Extremely Puzzling - Goetz Schwandtner's Puzzles

On this page some extremely puzzling objects are displayed: My private puzzle collection consisting of a wide range of three-dimensional puzzles, from industrial produced Rubik's Cube like puzzles to my custom builds, from production range Pihilos wood puzzles to rare and special puzzles from various excellent craftsmen, and not to forget the Japanese Himitsu Bakos, including some equisite works of the Karakuri Creation Group. Please note that you won't find any jigsaw puzzles on these pages, may they be two or three dimensional.

Puzzle List

News/Updates:

Added on 2012-04-18

Today a nice package from Wil arrived: he packed a puzzle (Secret Box) and a huge and extinct animal (dino) into a small cage. Magic? See here: Secret Box + Dino in a Cage. Also in the package were some nice aluminum puzzles: Concave dovetail and Convex dovetail

Update on 2012-04-23

Reworked yesterday's update on puzzle 1000. It turned out to be double-ternary instead of 6-ary, which is a completely new type of puzzle.

Added on 2012-04-22

Only a few hours before the German Cube Day (GCD) it arrived: The last puzzle to get a three digit number. It is a Bin Laden and it is as close to being number 1000 as it is as close to being a true binary puzzle. It was designed by Rik van Grol to seem like a binary puzzle at first, but to get you stuck in a dead end then. Only when you figure out that in fact it is a hybrid of binary and ternary puzzle, you can solve it. This is also the motivation for the "devilish" name.

-=- 1000 -=-	This is the moment that readers of this web page (and myself) have been waiting for: My collection has crossed the 1000 boundary and puzzle numbers are four digits from now on. I have been wondering which puzzle would get the honour to be the celebration puzzle, but when I found this puzzle on GCD yesterday, I had no doubt: I picked up an Auf dem Holzweg which seemed to be the first level-6-Kugellager to exist (or actually equivalent, but very, very close to a Kugellager). However, it turned out to be something new: A combination of two ternary puzzles (see yellow and green sections in the picture to the right), which I will now call "double-ternary". More details on this discovery are presented in my updated article.
After my research on n-ary puzzles (see Kugellager.pdf and the n-ary Puzzles Group page) it seems that his puzzle has deserved to be number 1000. If you do not believe me, have a look at the updates for puzzles 900 and 500 in the update history.

From the GCD I brought the following puzzles:
A vintage binary puzzle SPIN-OUT by Binary Arts. This and the other n-ary puzzles are on the now updated n-ary Puzzles Group page.
Closely related to the Towers of Hanoi is the Rudenko Disk. I met Theo Geerinck and got his Chainstitch. From Siebenstein are the Holzweg Puzzle above and: Diavolo, Safe, and Nur Mut, a tiny Burr. I met Willem van der Poel an got the first of one of his IPP exchange puzzles, a Combination Lock. Michel van Ipenburg brought me some of Oskar's interesting designs: a Planar Burr (as described in one of the Gathering for Gardner books) and a Domino Tower, accompanied by a Jeliku. For my cuboid collection, I also got a Twisty Puzzle: a 4x4x6.

Added on 2012-04-18

Just before GCD and a few days after finishing all those Burrs some new puzzles from Arteludes: A Pyramid, a nice Chateau d'If, and an Identity Matrix. Usually, in Mathematics, an identity matrix is something simple with a clear and simple structure. Here, we have a nice puzzle called Identity Matrix that is far from trivial: 24 identical notchable pieces that lead to an astonishing level of 13.8.

Added on 2012-03-24

The high number of high level Burrs I reveiced lately, enabled me to add the group page that has been planned for some time: 18 Pieces Burrs -- a true high level page

Added on 2012-03-21

Today is Burr's day (no, not birthday, but with a similar feeling), and to let you know why, let's have a look at the latest update. Today I picked up three packets at three different locations (hooray, German post offices!) and got a whole load of nice Burrs:

From Maurice Vigouroux and Guillaume Largounez: an Abad's level 9 burr
From Alfons Eyckmans: A Condor, a Phoenix, a Phoenix-Cabracan, a Misery, and an Al Capone
From Jack Krijnen: A Century

Since this a lot of puzzles and Jack knows that I already have some, he included a nice house for me to build and store all the puzzles in it. :)
Today I won't provide links from the puzzle name to the puzzle pages, but instead run a little quiz:

Find out which puzzle is which in the picture to the right! To verify, just point with the mouse or click on the puzzles in the picture.
Estimate: What is the sum of the moves to get all first pieces out of these burrs? Answer, click here (Needs Javascript).

Added on 2012-03-20

Today: History lesson. Puzzle friend Michel van Ipenburg found a historic member of the Kugellager family and for this I have updated Kugellager.pdf (see new Chapter 17).

Added on 2012-03-12

Another Monday, another trip to the customs office. This time for a nice Tom's Square Dance

Added on 2012-03-05

Picked up a late x-mas present and lottery win -- at the customs office: a Secret Base 2. Like Secret Base it has fascinating movements!

Added on 2012-02-29

Today a puzzle entry update, not a new puzzle: after disassembling, the "Balder" in fact seems to be a different design by Alfons, a Sleipnir. It has some very interesting moves.

Added on 2012-02-26

Today no puzzle update, but puzzle related: I have added a new chapter (16) about some old and new puzzles to my article Kugellager.pdf. Enjoy reading!

Added on 2012-02-25

My win from recent Cubicdissection auction: Clamp -- one more interesting and very well crafted Miyamoto puzzle for me!

Added on 2012-02-18

From Hongkong a new puzzle which starts to confuse me once it is turned, as so many pieces are rotating simultaneously and with different rotational speeds: Gear Pyraminx

Added on 2012-02-15

A very nice surprise package from Alfons Eyckmans containing two very well crafted high level 18 pieces burrs, many thanks! The first is the well known Tiros, playing in the world's top league of burrs. The second one I have identified as Balder, a very interesting hybrid of regular 18 piece burr pieces and the ones with 2x3 base, known from the Phelan or Dirty Dozen. This definitely brings back some memories from recent solves of these two 16 and 18 piece burrs.

Added on 2012-02-07

Sometimes I also order puzzles from Amazon. Not very complicated, but interesting: Oblo Puzzle Spheres -- a spherical, multi-layered packing puzzle

Added on 2012-02-05

Second group page, about a group of twisty puzzles: Twisty Octahedra
Second update today: This page has received a new layout -- as seen already above.

Added on 2012-02-01

First February update is a nice puzzle from TomZ, in cooperation with mf8: 3x4x5

Added on 2012-01-28

A nice Oskar design from Meffert's: Gift Cube

Added on 2012-01-21

A very interesting puzzle just released recently: Washer Cylinder by Wil Strijbos. From the outside it is just an aluminum cylinder, but inside lies the real fun (which I will see once solved). It's a bit shorter than it's older brother, the Aluminum Cylinder.

Added on 2012-01-14

A fascinating puzzle from Alfons Eyckmans: Dirty Dozen -- A 12 piece burr? A 16 piece burr? -- Well, both of it! One from the outside and one from the inside.
Added later the day: Meanwhile I have received mail from the Karakuri group and know the name of the X-Mas present I got: Pump. After a look at the overview sheet I am very comfortable with my choice of present.
Added even later the same day: Today I finally started a feature on this site that was on my wishlist for long: Group pages. Starting with the most famous group for this page (I believe), I will add more groups occasionally, providing an overview of puzzles that may have something in common -- may it be obvious or not.

Added on 2012-01-13

A package with nice puzzles from Cubicdissection: Rattle Box and Ribbons Puzzle by Tom Jolly and a Havanna's Box #1 -- guess what's in it!
A very interesting puzzle came from Australia, a Hexadecimal Puzzle (reproduction by Bill Wylie).

Added on 2012-01-06

The first package this year came from Hong Kong: Star Minx II and DaYan Gem IV

Added on 2011-12-30

Probably the last update for this year, but one covering several areas:

From my puzzle friend Michel van Ipenburg I got a nice Constantin puzzle: Bonbon

The gallery is growing bigger and bigger, and it might take a long time to load and the many images may slow down some browsers (e.g. mobile devices), I decided to overhaul my gallery creation script after it was running fine for more than three years now.

The picture galleries are now split into several pages and you can navigate between them using the navigation bar on top. For those of you who would still like to view all puzzles of a type, just click on [All] in the navigation bar.
The list view now offers the possibility to jump to the first puzzle starting with a selected character, same for manufacturer, and jump to first puzzle of a category
I have tested the new script and web site, but there may be bugs. If you find some or have suggestions, please do let me know. Thanks

Added on 2011-12-26

Just before Christmas I received my nice present from the Karakuri Club. Spoiler warning: If you are still waiting for yours and if it would be by Miyamoto, don't read on! I don't know the name of it and will update the gallery once I have received it. The puzzle looks a bit like one of these old fashioned Scales whose base has then been put in a box, but see for yourself: X-mas Present. It is not trivial, but I have managed to open it already. Now I have to figure out in detail how the mechanism and solution works.

Added on 2011-12-17

From the new Online Shop "Arteludes" featuring puzzles crafted by Maurice Vigouroux, a package with some very high quality puzzles, both in craftmanship and design: Burr in Cage (in nice yellow Difou wood), Phelan, Xenon, and for X-mas Six pieces Star

Special update on 2011-10-22

With my last update, my gallery crossed the line of 900 items and so I decided to decide to pick out a special one from this update: A 7-ary Kugellager which (to my knowledge) is the first 7-ary puzzle and has level 4802.
Of course, I have added the puzzle to my paper about n-ary puzzles and I am proud to present a new version today: Kugellager.pdf. Enjoy reading!

Other/Older updates:

Can be found on the update history page

Hints:

Hints: If you need solution hints to any puzzle in my gallery, feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail address can be found on my homepage.