A very traditional Alpine landscape. The mountain the background is the Matterhorn, on the border between Switzerland and Italy. As a puzzle, it was enjoyable until I got to the trees. Trees and bushes are perhaps my least favourite things to puzzle, but thankfully, Clementoni is a good brand. For the puzzle challenge, this was #27, a forest.
Back to the duck puzzles, and I really enjoyed this. I started with the sky and the dark green trees, then moved on to the grass, and the road was the last thing I did. Usually, I do the duck(s) pretty early, but this time, the pieces were somehow not that easy to find.
I had to look up the word drophead, and apparently, it means convertible, which makes sense, for once. I wish I could say the same about the Finnish title, “Hyvissä merkeissä”, which might be translated as “in good faith, in a good spirit”.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, even though I ended up looking at the box quite a lot. I started pulling the pieces according to colour, first the yellow cars, I think, but at some point I gave up on that and just placed pieces here and there. This was an older Heye, it says 1998 on the box.
There were some puzzle deliveries stuck in traffic:
In addition to normal cars and buses, there were some more exotic vehicles as well, like a train and a few tractors.
I really liked all the different vehicles, and the drivers and passengers were all individuals with their own style and facial expressions.
This was not as difficult as it looks. I did the people early, and then did the white / lighter areas first and the darkest bits last. There were three pieces missing, but I got this cheap at a recycling center, so that’s ok.
The monthly bonus challenge for March was Easter, and this was the closest I could find. The last supper was on Maundy Thursday, marking the start of Easter. (Strictly speaking the monthly challenges are expressed with images, and this time it was a hatching chicken. You are then free to interpret it as you wish, and some have Easter images, others have images with chickens that have nothing to do with Easter.)
As you can probably guess, I loved this puzzle. Cake and desserts are some of my favourite subjects to puzzle, so this was great. I did the map of Italy first, then the light green non-Italian countries, and of course, the edges were last. With this kind of border it would be quite frustrating to start with the edges.
I actually haven’t tried many of the desserts here, but I often eat Tiramisù, and even make it myself. I don’t think I’ve ever had Sicilian Cannoli, but they played a part in the Godfather III, so I certainly know of them.
There all look delicious, and I would love to try them:
For the puzzle challenge, this was #30, a puzzle published in 2024. Ravensburger has some nice ones this year!
This was fun and easy, only filling in the last white parts took a bit of time. The puzzle was produced in the Netherlands, and the quality is exactly the same as with Jumbo’s Wasgij and JVH-series, so I suspect they’ve used the same manufacturer. It even has the same waxy finish as the Jumbo puzzles have.
For the puzzle challenge, this was #4, gradient.
I finished it! And in the end, it wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be, I actually enjoyed most of it. I worked the puzzle from the bottom upwards, and it really helped that the background on the bottom was first green, then a lot lighter than higher up. About 2/3 in I sorted the rest of the pieces according to shape, but only two or three times did I resort to trying all theoretically possible pieces in a spot. It also helped that the fit was perfect, probably the best I’ve ever had with a Heye puzzle.
As I wrote earlier, for the puzzle challenge this is #23, out of the comfort zone.
I started this puzzle in Dortmund back in December, but I’ve had very little time here since then (none in January and a few weekends in February), so I’m actually quite surprised to see it finished already.
On the left, it’s winter, and the people (all with halos) are doing winter sports and partying, while the on the right, they seem only to be partying.
At the table on the right, I think the man in the top hat is supposed to be Elvis, and the woman with the pink glasses Marilyn Monroe. On one of the trees, someone has carved Marilyn ❤️ Elvis.
There are some other familiar characters as well: poor Donald is about to be eaten by a snow man, but on the winter side, Goofy looks quite happy.
As a puzzle, this was quite challenging, especially the summer half, but there were lots of funny details to keep me entertained. I finished the winter half much earlier, and the last things I did were the two green trees.
I got this in 2017, and currently, the image is available as two separate 1000-piece puzzles (also by Heye).
I’m in Dortmund for the weekend, but before I left, I started on what will be #23 in the puzzle challenge, “out of the comfort zone”.
I happened to find two factory sealed, vintage Heyes (they’re from around 2000) for a very good price, and that is the kind of situation where I tend to buy fast and repent at leisure. The swirling branches in this puzzle are no help in deciding where a piece belongs, and to me, this is much worse than just an area with the same colour. The only good thing I can say about it is that as long as you keep your eyes open there is virtually no risk of false fits.
There is a small part on the bottom that was easy, and I’ve done that:
I’ll get back to the rest of this on Tuesday. Wish me luck!
This is easily the most fun of all the Disney puzzles I’ve done. Lovely colours, and the details are not too small, or too big, but just right 🙂 I think I may be keeping this to do again.
For the puzzle challenge, this is #17, Disney / fantasy.
Puzzler1909 