Tag: 2021

Germany, 2021-01-02

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I’m on vacation for two weeks from today, and I should really be on a ferry to Germany with my car, but because the corona situation is worse again, I’m staying in Helsinki, for now, anyway. Instead of the real thing, here’s this rather difficult map of Germany produced for the German post. Excellent quality, but no indication who actually manufactured it. Only 387 pieces, but it took a while. Black and yellow are of course my favourite colours, but it would have been easier with some other colours as well.

Germany, Postdienst – Deutsche Bundespost, 387 pieces. Completed on January 2, 2021.

This really brought home to me how much easier a map is when you know the area well – I had no problem putting together this bit, and I could place the biggest cities, but with a lot of places I had no idea where they are, or I knew whether it was in East or West Germany before unification, but that’s all. I learned a thing or two 🙂

No year on the box, but there was a text mentioning the post-reunification postcode reform of 1993, so probably mid 90’s, I guess.

Stockholm, 2021-01-19

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Vintage Ravensburger from 1969, one piece missing. This was a lot more pleasant the other puzzle I got from the same seller. The quality is, of course, fantastic, and some missing pieces are to be expected with puzzles this old.

Stockholm, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on January 19, 2021.

Sparkasse Karlsruhe, 2021-01-01

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I found this puzzle inside the box of another puzzle. It was in an open plastic bag, and I had to fish out quite a few pieces from the box. I may have missed some, because I didn’t even do the original puzzle – it was horrible quality and the image layer had separated completely from many pieces. I’m not sure it would even have been possible to complete it, it definitely wouldn’t have been a pleasure. Anyway, this “extra” puzzle is a Ravensburger (I’m pretty certain even though there’s no box), and there was a post card with the image. I’m sure there was a box, too, originally, but this is all I got. A whopping 8 pieces missing, but I wasn’t really surprised.

Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Ravensburger, 500 pieces. Completed on January 1, 2021.

The image is dated 15.5.1990, so the puzzle would probably be from the early to mid 90’s.

The Cottage on the Cape, 2021-01-07

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A lovely wooden puzzle from Sweden. The brand is called Nyckelpussel, which translates to Key Puzzle. It’s only 400 pieces, but the cut made it quite challenging. Also, there was no image to help. There is no indication of production year, but I would guess the 50’s, and according to this, the brand was produced in the 40’s and 50’s.

The Cottage on the Cape, Nyckelpussel, 400 pieces. Completed on January 7, 2021.

Although all the pieces are still present, a piece of a piece is missing:

You can also see that some pieces have small holes in the image layer, but they do not go through the plywood.

Instead of an image there’s an explanation of how much more fun it is to work without an image – I’ve seen the same thing on a Victory puzzle. The title is given in Swedish only, but I translated it for this post.

Fairview No 2, 2021-01-13

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Arrow puzzles are not particularly good quality, the pieces are on the thin side and the cut isn’t that precise. Fairview No 2 isn’t so much a title as No 2 in a numbered series, so I have no idea where the beach in the image is located. I sometimes like doing this kind of old holiday image. There’s no year on the box, but I think this is from the 70’s, possibly even 60’s.

Fairview No 2, Arrow, 500 pieces. Completed on January 13, 2021.

Jelly and Cake, 2021-01-01

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Nice image of partying cats. This was again a Gibsons of excellent quality, but it’s not a new puzzle. The last new 500 piece Gibsons puzzle that I bought was awful. This was fun and easy.

Jelly and Cake, Gibsons, 500 pieces. Completed on January 1, 2021.

This looks like my favourite, ice cream with Amarena cherries and whipped cream (Amarena-Becher in German):

Lattjo, 2021-01-06

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A very strange image and a puzzle produced for Ikea. The quality was good, and there are three different piece sizes, with the largest pieces in the middle and the smallest around the edges. Only 550 pieces, but the size of a normal 1000-piece puzzle.

Lattjo, Ikea, 550 pieces. Completed on January 6, 2021.

I can’t quite decide if I like this image, perhaps it looks a bit too much computer generated for me.

Not a triangle (three room flat) in Bermuda, 2021-01-13

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A puzzle from my now complete Kaj Stenvall-collection. All of these puzzles have titles in English and Finnish, and often they are very strange, especially the English translations. This title contains the Finnish word “kolmio” that can mean either “triangle” or “three-room flat”. Doesn’t quite work in English 🙂

Anyway, the puzzle was really excellent quality for Tactic (sadly, the newer puzzles are much worse), and that was a good thing, because with a less precise cut this would have been really difficult. As it was, I really enjoyed it.

Not a triangle (three room flat) in Bermuda by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 13, 2021.

The duck is just twiddling his thumbs, I guess, but to me it looks like he’s looking at a non-existent smart phone 🙂 The painting is from 2006, and while mobile phones were widespread, I think they were still mostly just phones with no internet access, and you wouldn’t sit and look at it the way we all do now.