Is there a Jan van Haasteren puzzle in which the shark fin does not appear?
I had to search for this for a long time, but there is at least 1 puzzle in which the shark fin does not appear. And this puzzle is published by Jumbo. What puzzle is that? It's the puzzle:
'Happy Birthday Jan – 80 Years'. With the image:
and this is the box:
Then there is a second puzzle in which the Shark Fin does not appear and that is the puzzle 'Concert in the Park / The Bandstand (Ravensburger Edition)'. With the image:
and this is the box:
Then there is a third puzzle in which the Shark Fin does not appear, and that is the puzzle released in April 2025 – that is 'Carts But'(Oldtimer):
and this is the box:
How is it possible that there is no shark fin in this Jan van Haasteren puzzle?
A more detailed explanation of this story. Jan van Haasteren used to be a cartoonist. And only later did he start making drawings for puzzles. He has not only made drawings for puzzles released by Jumbo, but also puzzles released by other brands such as 'Ravensburger' or 'King'. His first puzzle he ever drew was the 'Popeye floor puzzle' from 1975. Not signed for Jumbo. And there is no shark fin in it either. So there are many more puzzles that Jan van Haasteren did draw, but which certainly did not contain a shark fin, there are many examples of this, for example:
Popeye Wildlife Park (6) – Edition King Eldorado
75 Years Wolf Federation
However, the first puzzle released by Jan van Haasteren for Jumbo is from 1983, namely 'Olympics'. There's the shark fin in there. Why is there no shark fin in the puzzle 'Happy Birthday Jan – 80 years' – released in 2016? The puzzle was released in honor of Jan's birthday, and then they looked up the first poster that Jan had made and that was a poster from 1977, made for the beverage brand Hoppe at the time. Hoppe is a well-known brand of, for example, Jenevers and Vieux. Based on this advertising poster, people thought it would be nice to have a puzzle made of this in honor of his 80th birthday. So here is the crux - this advertising poster dates back to 1977 and a puzzle of this was released by Jumbo in 2016. ButSo, there is NO shark fin in this puzzle! The same actually applies to the 'Karren Maar' puzzle – this was released in April 2025, but the original drawing is from 1979 (so 4 years before Jan 'joined' Jumbo), meaning that was a drawing truly from his early days. There was no shark fin in it. A puzzle based on this 1979 drawing was not made and released until 2025.
The shark fin – THE trademark of Jan van Haasteren
This has now become the trademark of Jan van Haasteren and his puzzles are world famous for this. Do you want to know what other fixed recurring elements can be seen in his puzzles? Then view the page 'Jan van Haasteren fixed recurring elements'.