Blooming Marvellous! (Falcon Edition – Limited + Exclusive Edition) – 10728 – Number 9 (of 12) – 1000 pieces – Original – rare puzzle

This is a rare puzzle.

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Name PuzzleBlooming Marvelous!
Price€8 - €10 (Estimate)
Number of Pieces1000 Pieces
Number10728
Year of IssueUnknown
Issue byFalcon
draftsman Graham Thompson
Description

Blooming Marvellous! – Falcon Puzzle Club issue number 9

This puzzle is special. Not just any Falcon deluxe puzzle, but number 9 of the Falcon Puzzle Club – an exclusive series that was never available in regular stores.

What exactly is Falcon de luxe?

Falcon de Luxe is a British puzzle brand with a long history. The brand was founded in 1976 by Harry Jondorf and Peter Adby and quickly grew into a respected puzzle brand in the United Kingdom. In 1996, Falcon was acquired by the Dutch company Hausemann & Hötte, which later continued as Jumbo. The Falcon de Luxe premium series was first introduced in the 1970s and is recognizable by the distinctive blue cardboard on the back of the pieces and the unique printing and cutting techniques.
So Jumbo and Falcon are the same company – Falcon is the British branch, specifically aimed at the English-speaking market. Falcon de luxe is owned by the Dutch puzzle company Jumbo and specializes in nostalgic and atmospheric images with a typical British touch. The box therefore always bears the Falcon logo – but behind the scenes, it is simply Jumbo quality.

The Falcon Puzzle Club

At a certain point, Falcon launched an exclusive subscription: the Falcon Puzzle Club. Members received special Limited Edition puzzles by mail that were not available in stores anywhere. Each issue had its own club number – from No. 1 to No. 12. The print run per issue was strictly limited to 1000 copies worldwide, which automatically makes these puzzles rare.
Blooming Marvellous! is club number 9 of the 12 releases in the Falcon Puzzle Club series. A notable feature of this edition is that both "Limited Edition" and "Exclusive Edition" are listed on the box. With this, Falcon made it immediately clear that this was not a regular retail release, but an exclusive puzzle available only to club members.

The illustration

The drawing is by Graham Thompson, one of the most famous illustrators of Falcon de luxe and Wasgij. Thompson was known for his busy, humorous British scenes – full of recognizable characters, funny details, and situations that you only discover when you look at the image longer.
Blooming Marvellous! takes center stage with a lively and colorful garden and flower scene. As is typical of Graham Thompson, things are happening everywhere at once. The image is full of humor, little jokes, and details that stand out again and again while puzzling. It is precisely this that makes his illustrations so beloved among puzzlers and collectors.

Why rare?

This puzzle is difficult to find for several reasons. It was never sold through normal retail channels. The print run was strictly limited to 1000 copies worldwide. In addition, many copies have since ended up in the private collections of Falcon collectors.
Because it is an exclusive Puzzle Club edition, Blooming Marvellous! appears only sporadically on the second-hand market. Anyone who comes across a complete copy today therefore has something special in their hands.

The link with Wasgij

The illustration on Blooming Marvellous! is not just any drawing by Graham Thompson. The image on the box is actually from Wasgij Original number 6, also titled Blooming Marvelous!.
With a Wasgij, you don't place what you see on the box, but rather what the people on the box see. The box image is therefore the "starting point"—the puzzle itself shows what is happening from the perspective of the depicted characters. The name Wasgij is simply "jigsaw" spelled backwards.
The Falcon Puzzle Club took that box image from Wasgij Original 6 and released it as a regular jigsaw puzzle—without the Wasgij concept, but with the exact same drawing by Graham Thompson. So, with the Falcon Club version, you simply assemble the scene you see on the box, whereas the Wasgij version has you guess what the people in that same scene are looking at.
That makes Blooming Marvellous! (10728) extra special: it is not only the ninth Falcon Puzzle Club release, but also a puzzle directly based on one of the early Wasgij Original puzzles. This makes this release interesting for both Falcon and Wasgij collectors.

The complete Falcon Puzzle Club series (NO.1 to NO.12)

The Falcon Puzzle Club consisted of 12 exclusive editions. Each club number is separate from the item number on the box – that 10728 is simply the internal Falcon item number for this puzzle. The club number (NO.1 to NO.12) is not listed separately on the box and indicates which edition in the series it was.

A striking detail: many Falcon Puzzle Club editions are based on box images from Wasgij Original puzzles. Falcon used the illustration from the Wasgij box as a regular jigsaw puzzle—the same drawing, but without the Wasgij concept. This also explains why Graham Thompson is so prominently featured in this series: he was the regular illustrator of many early Wasgij puzzles.

This is what is known so far:


NumberBox numberNamedraftsmanBased onType
1 60227 Sunday DriverGraham ThompsonWasgij Original 1Limited Edition + Exclusive
2 60396 Happy Holidays!Graham ThompsonWasgij Original 2Limited Edition + Exclusive
3 80611 Full Monty FeverGraham ThompsonWasgij Original 3Limited Edition + Exclusive
4 60545 A Day to Remember!Graham ThompsonWasgij Original 4Exclusive
5 10710 Late Booking!Graham ThompsonWasgij Original 5Limited Edition + Exclusive
6 10728 Blooming Marvelous!Graham ThompsonWasgij Original 6Limited Edition + Exclusive
7Bear NecessitiesGraham ThompsonWasgij Original 7Limited Edition

Certificate of Authenticity – proof of rarity

The Falcon Puzzle Club editions always included an official certificate from Falcon: a Certificate of AuthenticityWith this certificate, Falcon confirmed that the puzzle was produced exclusively for members of the Falcon Puzzle Club and was not intended for regular sale.
For collectors, this certificate forms an important part of the complete set. A copy that includes the puzzle, the original box, and the certificate is generally more attractive and valuable than a copy without a certificate.
Precisely because Blooming Marvellous! was published in a limited edition of only 1000 copies and was never available in stores, the certificate serves as additional proof of the exclusivity of this edition. Anyone who manages to find a complete copy with a certificate today owns a rare piece of Falcon and Wasgij history.
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