Running Ponies

Brand: Puzzlebug
Pieces: 500
Size: 46cm x 28cm
Product Code:  -

Horse racing in Australia is a popular betting sport. But it isn't until the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival (held towards the end of October and start of November) that things really start heating up. This is the main time of the year to see women spending small fortunes on designer racewear, hats and jewellery, and see folks drinking and betting away their pay packets on horse races, usually without a clue about what they are doing. 

While Derby Day, Oaks Day and a few others are always popular, it's the first Tuesday in November that most people look forward to the most. This is because many Victorians get a public holiday out of it- The Melbourne Cup. Known as 'The Race That Stops A Nation', this is the prestigious event that jockeys and racehorse owners aspire to compete in- and win.

While I don't own any puzzles of racehorses, I was able to find this one called Running Ponies (quite a fitting title, I think). It was quick to do, as each of the ponies are different colours, which made differentiating between the pieces easy.

As it is, I think this is an alright commemoration for such a popular horse racing event. 

Favole series by Victoria Francés

Brand: Heye Puzzles
Pieces: 75
Size: 10.5cm x 29.7cm
Product Code:  Tree (29368), Portrait (29365), Curly (29363), Snowflake (29366), Shoulder (29364), Leaves (29367)

Until recently in Australia, the Halloween holidays were not a big deal. 

It was considered more of an international event, celebrated in America and some European countries. 

But over the last few years, more and more Australian retail stores have begun to seize the day- selling costumes, house decorations and other Halloween-themed paraphernalia. 

To embrace this theme, I decided to scour my collection to find a suitably spooky puzzle to do, but it turns out that my collection doesn't really extend to ghosts, witches and vampires at this point! 

Instead, I found these six mini vertical puzzles from Heye, which feature the gothic illustrations of Victoria Francés. Taken from her Favole collection, the women in these pictures are all gorgeously supernatural-looking, which I think lends to the spooky Halloween theme perfectly.

Curly

Leaves

Portrait

Shoulder

Snowflake

Tree

Each puzzle has 75 pieces, which means that they're relatively quick to do. While many of the colours are similar, it is easy enough to work out where each piece goes, and as I mentioned before, the illustrations are quite pretty, if not a little eerie. Victoria Francés, a Spanish artist, specializes in gothic romance illustrations, and these puzzles certainly fit the bill.

Wonder Woman

Brand: GameOn! Novelty Games (Typo)
Pieces: 1000
Size: 50cm x 80cm
Product Code:  -

In Australia, we have a retail chain which you may have heard of- Cotton On. They have several stores which cater to different markets- their Cotton On clothing stores (for women and men), Cotton On Kids, Rubi (shoes and accessories), Cotton On Body (lingerie, swimwear and activewear), and Typo (stationery and homewares). 

Founded and based in my hometown of Geelong, Victoria, these stores are fantastic for affordable and fashionable clothing and accessories. The Cotton On Group are also making themselves known across the country for their ethically-produced clothing, their charity work in Bangladesh and Kenya (among others) and their Fun Runs which raise money for local childrens' health services.

With such a strong and ethically-motivated business model, why wouldn't you support such an awesome chain? 

To add further to their cred, Cotton On's Typo stores often feature a different theme every month or so, where they sell products which relate to that theme. So far this year, we have seen pugs, unicorns and zombies overrun their stores, and at one point they were even celebrating superheroes. 

Which is where we tie in with today's puzzle- Wonder Woman. 

As part of their range, Typo were selling a few different jigsaw puzzles relating to Marvel and DC Comics, and one of those was the aforementioned Wonder Woman puzzle. Not usually seeing jigsaw puzzles for sale in their stores, I decided to snap them up. 

This puzzle was more of a challenge than I expected. Because of the graphic novel style of flat colour patches and ink lines, it was sometimes difficult to determine which piece went where in some of the sections. There was little colour shading to differentiate between, and many of the pieces were the same shape and colour (meaning that they could fit in multiple places). I'm ashamed to admit that I may have tried to force a few pieces to fit in, when I couldn't work out where they were meant to go. Besides this little setback, the puzzle turned out alright and reminded me that the new Wonder Woman film is due to come out some time in 2017- something I am quite excited about after seeing her performance in the Batman vs Superman film this year. 

Perfect for fans of the DC Comics franchise, this puzzle was challenging, and a little frustrating, but still a pleasure to do. 

Sydney Opera House And Harbour Bridge

Brand: Ravensburger
Pieces: 1000
Size: 70cm x 50cm
Product Code:  192113

I love living in Australia. 

This is something I have learnt after travelling across several countries over the years. While it is wonderful to see other cities and cultures, there's never any place quite like home. 

With this in mind, I decided to do this puzzle which features Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Living an hour's drive away from Melbourne (which, in turn, is about an hour's flight from Sydney), I haven't had the chance to visit this amazing city as much as I would like. There is still so much that I would like to see and do there, but completing this puzzle brought back great memories all the same!

On my last trip to Sydney, I did a twilight climb to the top of the Harbour Bridge- a wonderful experience that I hope I never forget. It is something that every visitor should do if the opportunity arises. While it is a bit pricey, it's also a unique experience that's well worth the money! 

Doing this vibrantly-coloured puzzle, which features Sydney's most iconic structures (maybe even Australia's most iconic structures), was a pleasure. The imagery is beautiful and the dusky pink and purple tones of the sunset are captured perfectly. This would make a great memento of a Sydney trip, guaranteed to bring back any delightful memories you may have had. 

This puzzle is available from Fishpond by clicking the link below:

Ravensburger Sydney Opera House - 1000 Piece Puzzle

The Muscular System

Brand: Eurographics
Pieces: 1000
Size: 48.89cm x 67.63cm
Product Code:  6000-2015

Every now and then I like to deviate from my usual tendency to do jigsaw puzzles of pretty or bright images, and go, instead, for something a little more educational. 

I recently had one of those moments, and decided to do a puzzle that explores the human body's muscular system, as depicted above. Featuring imagery of the human body, each important muscle is pointed out and named, making this a worthy educational tool for somebody studying human anatomy. There are also sections in the design where close-ups are revealed and more details are given about particular muscular groups, especially those in smaller body areas, like your hands, or around your head and neck. 

Closeup of the face and neck muscular system

This puzzle contains a lot of useful muscular information

Closeup of the muscles of the hand

This puzzle was somewhat of a challenge, mostly because I was unfamiliar with many of the muscle names, and where they are found in the body. Also adding to the challenge were the unusually shaped pieces (which are particular to the Eurographics brand), and the fact that there were a lot of white spaces where there were no distinguishing characteristics to tell where they belonged. After I had completed the main imagery, it was pretty much a game of trial and error to find where the rest of the pieces went!

Despite this, The Muscular System was an enjoyable puzzle to do, and I'm sure I will do many others from Eurographics' educational range in the near future. 

This puzzle is available from Fishpond by clicking the link below:


Muscular System 1000-Piece Puzzle