How have you been spending these wonderful, wintery, snowy, icy, and cold evenings this past week? Too cold and treacherous to go out? No problem! Put a log on the fire (that’s one thing I wish we had), make yourself a hot beverage, and put together a puzzle! There’s certain to be one to suit every taste. Retro Revelry is what was on our table this week.
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Ravensburger kindly sent us this Retro Revelry picture, it’s No. 9 in their Perplexing Puzzles series. A special thanks to Ravensburger for fuelling our puzzle obsession over the past year!
Retro Revelry is a little different from the other puzzles you’ve seen us review. It’s aimed towards a more mature audience with its 1970s decor and alcoholic theme. Far too much alcohol in my children’s opinion! I wasn’t old enough to know the world at the height of this era, but this scene does remind me of a friend’s home. She had much older brothers and parents and their basement was set up with a shag carpet, drums, and a bar. I don’t know if it had alcohol or not, but I could imagine parties taking place there.
After my saying that Which One’s Santa? and the Ludicrous Lighthouse were much tougher than previous puzzles, I found that Retro Revelry started off so much easier! I was on my own for this puzzle, and I put about the first third together all at one sitting. The edges came together nicely, followed by the oranges of the guitar, the stripey record collection and blue player.
Then things slowed down a little as I put together the stripey bar and the drinks table on the bottom left.
Greg Shepherd, the man who photographed this scene for the puzzle had a lot of fun and a lot of help collecting and borrowing all of these items; from the flowered wallpaper to the record player, to the clock, glasses, and yes, those fancy bottles of alcohol shaped like people. Mom and Dad had one of those decorating their kitchen for years. What a fun challenge to bring all of these pieces together for one last hurrah.
Then it was on to piece together the bottom half of the puzzle and filling in the bottles and drinks waiting to be consumed by a house full of guests.
The colours of this puzzle are quite dark; think of those dark basements of North America in the 1970s with their small windows and wood-panelled walls. Quite a difference from the bright colours of the 1960s and the whites, pastels, and neons of the ’80s. It’s interesting how tastes change with time.
A few days went past as we put up the Christmas tree and decorations around the house, but the puzzle was patiently waiting for me again when I needed a break. I may or may not have gone to work late one night as I was clicking pieces together while watching TV with Phil. Good thing I work from home and don’t have strict office hours….but I was more tired than usual the next morning!
The final part of this puzzle was the red chair. I worked on this yesterday afternoon once the piles of laundry were put away and I needed a few minutes off of my feet. One piece at a time; trying each piece in every place until it was completed.
Finishing a puzzle is always bitter-sweet; the feeling of completion mixed with the sadness of not having it to work on anymore.
So we left it up overnight so I could try to take a photo of it in the daylight.
I’m trying to fend off a cold that my loving family has been trying to share with me for the past two weeks, so I’m sipping on a hot lemon and honey drink with cinnamon and cloves…and a cup of tea; it’s important to keep those fluids topped up when fighting a virus! Phil doesn’t understand how I can mix my drinks like this. But I finished my tea before moving on to the honey and lemon drink (in the evening you can add a splash of spiced rum-yum!).
Something was missing so the children found some potato chips (I know, they’re called crisps here in the UK, but old habits die hard) and set up a scene. Children of bloggers grow up with a different set of skills such as staging photos! The lack of sunshine wasn’t helping the photos…but perhaps it does feel more reminiscent of the 1970s time period?
Now it was time to pack the puzzle away. We always use a zipper bag to hold our pieces…just in case a box is dropped or someone shakes it until the lid falls off and pieces go everywhere….it’s bound to happen…again. So to prevent that we make sure the pieces are all secured. Tristan offered to help pack the pieces away today. He was amazed to see that he could lift half the puzzle up without it collapsing upon itself! He put it down and waited until Kallista came into the room so he could show her, too! How cool!
If you’d like to try this out for yourself (the puzzle or the magical lifting), here are the details:
Ravensburger Perplexing Puzzles No.9 – Retro Revelry, 1000pc Jigsaw Puzzle is available through fine retail stores and Amazon.co.uk.
The Ravensburger Puzzle Handy is also available from Amazon.co.uk and retail outlets.
Follow Ravensburger through their website, Facebook, and YouTube.
If you enjoy a good puzzle, check out these other Ravensburger puzzles we’ve reviewed:
- Which One’s Santa? Limited Edition
- Ludicrous Lighthouse
- Happy Days at Work – The Teacher 500pc
- School Sports Day
- A Day at The Beach
- Best of British No.15 – The Supermarket
- Flying Home
