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 (standard) jigsaw puzzles on these pages, may they be two or three dimensional.
My gallery is grouped into categories, with graphical overview pages: | Some special groups: | Feature: | |||||||
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Twisty Puzzles
Rubik's Cube and alike |
Sliding Pieces Puzzles
Flat and other sliding piece puzzles, including mazes |
Packing Puzzles
Puzzles with pieces to arrange into box or to match a shape |
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Interlocking Puzzles
Burrs and other interlocking puzzles |
Disentanglement Puzzles
Puzzles made of wire and/or threads |
Puzzle Boxes
Karakuri, Himitsu Bako and other puzzle boxes |
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Sequential Discovery, Take Apart
Take aparts requiring several steps (sometimes involving builtin tools), usually to free a coin or other award |
Puzzle Locks
Traditional and modern puzzle locks |
Other Puzzles
Everything else, including puzzle games |
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List of all puzzles (may be ordered by name, class, manufacturer and designer) | Interlocking Explorer | Compendium of Chinese-Rings-Like Puzzles |
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Yesterday DCD42 happened (Dutch Cube Day 42, in the Netherlands), and this leads to a somewhat special update today. As in the past, many old and new puzzle friends were there with many nice converations, and also interesting and beautiful puzzles. From Oskar, I bought a non-puzzle item that is shown in the picture in the left. It is a dual counter with a crank that allows you to count through some binary numbers by rotating the crank on top. The upper number is simply the usual binary representation that is used in computers as well, in this case for a 5-bit number. The lower one is more interesting which makes it actually a Gray Code Counter: It will count through the reflected binary Gray Code, and this is of course linked with binary puzzles. If you roll it forward to 11111 , it will show you a step by step solution of a 5 ring Chinese Rings puzzle. Each digit stands for a certain ring, and a 1 means that the ring sits on the long bar, and a 0 denotes a ring off the bar. Cranking backwards, it will show you all the steps until 00000 where the handlebar of the rings puzzle is freed from all rings. I have tried it, and it actually works! Of course you can crank the other way from 00000 to 11111 for the sequence to re-assemble the Chinese Rings puzzle again. All this using some gear mechanics, that is fascinating!
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The other reason why this update is a bit special is the high number of group pages which are updated in this update: Compendium and n-ary puzzle group, Burr Zoo, and 18 pieces burrs group. Right at the entrance of the DCD venue, it started with a brand new and flat n-ary puzzle that does not even have any sort of frame: Zigguflat, a flat variation of the Ziggurat puzzle with a lot of zick-zack action going on during the solve, and multiple challenges. From Steve I received another giveaway for a puzzle party I have never been to, the Northern Puzzle Party in the UK: NPP Puzzle. This consists of 3 flat pieces held together with a special clamp that then need to be assembled into a 3D burr shape, similar to a coordinate axis quadrant. Amongst many other puzzles, also two new helical burr variants were available, and they come in a cute size while still moving perfectly: Tweedle 11 and Tweedle 14. Oskar had one of his recent difficult co-operations with Volker for me, which go quite beyond the usual Soma cube or packing puzzles: Soma Ultimate. Of course, all the pieces should go inside, not like the configuration shown in the picture. This was Oskar's IPP exchange, while Frans went for the more traditional beautiful wooden interlocking puzzles as his Exchange (the 25th in a row): Rivieara. Jack had prepared a smaller version of Christoph's favorite puzzle in the intended and really beautiful colour scheme: Bouquet (small). Seems this is the designer's favorite puzzle so far, and I remember that it had a nice solution as well. Hypno Balls was an entry into last year's IPP Design Competition, and I had played with it at last year's DCD already, and it does not only consist of 3D printed parts, but also heavy steel balls. Maybe that should not be solved in a quiet room, and it will require some careful manipulation of the balls to get it apart. Another IPP40 Exchange was picked up, a co-operation of Andreas and Andrew: SwapTIC. It comes in 4 separate pieces that need to be assembled using sliding and rotating moves, and after having achieved that, it seems that this may even have been easier than taking it apart again! The next puzzle was one of those rare vintage puzzles one sometimes finds at DCD, a Closterman Cube, smaller than the one I already have: Cage #1-125-10. Being already 23 years old, it still works flawlessly and the pieces slide nicely without locking up tightly. Of course, I also paid Alfons an extensive visit to acquire some of this beautiful high level interlocking puzzles, to be solved until the next DCD (while I still have some unsolved from the last DCD and before!). The first one is not only an n-ary puzzle, but also contains another puzzle: Sensi Box with this a Sensi Puzzle. This is basically based on the B-Box and Reactor puzzle from years ago, but with more moves. Then some brand new puzzles going right into the Zoo with some insects in them, in particular: Blue Beetle and Blue Beetle 2. While the names are nearly identical, one has an 18 pieces burr as a shell and the other has 12 pieces only, with more room inside. Looks like there is more to the Blue Beetle theme than just an insect, according to what some WWW search brought up. This also brought us into the range of 18 pieces burrs, and there are more of them: Buzzard is an older design with a very interesting level. A level over 100 is complicated enough already, but look at the details for the other pieces! 2-digit numbers for four more pieces. Wobbe seems to be on the easier side again, and comes with some wider sticks as well. A lower number of wider sticks is found in The Kick, but at a high level of slightly below 100, and with 3 more non-trivial pieces in the solution. The Spy Hole makes use of wider sticks again, and the name is very fitting: You can actually look through the centre of this puzzle in one orientation, and see what is happening on the other side! The next one reminds me a bit of the School Bus puzzles, but with an open top (convertible school bus), but the name seems to hint something else: Courage. Will this be a difficult one that you need a lot of courage to attack and solve? Today's update ends with a small puzzle named after small people, the Hobbit. That should be some easier entertainment when all those difficult puzzles resist solving! Many thanks to my friends for the puzzle presents I received, and also the great time! We all had a great weekend yesterday, and I am looking forward to future ones. |
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.
Last change: 2023-11-27 | [TO MY HOMEPAGE] — also for Data Protection Declaration | © Goetz Schwandtner 2008 (and later, date as indicated above) |