Golden Masterpiece Series: Frans Hals

Frans Hals, Portrait of an Officer

Golden, 1970s(?), Masterpiece Series

1505 pieces

27"x33"

purchased sealed (complete) from ebay ($15.75)

Difficulty level: Not nearly as hard as the last Masterpiece Series I built, since now I knew about the pattern and how the specific pieces fit together.

Right around here I was facing several hundred pieces of varying shades of brown, and decided to save myself some sanity and sorted all the remaining pieces by shape. Once that was done, completing the rest was pretty simple, since for the most part each row across is made up of two types of pieces.

Once all the non-standard pieces were in place, it was fairly easy to slot the final pile of standard peg-hole-peg-hole pieces.

A spectacular puzzle. The fit is incredible, the image is wonderful, and quality is top-notch. There are eleven in this series that I know of, but I hadn't seen this one until this copy popped up on ebay. I would love to get all the rest, if I can find them sealed.

Bombardment of Algiers

The Bombardment of Algiers

Ravensburger

3168 pieces

32" x 48"

purchased used from Amazon ($32), assured complete but of course it was missing two pieces

Difficulty level: way harder than I thought. The 9000-piece version must be a beast.

After opening the box, the thing that struck me is that there were very few pieces that were clearly definable as belonging in a specific section--outside of the broad expanses of yellow, blue, and purple/pink, all the ship/water pieces were pretty blobby and I knew it was going to be a tough build.

I figured I would just do the sky first and get it out of the way.

The final push . . .

MB Super Challenge Series, Carmel, CA

Carmel, CA

Milton Bradley, Super Challenge (1978) Series #7

1540 pieces

31" x 23 1/2"

purchased sealed (complete) from Amazon ($18)

Difficulty level: super challenging

Another enjoyable Super Challenge puzzle from Milton Bradley.

First I did the water:

Then the tree with the sun behind it, because the black & white pieces were easy to spot . . .

. . . and worked my way out from there, the sky getting gradually darker.

Until almost nothing was left but pieces that were entirely black or some shade of black.

MB Super Challenge Series: White Sands, New Mexico

White Sands, New Mexico

Milton Bradley, Super Challenge (1985) Series #6

1540 pieces

31" x 23 1/2"

purchased sealed (complete) from Amazon ($18)

Difficulty level: super challenging

This is a really fun, but very difficult one in the 1985 series that I had not seen prior to finding a sealed copy on Amazon. I was getting confused with the numbering of the Super Challenge Series when I realized that there is a 1978 series and a 1985 series, with a few of the puzzles getting duplicated, with different series numbers. I have been trying to figure out all the different ones in each series.

The frame, plant, and horizon were easy enough, but the sand, sky, and especially the clouds were just brutal.

A very, very fun puzzle.

World Map, 1665

World Map, 1665

Ravensburger

3168 pieces

32" x 48"

purchased new from Amazon ($30), but this is the second Ravensburger in a row I've bought that had at least one piece missing, straight out of the box

Difficulty level: the number of pieces is a bigger challenge than the image, but it's a fun build