satisfying little sound when I pressed a piece into place, but some probably prefer a looser fit. It did come apart pretty easily.
I wasn’t 100% happy with the image (more on that below), but especially with the low price (less than 20 EUR), it was well worth it. Oh, and the box is no bigger than it needs to be to hold the pieces – I always love that 🙂
Library Adventures in Reading by Alixandra Mullins, Bluebird Puzzle, 3000 pieces. Completed on August 19th, 2019.
I like the book-birds (butterflies?)
Gardening with starlight and a knight.
Love the ice bear, but not happy with the mirror-image titles in the background.
This house was my favourite mini-image.
So, there were a couple of things with the image I wasn’t happy with. The same books appeared multiple times, and some of the time the books in the background were seen as through a mirror. I presume this is due to sloppy photoshopping.
There’s been some discussion in the Jigsaw Puzzle Enthusiasts FB group lately about increased use of Photoshop (or equivalent software), and not everyone is happy about it. It’s been pointed out that there are suddenly a lot of Parisian street scenes from Ravensburger, with only small differences. Sometimes the exact same elements are repeated. Personally, I thought I didn’t have a problem with this until now, but I think I now have to revise my position a bit. There were some horrible examples in the group, including a flower that ends abruptly (not by Ravensburger).
I still think it’s fine as long as it is done well (it is in the Ravensburger puzzles), and it’s not too noticeable. Based on this experience, I think it becomes noticeable to me when text is repeated, which is why I didn’t like having the same books in the background. Obviously, it’s cheaper to do a small section of background and then just repeat that than making a larger, more varied background, but clearly, this can go too far. I would love to hear what you think!
I bought this used online based on just the photo, and I was surprised to see that the image is of Venice, it made me think of India first. The artist, Chayan Khoi, is Iranian.
I really like the image, it’s dreamlike and unique, but I expected the pink part to be difficult. Actually, I did the entire puzzle in one sitting, took me about two hours, and it was easy from start to finish. I really enjoyed this.
Colorful Venice by Chayan Khoi, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on August 13th, 2019.
I knew I would like this puzzle, but even I was surprised how much! I’m definitely keeping this to do again someday.
The quality of the pieces as such was fine, but even with this image pieces sometimes would fit where they don’t belong. It wasn’t a problem here, but I wouldn’t buy a Dino puzzle with large areas of the same colour. There was also a decent mix of piece shapes, although the large majority were of the two-tabs-opposite type
[Movie Posters], Dino, 2000 pieces. Completed on August 12th, 2019.There are 34 posters of 33 movies (there are two posters for the same movie, with different titles), and I’ve seen 17 of the 33. The movies were released between 1931 (Little Caesar) and 1957 (Short Cut to Hell), and most of them arefilm noir from the ’40s. For three of the movies (Out of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle and Gun Crazy) I actually happen to have the DVDs in Dortmund, and I was inspired to rewatch them!
Gun Crazy and Deadly is the Female are actually two titles for the same movie. Gun Crazy seems to be the original title, and this poster also represents the film much better. At no time does Peggy Cummins appear in the kind of glamorous gown seen on the right. In fact, when she first appears she’s in cowboy gear, and as the movie turns into a Bonnie and Clyde situation (with a reluctant Clyde), she dresses accordingly, as you can see on the left. Deadly is the Female seems to be a very strange rebranding.
Here’s another bit of false marketing. The Asphalt Jungle was released in 1950, and Marilyn Monroe had a small part in it. It’s a heist movie, and there are some wives and girlfriends in the background, and this is where Marilyn comes in. In the 113 minute movie, Marilyn has about 6 minutes of screen time (yes, I actually timed it). I don’t think this poster is from the original run, Marilyn wasn’t a big star in 1950, but someone decided to cash in on her popularity later. Whoever went to see this a Marilyn Monroe movie is sure to have felt cheated.
The rest of the posters are in English, but this is a French poster for Singapore.
Most of the women on the posters look serious, passionate or terrified, but Gilda is happy!
The movies are a good blend of masterpieces (like Casablanca) and pulpier fare, like Pickup. I’ve not seen the movie, but the poster certainly looks like there is some sleazy slut-shaming to be expected (According to IMBD, a younger woman marries an older man and then plots to kill him.)
So much going on in the city that never sleeps – this would have been a great puzzle on its own.
One thing that I missed with this collage is my favourite film noir actress, Barbara Stanwyck. Amazing that they managed to miss her with so many great movies!
Hygieia by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, a painting from 1900. The quality was good, as it usually is with Grafika, but it was still pretty difficult.
Hygieia by Gustav Klimt, Grafika, 1000 pieces. Completed on August 7th, 2019.
It was really only the red and gold dress that was hard. Up until this point, I had no problems, but then all the pieces looked the same. At one point I thought it would be have been easier to have an area of the same colour rather than all this confusing red and gold, but I did learn to pick out some of the pieces. I found most of the snake-pieces, and I also managed to pick out most of the pieces with the small round / heart-shaped dots. Slow, but not unpleasant.
A map of Dortmund. I’ve placed a coin on the puzzle where I live, below on the left. I bought this in a local book shop, and it was expensive, but nice quality and very entertaining to me, of course. It was a bit more difficult than expected. The brand, Extra Goods, is new to me, and they seem to offer various gift items, including puzzles with maps of various cities. Helsinki is also available, but not from their site, they only sell wholesale to other stores, but I’ve seen the puzzles on Amazon. Obviously, they don’t produce the puzzles themselves.
The puzzle came in a tube, which wasn’t much use, since a huge part is obscured by the title, and the puzzle also covers a larger area than what is seen on the box. In fact, I was happy to see that my house was on the puzzle, after all, I thought it wouldn’t be because of the box. I’m not usually a fan of posters, but here, one would have been nice.
Dortmund City Puzzle, Extra Goods, 500 pieces. Completed on August 2nd, 2019.
A 500-piece Ravensburger from the series Happy Days at Work (No.16). This is my first from the series, but the others I’ve seen also seem to depict scenes from the ’50s. Unfortunately, this series hasn’t been released in Germany (it’s from the UK branch of Ravensburger), which makes the puzzles expensive for me. This was totally worth it, though, I loved it!
The Waitress, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on August 1st, 2019.
Somehow painted cakes look even more delicious than cakes in photos!
This was the kind of puzzle where I loved every single piece. Every single piece! There are lots of interesting details, but overall it’s not too busy.
Polar Habitat, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on July 31st, 2019.
A snail has found a cool new house.
There are often football references in Marino Degano puzzles, and here a group of penguins are supporting Juventus. They always wear the colours anyway 🙂
Some Very Important Penguins are having champagne.
Santa Clause is painting his igloo, but he doesn’t look too happy about it.
So, I did this last week, but I immediately realized I would have to publish it today, since this is the day when me and my car will board a ferry to Stockholm, and tomorrow I’ll be driving through Sweden and Denmark toward Germany. I hope to be in Dortmund on Saturday, but it’s fine if it takes an extra day. And of course, I hope there will be no car trouble!
Car Trouble, Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on July 15th, 2019.
I got the puzzle in a batch with lots of other 500 piece puzzles, and it’s not an image I would have chosen, but it turned out to be really entertaining. It was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be, with the black and white background. Clementoni is an excellent brand, and the great quality helped a lot.
There will be no puzzling for some days now, obviously, but I’ve set it up so that there should be a post with an old photo every day. Wish me luck!
Puzzler1909 