A Fisher Cube (aka King Cube), now legitimized due to efforts by Uwe Meffert on behalf of its inventor, Tony Fisher. Available from Mefferts.	I found an "it" puzzle really cheap, possibly because its photo showed the 13 piece missing. But I opened it up and fixed it!	I got a Truncated Trajber's Octahedron from Tanner Frisby.
Rack 'Em Up - Milton Bradley 1987	A Floral Derangement - Peterson Games 1972	Grandpa's Wonder Soap puzzle
	Based on a glimpse of the insides in the photo, I've found what I believe is a Russian Domino. We'll see when it gets here from the Ukraine.

Updated my Wish List page.
In fact, I've now updated almost every page with some new puzzles.

Master puzzle craftsman John Devost, and friends, have started a new website called Puzzle Paradise, at which you can find various mechanical puzzles for sale in an auction format.

Kim Klobucher, who makes nice puzzle boxes, has a new website.

You should check out Flexagon.net!

Several twisty puzzles, including a Gigaminx, can be purchased at Deal Extreme.

At www.povys.cz, there are several new twisty puzzles based on the GloBall.

Brian Pletcher has started a Puzzle Blog. Interesting reading!

Jeff Chiou has also started a blog, MagicPuzzles.org.

Check out photos of Maarten Bos' collection.

Also check out Goetz Schwandtner's Puzzles.

See a Make article about some of Bram Cohen's puzzles.

Verdes (makers of V-Cubes) has a couple of new puzzles out: the Illusion and the Dazzler.

You can buy custom twisty puzzles from Clay & Eva, and Olz.

Please note that I do not endorse any website mentioned. I'm just reporting on them.

This cube was discussed on the Twistypuzzles forums in threads 14856 and 7918. You can see how this cube moves on YouTube here.

Got a new puzzle book - Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities by Ian Stewart: 

A vintage advertising Graeco-Latin Square puzzle issued by Stephens Motor Works: 

Here's my chart on Dodecahedral Twisty Puzzles:

At IPP, my daughter found a nice birthday present she wanted: an Illusionist Locket, made by Jim Anderson (Illusion Lockets LLC of Idaho). Jim figured out a way to realize the trick locket that appeared in the movie The Illusionist. (See various videos on YouTube...) According to Jim: "This locket transformed from an oval into a heart shape and opened to mysteriously reveal a picture. There was no apparent way the locket could function in this way without tearing the picture in half." The puzzle here is "How does it work?" You might be able to find one on eBay. (There are several makers, I think Jim's is of the highest quality.)

Found a Closterman 5x5x5 Caged Cube (type 4-125-13, from 2-99) made from Jatoba, at a bargain price! 

Finally put stickers on my DRD:

A great way to start a new month!

I received a Nightmare Cube from Tanner Frisby:

And I received my long-awaited Pillowed Hexaminx and Mastermorphynx (Edge-turning Pyraminx) from Traiphum Prungtaengkit, of Thailand:

James Lee at Cube4you (also Cubefans) has issued two great puzzles, previously only available as expensive hand-made custom creations, at mass-market prices - a fully-functional 3x3x4 (based on Jin Kim's design - get STLs by Tom van der Zanden at TwistyPuzzles.com Forums, thread #12134), and a Gigaminx:

For some time now I've been intending to feature George Hart's "Screw Cube" - a two-piece interlocking puzzle George invented and 3D printed with white nylon. I got prototype number 1 from him at one of Brett's Manhattan puzzle dinners. Previous photos I'd taken of it just hadn't come out well, but I've got a new DSLR...

It's not too difficult, but everyone who plays with it likes it and is a little stumped at first. I think it's a classic. Thanks again, George!

If you're in the area, be sure to visit the Logical Puzzle Museum in Burlington, Wisconsin.

Back from IPP29 in San Francisco, and my trip up the coast to Seattle...

 

 

Lots of new puzzles...

Mark McCallum made this beautiful Sphinx Transformed for me. Thanks again, Mark! It's a rhombic triacontahedron, a relative of Stewart Coffin's Design No. 72. The woods include: Kingwood, Spotted Ebony, Bird's Eye Maple, Ziricote, Ceylon Satinwood, Chakte Viga, Narra, Tulipwood, Redheart, Macassar Ebony, Ebony, and Bocote.

Mark also made me a Ring of Diamonds (STC #13-B) in walnut - and as you can see, I am still trying to put it back together...

Here is a diagram I made to show the relationships among octahedral twisty puzzles:

I finally rounded out my collection of vintage Odd Ball interlocking puzzles, with the Football and the Baseball:

Found another weave puzzle:    Found a copy of the vintage 1913 Cross and Crown: 

Two sliding-piece puzzles from Popular Playthings - Sink or Swim, and Outta Gas: 

A burr puzzle called Mercury Star:     A vintage advertising premium for Dickinson's Witch Hazel - the Double Puzzle: 

Rhinocerous and Confused Pillow cubes from "Socube" 

Martin Watson made me aware of this online puzzle called 3D Logic which I think is a kind of 3D version of the Lab Mice idea.

The Destroyer (and the Keyhole) were designed by Markus Goetz.

The IPP 28 book:     Another trade with Brett - the Steady State Cube by Richard Gain: 

The No Dexterity maze, designed by Oskar van Deventer and made by Tom Lensch.	A JCC tanglement "S270" from the recent Baxter Ergatoudis auction.	A vintage sliding piece puzzle advertising premium from the "Hartford Despatch & Warehouse Co." It's called The Moving Puzzle, but this is a 5x6 version I haven't seen before.	Arjeu CT14 "Criss Cross" (Altekruse)
Tern-Key - designed by Goh Pit Khiam, purchased from CubicDissection.	The Blockword Crosspuzzle from "Products of the Behavioral Sciences" ca. 1970

Made a trip up to Boston 6/14, to attend a Twisty Puzzle enthusiast meet-up instigated by Jason Smith, who flew in from California along with George Miller. George brought some interesting designs by Bram. It was great meeting Jason - I got to hold the Pentultimate (which, sadly, has seen better days). I made a trade with Jason and got an eight-color Mozaika:

Adam Cowan also drove in from Saratoga, and brought several interesting puzzles, including proofs of his 3x3x3 Egg being sold by Meffert. I am very pleased to have finally obtained a Helicopter Cube from Adam! The Helicopter Cube was first discussed in the TwistyPuzzles forums in thread 6253 - a particularly rich thread in which several ideas, including the concept of jumbling as opposed to shape-shifting, were broached. (More discussion on jumbling: 13071, 11126 .) Katsuhiko Okamoto mentions that he had completed his equivalent Bevel Cube the previous month. Robert Webb extrapolates a rhombic dodecahedral puzzle and Matt Shepit hints of its realization - it will be Shepit's Rua. Various folks have discussed their attempts to make their own Helicopter Cubes: 13856, 13520, 12030, 12423, 11679.

Drew brought a few of his version of Adam's Super-X for us to play with - they are very nicely made. The Super-X is very "squishy!"

I also stopped by Eureka and picked up a few puzzles:

A vintage 1932 sliding piece puzzle, "The Presidential Puzzle" (Hoover vs. Roosevelt): 

I have made some updates to my Sliding Piece Section.

A Morph Egg from Meffert's, designed by Adam Cowan: 

Two puzzles from Popular Playthings - Hedgehog Escape, and Kayak Cove: 

More new twisty puzzles...

I bought the Dino-Rhombic Dodecahedron (DRD) DIY from Drew Cormier. This puzzle is a vertex-turning rhombic dodecahedron where all 4-part and 3-part vertices turn. Pictured is the de-flashed and assembled puzzle - I need to sand and sticker it. It turns well, but due to a design issue the 3-part corners turn only counter-clockwise.
With the help of Roxanne Wong, an Edges-Only cube from "Smaz." Thanks, Rox! Be sure to check out Roxanne's puzzle page at http://www.roxannewong.webs.com/	Curvy Mastermorphix Available at Meffert's.

Brett K. held a puzzle dinner get-together in Manhattan Saturday night - great fun and Chinese food. Lots of puzzles, discussion, magic, and tales of legal derring-do! And Ed Begley, Jr.

Brett got me several 3D printed micro-cube puzzles issued by Richard Gain via Shapeways:

Primary Gain designed by Richard Gain	The World's Smallest Commercially Available Cube Puzzle 7.5 mm side	Inside Out designed by Richard Gain	Cubed Burr II designed by Tom Jolly
Seldom Seen designed by Richard Gain	Happiness Cube #20 designed by Sekoguchi Yukiyasu	Tertiary Gain designed by Richard Gain

See also Richard's YouTube channel.

Also, Hanayama's new Cast Marble: 

A version of Altekruse, from Adam's: 

A set of four Karakuri Cube Boxes, from the Karakuri Creation Group.

Dodek-Duo	Outrageous Rings, by Dr. Richard Hess.	The Floppy Cube, designed by Katsuhiko Okamoto and produced by Gentosha.
A vintage Toyo Glass Asparagus packing puzzle.	A plastic folding-plate "puzzle" - make different shapes.	A white Skewb Egg from Meffert, designed by Tony Fisher.

KCube puzzle boxes, designed and made by Kim Klobucher: 

The left-hand model requires 50 moves to open; the right-hand model only 16. Here is a YouTube video of a box being opened.

	An Icosaminx made by Matt Davis
A transparent Tetraminx	The set of nine Warner cartoon character 2x2x2 puzzle heads	Meffert's Beachball
An Impossible Lock from Grand Illusions	The Cubedron, designed by Pantazis Houlis at Mindstrat Puzzles	A Golden Mirror Blocks cube

From Eric Fuller, a Tease Cube by Sam Cornwell, and a Three Piece NOT by Frans de Vreugd:

A vintage Adams' Rastus tanglement puzzle:    A vintage 1971 Chadwick Miller Pocket Puzzles set: 

A vintage Saunders' Puzzle:    Vintage green plate metal horseshoes: 

A Halpern-Meier Tetrahedron (or Pyramid), made from a Skewb keychain core with cast pieces by Matt Davis (also showing comparison to regular Skewb): 

I was brave and mixed it up - but I figured out how to solve it. Turns out, this is very similar to a Pyraminx. The only extra alg needed is to swap two pairs of centers (which don't exist on the Pyraminx).

Here are a couple of pix of the Axis Cube with a checkerboard pattern applied (Ow! Pointy!): 

An Axis Cube, designed by Adam Cowan and built by Frank Schwartz: 

A set of Masterball variations (Dragon, Circus, Soccer): 

A vintage Celestial Cross puzzle issued by McLaughlin Bros. of NY: 

A Blue ReVoMaze I:     An Arjeu CT152 "La Lanterne" (from an Ergatoudis auction): 

Tom Cutrofello hosted the 2009 annual New York Puzzle Party in Manhattan on Saturday February 14th. George Hart gave a talk on new geometric puzzle designs, Wei-Hwa Huang talked about Algorithm X, and I gave a presentation on twisty mods. We had a good lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant (I had black ravioli stuffed with lobster, in a dill cream sauce), and later eight of us went to dinner at the Popover Cafe, where I had the Porcini-crusted Bronzini. It was great! I'd never had a popover before - man was it good! I also found a few interesting puzzles at the party:

Galaxies & Stars - JVK	"Tripple 7" - 3-piece packing (prototype) - JvK	Pack the Tray (8 triangles + 1 rectangle) - Saul
6-piece packing (Krasnoukov?) - from Rick Eason	Australia tangle (Rick)	Lab Mice Puzzles Volumes 1 & 2 - Tom Cutrofello

Also traded with Brett for some puzzles:

A Super-Square-1 Star mod - Brett made it in all white then I swapped in the black pieces. You can find on-line [dis]assembly instructions here.	Aqua Drop - Bandai The inside surface seems to be made from a hydrophobic plastic - the bead of water runs around like mercury!	Minute Maze - Mag-Nif
Mimi packing puzzles: A, F, H

An Evil Twin Cube from Smartoyshop: 

The Enigma (a dodecahedral edge-matching puzzle) by Reiss, 1971: 

Two vintage 1969 packing puzzles from Lakeside - Cars and Trucks, and Fish and Birds: 

A set of tangles from Totes: 

A couple of the latest offerings from Cubic Dissection, a Cerradura Doble designed by Robrecht Louage, entered in the IPP28 Design Competition, and made from stainless steel, acrylic, and Corian, and an H Puzzle designed by Tomas Linden and made from Marblewood by Eric Fuller.

Reporting to you on this chilly first day of February, about our trip to Boston on the chilly last day of January. Of course, we stopped at Eureka and at Games People Play. I had a very enjoyable chat (as always) with David Leschinsky at Eureka, and picked up a few nice puzzles, including a Hanayama Equa, the Best Ever from Tucker-Jones House, and Quarks, a new kind of 2x2x2 twisty puzzle from Fourier Idea, Inc.

At GPP, I found a Mochalov Cube 2006 usually available from Bernhard Schweitzer at Puzzlewood.de, and an interesting 16-piece jigsaw with wooden pieces - the Plexle Fire puzzle from Mindware.

I'm really happy to have found a pair of vintage Piet Hein designs made (in Hong Kong) back in 1972 by the Hubley Division of Gabriel Industries - a Bloxbox and a Crux. The Bloxbox is notable since the design by Piet Hein is one of the first examples of sliding cubes in a cube. (The first U.S. patent, 416344, for a puzzle like this was awarded to Charles Rice in 1889.) The Crux is cool, too, and I was able to repair the elastic connections.

A Journet See-Saw in what looks to be very good condition:      A Lowe Wit's End in its package: 

A 51-piece Pagoda puzzle issued by Bits & Pieces: 

From Meffert's, the Lunar New Year Special Golden Cube set:      From Bits & Pieces, a Curly Cube, designed by Vladimir Krasnoukhov: 

This is Hex, issued back when Thinkfun was Binary Arts. Fold the chain loop into a hexagon so that all arrows face the same direction. A gift from Tom Jolly - I had an instruction sheet but no puzzle - thanks, Tom!

I've seen other versions of this on Iwase's site.

Scott T. Peterson has made copies of my 2N's Cube No. 5 - he designed a very nice pattern based on the "five" theme (each face has five contrasting cubes), and made these two examples - the first from Ziricote and Orange Osage, and the second from Yellowheart and Wenge. Thanks, Scott, they're beautiful!

The No. 5 design is the result of a computer-assisted search I did (using Andreas Röver's wonderful BurrTools program), trying to find a better design than the No. 1 I designed originally by hand. I don't think any of the designs I found by computer topped the No. 1, but of them, No. 5 is my favorite - it uses eight different pieces as opposed to the four pairs in the No. 1. I think No. 5 is more difficult to assemble, too.

You may be able to buy a copy of my 2N's Cube No. 1, made by Scott from Jatoba and Yellowheart, at the CubicDissection website. There were a few left last time I checked!

Here are the four Karakuri Club Christmas Presents for 2008 I received:

From Chelsea (she's so thoughtful) - Rick Riordan's The 39 Clues Book 1 The Maze of Bones: 

I pre-ordered Jerry Slocum's new book, The Cube, and bought a copy of Greg Frederickson's Hinged Dissections, both from Amazon; found a copy of The Art of the Puzzle, a catalogue from a past exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art; and finally took a pic of Neo Sliding Block Puzzles, a spiral bound compendium (two parts combined into one booklet) I bought from Serhiy Grabarchuk at IPP28 in Prague:

White Pyraminx and Megaminx clones, and a white Eastsheen 5x5x5: 

A face-turning octahedron, courtesy of fellow puzzler David Guo in Taiwan:

It arrived unassembled. Shown in comparison to the smaller Magic Octahedron, which is vertex-turning. David's site offers a solution.

Three Open Windows, designed by Tom Jolly and made by Eric Fuller, from Bloodwood, Wenge, and Holly.

From Bits & Pieces:

A sale at Thinkfun:

One of the new Hungarian Supernova reissues (turns very smoothly!): 

Vintage dexterity puzzles Woodn't Center, and Op1, both by Mag-Nif from 1974 (along with a game called WellKono):

Also from Mag-Nif, Even Steven and Levitation (I solved it!) (with a color-match from Raintree):

New from CubicDissection and both made by Eric Fuller, Tri Again designed by Frank Potts, and the One Piece Packing Puzzle designed by Simon Nightingale:

A vintage Bagatelle dexterity puzzle by R. Journet:    -- From Torito, the Meiji Apollo puzzle, and Identica-L II: 

2008 has been a banner year for fans of Twisty Polyhedra puzzles.

Many new twisty puzzles are being mass-produced and are commercially available. Here are some new ones I've ordered or received, plus a recap of some from prior months:

The Void Cube, designed by Katsuhiko Okamoto. Manufactured by Gentosha Toys. Purchased from Torito. The Void Cube won the Jury Grand Prize in the IPP 2007 Design Competition. When solving the Void Cube, you might run across a parity problem. To see the internals, see this thread on TwistyPuzzles.	The V-Cubes, from Verdes Innovations.
The Rubik's Mirror Blocks cube, aka the Bump Cube, designed by Hidetoshi Takeji. The Bump Cube was entered in the IPP 2006 Design Competition. The hand-crafted version had been for sale at $320.	Meffert's Pyraminx Crystal First patented in 1987 by Uwe Meffert: DE8707783 (U1). Katsuhiko Okamoto had created a version he called the Mega Crystal. Aleh Hladzilin created a version he eventually named the Brilic - he made around a dozen, some of which sold for over $1000. At first he used a Dogic core, then later a Megaminx core. A build-up of the Megaminx, without centers. While a twist on the Megaminx moves 5 corners and 5 edges, a twist on the Crystal moves 5 corners and 10 edges. Noah Hevey has written a nice history of this puzzle - see topic 85537 in the TwistyPuzzles forums.
The Super Square-1 Produced by cube4you. See this thread at the cube4you forums. Watch a video.	The Ball-B From Poland - website here. This shape - a spherical Megaminx (aka Ballminx) - was first explored by Jürgen Brandt.

Not only have there been so many new commercial puzzles released, there has been a flowering of new custom-crafted designs, brought on by broader knowledge of and availability of CAD design tools that can output STL (e.g. Solidview, Alibre, CoCreate by PTC, 3D Studio Max by Autodesk, Kompas-3D from Ascon, ViaCAD from Punch, VariCAD, BRL-CAD, others listed on Peter Eland's site ) (see Tyler Fox's tutorial on YouTube - part 1 - turn up the volume all the way), 3D printing services (e.g. 3dpartz.com, fdmonly.com, Shapeways, printo3d.com) that can take STL input and make master parts, and materials and techniques for casting parts from polyurethane plastic resin (e.g. Conap, Alumilite - get some at Hobby Engineering) using silicone rubber (e.g. Oomoo 25 or 30 - longer pot life, but longer cure time) two part molds poured in a Lego box. Don't forget a mold release agent such as Mann Ease Release 800 or 200. See the articles at TwistyPuzzles. Also this thread.

The traditional methods include cut-downs using a Dremel or hacksaw, and build-ups using Apoxie Sculpt (also here), Milliput, 1/8" ABS plastic sheet, or .040" polystyrene sheet. You can find materials at McMaster.

Many mods will use a black DIY core.

Use a Stika or some other vinyl sheet cutter (e.g. US Cutter) to create the stickers from Oracal 651 vinyl adhesive sheet.

Some of the amazing custom creations:

• Gigaminx (Tyler Fox aka TBT Tyler)
• Pentultimate by Jason Smith - see Jason's website Puzzleforge.com for a detailed look into the genesis of this puzzle. Read more about its history on TwistyPuzzles.com in this thread.
• By Drew Cormier (aka Drewseph0011)
• Gigaminx V1.5
• Teraminx
• Master Tetrahedron
• Kilominx (by David Litwin, also by Thomas)
• By Adam G. Cowan (aka Puzzlemaster42)
• Helicopter Cube
• Super-X Cube
• Trigonal, Pentagonal and Hexagonal Prisms (Lee Tutt)
• Several creations by Matt Shepit of New Zealand (aka the.drizzle aka kicktothegroin)
• Cheeseblock
• Toru
• Rua (face turning rhombic dodecahedron)
• Danger Cube (pillowed tetrahedral square-1)
• The 24 Cube (edge-turning Dino) - see thread and video

Scott Bedard has created a cooperative site named bedardpuzzles.com where some of these puzzles will be available for sale.

From my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, a set of tanglements (in nice packaging), from stirlingfox.com...
(Note that these are the same designs from Mad Cow.)
There are eight designs in the stirlingfox series (more in Mad Cow's lineup), I got five of them, in bold:

Full Moon	Gatekeeper	Mad Cow	Wandering
Woodworm	Triangle	Quadrilateral	Drumsticks

A Cubed Electronic Puzzle, from ThinkGeek: 

From my friends at Puzzlemaster.ca, a Frustr8tor (thanks, guys!):

Still waiting on items from the revived Bits & Pieces:

From Randall Gatewood at Quagmire Puzzle Boxes, a Box Joint Box Secret Box:

An order of a set of compact 2D packing challenges, from Puzzlemist (William Waite):

Some of the latest from CubicDissection's artists:

The set of Hanayama Marine Puzzles, large size, and some new Dick Hess designs, from PuzzleMaster:

A Mozaniac, Four Painters: 

Received my Elemental: Neon (Biohazard) #051, designed and made by David Litwin:

Back from IPP28 in Prague, and a few days in Berlin.

In Berlin we visited several puzzle shops, including the shop Merlin's Spiel- und Zauberwelten ohG, and met owner Mr. Frank Lu, who shares our enthusiasm for puzzles. There were also several puzzle shops on the agenda in Prague, including SMYSL.

I got many great puzzles of all types at the Puzzle Party, and also finally got a wonderful collection of Wellingtons puzzles from the very generous Liz Burrow, by way of Watson Air Freight - a hearty Thanks to Liz and to Martin!

Naef's Kniff, Ubongo, PakoStar, Philos Magellan, Albertuv Puzzles #4 and #8 by Atlas, Tetrahedron into Octahedron, Philos Prisgon by Markus Goetz, Vinco "Not Quite Half Cubes", Philos Vesa Burr Simple, Bolaris Vastavari, the Fragmented Cube by Oskar van Deventer, the O.S.M. Ball by Jakub Dvorak (from Puzzlewood.de), a Sonneveld Box made by Tom Lensch, Stewart Coffin's "The Hill" also from Puzzlewood, a burr by Frans de Vreugd, Crossroads made by Walter Hoppe, Tirol, a Stegmann 2N's Cube #5 from Bernhard Schweitzer (Thanks again, Bernhard!), a Double Triangular Prism designed by Stewart Coffin (also from Bernhard), Half-Cubes from Vinco (Thanks!), a Perpetual Motion by Bill Darrah.

JVK's Tessellating Hexagons, Thick-N-Thin-7 by Serhiy Grabarchuk, Cherry Cocktail, Heart and Spade, Prague IPP28 souvenir, Wetten Dass..., Neo Sliding Block Puzzles by Serhiy Grabarchuk, IPP28 welcome puzzles by Serhiy G., 5 Yen in a Jam by Iwahiro.

"The Great British Puzzle" (cubes), Zoo Panic, Lagoon Jungle Mega Puzzle, Warning Puzzle, Philos Eightpack by Tom Jolly, Snookered, Snookered Again, Walk Up, Footsie, Bunkered, Frantic, 180 Top Dart, Frantic II, Bananas, Suit Yourself, Diabolical, Son of Cuss, Nuts.

Bolaris Vastavari, two oversized Rubik's Cubes, Magic Smile, 4-wing 4-color Roundy, Uriblock (prototype), Inca (large), Inca (small), 8-tile Magic, Perpetual Motion by Bill Darrah, Life's Maze by Kirill Grebnev, Chainbox, small black plastic burr (Dubois' pieces), The Flying Block Puzzle - thanks, Dirk!

Hybrid 15 from Dick Hess, Wolverine keychain tangle from Allan Stein (thanks!), #74 Orli Hnizdo (Eagle's Nest) by Jan Sturm, two sticks tangle (Bathke?), Hanayama Vortex, Philos Tricky 4, Grebnev Apple, Grebnev Spiral.

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