Temptation of St. Anthony Lost to Stripper, please help!!!!

Hey readers. It's been a while. A couple of you know the story. But Mercedes and I split up and it's been too hard to puzzle and obviously we are doing different things. Interestingly enough, I got a call from her yesterday and this missing box we shipped with all of our completely puzzles finally showed up 9 months later at her moms house!!! 9 months!!!! Not exactly speedy delivery but I am interested to see how the puzzles faired. From the first report, its not well.

We are going to split the collection  a bit, not much really, I think M will take life and Rizzi. Life was her favorite and of course, Nothing like a Rizzi city is the inspiration for our matching tattoos! I think I might have to do that one again because I miss looking at it.

I am not sure how to get back on the puzzling wagon. It's so much effort to do these big boys. I suppose like any other time, you start with the first piece and go from there. If you are reading this, thanks for sticking with us during this time of no communication. I hope you all are puzzling and I know that we both actually still like hearing from you.

On another note, I just suffered a bit of a tragedy. In a twist of irony, my 12,000pc Temptation of St Anthony was destroyed by a naked stripper (long story, but seriously, who fucking destroys a puzzle?!?!?). Much like the temptation in the third panel!!!! If anyone has one, I need another one!!! Hieronymus work is my favorite and I was hoping to get back into puzzling with this one! Please help!!!!!!!!


-Thomas

BIG BOXES

Wow, check out this box of Educa's new 33,600pc Wildlife puzzle. What a puzzle!

Thoughts on the new big boys

 I have been thinking about this, I think the New York Skyline will be more fun to build. It is a  special challenge to offer a massive format puzzle that is both aesthetically appealing in its completed state and great puzzle to construct.

Take most massive paintings, it would be extremely boring as a 35K puzzle! I think this is why people prefer Educa's Life and Wildlife to Ravensburgers Double Retrospect. After looking carefully at new york. I think it will be great to assemble because of all the detail. Other new york puzzles (Ravensburger 12,0000 with the dumb saturn in the sky) are not realistic or monotonous whereas the new one is neither.

What do you guys think?

Ravensburgers new 32,000pc offering. Fantastic overall image and great detail at the piece level. Considering Ravensburgers awesome fit and finish, this puzzle will be a pleasure to assemble! Probably my most anticipated puzzle.

Educa's new 33,600pc Wildlife. I think on the piece level, it will be great to assemble but the overall image is not to my taste. Seems everyone is this animal illustration kick. 

12,000pcs - This is gonna suck. Monotonous and at the end of the day, its completely unrealistic.

New 18,000 piece version of the Sistine Chapel from Educa

Sistine Chapel - 18,000pc, Educa
Educa's fresh new photography of worlds most recognized ceiling

Michelangelo would be proud of the monstrous new offering from Educa. This fresh take on the familiar ceiling is the largest puzzle of his work measuring 10.5ft long by 5ft wide! Educa's former release of 8000pc at 8ft by 3ft is dwarfed by comparison. We own the 8000pc version and are working on it as we speak. I don't normally like to redo puzzles in a larger format, but I will be making an exception for this big boy!


Here is an interactive map of the puzzle. Zoom in and out and use your mouse to pan left to right. You can view it in its own full window here

A puzzle that does not look fun

Astrology - 6000pc, Schmidt

Here is what I consider a serious pain in the ass puzzle. I know we are all about puzzles that are hard, but this one just looks miserable:

Why would this suck to do:

1. It seems about 30% solid black
2. What color there is, looks impossible to differentiate
3. I think Schmidt said, hey, lets make some puzzles no one will ever finish (I am thinking of the infamous, What a View)

I actually can't decide, between what would be worse, What a View, or this Astrology one.... What do you think?

If you want this beast of a puzzle, its for sale on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Schmidt-Puzzle-6000-Pieces-Astrology-And-Astronomy-New-open-box/151220544738?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D261%26meid%3D4513380868054878980%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D161211365377%26

What a View - 6000pc, Shmidt
What would be worse, this or the Astrology???

Pink Floyd Back Catalogue - 1000pc

We finished this little guy a few nights ago. Rizzy the cat tried to help and she apparently stole a piece and stuck it under the stove. It took over an hour to find it and I eventually moved the stove just to check an sure enough, it was there!

I always liked this image for obvious reasons as a young man, it was a lot of fun to assemble. It was our first puzzle from Aquarius and we were happy with the quality of the puzzle!

Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd

Relics - Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

The Wall - Pink Floyd

Animals - Pink Floyd

Ravensburger's new 32,000pc New York Puzzle

Ravensburgers New York Skyline at 32,000pcs! Look for this in September 2014!

Looks like Ravensburger had a new 32,000 piece puzzle coming and decided they could not let Educa have all the fun today. 2 Hours after Educa announced their new record breaking 33,600 piece puzzle, Ranensburger dropped on their Facebook page that they have new 32,000pc Skyline of New York City! This is the sneak peek they put up on the Germany Facebook page. I look forward to seeing the rest! One thing is for sure, if it is anything like Double Retrospect, it will be a pleasure to assemble but with a cityscape this large, it will be a nightmare!

It looks like the detail of the photography is suburb. This could actually be a real pleasure to assemble!

The New King of Large Puzzles - Educa's 33,600pc Wildlife

Installation of Educa's 33,600pc Wildlife puzzle. The new world's largest puzzle!

WOW! The world just got a new largest puzzle! 33,600 pieces toppling  Ravensburger's 4 year hold on the title!! Educa really heated up the largest puzzle arms race again with the new 33,600 piece Wildlife puzzle and takes the crown from Ravensburger! I cant wait to get my hands on this big boy!

I inquired with Educa and found some more information! The puzzle comes in 10bags of 3,360pcs each and is finished with the traditional Educa Gloss Finish. Additionally, Educa had this press release to share:

A RECORD PUZZLE

At the Nuremberg Trade Fair, Educa presents the puzzle with the greatest number of pieces in the world. A 33,600-word challenge

The greatest puzzle challenge on the planet consists of no more and no less than 33,600 pieces. Educa presented the puzzle with the greatest number of pieces in the world at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, the most important event in the toy sector in Europe. This record size puzzle measures 5.7 metres long and is 1.57 metres high and has been christened Wildlife.

Wildlife comes in a special packaging for the occasion: in a wooden box with wheels, for easy handling and transport. The illustration will take the puzzle doer to the brilliant wildlife of Africa. Lions, elephants, giraffes and all kinds of animals inhabit a lush forest that can be put together, piece by piece, until you reach that magical moment of filling in the final one of the 33,600 small parts of which the image is made up. From March, it will be found at usual points of sale. Educa already had a large format puzzle, called Vida, which consisted of 24,000 pieces. Wildlife will now become its older brother as well as the puzzle with the greatest number of pieces in the world.
For David Olesti, Educa Borras’ marketing manager, this puzzle “is the greatest challenge in the world of puzzles. It is also a complete illustration created for the occasion and not the sum of different separate images, which makes it even more exciting”. The author of the illustration is Adrian Chesterman, an English artist who lives in Malaga. The author confesses: “working on such a large scale and with a subject that I like was a very exciting challenge. I have done drawings of animals almost all my life and I love nature and wildlife. Therefore, drawing a gigantic scene with all these wonders of the animal kingdom was a great delight”.
Obviously, the largest puzzle in the world also includes Educa’s Missing Pieces system, a unique service in the world that takes care of sending pieces that have been lost or damaged free of charge. The people at the Missing Pieces Archive receive applications, deal with each request, look for the pieces and send them by post at no cost for the user, in the shortest possible time.
There are many advantages in doing puzzles, so it is quite clear that one consisting of 33,600 pieces will be even more beneficial. The abilities that specialists consider to be developed when doing this kind of activity are motor skills, laterality, dexterity, creativity, socialisation, language, emotion and self-esteem.

-Thomas


Here is an interactive map of the puzzle. Zoom in and out and use your mouse to pan left to right. You can view it in its own full window here

All that was lost, is found

Leonardo di Vinci: Annuciation - Clementoni, 13,200pcs
ebay, aug 2013  $200USD

Never underestimate the ability of the government to screw things up. After a very very long delay, two things have shown up. The 13,200 piece Clementoni puzzle of Leonardo's Annunciation finally showed up after it was shipped nearly 6 months ago from Germany!

This puzzle is certainly in the top 10 rarest big boy puzzles of all time and beautiful. It was bought used, one bag open and hopefully all is well.

Also, our puzzle collection and the rest of our belongings have found there way to us despite being told by the USPS that they were lost and to file an insurance claim! Today I have to go pick them up from Mountain View, CA. Exciting times.

It looks like the wife and I might be moving to Berkeley, CA while we chase the all mighty dollar. We also found the San Francisco Jigsaw Meetup group and hope to do some puzzling with them soon!

Oh yeah, we did something really fun yesterday, we went roller skating in Golden Gate Park! All this time I never knew this was there. So fun!

-Cheers

M getting her Skate on!

Pink Floyd -- Wish they were here!

We are tired if waiting for our puzzle collection to show up! We bought this little guy to keep us company! I love Pink Floyd so this looks like more fun than the Beatles puzzled we found.