NinePeedles

First puzzle of The New Year. Got this one cheap on Amazon. The quality was ok, but the color palette made some sections fairly tricky.

Trickier than it looks

I saw this post here a while back and was inspired to pick up the Kodak version of the puzzle for myself.

As pointed out in the previous post, the image in the two puzzles appears to be the same, but the Kodak version has a few differences. The main difference is the different crop. The Kodak version has the church centered.

Another difference is the change in the sky. The newer version has a fake Blu sky with clouds applied over the original.

The difference I find the most bizarre, though, is the color tone differences. The colors in the puzzle in the older post are a much more accurate representation of reality, while the colors in the newer version have the contrast turned up so high that the red looks radioactive. Unfortunately my camera doesn't capture them it well, but the leaves look like the heat vision from the movie The Predator. Hilariously, Kodak advertises "richer, truer colors!" on the box.

Borrowed this puzzle from a friend. Wentworth puzzles are so nice.

This picture is kinda pretty when assembled, but this puzzle was pretty rough. The pieces are small, had little variation, and the colors all looked the same. The reverse side has a little pattern for double checking if prices went together, but flipping the pieces was a chore.

There's no name or manufacturer in English on the box or on the Amazon page. Amazon lists is color as Deer Fairy.

Picked up this beautiful puzzle on clearance from Amazon. The only downside to it is there wasn't great variation in the puzzle pieces. So in solid colors it was slightly tedious finding the pieces that actually belonged together

Fun and easy

It was hard to capture a good picture of this one. It's very glossy. This was the first holographic puzzle I've done. The plastic the the hologram is printed on made it difficult to snap the pieces together.

I was the best man in my friend's wedding, and he gave me this puzzle as a gift. The puzzle is a "surprise". There's no reference image which was a little intimidating when I saw all the grass. The pieces are random cut and the corner pieces are formed by joining two edge pieces. It was only 500 pieces though, so not much of a challenge The puzzle quality is very high. The pieces are made of wood and about 3mm thick. The image on the puzzle is of my old dog. She past away about five years ago. She was there for me through some very difficult times and meant the world to me.

I can't post the picture of this one because it's different from the box image, and it would be a spoiler for anyone wanting to do it. This was my first escape room puzzle. There are a bunch of hidden clues that create six puzzles. The solutions to the six puzzles reveals a final puzzle. It was way harder than any escape room I've done. I solved three of the six puzzles then decided I wanted to do something else. It was fun.

The picture is pretty outdated (RIP Magic Hat and Vermont Peanut Butter), but it was a very easy and addicting puzzle. Great quality pieces.

"A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale."