Noah’s Ark

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Noah’s Ark by Jean-Jacques Loup – Heye – 2000 pieces

After the rocky start with the all white border it was fun and challenging (but not too much) and I ended up as I usually do – proud of myself! It looks amazing and I really enjoyed it.

As with the Emergency Room puzzle it is slightly overwhelming when the border is assembled, and I have a few minutes of doubt about where to start and how difficult it will be, etc. But once I forget all that and jump in and start working and it all ends up flowing together wonderfully. I’m not sure why I keep trying to psych myself out, perhaps my brain is slowly being cooked by hot flashes and becoming damaged? Next I’ll probably forget the number 12 or that underwear goes on the inside of my clothes. 😐

There are lots of interesting goings on in the inner workings of this ark, and Noah certainly has his work cut out for him. There’s a skeleton in with the tigers, and they look alarmingly quite satisfied. 😮 The beavers are chewing through the wood, the monkeys are everywhere, and the camels have gotten into the wine! There is also an interesting guest bunking with the cheetahs…..

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It’s nice that we live in a time where knowledge is so readily available – I had to google the difference between cheetahs and leopards to be sure which one was sharing space with the pink panther. I had it right, I just wanted to be certain.

As always the artwork by Loup is detailed and amusing and makes for an excellent puzzle image.  And as usual the quality of the Heye puzzle is very good, with the only small problem being the slightly loose fit.

I love the Heye puzzles and they have the best catalog of cartoon puzzles around; there are always plenty of Heye cartoons on my wishlist. I’ve still got the 2000 piece Apocalypse to assemble, another Loup puzzle that will mostly likely be just as much fun as this one!

If you’ve got the room to work a 2000 piece puzzle I would definitely recommend this one, just don’t talk yourself out of it like some people – that’s just crazy! 😉

Birthday Owls

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Birthday Owls – Mega Puzzles – 100 pieces

Another adorable kids puzzle. It’s really very cute with bright colors  and backgrounds that help with the assembly. The pieces fit together fairly well, but tended to come apart if you tried to move them or accidentally bumped them.

Overall the quality wasn’t too bad, the pieces were sturdy and the image reproduction is lovely. The fit was a bit too floppy for my taste, but again this is a children’s puzzle. I’m not always a fan of Mega Puzzles but this puzzle wasn’t bad.

I fear my “grandson” is going to run out of room for all his puzzles! I think we’ve given him around 30 or so by now, and I’ve got a few in my car that still have to be delivered! Mom just can’t stop herself from buying any interesting kids puzzles that she sees at the thrift store, and so we are stocking that boy up until he jumps up to 300 piece puzzles. 😎

Tarzan

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Tarzan by Mordillo – Heye – 1000 pieces

Every time I saw this puzzle when I was “window” shopping I thought that this would be so much fun – I was so right! 🙂 This assembly was almost like assembling a collage puzzle, you could grab all of the blue moose and put that together, which leads to the orange rhino, etc. It was as much fun as I’d hoped!

Unfortunately this was a regular boxed puzzle and not one of Heye’s triangular boxes, so there was no poster. But that’s my only tiny complaint about this puzzle. With a regular box you don’t really need a poster, but I enjoy them so if given a choice I’d prefer to have one. Excellent Heye quality, the pieces feel thick and snap together satisfyingly. You can see from the picture that the pieces fit together well and the shapes are not glaringly obvious in the finished image.

Heye really does the cartoon puzzles extremely well, and I haven’t had one yet that hasn’t been great. This image from Mordillo is adorable and funny and made for a great puzzling experience. If you’re a fan of cartoon puzzles I definitely recommend this one, I absolutely loved it❣

Books

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Books by Igor Kravarik – Heye -1500 pieces

I must have been having balance issues when I took a picture of this puzzle because it is crazy crooked and I don’t even have the whole puzzle in the picture!  In my defense I didn’t know I’d be starting a blog and posting any of these pictures. Apologies. Annie Liebovitz has nothing to worry about, I am definitely no competition!

My first Heye puzzle and oh dear, I’m in love with this company too!  The pieces are a little smaller than average and look thinner than Ravensburger, but it doesn’t matter because they feel sturdy and dense and fit together very well.  The image reproduction was stellar, really beautiful and detailed.

This image really drew me in, I love the concept of how a book gets published and the journey a book takes from the author’s initial meeting with the publisher to it’s eventual end being read by a consumer (even if it’s nothing like what really happens). It’s a gorgeous picture and I had a great time assembling it.

After this puzzle I had another small break from reality and purchased a LOT of Heye puzzles.  In addition to the excellent quality of Heye I love the triangle boxes of the cartoon puzzles, and that you get a ginormous poster inside. The new Heye catalog was just released for 2017, and oh dear there are SOOO many that I want!