The Andromeda, by Philos, is a fairly well known puzzle among puzzle enthusiasts. It has been around for years, made by several companies and in various sizes. It is a little intimidating, and for good reason. It consists of 12 pieces. There are 4 shapes of pieces with 2 of each. Then there is a 5th shape, of which there are 4. This take-apart wooden puzzle is called a Burr; and there are many different ones available, and they can become very complicated and challenging. This one is given a difficulty level of 7 out of 10.  Maybe it [Read More...]

Today, I realized I’m writing the 35th puzzle review from Jean Claude Constantin. That’s way more than any other puzzle designer. I still have in my collection several more of his creations that haven’t been reviewed yet, which most certainly takes the total number to well over 50. And the sad part is that I don’t even have half of his puzzles.

My latest addition is Get Charged, a very original puzzle with a clever hidden mechanism. There are countless puzzles in the hidden mechanism family, and if you’re familiar with them this [Read More...]

Hirokazu Iwasawa is a regular participant at the annual IPP since 2004 and is known for his superb designs, some of which have won awards, like last year’s Puzzlers’ Award winner, the Square in the Bag. The puzzle I’m reviewing today is not from the IPP competition, but it’s definitely worthy of the same recognition.

The 3M Puzzle, as the name suggests, consists of three M-shaped pieces that need to be packed inside the box. It sounds easy enough. It’s just three pieces, right? – Well, these three pieces are all you need to test your patience, [Read More...]

This time I have a review of the four Karakuri Cake Boxes, 1 through 4. I picked these up from PuzzleBoxWorld.Com a family run business specialising in puzzle boxes.

Each box is an inch wide by 2 inches long, so none of these are big boxes, and by Japanese measurements would be considered as 2 sun boxes.

In general all the boxes are superbly made, and each has it’s own unique opening mechanism, making all of them worth having. None of them are difficult to open, requiring no more than 3 moves, so I had each of [Read More...]

The Sequencer is the fourth puzzle I’m reviewing from the Paradigm Puzzles collection by Family Games America. This series of six Packing Puzzles are all designed by William Waite, and feature some of the most mesmerizing patterns you’ll ever see in mechanical puzzles.

Like all the puzzles in the series, the Sequencer is laser-cut, made from plywood, so all pieces can fit perfectly in the frame. Not the best of qualities for a puzzle, but the result is still nice and makes it very affordable. The size is about the same as the others, with a [Read More...]

The Barrel of Diogenes is an excellent puzzle; but a bit of care is in order here. On March 20,2013,I posted a review on the Classic 3D Barrel hand crafted wooden puzzle; and even talked about this puzzle being in the shape of a sphere. Now we have it in the shape of a cub. All of the “inside” or “hidden’ shapes of the 12 pieces are the same for these three puzzles. This is not evident at first glance. The best way of describing this is to imagine this cube, once assembled, then carved in [Read More...]

The Tavor wooden puzzle is a very beautiful puzzle and one that will give you an AHA! Moment when you solve it. First of all, let me tell you that there is another very similar, but different ball in cage type of puzzle. When I first came across this puzzle, I didn’t notice it was different from one I already had. At first glance, they look the same. However, there is another puzzle called Caged Ball or Ball in Cage, or Invader. When placed side by side the difference is immediately seen. In this puzzle you will note that the [Read More...]