This was one of two Star Trek puzzles I bought a while ago and it’s been sitting in my closet until I was ready. I was surprised to see Cobble Hill doing a Star Trek puzzle let alone two. It didn’t quite seem to be in their style, but I was happy to see them because I love Star Trek and Cobble Hill has slowly become a favorite brand of mine. I like that they’re random cut as this makes the puzzle just a little bit more fun to do. They did a few other Star Trek ones, but the only ones that really stood out to me were this one and the “Classic Episodes” one.
Let’s get started!
I didn’t quite remember the movie posters themselves but I’ve seen the movies and remember the plots, so piecing together the posters wasn’t terribly difficult other than trying to find the right pieces. The Voyage Home, Wrath of Khan, and the Motion Picture were the ones I was mostly focused on putting together first. It wasn’t really intentional. I usually start with lettering and these were the ones that stood out to me. I was totally fine with the Voyage Home and Wrath of Khan being among the first pieced together as these are two of my favorite Star Trek movies.
I should have uncovered the puzzle a little more before taking a progress photo, but you can see the general placement. It’s interesting that the Wrath of Khan is so much larger than the others. As a kid, I didn’t really enjoy this movie so much because it was so dark and serious compared to the Voyage Home. But, as an adult, I can appreciate the writing and character development. Khan is a fascinating character and the only villain to really match Kirk for intellect and creativity. There’s nothing cartoon-y about him and he deals a very real blow to the Enterprise crew. That’s why I hated this movie as a kid, because Spock dies. When I do watch it, I have to have time to finish out the trilogy, so I can see the crew back to normal.
Even though I can now appreciate the Wrath of Khan, I think I will always love the Voyage Home for its pure strangeness. It’s set in a time and place that I don’t have any familiarity with, but that it’s the Enterprise crew on a modern-day Earth is pure fan fiction fun. Everything they do is equal parts in character and frustrating because you know they shouldn’t do that. It also shines a spotlight on some of the oddities of our world and makes you think does it really have to be that way?
Surprisingly, I did wind up missing a couple of pieces. I have dogs, but they’re not ones to eat pieces, and I’ve gotten into the habit of picking up pieces as soon as I hear them drop. They could be in the room somewhere, but I’m beginning to doubt it. Is it disappointing to be missing a couple pieces from a brand-new puzzle? Sure. It’s not something that usually happens with Cobble Hill, though. And it’s certainly not the worst I’ve had happen. I had five of the same piece with another brand and was missing five or six pieces. Missing pieces aside, I had a lot of fun working on this puzzle, and it’s made me want to rewatch the Star Trek movies.
No Pieces Missing 