Puzzles of the IV Quarter of 2019
March 23, 2020
Author: Jose Luis Ruiz
This quarter we have taken advantage of a few offers and have added 53 puzzles in total. Not bad to end of 2019. There are also several puzzles from contests, trips, samples and Christmas gifts. At this pace, we will have to find a storage room to keep all the puzzles. Now, I will tell you where each one comes from.
I will start with the puzzles we have bought. Taking advantage of the offer that Puzzle Locura had at the beginning of October, 30% on the entire web, we bought two Impossible puzzles from Clementoni that we were missing in the collection. Also a James Rizzi from Ravensburger that the puzzles of this artist are very funny and to complete the order, a puzzle of the Bluebird brand have nevver done one, and of course ... we will have to try it.
Puzzle Locura has made several offers during the month of November and within them of Jumbo puzzles, so we have ordered a couple of Christmas Wasgijs (besides that we like these surprise puzzles), to have puzzles to practice for Hannut 2020! Yes, I've already been tricked into going this year. The interesting thing about these two puzzles is that they come with an extra 1000-piece puzzle of the image of the box.
In October we travelled to Belgium to participate in the 24 Horas de Puzzle de Bélgica, and as a tradition we stopped by one of the magazine and newspaper stores that usually have offers for King puzzles and other brands (2 x 10 euros). As you can imagine, it was very difficult to resist and although we liked several more we only brought these two puzzles. This time, both brands are new to us. We brought a landscape of 1000 pieces of the Goliath brand (it is Polish) and another that it was impossible not to bring it to us ... from The Hobbit! Sophisticated Games (from UK). We will have to test them to see what quality they have.
As we have told you on other occasions, the Lidl supermarket chain sometimes has puzzles. In this quarter it has had them three times; the first, with fluorescent puzzles ... we bought the elephant puzzle (when we arrived it was the last one left) and then with puzzles with Swarovski crystals. We bought the two landscapes they had, that come in triangular boxes similar to those used by Heye. The last one was in December, when they released many models and renewed the design of the boxes, we brought home 5 landscapes that we really liked.
After several months they have had puzzles again at TEDi stores, they are from the Schmidt brand and they have a very good price. As you can imagine we have gone to see what models they had, I think I remember that they had six or seven models, and we have chosen these two to bring home. We were very surprised that they had this brand at such a good price since the quality of the puzzles is excellent. It is also true that this store has little variety and the images are not the most beautiful in the Schmidt catalog, but you can find surprises.
A few months ago we had seen on Instagram an Impossible puzzle by Clementoni... from Dragon Ball, but we had not seen it in any of the puzzle stores that we usually use. We thought it would come in the 2020 catalog and we would wait for it to come out. Our friend Ramón, who is also a Dragon Ball fan like me, asked in one of them and was informed that the Dragon Ball's rights for Spain were owned by another brand and that is why Clementoni could not sell them. So he looked it up on the internet and found it on Amazon. And well, we had to ask for it. As expected, Jimena was looking at Amazon and added another Jumbo from Jan van Haasteren's collection that was well priced. We will tell you how things are going with this Impossible, which I am sure this time I am encouraged to help. If anyone wants the Dragon Ball puzzle.
It is quite common for us to order things from Amazon, so it is not surprising that we have ordered another puzzle this quarter. This time he bought a puzzle from the Paul Lamond Games brand from Where’s Wally that has arrived from one day to the next! In the end I will end up making Where’s Wally puzzle collection, which I think already has about five or six different brands.
During the 2nd Sant Boi Solidarity Contest, a market was held for puzzles and, as you might imagine ... we brought puzzles. One of 1000 Heye pieces with goldfish, a 500 piece puzzle of the Nathan brand zodiac and a wooden one of SPuzzles with a tiger's face. The three of us are awesome, and more, knowing that it is for a solidary cause.
To finish with the puzzles we have bought ... we have traveled to Cehegin to spend the Christmas holidays and in a nearby town (Caravaca) we went to TEDi and found this 1000 piece Schmidt puzzle with cupcakes. A couple of days later we were in a shopping center in Murcia and there I found a puzzle in Friking, of superheroes. In Poly we bought a 600-piece Trefl puzzle that has irregular edges and its pieces have very strange shapes, and we also bought one of a kitten that Jimena liked.
Now I will be telling you about the events in which we have participated this quarter of 2019. The last weekend of October takes place the 24 horas of Puzzle of Belgium, in Hannut, and this year we have participated with several friends from Barcelona, with the team “Puzzleadictos Anonimos”. We have been able to make 9 puzzles and from the draw at the end of the contest we have been given this puzzle of 2000 pieces by Jan van Haasteren and one of 1000 pieces from the Sagrada Familia. This is an event worth living at least once, the atmosphere is indescribable. It is an authentic puzzle party! There are teams that are going to participate and have a good time (like us) and some in a very competitive plan. For the companions there are concerts, activities and also beer!
In mid-November we participated in the II Solidarity Puzzle Contest "Ibi, Villa del Juguete" where we made a 500-piece puzzle called Drive your Life, by Educa. We finished second, only 35 seconds after the winners and we are very happy with the result. As part of the prizes we received these 1500-piece puzzles, a Clementoni with the image of the Taj Majal and one Puzzleman with the image of an Indian.
Abrera opened its first Puzzle Contest at the end of November, organized by the Abrera Bookstore and by Eva Roca; and on this occasion, Jimena participated with Alejandro Darias. They made a 500-piece Educa puzzle with a leopard and two cubs with a background in yellow tones.
In early December, Ramón organized a mini-puzzle contest at his home ... with only three couples. We made a 500-piece puzzle of the Ravensburger brand with a Christmas image. Needless to say, we had an excellent afternoon, full of laughter.
The next contest was the 2nd Sant Boi Solidarity Puzzle Contest, where Jimena participated with Alejandro Darias and they have made an Educa puzzle of a bicycle. The novelty in this contest was that they did not have the box with the reference image, thus giving a point of difficulty.
And the last puzzle contest of the year arrived, the 1st Christmas Solidarity Contest in Cornellá. Jimena participated with Alejandro and I participated with Marta. There were two models of puzzles with Christmas images and we brought home the one I made. They were from the Bluebird brand that we had not tried before and we liked it.
Several months ago Jimena participated with Alejandro in the Cornellá Puzzle Contest and as a prize they received a 3000 piece puzzle from Educa, as Alejandro has already done… he has given it to Jimena so that she can also assemble it.
And one of the puzzles that we have obtained through contests that we liked the most is the Matadepera Contest award, a personalized puzzle of 1120 pieces of Educa. We asked for it with the photo we took this August in the Berlin's Tiergarten, since it was the place we liked the most from this trip.
Algunas veces hacemos intercambios de puzzles, es una buena manera de continuar dandole vida a nuestros puzzles. En este trimestre hemos obtenido este precioso puzzle de perritos de uno con nuestro amigo Ramón. A Jimena le cuesta mucho resistirse a puzzles con perros, jeje.
Nuestra amiga Alba nos ha dejado un puzzle de Dino con un paisaje en blanco y negro y un Volkswagen escarabajo azul que hace muy buen contraste. Es una marca que aun no hemos probado y queremos ver que tal es, ya os contaremos que nos parece! También nos ha traído este puzzle de 1500 piezas de Kandinsky para que lo probáramos. Ha dicho que era más difícil de lo que parecía… así que Jimena estará encantada de hacerlo!
También tuvimos la oportunidad de intercambiar puzzles con un chico que le gustaban las imágenes tipo comic, y los puzzles que nosotros nos quedamos son de la colección de Jan van Haasteren de Jumbo. Uno de 1500 piezas, y un pack con dos puzzles de mil piezas.
This quarter we have been very lucky and received samples from the American brand eeBoo. This time there were a pair of round puzzles of 500 pieces and 6 squares of 1000 pieces. What we like the most is the color of their designs and the great variety, from flowers, geometric figures, animals and even spatial images. Both the quality of the print and the puzzle are very good. As you can see, the images range from flowers, animals, people to geometric figures. My favorite is the one with the spaceship.
Finally, we have the gifts. During the II Ibi Solidarity Puzzle Contest we were lucky to share a table with two lovely girls who came from Turkey, Pelin Celik and Dilara Düğmeci. We were talking about the Spanish puzzle contests and we were invited to participate in the Turkey's Contest that was going to be held in March and has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pelin gave us a Puzzle Company puzzle with a beautiful butterfly, which is a special edition in memory of her sister Selin, who died in a terrorist attack in Istanbul. It is a precious detail that will occupy a special place in our collection. Thank you!
And to finish I leave you the two puzzles that Jimena received for Christmas. One comes from the United States, which was sent to her by her cousin Marcela. It is from the Cobble Hill brand and has the image of important women from the last 150 years, Jimena loved it! The other one that Santa Claus brought her, that she had seen it a while ago but had not ordered for yet. The Impossible Collection has to be completed! We are going to leave the Wise Men puzzles for the next quarter!