I’ve had a revelation this week that I wanted to share it with you. I’ve come to terms with being utterly confused while solving a puzzle and I’ve learned that it is ok to dwell there for a while. I say for a while because entering a state of insanity is acceptable for the creative process involved in problem solving but it isn’t preferred when you are checking out of your local grocery store and the cashier asks if you are ok. She asked if I was ok because I was rolling my eyes and twirling my hands like an [Read More...]

Since Hanayama started to produce the Cast series, back in 1983, they’ve revived several classic designs from the turn of the 20th century, so that a new generation of puzzle enthusiasts could enjoy them as well. The Cast Devil, also known as the Devil’s Claws since 1905, is another great design brought back by Nob Yoshigahara, in 1994, with Hanayama’s top-notch quality. The key word for the Devil is “Claws”.

From the official picture, the puzzle looks smaller than it actually is, so I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw it. Made with an unusually thick [Read More...]

The Lunatic Lock is designed by Gary Foshee and this particular edition is produced by PuzzleMaster.

There’s a wide range of trick locks in the market today, some are cheaper and others can be quite expensive, like this one. The Lunatic Lock falls into the category of the cheaper ones, but don’t be fooled, you’ll get more than you paid for, as the puzzle can be extremely frustrating to open. It’s made of aluminum, which is cheaper to produce, but doesn’t look very good as a finish, because it has these brushed strokes and it looks [Read More...]

This is a review about the Medallion Puzzle designed by Oskar van Deventer and manufactured by the Japanese puzzle company named Hanayama. This version of the puzzle is also exclusively licensed to the Puzzle Master company. The Objective of this puzzle is to free the puzzle pieces through navigating a series of mazes. When I started this puzzle, I tried to move the two pegs found in the center of the puzzle. I won’t go into the solution method but let’s just say that an alternative approach is required. The puzzle has four mazes. The two mazes on the gold [Read More...]

Once in a while I like to torture myself with a Wire Puzzle. Most of the times they drive me nuts while I try in vain to find a solution. Others, however, are not that frustrating and give me an incentive for tougher levels. The puzzle that I’m reviewing today, the Iron Maiden is fortunately one of those examples.

The Iron Maiden is an original design by Tucker-Jones House from 1982 and the version I have, more affordable, is produced by PuzzleMaster. While it’s cheaper, it’s still a good quality puzzle, so you’ll get the full [Read More...]

My torturous adventure with wire puzzles continues this week with another fiendish puzzle, the Sidewinder. This is made by PuzzleMaster and it’s one of the hardest puzzles that I’ve tried so far. The goal is to remove the red string.

On top of being a very difficult puzzle to solve, the Sidewinder is a mixture of wire and string. If that’s not enough to scare you off, you’re one brave puzzler. Many of my previous attempts with string based puzzles have ended in complete disaster with some hard to disentangle knots. Because of this, whenever I face a [Read More...]

Oskar van Deventer has invented so many puzzles over the last thirty years that he could fill up a museum with all of his creations. The one that I’m reviewing today is another great design by him, which consists of four mazes that need to be solved simultaneously.

The Medallion (originally called Four D), was initially made by George Miller in acrylic and was Oskar’s exchange puzzle at the 23rd annual IPP (International Puzzle Party). It was later picked by Hanayama for mass-production and is now sold at PuzzleMaster.

The puzzle bears a slight resemblance to [Read More...]