Jack-in-the-Box Puzzles Gallery

#29 - Tropical Paradise

hawaiian tropical paradise

The mermaid was cut out and made into a mini-puzzle of 21 pieces.	Some of the figurals from Tropical Paradise: Dragonfly, bird, Kamehamana butterfly, Hawaiian Blue butterfly, signature piece, two sharks, fish, two dolphins, seahorse, and even a humuhumunukunukuapua. The large one is a Hawaiian petroglyph of a "honu" or sea turtle, and the bottom right is another Hawaiian petroglyph of a "runner" made from a picture of the customer's necklace.
The mermaid seemed so lonely, so a multi-piece merman (and a sea turtle) was added to keep her company.
The top of the puzzle was cut away to follow the contours of the image. Here, Conrad Armstrong's nifty idea for Stargazing was "borrowed" to give the volcano a smoky effect. The "smoke" shown is only revealed as the solver builds the puzzle around these dropped-out pieces.	In the center of the puzzle are five interlocking letter-pieces that spell ALOHA. The "O" is stylized to look like a pineapple.

Completed May 26, 2003
Knobby-cut
600 pieces
19" x 19", irregular edge, (~2.0 pieces per inch)
13 figurals (two Hawaiian butterflies, Hawaiian petroglyph "runner", bird, dragonfly, two sharks, two dolphins, signature, humuhumunukunukuapua, seahorse, anchor)
1 extra-large figural (Hawaiian petroglyph of "honu" sea turtle)
3 multi-piece figurals (mermaid (21 pieces), merman (12 pieces), honu (3 pieces)
5 letter-pieces forming the word ALOHA

Tropical Paradise was a beautiful picture for a large puzzle such as this. It is a very busy image with many repeated forms, like the red flowers, the little blue fish, and the sailboats. There are several pieces hidden in these repeating areas that have identiically cut knobs. If the solver puts one of these pieces in the wrong place, the puzzle can't be assembled until he notices and removes it!