I received the level 138 18-piece burr Burrly Sane for Woodworkers, designed and made by Jack Krijnen. Thanks, Jack!
Other finds...
| My thoughts and fervent hopes for safety, solace, and recovery from the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and related dangers are with our Japanese friends, and other unfortunate victims around the Pacific. |
William Waite
was kind enough to provide some info on what I thought was called the "Contortionist" keychain puzzle.
It turns out this model is actually known as the Wha Hoppen or Wrestler puzzle.
The hapless wrestler has been tied into a pretzel by his opponent.
I found an image of the card, shown.
William says this was marketed by the Harrison Co. of Long Island City NY in the 1950s.
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Six-piece burr keychain puzzle |
Canon keychain puzzle |
Football keychain puzzle |
Howdy Doody keychain puzzle |
Elephant keychain |
Elephant keychain |
Horseshoe and Ball keychain |
Burro and Rider keychain |
Airplane keychain |
Beetle keychain |
Raygun keychain |
Rocket keychain |
Airplane keychain |
Car keychain |
Giraffe keychain |
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Allsides Cube keychain - designed by William Waite From a limited edition of 26 puzzles, including a signed card reminiscent of the way keychain puzzles were sold in the 50s. Each of the four pieces touches all sides of the cube, hence the name. Four moves to remove the first piece. "One of the most difficult keychain puzzles ever produced." |
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Chain Gang - Designed by Dick Hess |
456 Burr |
The Bee Box - Designed by Constantin See an explanation at Grand Illusions. |
Hanayama Cast Coil |
Get a Clue from Pavel Curtis. |
A fully functional 3x4x5 from Tom van der Zanden. |
Idiot's Delight - Field Mfg. Co. Inc. NY Cube set signature 01143639 - Isomorphic to SK |
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Contortionist Keychain Puzzle |
Selected Papers on Fun and Games - Knuth |
Games, Puzzles, & Computation - Hearn, Demaine |
Unlikely Story Cluster Puzzle |
Two 4x4x4 cubes - Shengshou and Ghost Hand 4x4 II |
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Condor's Peeper from Mr. Puzzle. Level 62. |
A design by Bruce Love called the Lovely Burr. Level 18. You might find one made by Jerry McFarland at Bill Cutler's website. |
Vertigo from Pentangle Ordered from Mind Games in the UK. |
An advertising version of the Tantalizer puzzle, from Bass. |
The Professor Pyraminx, issued by Mefferts Designed by Timur Evbatyrov Another great design from Timur, mass produced beautifully by Meffert! I love this puzzle! |
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Gorey Games by Larry Evans 1979 |
A Lifetime of Puzzles Honoring Martin Gardner 2008 |
Pentangle's Leg Irons tanglement puzzle |
The exhibition catalogue, "Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind" |
A copy of "Ingenious Rings" |
Bottom-filling Teapot and Fairness Cup set |
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I chose a 2000 Sacagawea Gold dollar coin.
Grinan uses a steel blade only .002" thick.
"Numismatic Jigsaw Puzzles" is an original idea of Jeremy Barrett and copyright of Coin Cut Art.
A set of Bishop Cubes |
A bucket of Clics, to make various 4-color cubes to explore Instant Insanity type puzzles. |
A vintage Setko Block Puzzle |
A vintage Rotato Chips Puzzle by Grumette |
The Ramube Octahedron designed by Ramu Kaminoff in 2008 and exclusive to Creative Crafthouse. Eight complex pieces and 2 balls locking things up inside. Dave says, "This is in my opinion our MOST difficult puzzle. It is difficult for me to imagine anyone solving this without use of the provided instructions." |
The Century Cube II - a 4x4x4 cube composed of five serially interlocking pieces. A nice design that yields to logical thinking. |
The Dragon Burr - a burr having 18 unique pieces. Rated as one of their most difficult puzzles. This was originally designed by Maurice Vigouroux in 2003 and called simply "The 18 Piece." |
Erich Friedman's Cover Up design - three challenges. I got the easy level right away, but I am still working on the next two! |
The (Count Your) Blessings Cube - six interlocking pieces. The pieces occur in three mirrored pairs. |
The Giant Puzzle Some info from Dave: The "Giant Puzzle" was first introduced in 1888 by McLoughlin Bros of New York. We found a picture of the old puzzle in Slocum and Botermans book, "New Book of Puzzles" (1992) and were fascinated by it. It has a bit of a Sukoku edge to it, and it's really hard. The object is to arrange all the pieces in the base such that there is no color repeated on any row, column, or any diagonal. Also, no number can be repeated on any row, column or any diagonal. Also, each row, column and major diagonal must add to 25. You might try to tackle each of the requirements separately before you take on the full challenge of making them all happen at once! |
The Nifty Fifty from Jean Claude Constantin requires you to pack the four pieces into the tray. |
The Quartet Puzzle - the Quartet's tray has a movable end wall, and you must pack specific subsets of pieces into the tray depending on where the wall is positioned. |
Bill Cutler designed the Slider and used it as his exchange for IPP30. It looks innocent enough, but judging by the internals, it is not your typical 18-piece burr! It is made from Walnut, by Jerry McFarland. |
Eureka is carrying a new line of nail disentanglement puzzles by
Rick Irby.
I picked up the Rattlesnake Nails, the Point the Way, and the Twister Nails.
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David recommended the Dig It! puzzle produced by
Foxmind.
It is designed by Alex Polonsky. There are 50 challenges in four increasing levels of difficulty. In each, you must move a set of pieces in succession until a "bone" piece is fully revealed. 
This reminds me of the
Flying Block (or Jumping Block) puzzles designed by
Dries de Clercq.
Sliding, jumping, and rotation of pieces are allowed, but only one piece at a time.
Mr. Puzzle Australia
produced one.
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I am unsure of the provenance - there are no markings on the box or pieces.
The box is 1.75"^3 (45mm^3).
There should be at least 21 pips, but there are only 20 - so evidently one is missing.
The pieces are not the same as the Wolff Spots Puzzle described in Hoffmann.
Elite Tetrahedron - by Chris Hemerich [T] [S] [Y] |
Tuttminx - designed and prototyped by Lee Tutt in 2005 [T] - produced by Leslie Le [T] [W] The Tuttminx is a 32-sided truncated icosahedron. |
Mosaic Cube - produced by Meffert - designed by Oskar van Deventer (as the Fadi Cube) |
Ayi's 4x4x5 [T] [W] |
A fully-functional proportional 3x3x5 made by Smaz. |
There is an
online video review of this puzzle on YouTube.
This puzzle is the same size as the Dino-Rhombic Dodecahedron (DRD) I got from Drew Cormier - here are some comparison photos:
It is larger than the white Mini-mini Rhombiminx I got a while ago, which is built around a mini-Eastsheen 2x2x2.
Here is a group shot with various Rhombic Dodecahedra twisty puzzles.
The black Mini-Rhombiminx is in the center. The white Mini-mini Rhombiminx is below it;
clockwise from there is a 2x2x2 Rhombic Dodecahedron made by Karl-Heinz Diekmann,
a Kite Skewb, a truncated 4x4x4 RD, a Lanlan 4x4x4 RD, a QJ 3x3x3 RD, and the custom DRD.
The long-awaited puzzles of Meffert's
Jade Club finally arrived:
The tetrahedron and the cube are both made from a translucent plastic painted pearly white, with raised designs on the faces that have been highlighted in various pastel shades. They are very pretty, and each is fairly small though surprisingly hefty.
Each contains a unique RFID tag!
Also received a Lanlan Master Skewb and a DaYan/Mf8 Crazy Megaminx Plus Saturn:
I really like both of these. It's great to be able to own a Master Skewb at mass-produced prices.
The Lanlan version is nicely made and turns very well.
Not too long ago custom copies were going for $400 - I bought a hand-cast version for over $100.
I also really like the Crazy Megaminx Saturn. The fit and turning on the copy I got are very good, and I like the stickerless design and brightly colored plastic.
It is about the same size and weight as a Meffert's Pyraminx Crystal.
Purchased at the HK Now Store.
In comparison with other octahedral twisty puzzles:
From top to bottom, left to right: Meffert's Skewb Diamond (order-1 face-turning octa); DaYan Gem I (edge-turning trunc. octa);
order-2 vertex-turning octa; order-2 vertex-turning trunc. octa; order-3 vertex-turning master Trajber's;
Meffert's Hex Skewb (order-1 face-turning trunc. octa); order-2 face-turning octa; Eitan's ETO (order-2 edge-turning octa);
vintage Magic Octahedron (order-2 vertex-turning octa); QJ Trajber's (order-2 vertex-turning);
hand-cast custom Trajber's made by David Calzone;
QJ 3x3x3 octa (sort of hybrid edge- and vertex-turning); Octaminx custom made by me;
Meffert's Pyradiamond (order-1 vertex-turning octa); vintage Christoph's Magic Jewel (order-2 vertex-turning trunc. octa);
Lolo's Octahedron custom-made by Kevin Uhrik (order-3 vertex-turning octa); Truncated Trajber's custom-made by Tanner Frisby.
I still would like to find: a 24 octahedron, a Dino octa, a Rainbow octa, a Master octa, a Master FTO, and a Professor Trajber's.
Maybe a Square-1 and/or Square-2 octa, too.
For the last puzzle in 2010, I received
Tom van der Zanden's excellent Pentultimate.
You can buy one, and several other great twisty puzzles, at
Tom's Shapeways shop.
This is the order-1 face-turning dodecahedron. It has six cuts, all of which pass through the center of the puzzle, midway between pairs of opposing faces, and are great circles on the
circumscribed sphere.
Each divides the puzzle into two halves.
It is an engineering design masterpiece and employs a sophisticated "shells" mechanism.
The shells build upon a Megaminx, through a Pyraminx Crystal, Master Pentultimate, to the outer Pentultimate.
In a shells mechanism, the pieces of an inner shell hold in the pieces of the next shell out.
For example, the Pyraminx Crystal has two shells - an inner Megaminx and the outer Crystal. The faces of the inner Megaminx hold in inner edges, which in turn hold in the outer Crystal corners, which hold in the outer Crystal edges.
The Pentultimate is 25mm (1") on an edge, and is the same size as a QJ 3x3x3 dodecahedron.
The design explores the limits of economical miniaturization within the 3D printing process, yet the puzzle is not fragile and is quite comfortable to hold and manipulate.
It was announced on the TP Forums
here.
You can see an image of the complicated internal mechanism in that thread.
For information on the earlier impressive albeit fragile so-called "knucklehead" mechanism pioneered by Jason Smith,
who designed and constructed the
first working version of this puzzle, see
an article at Jason's
Puzzle Forge website.
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My selection this year included boxes by Kamei, Iwahara, Miyamoto, and Tuburai. Can you tell which is which?
So far I have opened the second one shown.
Two tanglements from Fiddl'Widdit - thanks Susan & family! The Triamese Angels is an even more difficult version of the Gordian Knot / Eggbeater design, and the Ski Doodle is a multi-level trapeze:
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From Meffert's, the Vulcano (aka Trignis) designed by Timur Evbatyrov,
and the DaYan Gem (an edge-turning truncated octahedron): 
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Double Disk from Hog Wild LLC of Portland OR |
An original Hungarian Supernova |
Some duplicates, but each is complete: Jinxed; another 64-piece Mr. Jig-O-Pin; Mental Misery. |
A set of McDonalds promotional puzzles |
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Hanayama Cast Rattle designed by Bram Cohen |
Tetraxis by KO Sticks LLC Produced with support from the Museum of Mathematics |
Slip-a-Not |
Rubik's Slide |
Lagoon Wild Wire Crocodile |
Orbo by Popular Playthings |
Dicebox Mindbender Cube Mates by Mi-Toys |
Colossal Book of Word Play - Gardner |
Some of
Bruce Viney's puzzle box
designs can now be purchased as DIY kits from
Myers Crafts.
The Double Think Binary Ring Puzzle from
Hog Wild LLC of Portland OR
Three layers - in the top and bottom layers, the pairs of interlinked rings turn independently, allowing segments to be mixed between them.
In addition, each ring has twelve segments that can be flipped to mix between the layers - such a move also exchanges inside and outside segments from the middle layer. The segments flip smoothly but it is somewhat difficult to rotate the rings. |
From
Lightake.com,
a "Rainbow Black Hole," "Cake Cube," and the LanLan Hydrangea (a face-turning truncated octahedron):
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From eBay seller
kcwong707,
a "Mask Cube," a "Magic Ball," and a 2x2x2 Dodecahedron:
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Stewart Coffin's Diagonal Cube design - modeled by George Bell using BurrTools and printed by Shapeways - available at George's Shapeways Shop. |
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Three inexpensive wooden burrs.
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Rubik's Slide |
A pair of trick bolts, from Lee Valley. |
Crazy 4x4 III |
Lonpos Cosmic Creatures |
DaYan III LingYun, DS Mahjong Cube, YongJun Star, ZhiSheng Egg (Potato) |
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A fully functional 2x3x4 cuboid twisty puzzle, designed by Garrett Ong.
[T]
[S]
Garrett's 2x3x4 won the Summer Puzzle Building Contest. It's a great achievement at its price point (under $60). |
An acrylic 3-D maze This reminds me of "Next Floor" by Oskar van Deventer - see it at Oskar's website (scroll down). |
La Canadienne - an advertising promotion edgematching puzzle |
The elusive Duff Beer 2x2x2 |
A pillowed white Master Skewb made by TP forums member "Cublem" [T] |
Two more tray packing puzzles in a vintage series by Lakeside - Horses and Animals |
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A version of the vintage Queen's Jubilee puzzle, called Uncle Sam's Divorce |
A vintage Imperial Scale tanglement This is one of several classic tanglement designs that have appeared in puzzle chests from the orient in the 19th century. You can download a PDF showing how to make and solve several designs including the Imperial Scale. |
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Visual Illusions by James Kingston |
19th Hole - Pentangle |
Reverse-All and Bullseye by Setko |
A set of three vintage picture puzzles by Currier & Ives - the Old Swiss Mill, the Puzzled Fox, and the Bewildered Hunter. Thanks to Gianni Sarcone for making me aware of these. |
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"The Five Minute Puzzle That Might Take a Little Longer" Designed by Andy Turner Entered in the IPP 2009 Design Competition Made by Eric Fuller, from Oak (box) and Paduak |
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1x5x5 - Murilo - Shapeways |
Square 2 - originally designed by Dave Litwin; Beijing Olympics ball; Red 3x3x3 Apple |
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Curvy Copter II - Tom Z |
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Rex Cube - Cormier - Mefferts |
Holey Skewb Twins - Fisher - Mefferts |
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An order from
Funagain:
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"The New Puzzle. Registered Industrial Exhibition - Registered According to Act of Parliament"
I believe this vintage jigsaw puzzle is a souvenir of one of the first of the great
World's Fairs, or Expo[sition]s, the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations" or just "The Great Exhibition" for short. Based on an idea of Prince Albert's, the fair was held in 1851 in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, and was the first international exhibition of manufactured products. 
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The Question Mark Puzzle from Pentangle - six pieces form a cube in two ways,
and also fit into the 3x6 box to form a question mark shape. -
This is equivalent to the
Steinhaus (aka Mikusinski's) Cube.
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Ms. Leone, a teacher at the local elementary school, uses puzzles in her classroom.
Last year I loaned a bunch of puzzles to her for her students to try, and she was very kind to send me a Cyclone puzzle as a thank-you. Much appreciated! 
The Cyclone is offered by
The Lagoon Group, via their
Family Games division.
I found a PDF of assembly instructions at http://www.give-me-a-clue.com/. Interestingly, this design seems to have first appeared as a lamp! The product IQ Light won the 2001 Danish Design Award for its packaging. IQ Light was designed by Holger Strøm of Denmark in 1973. It is based on a single piece or tile, various numbers of copies of which can be interlocked to form more than 21 different shapes. 30 tiles form a triacontahedron. In the assembly, there are 12 vertices where 5 tiles hook together, and 20 vertices where 3 tiles hook together. You can find a template for the piece at www.craftster.org. William Chow has a website explaining the geometry of what he calls the Celtic Tile. |
Trilogy aka "Three Open Windows" (made by Eric Fuller) Designed by Tom Jolly |
Squarrel Designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels See it on Ishino's site |
Mental Block Designed by Rick Eason aka the Twenty Cube |
Caged Knot Designed by Tom Jolly See it on Ishino's site |
Alcatraz Designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels aka Die in Prison #2 See it on Ishino's site |
Hobby Games - The 100 Best Edited by James Lowder See info at the publisher's site, greenronin.com. See a "companion guide" by Matt Tarbit. Also read some interesting factoids compiled by Alan De Smet. |
Family Games - The 100 Best Edited by James Lowder See info at the publisher's site, greenronin.com. |
Dice Games Properly Explained by Reiner Knizia |
The Yankee Puzzle - a vintage route-finding puzzle patented in 1896 by W. G. Adams
(554565),
described in Slocum and Botermans New Book of Puzzles on page 110:
A vintage Jig-O-Pin puzzle:
A tangle set, an inexpensive wooden tray-packing puzzle by Toysmith, the vintage 1968 Double Disaster puzzle by KMS Industries,
and Yankee Ingenuity by Tucker-Jones (new for 2010):
Brian opened my Strijbos Aluminum Cylinder Box:
Brett got me a copy of "Knotty Number Problems" by Ivan Moscovich (thanks!):
Quintessence Copyright 1970 by gametime, Inc. of NY, NY A 5x5 Graeco-Latin Square - arrange the 25 pieces in a 5x5 grid such that no row, column, or diagonal contains more than one instance of a circle color or tile color. |
1x3x4 Designed by Ola Jansson, made by Tanner Frisby |
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Terra-Toys offers a series of four "3D Puzzle" animals in their Wildlife Conservation Collection, made in China from woods claimed to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. I picked up a Polar Bear and a Panda. Both have unusual opening tricks - not difficult, but distinct from the typical Kumiki-style animals. There are also a Rhino and a Sea Turtle. The Rhino is very similar to the Nanook Polar Bear. |
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In and Out Boxes by Loftus I know, I know - magic tricks usually make poor puzzles. But this effect sounded interesting - you start out with the red box inside the black, then remove the red and put the black one inside it. |
Two vintage folding puzzles from Binary Arts: GeoLoop and GeoMorph12 |
The new DaYan GuHong Cube allows reverse corner cuts. This particular version is molded from six colors of plastic so there are no stickers to wear off or tiles to fall off. |
ShengShou Circle Ball Cube |
Dian Sheng Hexagonal Dipyramid |
Dian Sheng Tank Diamond |
Pepsi edgematching puzzle (Spanish) |
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Hanayama H&H - designed by Oskar van Deventer Thanks, Brett! This one seems very similar to Oskar's "Key Ring" design. See Oskar's web site. |
Handcuffs - from Teddy Sakamoto |
Hanayama - Mickey Keys Thanks, Brett! |
The set of eight types of DaYan Crazy 3x3 Plus Cubes - "Eight Planets" The circle pieces either do or don't turn with the face. The eight types are different ways of arranging dos and don'ts. I got mine from Mefferts but you can find them at several vendors. |
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From Mr. Puzzle Australia, new for IPP30, One Four All and Mt. Fuji. |
A vintage Think dissection puzzle in its package. |
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An assortment of vintage puzzles, from the UK. |
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"Gem" from DaYan A Magic Jewel clone |
Six-armed spider cores by MHZ and Maru |
QJ 3x3x3 RD black |
Intellect Ball - 13cm |
QJ 2-layer Super Square-1 and a 2x3x3 cylinder |
QJ Finhop 3x3x3 |
A Pyramorphix clone |
Rugby ball |
Treasure Box |
QJ truncated pyraminx |
Kong Ming Lock 28831 |
Kong Ming Lock 30394 |
Read some biographical material about Al Smith at
www.nps.gov.
A spherical dexterity puzzle, and a trick vesta that will prick an unwary finger:
A new cross between the Pioneer Cube and Munroe's Marbles, and a set of ShengShou Cubes:
Another vintage version of the classic dexterity puzzle "Pigs in Clover" - this one by Milton Bradley:
A 2x2x2 Rhombic Dodecahedron, made by Karl-Heinz Diekmann:
Think-a-Dot, a vintage puzzle/game by ESR:
ESR (Education Science Research)
(Wikipedia entry)
made a few toys especially coveted by geeks, including Think-a-Dot, Digi-Comp I and II, and Dr. Nim.
You can buy a replica of the Digi-Comp I from
Minds-On Toys.
Jaap's Puzzle Page has an
entry on Think-a-Dot.
Pantazis Houlis posted
a YouTube video showing his Think-a-Dot in action.
Webster.edu hosts an
online simulation.
Neurotic Numbers, a vintage 1968 puzzle from Lakeside:
Thanks to
Tanya Thompson
at
Thinkfun,
I'm puzzling over their new Zig Zag Knot:
Peter Wiltshire has crafted from aluminum a reproduction of the Stanley puzzle found in Hoffmann (Chapter VIII, No. 12):
He has a very limited number for sale at
Puzzleparadise.
Eureka Puzzles
in Brookline had the new
Philos
version of
Shirt Case designed by
Edi Nagata:
Unfortunately, the solution given for the tray side shown in the photo
does not work - the pieces are a little too large and don't quite fit.
Given that a cardinal rule of mechanical puzzles is "no force required" this is very frustrating,
particularly since this is
the kind of puzzle I like to give to casual puzzlers to play with, and this flaw encourages violating that rule.
The comparison photos show the 2x5x5 with the KHD/Olz 1x4x4 I recently acquired,
and an original hand-made 1x3x3 from Okamoto I got a while ago (prior to its mass-production).
New twisty puzzles from Meffert's:
The Skewb Hex, Mastermorphix (traditional shape),
and an MF8 Teraminx:
They include: Anti-Virus, Titanic, Roadblock, Alcatraz, Anaconda, SmartPhone, Chicken Shuffle, and Cannibal Monsters.
Anti Virus is the production edition of
Bulbous Blob designed by Oskar van Deventer and James W. Stephens -
you can see it and play a few levels at the
Puzzlebeast website.
Thanks, Raf!
I took advantage of a special offer at
Shapeways
for a dyed, assembled, and stickered Floppy 2x3x3 designed by Oskar van Deventer:
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I also ordered a Quartet from
the Shapeways shop of
"RubixFreakGreg" --
designed by "Lykwid"
[T],
the Quartet is a square version of the triangular
Grimace
made by Smaz.
I'm going to dye each layer a different color and then sticker the sides.
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I received a copy of the new Rubik's 2x2x4, signed by designer Hidetoshi Takeji:
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This vintage 1967 Instant Insanity clone by
"A to Z Ideas Inc." of California is called Psykonosis: 
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Here are the cube layouts:
G R W G
R B G B G W W R R G W B
G B B W
W R G R
1 2 3 4
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Here is the graph - Psykonosis is not isomorphic to SK!
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Two new puzzles in fine woods from Eric Fuller's latest sale at
CubicDissection:
Luxemburr, designed by Matti Linkola, exchanged at IPP16 - made in Yellowheart and Walnut;
and
Padaung Rings, designed by Alfons Eyckmans and made from Tulipwood and Acrylic - it takes 24 moves to remove the first piece.
Yet more twisty puzzles!
Meffert
has produced
Oskar van Deventer's Caution Cube
[S]
and calls it the Gear Cube;
Swedish designer
Ola Jannson's
1x4x4 design has been FDM printed, assembled, and stickered by "incredible" Karl Heinz of Germany
[T].
The
Svetnashki
is a sliding piece puzzle design from Russia, based on polarized light:
It comes in two sizes: 7 cm. and 10 cm.
I obtained a vintage Pigs in Clover dexterity puzzle. This puzzle caused a craze around 1889, and
appeared in political cartoons of the time.
It was invented by G. M. Crandall, who applied for a patent in February 1889.
Here are two photos to show relative size - a comparison with an original Tomy Pyraminx, and a group photo
including various tetrahedral twisty puzzles:
The group photo includes, left to right, row by row from the top: the Hoberman BrainTwist,
Meffert's Jing's Pyraminx (designed by Adam Cowan),
Meffert's NGP (Platypus), Tomy Pyraminx, a custom Halpern-Meier Tetrahedron (keychain Skewb core) made by Matt Davis,
Meffert's Pyramorphinx (a curvy Mastermorphix),
Traiphum Prungtaengkit's (Traiphumi's) Mastermorphynx (a custom-made edge-turning Pyraminx),
a keychain Meffert's Pyramorphi[n]x, Shim's Master Pyraminx, and a reuleaux Babymorphix custom-made by Taylor Howell.
Cube4You cubic 3x3x7 (black) |
A set of wire puzzles, including the Valspar puzzle. |
4x4x4 Trajber's Octahedron |
Digits in a Box, designed by Eric Harshbarger and exchanged at G4G9. Ten size 1x3x5 digits laser-cut from colored acrylic - just pack them into a 5x5x5 box. Purchased at Eureka, also available at Eric's quickbrownfoxpuzzles.com. |
Puzzle Impossible, from Hanayama. This is an unusual sliding piece puzzle - marks on the transparent pieces combine with marks on the tray to form digits. Purchased at Eureka. |
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Athena, from Popular Playthings (Huntar). Designed by Bob Hearn. Bob discusses the genesis of this puzzle on the TwistyPuzzles Forum. Athena is a re-skinned version of Bob's Subway Shuffle puzzle. Purchased at Eureka. |
Cobra Cubes, from SmartZone Games. Designed by Ariel Laden. Purchased at Eureka. |
World Passport, from SmartZone Games. Designed by Tzafrir Kazula. Purchased at Eureka. |
The Crazy Cheese Puzzle, from Blue Orange Games. A nice wooden 3x3 edge-matching puzzle with two levels of challenge. Purchased at The Games People Play. |
Holzwurm (Product No. 6038), from Philos. Designed by Dieter Matthes. Form a 3x3x3 cube from 9 pieces having protrusions and hollows. Purchased at The Games People Play. |
Confusio (Product No. 6170), from Philos. Designed by Georg Pfaeffinger. Made from Schima, Hevea, and Samena woods. Form a 5x5x5 interlocking cube from 9 pieces. Purchased at The Games People Play. |
A vintage Saunders' Puzzle, marked National Puzzle Boston. |
Wire Puzzle No. 1 - China Purchased from EsTOYS. |
The Lost Game of the Pharoahs A simple six-piece ball pyramid. (Pharoah sculpture not included!) |
Twist-L-Dan, in Oak, Wenge, and Karin woods, designed by Takeyuki Endo. Purchased from the Karakuri Club. |
8Pd, in Oak, Angsana, and Karin woods, designed by Takeyuki Endo. Purchased from the Karakuri Club. |
The vintage Cubo Color Puzzle. |
Shim's Master Pyraminx, designed by Timur Evbatyrov (YouTube videos here and here), available on Shapeways. |
Got the Stewart Coffin Tray Puzzle Set, in Poplar and Lyptus woods, made by Tom Lensch. Purchased at PuzzleParadise.ca. This set includes six of Coffin's tray-packing puzzles - a single-sided rectangular tray (#181, 1 solution), a two-sided pentagonal tray (#181-C, The Housing Project, 1 solution each side), and another two-sided pentagonal tray having a movable wall segment on one side (#181-A, The Castle Puzzle, 3 solutions; #181-B, The Tree Puzzle, 2 solutions, other side #181-B, The Vanishing Trunk Puzzle, 1 solution). |
Two new twisty puzzles: the Intellect Ball, and a mass-produced 2x2x4. |
The Compy Cube (aka Shallow Dino, aka Sausage's Cube) is a full custom 3-D print, designed by Jason Smith.
It is easy to solve intuitively, requiring no memorized algorithms.
I acquired a RevoMaze Extreme Silver (V2):
As of this writing, only 3 people in the world have solved one!
Ordered three new cubes made in China by QJ - mass-produced copies of classic mods -
the Trajber's Octahedron, Greenhill's 3x3x3 Octahedron, and Fisher's 3x3x3 Dodecahedron:
On 3/13, I attended an enjoyable puzzle get-together hosted by
George Hart at his house.
Thanks, George!
We had a fun evening and a safe trip out and back, despite the horrendous weather,
which brought down an incredible number of trees along many roadways.
I took along several puzzles from my collection for folks to try, including the Eis by the mysterious R.D. -
George's friend Glen Whitney, who is executive director of the
Museum of Mathematics, solved it!
George put it back together, whereupon it defeated all comers for the remainder of the evening.
I did, however, manage to reproduce the feat at home - but it wasn't easy even after having seen it done!
At right is a picture of the insides.
George had plenty of puzzles of his own for people to play with.
I found a large burr by the fireplace and managed to solve it.
It was a model for the Giant Burr at the Math Midway exhibition - see George's
Math Monday Blogs
(the 1/11/10 entry).
I've added the design to the catalog in my
section on burrs, to which I have made several additional updates.
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This six-piece puzzle is a 3-D printed adaptation by George Bell,
of
Stewart Coffin's
Peanut design
(see the original in wood at
PuzzleWorld,
and at Scott T. Peterson's site).
I ordered the 3 cm. version from
George's Shapeways store,
in Alumide material. (Photo by John Devost.)
Left to right, they are: #1 Double Dovetail Square, #2 Double Dovetail Round, #4 X-Y-Z Burr, #5 Vortex, #6 Double Semi-Maze.
I already have #3 Triple Dovetail Triangle, #7 Dodecahedron (both originals), #8 Iso-Crate,
and #9 Six-Key Mine (copies from Bits and Pieces).
I got a copy of
Tom Jolly's
great two-piece design called Tangler, made from Quilted Maple by
Eric Fuller.
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I bought one of the large versions of Jason Smith's first run of the Compy Cube (a Shallow Dino).
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I bought one of Garrett Ong's hand-made 2x2x4 puzzles (before I knew they'd be mass-produced).
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Tai Yan black 3x3x3, Dian Sheng (Type E .222), "Professional Speed Cube," DaYan Crazy 2x3x3 black, Mickey Mouse head 2x2x2
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I picked up a backissue of the journal of The Conjuring Arts Research Center,
Gibeciere Vol. 4, No. 2 - this issue includes a complete translation of Pablo Minguet y Irol's
1733 book Engaños à Ojos Vistas which contains an early mention of a six-piece burr puzzle.
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A burr made by Brian Menold:
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A copy of Stewart Coffin's Twelve Piece Separation design, made from Mahogany and Bloodwood, by Thomas Moeller.
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Ordered a pair of black Edison 3x3x3 Cubes from
edicubes.com.
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I've ordered a Mini Mini Rhombiminx from Eric Johnson.
It's a vertex-turning Rhombic Dodecahedron, but unlike the similar-looking DRD, the Rhombiminx is order-3 and only the 4-part vertices turn. It's hand-made using cast custom parts and an Eastsheen mini 2x2x2 core. You can join the waiting list at Bedardpuzzles. 
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Here is a hand-crafted puzzle from Eric Fuller at CubicDissection - the Tornado Burr designed in 2007 by Junichi Yananose. My copy is made from Padauk wood. Eric says, "This is one of the most difficult puzzles I've ever made. They are extremely time consuming to make, requiring many specialized jigs. I doubt I'll be making these again!" This burr, with its unusual and interesting movement, won an Honorable Mention award in the 2007 IPP Nob Yoshigahara Design Competition. 
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A "Blue Diamond" (Truncated Hexagonal Dipyramid shape mod to a 3x3x3). These are being mass-produced in China, and may be available from Popbuying.com. 
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I finally got a vintage Rubik's Cheese from Hungary. |
A vintage 1933 F D Puzzle - celebrating President Franklin D. Roosevelt - made by Perry and Elliot Co. of Massachusetts. Form the letters F and D. |
A Domino reproduction based on the new 2x3x3, by Smaz. |
The vintage 1975 sliding piece puzzle Dormitory Dash from Peterson Games. |
A vintage Cylinder Ten by Masudaya. Ten rotating disks each with ten color segments. Align the disks to get ten different colors in each row. |
A Crazy 2x3x3 designed by Daqing Bao. Genuine DaYan versions made by Witenden. Available at Cube4you. |
The Path - from Family Games |
Plexle Water |
A group of twisty puzzles including "Maze Cube" - stack the four bricks together to make a 2x2x2 having four colors on each face. |
A keychain clock |
The
Willey and Barton coin puzzle
from the 1904 World's Fair:
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A 3x3x3 Heart:
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From Thinkfun, Rush Hour Ultimate Collector's Edition and Subtrax:
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On sale 75% off at Borders, Ken-Ken:
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At The Games People Play, I found
Linking Squares and Sheffield Steel 6BB, both from
Philos,
and Blockout and Straight Arrow, both new from Thinkfun:
Linking Squares consists of 12 pieces with embedded magnets, that must be constructed into an octahedral shape composed of three interlinked
rectangles. It was designed by J. Verhoeff.
I finally found a vintage Trick Haus puzzle:
And, in other puzzle news (I haven't ordered any of these yet)...
Tom van der Zanden has
announced
the availability of his Holey Octahedron, at
Shapeways:
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Hidetoshi Takeji (creator of the famous Bump Cube / Mirror Blocks) has announced commercial production of his 2x2x4 puzzle (see Amazon Japan). |
Cube4You has announced a cubic 3x3x5:
Note: this is very similar to the puzzle
first sold by Adam Cowan and Jason Smith.
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Here are my four (out of 11) Karakuri Club Christmas boxes for 2009:
This year I chose the creations from Kamei, Iwahara, Satou, and Ninomiya. They're all beautiful! Can you tell which is which?
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Gifts from Susan (Thanks!) - the 2010 puzzles from LiveWire:
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An order from Popbuying.com:
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A copy of Jerry Slocum's new book (with Jack Botermans) Het Ultieme Puzzelboek (it's only available in Dutch):
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The vintage 8 Blocks to Madness puzzle - invented by Eric Cross of Ireland, and issued by Austin Enterprises of Ohio:
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A Gentosha Slim Tower 2x2x3, and a "Lanlan Mask Cube" (truncated Rhombic Dodecahedron 3x3x3):
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Brett got me the Hanayama Globe Ball and Dual Rings (Thanks!):
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New puzzles from CubicDissection:
The Lolly Box, designed by Alfons Eyckmans and made by Eric Fuller - a walnut box, with Bubinga, Pau Ferro, Purpleheart, and Paduak pieces;
and the Yamaosa 3 Piece Burr, designed by Osanori Yamamoto and made by Eric Fuller from Walnut.
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Jinxed, a vintage edgematching puzzle by Tryne: 
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New puzzles from Mefferts: 
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From Mf8, a Crazy 4x4 II: 
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Other new twisties: a 2x3x3 (Domino), a "Ghost Hand" 3x3x3 (this turns very nicely), a "Square Octahedron", a "Yuxin" 2x2x2, and another Cube4You Gigaminx (this one from DealExtreme): 
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A vintage acrylic diagonal burr, the Prism Puzzle, issued in 1970 by the Pacific Game Company of N. Hollywood CA: 
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An order from Puzzlemaster -
An advertising edgematching puzzle from Australia:
A sculpture puzzle (I believe this is a Paracelsus puzzle):
Babymorphix - Taylor Howell This is a Reuleaux Pyramorphix. |
DCD '09 Cube Thanks to Geert Hellings! |
Switch Cube - Richard Gain Thanks, Brett! |
Barb's Cube - John Devost A miniature 3D print from Shapeways Thanks, Brett! |
Qubami - by Kelvin Stott |
Jing's Pyraminx - Mefferts (a Reuleaux Halpern-Meier Tetrahedron) |
Enigmus |
Bump Floppy |
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Gamesters of Triskelion,
a multi-stage challenge by Pavel Curtis: 
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Three different 3-D sliding piece puzzles by
Doug Engel
(Blocked Barrel 15, Barrel Slide 121, and Barrel Shuttle 11),
and also several sets of his Elictrihedron pieces:
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Lolo's Octahedron, custom-made, from Uhrik:
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Turbo Mind Twister:
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Octamania:
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Logicubes by Kaufmann:
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I completed my first real twisty mod!
I made an Octaminx (a design originated by Tony Fisher) from a couple of old Tomy Pyraminx puzzles.
This is an "old school" mod - done with a saw, and various other implements of destruction - not casting.
I've got the sliced and abraded fingers to prove it.
I hand-cut the stickers myself - I got the vinyl from Mike at
Fast Signs of Manchester, CT.
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| I've put together a little Halloween-themed web puzzle here . No prize or anything, but see if you can solve it before the 31st. And as added incentives, first, here is an article citing evidence that online searching activity boosts the brain; and second, I've added a "wall of fame" - you might still be among the first ten solvers! |
A Fisher Cube (aka King Cube), now legitimized due to efforts by Uwe Meffert on behalf of its inventor, Tony Fisher. Available from Mefferts. |
I found an "it" puzzle really cheap, possibly because its photo showed the 13 piece missing. But I opened it up and fixed it! |
I got a Truncated Trajber's Octahedron from Tanner Frisby. |
Rack 'Em Up - Milton Bradley 1987 |
A Floral Derangement - Peterson Games 1972 |
Grandpa's Wonder Soap puzzle |
Based on a glimpse of the insides in the photo, I've found what I believe is a Russian Domino. We'll see when it gets here from the Ukraine. |
This cube was discussed on the Twistypuzzles forums in threads
14856
and
7918.
You can see how this cube moves on YouTube
here.
A vintage advertising Graeco-Latin Square puzzle issued by Stephens Motor Works:
Finally put stickers on my DRD:
And I received my long-awaited Pillowed Hexaminx and Mastermorphynx (Edge-turning Pyraminx) from
Traiphum Prungtaengkit, of Thailand:
It's not too difficult, but everyone who plays with it likes it and is a little stumped at first.
I think it's a classic. Thanks again, George!
Mark also made me a Ring of Diamonds (STC #13-B) in walnut - and as you can see, I am still trying to put it back together...
From Traiphum Prungtaengkit, of Thailand, an Edge-turning Pyraminx!
(There is another very cool puzzle on the way here from Traiphum, too...)
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Ordered some new puzzles from
Meffert's:
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Some additional new twisty puzzles:
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Found another weave puzzle:
Found a copy of the vintage 1913 Cross and Crown:
A burr puzzle called Mercury Star:
A vintage advertising premium for Dickinson's Witch Hazel - the Double Puzzle:
A Rubik's Passion Cube - a Rubik's Cube intended to appeal to girls:
A vintage Rubik's Domino:
The Destroyer (and the Keyhole) were designed by
Markus Goetz.
The IPP 28 book:
Another trade with Brett - the Steady State Cube by
Richard Gain:
The No Dexterity maze, designed by Oskar van Deventer and made by Tom Lensch. |
A JCC tanglement "S270" from the recent Baxter Ergatoudis auction. |
A vintage sliding piece puzzle advertising premium from the "Hartford Despatch & Warehouse Co." It's called The Moving Puzzle, but this is a 5x6 version I haven't seen before. |
Arjeu CT14 "Criss Cross" (Altekruse) |
Tern-Key - designed by Goh Pit Khiam, purchased from CubicDissection. |
The Blockword Crosspuzzle from "Products of the Behavioral Sciences" ca. 1970 |
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Adam Cowan also drove in from Saratoga, and brought several interesting puzzles, including proofs of his 3x3x3 Egg being sold by Meffert.
I am very pleased to have finally obtained a Helicopter Cube from Adam!
The Helicopter Cube was first discussed in the TwistyPuzzles forums in
thread 6253 -
a particularly rich thread in
which several ideas, including the concept of jumbling as opposed to shape-shifting, were broached.
(More discussion on jumbling:
13071,
11126
.)
Katsuhiko Okamoto mentions that he had completed his equivalent Bevel Cube the previous month.
Robert Webb extrapolates a rhombic dodecahedral puzzle
and Matt Shepit hints of its realization - it will be Shepit's Rua.
Various folks have discussed their attempts to make their own Helicopter Cubes:
13856,
13520,
12030,
12423,
11679.
Drew brought a few of his version of Adam's Super-X for us to play with - they are very nicely made.
The Super-X is very "squishy!"
I also stopped by Eureka and picked up a few puzzles:
A vintage 1932 sliding piece puzzle, "The Presidential Puzzle" (Hoover vs. Roosevelt):
I have made some updates to my Sliding Piece Section.
Two puzzles from Popular Playthings -
Hedgehog Escape, and Kayak Cove:
I bought the Dino-Rhombic Dodecahedron (DRD) DIY from Drew Cormier. This puzzle is a vertex-turning rhombic dodecahedron where all 4-part and 3-part vertices turn. Pictured is the de-flashed and assembled puzzle - I need to sand and sticker it. It turns well, but due to a design issue the 3-part corners turn only counter-clockwise. |
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With the help of Roxanne Wong, an Edges-Only cube from "Smaz." Thanks, Rox! Be sure to check out Roxanne's puzzle page at http://www.roxannewong.webs.com/ |
Curvy Mastermorphix Available at Meffert's. |
Primary Gain designed by Richard Gain |
The World's Smallest Commercially Available Cube Puzzle 7.5 mm side |
Inside Out designed by Richard Gain |
Cubed Burr II designed by Tom Jolly |
Seldom Seen designed by Richard Gain |
Happiness Cube #20 designed by Sekoguchi Yukiyasu |
Tertiary Gain designed by Richard Gain |
Dodek-Duo |
Outrageous Rings, by Dr. Richard Hess. |
The Floppy Cube, designed by Katsuhiko Okamoto and produced by Gentosha. |
A vintage Toyo Glass Asparagus packing puzzle. |
A plastic folding-plate "puzzle" - make different shapes. |
 A white Skewb Egg from Meffert, designed by Tony Fisher. |
The left-hand model requires 50 moves to open; the right-hand model only 16. Here is a YouTube video of a box being opened.
An Icosaminx made by Matt Davis |
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A transparent Tetraminx |
The set of nine Warner cartoon character 2x2x2 puzzle heads |
Meffert's Beachball |
An Impossible Lock from Grand Illusions |
The Cubedron, designed by Pantazis Houlis at Mindstrat Puzzles |
A Golden Mirror Blocks cube |
A vintage 1971 Chadwick Miller Pocket Puzzles set:
Vintage green plate metal horseshoes:
I was brave and mixed it up - but I figured out how to solve it.
Turns out, this is very similar to a Pyraminx.
The only extra alg needed is to swap two pairs of centers (which don't exist on the Pyraminx).
Here are a couple of pix of the Axis Cube with a checkerboard pattern applied (Ow! Pointy!):
A set of Masterball variations (Dragon, Circus, Soccer):
An Arjeu CT152 "La Lanterne" (from an Ergatoudis auction):
 Galaxies & Stars - JVK |
 "Tripple 7" - 3-piece packing (prototype) - JvK |
Pack the Tray (8 triangles + 1 rectangle) - Saul |
6-piece packing (Krasnoukov?) - from Rick Eason |
Australia tangle (Rick) |
Lab Mice Puzzles Volumes 1 & 2 - Tom Cutrofello |
A Super-Square-1 Star mod - Brett made it in all white then I swapped in the black pieces. You can find on-line [dis]assembly instructions here. |
Aqua Drop - Bandai The inside surface seems to be made from a hydrophobic plastic - the bead of water runs around like mercury! |
Minute Maze - Mag-Nif |
 Mimi packing puzzles: A, F, H |
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The Enigma (a dodecahedral edge-matching puzzle) by Reiss, 1971:
Two vintage 1969 packing puzzles from Lakeside - Cars and Trucks, and Fish and Birds:
A set of tangles from Totes:
At GPP, I found a Mochalov Cube 2006 usually available from
Bernhard Schweitzer at Puzzlewood.de, and an interesting 16-piece jigsaw with wooden pieces -
the Plexle Fire puzzle from Mindware.
A Journet See-Saw in what looks to be very good condition:
A Lowe Wit's End in its package:
A 51-piece Pagoda puzzle issued by Bits & Pieces:
From Bits & Pieces, a
Curly Cube,
designed by
Vladimir Krasnoukhov:
I've seen other versions of this on
Iwase's site.
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From Chelsea (she's so thoughtful) -
Rick Riordan's
The 39 Clues Book 1 The Maze of Bones:
White Pyraminx and Megaminx clones, and a white Eastsheen 5x5x5:
It arrived unassembled. Shown in comparison to the smaller Magic Octahedron, which is vertex-turning.
David's site
offers a solution.
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Vintage dexterity puzzles Woodn't Center, and Op1,
both by Mag-Nif from 1974 (along with a game called WellKono): 
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Also from Mag-Nif, Even Steven and Levitation (I solved it!)
(with a color-match from Raintree): 
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A vintage Bagatelle dexterity puzzle by R. Journet:
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From Torito, the Meiji Apollo puzzle, and Identica-L II:
The Void Cube, designed by Katsuhiko Okamoto. Manufactured by Gentosha Toys. Purchased from Torito. The Void Cube won the Jury Grand Prize in the IPP 2007 Design Competition. When solving the Void Cube, you might run across a parity problem. To see the internals, see this thread on TwistyPuzzles. |
The V-Cubes, from Verdes Innovations. |
The Rubik's Mirror Blocks cube, aka the Bump Cube, designed by Hidetoshi Takeji. The Bump Cube was entered in the IPP 2006 Design Competition. The hand-crafted version had been for sale at $320. |
Meffert's Pyraminx Crystal First patented in 1987 by Uwe Meffert: DE8707783 (U1). Katsuhiko Okamoto had created a version he called the Mega Crystal. Aleh Hladzilin created a version he eventually named the Brilic - he made around a dozen, some of which sold for over $1000. At first he used a Dogic core, then later a Megaminx core. A build-up of the Megaminx, without centers. While a twist on the Megaminx moves 5 corners and 5 edges, a twist on the Crystal moves 5 corners and 10 edges. Noah Hevey has written a nice history of this puzzle - see topic 85537 in the TwistyPuzzles forums. |
The Super Square-1 Produced by cube4you. See this thread at the cube4you forums. Watch a video. |
The Ball-B From Poland - website here. This shape - a spherical Megaminx (aka Ballminx) - was first explored by Jürgen Brandt. |
An Isis Puzzle by Sonicwarp, Titanium and Silver Edition
(from the old Sharper Image stock):
Cheater?
Shortcut
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A Tri-Trick:
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Back in the Box - a plastic packing puzzle:
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Full Moon |
Gatekeeper |
Mad Cow |
Wandering |
Woodworm |
Triangle |
Quadrilateral |
Drumsticks |
A Mozaniac, Four Painters:
Naef's Kniff, Ubongo, PakoStar,
Philos Magellan, Albertuv Puzzles #4 and #8 by Atlas,
Tetrahedron into Octahedron, Philos Prisgon by Markus Goetz, Vinco "Not Quite Half Cubes", Philos Vesa Burr Simple,
Bolaris Vastavari,
the Fragmented Cube by Oskar van Deventer, the O.S.M. Ball by Jakub Dvorak
(from Puzzlewood.de),
a Sonneveld Box made by Tom Lensch, Stewart Coffin's "The Hill" also from Puzzlewood, a burr by Frans de Vreugd,
Crossroads made by Walter Hoppe, Tirol, a Stegmann 2N's Cube #5 from Bernhard Schweitzer (Thanks again, Bernhard!),
a Double Triangular Prism designed by Stewart Coffin
(also from
Bernhard),
Half-Cubes from Vinco (Thanks!),
a Perpetual Motion by Bill Darrah.
JVK's Tessellating Hexagons, Thick-N-Thin-7 by Serhiy Grabarchuk,
Cherry Cocktail, Heart and Spade, Prague IPP28 souvenir,
Wetten Dass..., Neo Sliding Block Puzzles by Serhiy Grabarchuk,
IPP28 welcome puzzles by Serhiy G.,
5 Yen in a Jam by Iwahiro.
"The Great British Puzzle" (cubes), Zoo Panic, Lagoon Jungle Mega Puzzle,
Warning Puzzle, Philos Eightpack by Tom Jolly,
Snookered, Snookered Again, Walk Up, Footsie, Bunkered, Frantic,
180 Top Dart, Frantic II, Bananas, Suit Yourself, Diabolical, Son of Cuss, Nuts.
Bolaris Vastavari,
two oversized Rubik's Cubes, Magic Smile, 4-wing 4-color Roundy, Uriblock (prototype),
Inca (large), Inca (small), 8-tile Magic,
Perpetual Motion by Bill Darrah,
Life's Maze by Kirill Grebnev,
Chainbox, small black plastic burr (Dubois' pieces),
The Flying Block Puzzle - thanks, Dirk!
Hybrid 15 from Dick Hess, Wolverine keychain tangle from Allan Stein (thanks!),
#74 Orli Hnizdo (Eagle's Nest) by Jan Sturm,
two sticks tangle (Bathke?),
Hanayama Vortex, Philos Tricky 4, Grebnev Apple, Grebnev Spiral.
