This Chinese puzzle box came to me courtesy of Otis Cheng during IPP37 in Paris this past August. Those of you who know Otis and friends with him would know him by his signature style of photographing a puzzle in a Starbucks and posting on his Facebook page. Over the last several years, Otis (who’s Read More
Month: October 2017
Cubi 20 Packing Puzzle
My copy of Cubi 20 came courtesy of Frederic Boucher. Frederic had contacted me several months before IPP37 this past August to ask if I wanted to play with his Cubi 20 and give him my thoughts on his new design. In all frankness, I don’t consider myself really qualified to test and comment on Read More
L(8)tice-2 Interlocking Burr
My L(8)tice-2 interlocking burr design came about after I saw Andrei Ivanov from Russia selling copies of his Lattice Xi-2 on his metal puzzles site Mertallofactua. Andrei’s Lattice Xi-2 is an “enhanced version of the ξ-Lattice by Yoshiyuki Kotani with all six parts being different”. The Lattice Xi-2 is a 6 piece board burr and Read More
Puzzle Trick Locks – Haleslock 4 & Chinese Combination Locks
Haleslock 4 Apart from being hosted in the beautiful city of Paris, France, IPP37 is also an event to remember for the wonderful exchange puzzles; most notably the exchange of not one, not two but three trick puzzle locks. Not your usual 3D printed, acrylic or wooden pseudo locks but solid metal and brass ones Read More
Hanayama Cast Mobius
Oskar van Deventer may be very well-known in the twisty puzzle circles for his unusual twisty designs. But he also has 15 Hanayama cast puzzle designs to his name! These include the Cast Twist, Cast Nut and Cast Duet. Not to mention he has also designed numerous other types of puzzles made either out of Read More
The Eiffel (Tower) Burr
If I thought the Eiffel Burr interlocking puzzle was anything like the Vivaldi Burr, both designed by Rene Dawir, I couldn’t be further from the truth. More about this later. The Eiffel Burr was Rene’s IPP37 Exchange Puzzle in Paris this past August, while the Vivaldi Burr was his Exchange Puzzle last year. For IPP37, Read More