Tag: 2020

The World, 2020-01-31

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This one came together unbelievably fast! I expected to finish in March but ended up completing it in January.

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The World by Rajko Zigic, Heye, 3000 pieces. Completed on January 31st, 2020.

The map itself if modern, but it’s done in the style of old maps. For a puzzler, this truly is the best of both worlds, because on old maps it’s often difficult to identify places, and on modern maps, there is far too much water (on old maps the seas are full of ships and monsters).

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“Modern World – Antique Map. A tribute to Mapmakers and Seafarers.”

These are images that you might find on old maps.

While relevant, I can’t remember ever seeing the Morse alphabet with flags on a map before. There were also images of various knots, used by sailors, I presume.

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I think these are the tools a mapmaker would use.

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Finland and Germany.

Mystery Flowers, 2020-01-21

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I couldn’t resist this mystery puzzle I found at a flea market. On the box, it says “Not houses! … but flowers” (it also says “500 pieces”). As I started on the puzzle, I knew straight away that it was a Ravensburger.

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After I had completed the bench and most of the basket I was confident I would know the image if I saw it, and so I googled Ravensburger and flowers and had no problem identifying the puzzle. It’s called Beautiful flowers, and it turned out to be complete. It was fun doing a puzzle without knowing the image in advance!

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Beautiful flower, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on January 21st, 2020.

Home Made Puzzle

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A friend of mine was kind enough to share a family heirloom with me. This wooden puzzle was handmade by the brother of her grandfather, probably in the 20s or 30s. There is one other puzzle he made, and I hope to do that, too, one day (the puzzles live in Sweden, so my friend will have to bring it over).

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[Christmas Preparations], hand made, 190 pieces. Completed on January 19th, 2020.
The pieces are really big, I took a photo with my car keys to show the scale. I was also going to measure the completed puzzle, but I forgot.

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The puzzle is stored in an old shoebox, and it says ca. 190 pieces on the box. It also says Jenny Nyström on the box. I asked my friend who that is, and it turns out she is a very famous 19th Century Swedish artist who specialized in traditional Christmas images. (You’ll see what I mean if you do an image search of Jenny Nyström). This signature on the puzzle is not Jenny, but Curt Nyström. Turns out, her son continued the family tradition!

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Anyway, I was very impressed with the quality of the puzzle, it is every bit as good as I would expect a commercial puzzle to be. I was especially impressed by how the image is perfectly glued to the plywood. It would be great to be able to make my own puzzles, but I’m afraid that’s not gonna happen, I’m far too clumsy 🙂

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Rocket Launch, 2020-01-13

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This was a really fun image with a banana rocket about to launch and lots of interesting details.

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Rocket Launch by Uli Oesterle, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 13th, 2020.

Kirk is canoodling with an alien as Uhura looks on in disgust. Scotty has forgotten to plug in the transporter.

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Yarn ninjas armed with knitting needles.

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Darth Vader is on babysitting duty.

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Yikes, looks like Lisa Simpson took some steroids and got into pro wrestling!

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And now for the bad news. The pieces were far too thin, so thin that the puzzle didn’t lie entirely flat. I tried to get a photo where you can see it, but this is the best I could do.

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The lesser quality was especially noticeable because I did the Funky Zoo puzzle right before, and that was fine. Below on the left a piece from the Funky Zoo puzzle and on the right a piece from this one. The difference is clear.

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It’s not yet bad enough to go on my do-not-buy-list, but it’s really annoying. The thing is, it doesn’t seem to affect all Heye puzzles. Rocket Launch is from 2016 and Australian Habitat (the Funky Zoo puzzle) is from 2018. Rocket Launch came in a triangular box and the Funky Zoo series comes in regular boxes. Not sure if that’s relevant here, but I will keep an eye on this situation.

Australian Habitat, 2020-01-10

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I felt like doing a puzzle from the Funky Zoo series and pulled one out at random. It turned out to be Australian habitat, topical in a sad way right now. I hope for much rain for Australia, and that the awful fires are soon over.

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Australian Habitat by Marino Degano, Heye, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 10th, 2020.

The puzzle is lovely, I really like this series. There are lots of fun details, as usual, although some of them start to look familiar. Not just the entrance and exit, and the fence in the background, but some people, too:

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Hello, last time I saw you you were cleaning Santa’s hut on the North Pole!
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These birds have enormous teeth!

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