Magic Dice Puzzle

Hey guys have you ever felt like you are losing your marbles?  Don’t worry you are not alone.  Just ask George Bell ;)  Today I’m going to try to review the Magic Dice Puzzle.  You say that you like dice and you are missing a few marbles?  I might have a puzzle for you.  So the “magic” in the Magic Dice Puzzle is that you are given a clear marble and the object of the puzzle is place the marble in the wooden dice through the “one” side, shake it up, and try to get it back out.  Oh my, the demented joy of being a puzzle rookie!  Sounds too easy you say.  It really isn’t that hard but I regret not getting another one simply because I’ve been getting a strong urge to play my board games and two of these would be awesome.  You can always put in more marbles and make it more challenging but then again there is always the possibility of losing more of your marbles.  Oh man that one hurt my head.  I must ascend to the tenth level of enumeration because the crimson wizard beckons me.  Puzzle Master.  You will find the Magic Dice Puzzle there.  Go there.  

Light Bulb Puzzle

Hello puzzle maniacs!!!  It’s 2013 and we are all still here!  It is puzzle review time and this week I’m going to talk about the Light Bulb Puzzle.  This is a wire and string puzzle and the object is to figure out a way to remove the string and wooden plug from the wire light bulb.  The puzzle is a delightful addition to my collection.  It is rather light in the difficulty scale.  Puzzle Master rates it at a 5 out of 10 and that is about right.  I think that this puzzle is still worthy of your hard earned money because it looks fantastic and provides a light distraction.  I would also say that this puzzle makes for a thoughtful gift.  Maybe a friend is struggling with some creative endeavor like writing or creating the next award winning IPP puzzle.  My suggestion would be take the puzzle and a really loud smurf and place it in an old twinkie box.  Rig the smurf to go off when the package is opened.  Will this stimulate the creative juices?  Well it might stimulate the adrenal gland juices.  Guess where I received this puzzle?  That’s right from the nice people in Canada.  Unfortunately the puzzle is not available as of this moment but Puzzle Master is pretty good about restocking their puzzles.   

Special note:  No smurfs were seriously injured or juggled through creating this review. 

Gold Skull Puzzle

Hello puzzle people!!!  It has been awhile since my last post.  I had a significant life event happen so things became a little crazy but I’m back now with a puzzle that I thoroughly enjoy.  The puzzle is called Gold Skull Puzzle, I received it from the nice people at Puzzle Master, and Bits and Pieces manufacture it.  Thanks guys :)  The puzzle is composed of 32 acrylic puzzle pieces that are contained in a clear plastic box.  The objective of this puzzle is to dump out the pieces of the puzzle and then fit then back in the box to form the golden skull.  The puzzle is straightforward and not very hard at all but the major appeal for me is that it is a golden skull!  Interestingly enough the center is hollow which makes for a great place to hide things.  Since Halloween is coming up this puzzle would make a kick ass gift box for a ring.  I put my ring in there just to see if it would fit and it did with a whole lot of room to spare.  Guys if you are thinking of popping the question to your lady then I would highly recommend this puzzle.  Hopefully she like skulls and doesn’t take the gift box in the wrong way…………  Uhmmmmm.  Well in any case it’s a cool looking puzzle and you can put stuff in it.  This is a spooky addition to my puzzle collection and I highly recommend it for its aesthetic appeal and possible use as a gift box.  You probably won’t need the solution because it is quite easy.  I hope that Bits and Pieces decides to make more of these puzzles.  I’d like to see anime characters, dragons, etc.  This is a great puzzle and gift box with the potential to reach a wider market with the introduction of different themes.  

Cast Donuts

Oh yeah this week I have a cool puzzle!!!  It is the Cast Donuts puzzle and it was designed by a guy in Finland named Vesa Timonen.  The puzzle is made of four pieces that form two rings and the rings are intertwined.  I really like the look and feel of this puzzle.  In fact, I find myself putting the puzzle in my pocket a lot.  This is because I like the smooth feel of the puzzle.  Solving this puzzle isn’t very difficult but the puzzle mechanics is very cool.  I had to solve the puzzle a few times to understand the solution method.  Once the mechanism is understood, it can be solved in a few seconds.  This is my favorite cast puzzle (at the moment) and that is saying a lot because most of my cast puzzles are exceptional.  This puzzle kicks ass and I highly recommend it.  I received this puzzle from PuzzleMaster and you can find the solution here.  

Daily Puzzle

Have you ever wanted a puzzle that requires a different solution every freaking day of the year!?  Look no further puzzle maniacs because the Daily Puzzle by Thinkfun will keep you puzzling all year long!  This puzzle was invented by Oskar van Deventer and Wei-Hwa Huang.  So the object of this puzzle is to display the current date with the tiles provided.  There are a total of 10 tiles.  For the month, there are six tiles.  For the day of the month, there are four tiles.  The tiles themselves are double sided so the solution can be challenging sometimes especially when the month changes.  In addition, each correct letter or number is form by stacking two tiles.  The tiles are placed on the provided plastic display tray.  I really like this puzzle because of the challenge it provides ever day of the year.  The display tray is a little flimsy.  I wish the plastic was a little thicker.  However, I still think this puzzle is awesome because of the daily challenge and besides you are not going to be using the tray to hold a giant panda.  Although I would say that, you should try not to move the tray too much or the tiles will fall out.  A little care is required.  I received this free review puzzle directly from Thinkfun.  To see a brief video of the puzzle click here.  

Gyro Puzzle

Ok so I’m kind of rough on some of my puzzles.  When I do actually find the solution, it happens without a lot force and the method is buttery smooth.  Often I’m like “What the hell just happened?!?”  Well I’m not big on giving hints for puzzle solutions but I will share something with you today.  If you don’t want to know then stop reading because here comes a big hint.  I really enjoyed solving this puzzle because a bit of brute force was warranted.  This puzzle is called Gyro and you can find it at Puzzle Master.  This puzzle took me a while to open because I was trying to be delicate.  When I found the solution, I thought I broke it but to my surprise, I solved the thing!  It is rated an 8 out of 10 in difficulty and I would say that is about right.  So don’t worry too much about applying a little force.  If you want the solution to the puzzle click here.  

Titanic Puzzle

The puzzle I’m going to talk about today is called the Titanic puzzle and I received it from Brilliant Puzzles.  This is a kumiki puzzle and if you would like to know more about this type of Japanese puzzle then please read my brief explanation about them here.  Out of the kumiki puzzles that I received from Brillant Puzzle, this was the one I was looking forward to the most.  While I do like the puzzle, I have some notable concerns about it.  Let’s start off with the good stuff.  I liked the puzzle design.  Taking the puzzle apart isn’t very difficult but I like the idea of a puzzle that looks like a boat.  My concern is with the quality of wood.  Some of the pieces were shedding bits of wood, which didn’t seem like it was from a sanding process.  I’ve never seen this before so I didn’t know what to think.  What I don’t understand is that out of the three kumiki puzzles that I received, two had this crumbling wood and the other was quite well manufactured and had good wood.  The quality of wood was disappointing and a little more sanding would have been helpful.  However, if you want an affordable boat puzzle that you are not going to handle that much then this one might be for you.  In my opinion, this is more of a display item than a puzzle.