Blog posts in 2018

August — Getting back on track

There has been a hiatus for some months now, in which we have hardly added any new puzzles; part of the reason being backend software problems. These are now largely resolved, so I am working on the backlog to add, and hope to get back to our previous figure of around 1200 puzzles in stock fairly soon. I am also working on a major upgrade, which will mean, among other things, long overdue bigger pictures.

We already have some new pages, featuring the American landscape artist Thomas Kincade, who in addition to landscapes of the world has been producing elegant scenes from Disney animations. I have also just added a range of puzzles of Pokémon characters: "Pocket Monsters", to give them their original full name. And there are other anime series to come, but if you have a favourite which you can't find in the puzzles, please just ask, and I will see what is available.

Another backend issue which can slow us down is maintaining the guides to manufacturer websites (on the Special orders page). Every time a manufacturer's website gets redesigned, I have to repair all the links... recently both Appleone and Epoch did this. I have just restored the Appleone guide, and the Epoch one should follow shortly.

November — New puzzles and new features

The shop front page is covered with new puzzles again at last; and during October we got back to the previous level of 1200+ titles in stock. I have also restored the Epoch website guide so you can check for other new issues, but now the Yanoman website has been redesigned (it looks harder to use), so this is temporarily not available.

And new puzzle features, too. Many puzzles have special features, though most require no explanation: "Tiny pieces", "Glow-in-the-dark", and so on. But one that could be a bit mysterious is "SNS background"... the idea being that you want to show yourself to your friends right in the picture you have just put together. So although the picture looks complete in itself, it has a deliberate area for you to pose: just complete and frame the puzzle, then stand in front of it for a "selfie"... of course I cheated, as you can see!

Tenyo 1000-piece (full-size) prices

Back in August, Tenyo announced an increase in the prices of these puzzles. This is very unusual, I think the first time prices have been changed like this, and we held the old prices for as long as possible. But inevitably we will have to update them: generally they have all risen by 200 yen, so for example standard 1000-piece from 2800 to 3000 yen, canvas finish Kincade puzzles from 3600 to 3800 yen. I have just decided we will do this at the end of November, so you have a week to slip under the net!