Sunday Driver! (Falcon Edition – Exclusive + Limited Edition) – 60227 – Number 1 (of 12) – 1000 pieces – Original – rare puzzle

Sunday Driver – the very first Falcon Puzzle Club edition

This puzzle is special. Not just any Falcon deluxe puzzle, but number 1 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. 8. The print run was limited to the number of club members at the time, which automatically makes these puzzles rare.

Sunday Driver is club number 1 – the very first puzzle Falcon ever released through this club. That makes it extra special for collectors.

The illustration

The drawing is by Graham Thompson, one of Falcon de luxe's ​​regular illustrators. Thompson was known for his busy, humorous British scenes – full of recognizable characters, funny details, and a distinctly British sense of humor. On Sunday Driver, you see a vintage blue car with license plate MPH 15 driving calmly through a busy English village – while everything around him is in mild chaos. As always with Thompson: the longer you look, the more you see.

It is noteworthy that the same illustration was later also released as a regular Falcon puzzle, number 3679 – available for purchase in stores. The Puzzle Club version (60277) is the original, exclusive first edition, making it the rarer of the two.

Why rare?

This puzzle is difficult to find for several reasons. It was never sold through normal retail channels. The print run was limited to the club membership at the time. And because it was the club's first release, it is particularly sought after by collectors of Falcon puzzles. Whoever comes across it is lucky.

The link with Wasgij

The illustration on Sunday Driver is not just any drawing by Graham Thompson. The image on the box actually comes from the very first Wasgij ever released - Wasgij Original number 1, also titled Sunday Driver.

With a Wasgij, you don't place what you see on the box, but rather what the characters on the box see. The box image is therefore the "trigger"—the puzzle itself shows the reaction or consequence. The name Wasgij is simply "jigsaw" spelled backward. Sunday Driver was the puzzle with which this concept was first launched.

The Falcon Puzzle Club took that iconic box image from Wasgij Original 1 and released it as a regular jigsaw puzzle—without the Wasgij concept, but with the same drawing by Graham Thompson. Thus, with the Falcon Club version, you simply assemble the scene you see on the box, whereas the Wasgij version has you guess what the characters in that same scene are seeing.

That makes Sunday Driver (60277) extra special: it is both the first Falcon Puzzle Club release and based on the drawing that forms the basis of the entire Wasgij concept. Two historical milestones in one puzzle box.

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 60277 or 10710 is simply the internal Falcon item number, just as every product has its own number. The club number (NO.1 through NO.12) is NOT listed separately on the box and indicates which edition in the series it was.

A striking detail: most 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 dominant in this series: he was the regular illustrator of the early Wasgij puzzles.

This is what is known so far:

Certificate of Authenticity – proof of rarity

Inside the box was an official certificate from Falcon: a Certificate of AuthenticityThis document confirms exactly what makes this puzzle so special, and also reveals the exact print run figure that was previously unknown.

The certificate states the following:

"This is to certify that this puzzle, 'Sunday Driver' - the illustration from the Original Wasgij 1 box lid, is one of a strictly limited edition of 1000, published exclusively for members of the Falcon Puzzle Club. The illustration is by the extremely talented humor artist Graham Thompson, and is the first puzzle to be produced for the Falcon Puzzle Club."

This certificate confirms three things at once. First, the print run is exactly 1000 copies - worldwide. No more, no less. Secondly, the puzzle was sold exclusively to members of the Falcon Puzzle Club and was not available to anyone else. Thirdly, Falcon itself confirms that the illustration comes directly from the box of Wasgij Original 1.

A print run of 1000 copies for a puzzle that appeared decades ago, and of which a portion has undoubtedly been lost or never opened: whoever still holds this copy possesses something truly rare. The certificate itself makes the puzzle even more valuable as a collector's item.