Pictures of “The Beast”
From this moment forward I think the puzzle will be referred to as “The Beast”! Holy Cow is that a big box of pieces!
I can’t even begin to fathom the insanity of the people who actually open up each of the four bags, mix all the pieces together in the big box, and then proceed. If I had to search through 23,999 pieces just to find that one elusive edge piece I think I would have to shoot myself. I will be more than happy to take the easier way out and do the puzzle section by section. That in itself will be a huge accomplishment and good enough for me anyway.
Here are a couple of pictures of the individual bags as well as the poster that comes with the puzzle. This is meant as a reference point instead of trying to see the details from the small image on the box. I am going to try to laminate it tomorrow as I know this will get a ton of use.
11 thoughts on “Pictures of “The Beast””
Dearest Penny,
WOW! The puzzle is awesome, both the picture and the 24,000! Thanks so much for posting on Composition Art Journals and letting us know, because this is definitely Very Cool!
Love and {{{Hugs}}},
rift
Hopefully this will be finished before your cute little son graduates high school! What a huge job!
It makes my head hurt just to look at the box!! You must have a lot of patience and determination – I'll check back! Thanks for posting on the journal site!
How awesome! Look forward to following your progress. I love puzzles as well and spent many fun and loving hours with my Mom, who also loved puzzles. The largest we've done is 1000 pcs. Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
found your blog through the official website of the puzzle… Just wanted to tell you that you need to hurry up 🙂 if you still want to be doing 'the biggest puzzle in the world' because ravensburger is releasing a 32000 puzzle in the next few weeks. Honestly, I don't care one bit for the image being used so I'm not going to do that one… And I'm also still working on the 'Life' puzzle (one more section to go, the 3rd one from the left). Next for me will be the 18240 piece puzzle called 'at the waterhole' being released by ravensburger in mid september. I've done 2 of these 18240 piece puzzles before but this time I'm going to mix all the bags together… Because they finally got rid of those borders that separate the sections so now you have one big picture (just like the 'life' puzzle)… It's going to be a huge challenge sorting that pile though…
And I'm going to keep following your progress as well…
Greetings from Belgium…
Hi Maarten! Thanks so much for looking at my blog. Yes, I also saw that Ravensburger was coming out with the 32,000 piece, and I couldn't agree with you more about the image. I think it's really ugly! I would never do that one, even though it's bigger. I know there are lots of folks out there who will do it just for the challenge of doing the world's largest, but the image doesn't appeal to me at all so I know I would never finish it. I haven't seen an image of "At the Waterhole". I will look on the internet and see if I can find it. I'm curious what it looks like. I didn't like the borders separating the images like Ravensburger has done in the past either (tropical impressions).
Good luck on finishing your last section! I wish I was that close! LOL
"At the waterhole" is done by the same artist who did the picture for 'tropical impressions', David penfound. I just like puzzles with nature and animals, so this new one is a dream come true. All nature and animals and no borders… I did the 'tropical impressions' and the 'skylines of the world' before I started 'life'. As with life, I never mixed the bags together. I originally wanted to mix up the 'historical world maps' that's still on my shelf at home but now that ravensburger is coming out with this new one, The maps will have to wait… I don't know if you know this, but the borders have a reason you know… Because of the cutting process, the picture can shift up or down a few millimeters where the sections join together… The borders are a solid color so you can never tell, but as with 'life' the picture continues and you can notice it. The good news is that you cannot tell if you are a couple of feet away… and that's the only way you will ever look at the completed puzzle so it's not a bad thing. In earlier large puzzles (from 10+ years ago, like the 12096 piece NYC at night that I have), the color could change between the sections. Not much, but noticeable if you pay attention. This is not the case with life though, the color is perfect throughout the whole puzzle. It's such a beautiful vibrant picture, I cannot wait to see the whole thing finished. I'm anxious to see how it works out with 'at the waterhole'. No borders? has ravensburger solved the shifting 'problem' or not?… I'll keep you posted… Happy puzzling 😉
Hi Maarten! I just found a picture of "At the Waterhole". It is a pretty picture and I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun doing that one. It reminds me of the animals section in in the leftmost section of Life. So you're going to mix the pieces of "At the Waterhole" together? Mmm, good luck with that! Do you regret not having done that now with the Life puzzle? What do you plan to do with the Life puzzle once you've finished – display it somewhere or break it up so you can do it again sometime?
No, I didn't know that about the cutting process and the reasons for the borders. That's really interesting, but it does make sense.
Let me know when you've finished Life too!
Penny,
I have completed a lot of puzzles. Small ones, really big ones… You name it. And have yet to glue and hang my first one. Why? Because until recently I still lived at home with my parents and they wouldn't like it if I started to hang their walls full of puzzles 😉 Now I have my own place so I could hang a few but something is holding me back. It seems so definite to glue them. On the other hand, they are now all in their boxes in my closet… That's also not the ideal solution. So what to do? I don't know. One thing I always do, is number the pieces on the back with a pen. If I ever want to hang one, it won't take forever to put together again 😉
And do I wish I mixed the bags before starting life? Yes and no. Yes because the sense of achievement would be even greater if I finished it. And no because before 'life' I made two 18240 piece puzzles, one 12096 piece and one 3000 piece puzzle. All back to back without taking a break. So I was somewhat burned out when I started 'life' That's why it has taken me from januari 2008 till now and I'm still not finished. I should have taken a break first but I couldn't. It was stronger than myself. I just had to make 'life'. I'm doing it very slow. Usually, a puzzle like this takes me 5 months at most (having a girlfriend and a fulltime job). But doing this so slow has given me my groove back…my puzzle burnout is gone. So when I start 'at the waterhole', I just have to mix the bags 😉 I want the experience of mixing those 18240 pieces together. But first thing's first. One section of life left… I'll check back very often to see how you're doing and keep you posted on my progress. My goal to finishing it is september 15…
Wow, putting a number on the back of the puzzle once it's done is a great idea. I like it. It would make it a lot easier to put it back together later that's for sure. One thing about not really having the space to put the puzzle up once it's finished, is that you easily could finish Life…take a break, and then sometime in the future put it together again, but after having mixed up all the pieces. So then you could get your wish of mixing!
Good luck on completing the last section by September 15! I hope you're able to do it.
Maarten, you said you have a full time job and a girlfriend…what type of work do you do for a living? And what age range are you in if you don't mind me asking. I'm just about to turn 36 (in a week and a half). Can't believe I'm already halfway through my 30's. Yikes!
Penny