Tag: 2022

L’Adorazione, 2022-09-19

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A painting from 1931 by Italian futurist painter Luigi Colombo, who also used the name Fillìa. There’s only the Italian title on the box, the word adorazione means ‘adoration, worship’. I didn’t know of this artist before, but many of his paintings look like they would make very entertaining puzzles (here are some images). He sadly died at the early age of 31 in 1936.

This was the last puzzle I did in Dortmund before returning to Helsinki a week ago. I actually didn’t expect to finish it before leaving, but it turned out to be easier than I thought. I did the red ball first, then the blue cross, then the black shape, then the brown shape and finally the background. Even the background wasn’t too difficult, there was so much variation in shades. Loved it!

L’Adorazione by Luigi Colombo, Grafika, 2000 pieces. Completed on September 19, 2022.

The Goonies, 2022-09-12

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This is another installment in the Clementoni Cult Movies Collection, and this time, I haven’t even seen the movie. It’s a 1985 adventure film that looks like it’s intended audience is teenagers, and at 17, I probably felt it was too childish for me 🙂

Anyway, the poster made for a very entertaining puzzle. I worked this one from bottom towards the top, and I actually did the text last.

The Goonies, Clementoni, 500 pieces. Completed on September 12, 2022.

Beachfront Getaway, 2022-09-11

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I’ve returned to Finland from my long stay in Dortmund. I drove to Travemünde, and then took a ferry to Helsinki. It takes about 30 hours, and I have to say, I love the full day at sea. I had a lot to do during those final days in Dortmund, but I did manage to do some puzzling.

This was just as pleasant as it looks. Pretty easy, and of course, great quality as usual from Ravensburger.

Beachfront Getaway, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on September 11, 2022.

Ancient Egypt, 2022-09-08

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The title given on the box (Ancient Egypt) isn’t much help, but on the puzzle (right bottom corner) it says “Nebamun hunting in the marshes (around 1350 BC) – Thebes, Egypt”, which is much more informative. Nebamun was a middle-ranking official scribe and grain counter at the temple complex in Thebes, and he is known because of the stunning paintings found in his grave (they are now in the British Museum). More on Wikipedia, and for some reason German Wikipedia has even more photos.

Some Egyptian art looks a bit formulaic, but this is anything but. Especially the birds, and the fish under the boat are stunning. Nebamun is standing in the boat, and between his legs there’s a child. He’s holding a bird with one hand, and seems to have a snake in the other. Maybe it’s just a strangely shaped arrow, because his wife looks to be holding a quiver. I can’t see a bow, though.

Ancient Egypt, D-Toys, 1000 pieces. Completed on September 8, 2022.

D-Toys is a Romanian brand, and as I have found before, the pieces are sturdy, there is a very good mix of piece shapes, and the pieces fit together well. Unfortunately, it’s fairly easy to place pieces wrong if they are all of the same colour. At the end, I had about 150 black pieces (in addition to the black edge pieces), and I had several cases where I had to pull apart a section that I had already finished, because a false fit somewhere blocked progress. Very annoying, but the actual image was a joy to do, only the black “border” was troublesome.

Star Trek: Classic Episodes, 2022-09-04

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Another one of the Cobble Hill Star Trek puzzles. This one features stylish posters for The Original Series episodes. I wonder, what these images were created for. Probably not for this puzzle, but individual episodes of TV series don’t usually have their own posters. Perhaps Star Trek is a special case 🙂

Star Trek: Classic Episodes, Cobble Hill, 1000 pieces. Completed on September 4, 2022.

I’ve definitely seen all of these episodes, probably more than once, but I still can’t remember what all of them were about. I remember Mirror Mirror very well, that was an episode where some people ended up in a parallel universe, where the Enterprise crew was evil, and some of the evil crew ended up in the normal Enterprise. Evil Spock is the one with the beard, obviously. I also remember The Trouble With Tribbles, a more comic episode, where the tribbles were small furballs that reproduced at an alarming rate.

Anyway, the puzzle was great fun!

A while ago, I wasn’t sure if there were four or five puzzles in this Cobble Hill series. Turns out, all I had to do to find out was turn the box upside down:

There are five, of which I currently have four. The last one that I don’t have has photos from TOS. I prefer the stylish posters from the other puzzles, but if I come across the last one, I will probably get it anyway.

Lost in Space, 2022-09-03

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Clementoni has a new collection, the Space Collection, and I already got three of the four puzzles (the last is just 250 pieces, so I’m probably going to pass on that). I actually already decided I was not going to get this, because it’s so dark, and looks difficult, but I’m glad I changed my mind, because it was really fun, and I love the image. In the end, I think there were only about 200 completely black pieces, and I did sort them by shape at that point. It helped that Clementoni is great quality, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this with a mediocre brand, then it would have been too difficult.

Lost in Space, Clementoni, 1000 pieces. Completed on September 3, 2022.

Cocktails, 2022-09-01

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This was fun and easy! The rows having different background colours helped, too. I was happy to find that this had a random cut. With Eurographics, it’s either random cut, or a grid cut with just the basic piece shape, no variation.

Cocktails, Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on September 1, 2022.

I actually really like fancy cocktails, but somehow, I seldom drink any.

Thomas Chambers Collage, 2022-08-30

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A collage with paintings by 19th Century English painter Thomas Chambers. He was born (and died) in England, but he spent most of his life in the USA. He did mostly maritime subjects, as you can see from this collage.

The paintings where a location is specified are all from the US Northwest, except one painting of Gibraltar (middle of the top row). (I’m assuming this is British Gibraltar in the south of Spain, although I did find a Gibraltar to the south of Detroit, at lake Erie.)

Thomas Chambers Collage, Cobble Hill, 1000 pieces. Completed on August 30, 2022.

This was a very entertaining puzzle. I did the text first, then water and sky, and as usual, the vegetation was the most difficult part, and I did that last. The top left painting, “Storm Tossed Frigate”, was the most fun to do.

Packet Ship Passing Castle Williams, New York Harbor. Castle Williams still exists (I checked), but I bet everything else looks different now 🙂

Lovely view of Niagara Falls.

Motorhome Trip, 2022-08-28

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This was so much fun! Another Hidden Shapes puzzle from Trefl, but this was much easier than my first one. While I enjoy having strangely shaped pieces, I felt that this image was so easy that I really didn’t pay much attention to piece shape, the colours and patterns were enough.

Motorhome Trip by Aimee Stewart, Trefl, 1003 pieces. Completed on August 28, 2022.

After I finished, I pulled out the 10 shapes:

Given the subject, I’m sure the UFO on the bottom should really be a mushroom, but a UFO is more entertaining 🙂

The Haywain Triptych, 2022-08-28

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This is a painting from ca. 1516 by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. If I didn’t know how old this painting actually is , I would find it very hard to date, there is something ageless about Bosch.

I was quite pleased with myself for recognizing the scenes on the left (Adam and Eve being thrown out of Paradise), but then I assumed the central piece was some sort of harvest festival. I should have known better, it actually depicts people engaging in various sins, and on the right there is hell, where all the sinning leads to.

The Haywain Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, Bluebird, 1000 pieces. Completed on August 27, 2022.

By the way, a haywain is a hay wagon – I had to look it up.