In 2006, my brother gave me two LOST: Mystery of the Island
puzzles for Christmas. I assembled the one focusing on the mysterious
Numbers within the month, but I saved the first in the series, The
Hatch, for later. In the meantime, I bought and built The Others, though
I still have yet to happen across Before the Crash, the fourth puzzle
in the series, which was released later than the rest. Now that I've
completed The Hatch, however, I'm ready.
The four puzzles
promise exclusive insight into the series, which at the time these were
released consisted of two seasons. I've yet to be wowed by any such
revelations, but The Hatch, like The Numbers and The Others, is a very
cool-looking puzzle. Its focus is the Swan Station, where much of the
second season takes place. By the end of season two, another hatch has
been physically discovered, and there are indications of the several
others that exist throughout the island. But this 1000-piece puzzle
keeps the spotlight on the first hatch the survivors know about.
Each of the LOST
puzzles I've put together has had a clear pattern to it that makes
assembly easier, though discerning that pattern sometimes takes a while.
This one was the easiest for me to figure out. In the center of the
puzzle is the gray octagonal emblem of the Swan hatch, with its
particular sequence of three rows of black lines in each of the eight
segments and a circle in the middle showing a stylized swan and the word
DHARMA.
The emblem is centered within a patchy white circle
that serves as the center point of what looks like a large spider web.
Around the circle are eight sections of fairly uniform size and shape,
each showing a different scene. Surrounding those are eight larger
sections, also of the same size and shape as each other and also showing
different scenes. Beyond those are eight more sections, though at this
point, the edge of the puzzle is nearby, so since this is a rectangle
rather than an octagon, the corner sections are much larger than those
on the sides. The sections on the top and bottom are scarcely visible at
all. It still takes a bit of maneuvering to figure out what goes where,
but knowing the general layout makes assembly quite a bit easier. It
also helps that you can put together one small section at a time if you
prefer.
Anyone who has watched the second season of LOST
will recognize notable images. The Numbers put in an appearance, as do
the Geronimo Jackson record that Charlie investigates and the jars of
food Hurley tries to distribute fairly. You'll see Desmond's bookshelf,
with The Turn of the Screw in prominence for non-literary
reasons, and the timer that taunted him for three years. The blast-door
map that fascinates John pops up, as does the mural that greets Jack
when he descends into the hatch's depths for the first time. You won't
be able to avoid a glimpse of the beaten, bedraggled Henry Gale, whose
secrets barely begin to be tapped this early in the series. In all,
there are 23 pictures to study; the top three sections are actually all
one picture.
As with the other puzzles in this series, The
Hatch is meant to be glued in order for it to be enjoyed properly. Not
only does this allow for its display, but it lets the proud puzzler flip
to the other side and, with a black light in hand, study the invisible
writing on the back. On its own, it's not very intelligible; there are
random scribblings here and there, but for the most part it's a fourth
of a map, which isn't terribly useful apart from the other three
fourths. As I'm still missing one fourth, I haven't spent a lot of time
studying this part of the puzzle.
If you're a LOST fan
with a penchant for puzzles, I recommend this series, and I suspect you
will find The Hatch slightly less maddening than the others so it might
be a good one to start with. I haven't seen them in stores lately, but
they're available online at a reasonable price; Amazon sells this one
for eleven dollars at the moment. LOST is already one of the most
puzzling television shows ever created, so it's the perfect subject of a
brow-wrinkling puzzle or four.
No comments:
Post a Comment