When it comes to describe a mechanical or hand held puzzle there are many things to consider. Beauty is one of those aspects that doesn’t immediately come to mind; but as soon as one sees, and picks up Yin & Yang, it’s absolute beauty is obvious. The Yin is a symbol from Chinese philosophy and art. The female element stands for darkness, cold and death; the male element the source of life and heat. It took great imagination to take this ancient symbol and incorporate it into a puzzle. Being metal, as well as superbly crafted, [Read More...]

If there ever was a tantalizing puzzle, the Prison Block Puzzle has to be it. It has a difficulty of 2 out of 5.  It is very solid, made of cast metal, 3″ X 3″ X 1″ thick, and fairly heavy. It consists of a movable bar trapped, with a rotatable “handle”, inside a container. The challenge being to remove the bar or “prisoner”.  It seems the bar, though loose, is simply too large to get out; and there seems to be only so much you can do to get it out. I played and jiggled it [Read More...]

2D Packing Puzzles allow for some of the most creative works in puzzle design. This type of puzzles is so versatile that you can do almost anything you can imagine. A great example of such creative design is Martin Watson’s Digigrams (also called Count on Me!).

Digigrams is comprised of 10 pieces representing the numbers in digital form from 0 thru 9. The goal is simple: just pack them into the provided tray. The solution is neatly packed to make the most out of the available space, due to the unusual shape of the pieces.

The puzzle is [Read More...]

Bakos Lucian recently contacted me about his new puzzle app game: Century Puzzle.  The object is to swivel the rings so that each column of numbers adds up to 100.

This is a very old type of puzzle. I have a paper version of this – it was hard to solve. But I did it. I’m not sure where it is, but I think it has 5 rings.

Century Puzzle has 6 rings – a lot more difficult!

There are 100 levels here. I don’t expect this puzzle to gain popularity because once you’ve done 1, there’s no urge to [Read More...]

This 15 Puzzle is one of the all time most popular puzzles – right up there with Rubik’s Cube. I have loved puzzles of all kinds ever since I was a kid, over 70 years ago. The 15 Puzzle was probably my first puzzle and it has always challenged, entertained and fascinated me. I have had many, many versions of it over the years. This one by Binary Arts/ThinkFun is one of my favorites for several reasons. It is extremely well made of metal, the tiles slide exceptionally well and do not fall out, and [Read More...]

Whenever you see Jerry Slocum and any of his associates, in this case Dic Sonneveld, involved in something; you can count on it being First Class. This new book, The 15 Puzzle book, is simply delightful for any puzzle lover. They take one of the most common of all puzzles, The 15 Puzzle, and show that it has a background that arguably makes it the most popular puzzle craze of all time. The book is a great read, filled with everything about the puzzle; from its creation, and how it took the whole world by storm. Much of [Read More...]

Fit to a Tee Golf Puzzle is a “sister” to The “Fifteen Puzzle” by the same company. They have been around for quite a while. Mine has a date of 2001 and made by Binary Arts; the company is now called ThinkFun. It is made of metal and very solid. The data shows the shipping weight as 2 pounds; but the puzzle is nowhere near that, maybe 1/2 pound at the most; and can easily be carried in the pocket; except for one thing. If you look at the “1 [Read More...]