When Nature Calls
| Puzzle | When Nature Calls |
|---|---|
| Artist | Dee Rogers |
| Type | Teaser  |
| Catalog Picture |  |
This 130 piece puzzle was a treat to get my mitts on thanks to a puzzle buddy. The catalog picture really doesn't do the puzzle justice in an attempt to provide surprise. Also, when this puzzle's total is combined with the other Stave's by Dee I will review over the next few days it brings the total number of Dee Stave's I've puzzled to 12 puzzles and 1160 pieces.
Now, I'm reviewing this puzzle "out of order" from the ones I've recently completed because I thought the design was relatively unique. Specifically, prior to this puzzle I would have broken the Teasers into two main groupings, cavity puzzles and repeating shape puzzles. This one fits neither category particularly well IMHO though it has some elements of each.
Dee's artwork is quite playful and the puzzle's title arguably has a bit of a double meaning given the toilet paper near the bear-occupied tent.
In terms of the artistry, I just finished puzzling "Dreaming of Ewe", "Blast Off", "Bumble Rumble" (I have not yet finished puzzling) and this one. The thing that really struck me as a result was just what a "dynamic range" Dee has an artist and how well she and the Stave folks have worked her art into the puzzles. This one really impressed me for the mix of vibrant colors with sharp transitions (and color line cutting, bastards!) as well as the playful variety of silhouette/teaser pieces and their match into the "Nature" and camping themes of the puzzle.
Coming back to this one being a lot of fun, my usual Teaser strategy (Basic Strategy #1) is to segregate teaser/silhouette pieces from the "regular" pieces. Put together the shell and then put the teaser pieces in. For the repeating puzzles, I go to Basic Strategy #2, brute force, pretty quickly with some shape memory/etc.
As I sorted the pieces it quickly became apparent that neither Basic Strategy would work. This puzzle is a bit like an onion--not in shape/smell--but in having layers. The "shell" is small. There was no big teaser cavity apparent and instead, I developed a new strategy (some details omitted to avoid spoilers, but I'll have a finished image on my Flickr sooner rather than later and will also answer emails).
That made this a lot of fun.
So I think I said when I reviewed "Tough Act to Follow" I said it made my top 3 Teaser list, now, I'm torn. This one just was so pleasant and different I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit outside the "ordinary" (is there such a thing with Stave?) Teaser puzzle. As for my top 3 teasers, the list is in disarray.
Total puzzling time with TV watching was around 2.5 hours and I was watching a fair bit of TV.
Special award for most unique use of the signature piece that I've seen recently. Not in terms of colors (June's remark on Riding High), but in terms of how they worked it into the puzzle.
Comment
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Comment by June Herold on February 25, 2009 at 7:13pm - Hi. Of all of Erik's blogs I think this one is getting the most attention. I forgot about the turn of the phrase "Metric Buttload" (Erik I still want to use it in my writings!) I remember doing this puzzle about two years ago and for some reason it just didn't wow me like it has you guys. I think it was because it was too green. I'm very sensitive to color when I'm doing a puzzle. Maybe that sounds crazy. I got through it very quickly, if I remember correctly and I think for a puzzle of that many pieces I was hoping it would last longer. Rainbow Trout (I think that's the name) was another puzzle that comes to mind when thinking about When Nature Calls. It's the one that has a trout in a kind of "swoosh" over the top of the puzzle. Again, it was a palette issue. But I'm sure fish lovers and anglers would likely enjoy it.
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Comment by Bryan on February 25, 2009 at 6:40pm - I liked this too puzzle Erik and David, but I have to say Palace of Pranks is one of my top 5 favorite Teaser/Trick puzzles for certain!
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Comment by Erik on February 24, 2009 at 6:06pm - David glad you enjoyed it! This one is a nice treat. Also Palace of Pranks is more amazing in terms of what they did with the signature clown piece.
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Comment by David Minton on February 24, 2009 at 4:37pm - Wow! I've just received my When Nature Calls, having ordered it after reading Erik's review, and it's lived up to all expectations. I guess it took me about three hours. I see what you mean about it being in 'layers'. The first few bits slotted into place very quickly, but things got more and more tricky as I progressed with the puzzle (isn't it usually the other way round). There was one section of the puzzle (involving a couple of silhouettes) which I had to leave and kept trying to return to. In the end I had one cavity left, and one silhouette piece, and it still took me a few minutes to work out how it would slot in! Looking at Erik's list of puzzles and my own, there is remarkably little overlap. I guess we have slightly different tastes when it comes to artwork etc. However, I have to agree that this is a wonderful puzzle on many levels. Highly recommended, and I think it's currently on special offer!
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Comment by Erik on August 14, 2008 at 11:11pm
- i knew, was mostly teasing back
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Comment by Erik on August 14, 2008 at 10:11pm
- Hrm, Dee it's about how many of your puzzles I was working on, not about you...
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Comment by Erik on August 14, 2008 at 8:53pm
- You may use a metric buttload of it. :)
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Comment by June Herold on August 14, 2008 at 8:42pm
- Another great one Erik! I love the phrase "Metric Buttload".....may I use it?
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Comment by Erik on August 14, 2008 at 6:37pm
- My pleasure Joe, glad to know people are finding them interesting and useful. I should have a stream of them coming since I just finished a metric buttload of Dee's puzzles, all fun.
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Comment by Tammy & Joe on August 14, 2008 at 5:19pm -
You've made this one sound so good that I had to add it to my wish list.
Thanks for all the reviews.
Joe
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