bilbopooh's Full Review: Lost Mystery of The Island Puzzle #1 The Hatch
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.
Assemble this 1,000-pc. mystery puzzle, and reveal exclusive new insights into the Lost mythology Just when you think you’ve uncovered all the se...More at Amazon Marketplace
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