RELEASED:12.16.2015PRODUCED:56 CopiesDESIGNER:Gregory BenedettiCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:PaduakCOMMENTS:With the invention of the NOS (New Old School) puzzle series, Gregory took the six piece burr format and turned it on its head. The only thing more noteworthy than the uniqueness of the series was how difficult they are to make. When he sent me the plans for them a year ago, I turned him down because it just looked like a nightmare to manufacture. I wasn't wrong...BUT...Gregory came up to ...

RELEASED:4.15.2015PRODUCED:41 CopiesDESIGNER:Stewart CoffinCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Ash, LacewoodCOMMENTS:Ages ago I made a small batch of RD puzzles using octahedral clusters. I never did make the best of Coffin's design though, the Five Piece version, so I thought I'd whip up a batch after having so much fun with the Pyracubes. Five Piece Cluster has four dissimilar non-symmetrical pieces and a fifth key piece that is a single block. The serially interlocking solution is very tricky!The c...

RELEASED:10.2.2012PRODUCED:30 CopiesDESIGNER:Mineyuki Uyematsu (2008), Ken Irvine (2012)CRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Holly, Canarywood, Sapele, Zebrawood, WalnutCOMMENTS:Originally designed by Mineyuki Uyematsu, this puzzle was also independantly discovered some years later by Ken Irvine. Since it's so difficult to establish whether or not a puzzle is truly new or not, Ken was unaware of Mine's previous discovery, and in fact the overlap was not discovered until this production run was complete...

RELEASED:3.27.2013PRODUCED:35 CopiesDESIGNER:Stephane ChomineCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Bubinga, AcrylicCOMMENTS:I noticed a lot of interesting board and stick burrs coming out on Ishino's site so I decided to make batch of them. After looking at a couple dozen designs I chose six for their representation of the various concepts and levels of difficulty.Stephane came up with some interesting variations on the boards and sticks burr by adding secondary board pieces to be inserted on the same a...

RELEASED:3.27.2013PRODUCED:35 CopiesDESIGNER:Stephane ChomineCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Bloodwood, AcrylicCOMMENTS:I noticed a lot of interesting board and stick burrs coming out on Ishino's site so I decided to make batch of them. After looking at a couple dozen designs I chose six for their representation of the various concepts and levels of difficulty.Stephane came up with some interesting variations on the boards and sticks burr by adding secondary board pieces to be inserted on the same...

RELEASED:3.27.2013PRODUCED:38 CopiesDESIGNER:Yavuz DemirhanCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Bloodwood, Ash, AcrylicCOMMENTS:I noticed a lot of interesting board and stick burrs coming out on Ishino's site so I decided to make batch of them. After looking at a couple dozen designs I chose six for their rpresentation of the various concepts and levels of difficulty.Believe it or not, this is the simpler iteration of the Quads and Rings series. Four wooden burr pieces interlock with two acrylic pieces...

RELEASED:5.27.2013PRODUCED:38 CopiesDESIGNER:Markus GötzCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Walnut, Sapele, Yellowheart, Wenge, Maple, Bloodwood, Paduak, Rosewood, Holly, Purpleheart, Cherry or Walnut Stand, Stainless pinsCOMMENTS:Markus designed this puzzle quite a while ago and I always liked the looks of it. Finally I emailed him asking if the design was free...and it was! One hitch though - there was more than one solution. I greatly prefer puzzles with a single solution, so I decided to enlist T...

RELEASED:2.17.2016PRODUCED:32 CopiesDESIGNER:Tamás VanyóCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Walnut, Maple, Camaru or ZebrawoodCOMMENTS:I've been sitting on this design for quite a while now, waiting until I had the time to make it. I really liked the meta aspect of a set of pentominos hiding inside a larger set, but I knew it would be an undertaking to craft. The frame and pieces were very time consuming, with shouldered joinery, through milling on the connector pieces, and every edge beveled on the...

RELEASED:8.14.2014PRODUCED:44 CopiesDESIGNER:Goh Pit KhiamCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Rosewood, Ipe, Walnut, Bubinga, Paduak, Maple, AcrylicCOMMENTS:Pit sent me this design and I really liked it. It's a tricky packing puzzle that uses a new type of motion. With five identical pieces (but different wood types) and an acrylic cover, it's a lot of fun to play with and figure out. Moderately difficult, you can feel comfortable handing this off to a non-puzzling friend. Fit is very good, should not...

RELEASED:4.15.2015PRODUCED:22 CopiesDESIGNER:George BellCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Ash, LacewoodCOMMENTS:Octahedron with Child is a four piece puzzle which uses coordinate motion in the solution. Three identical pieces wrap around each other and the fourth key piece locks the assembly together. While not terribly difficult, the design is interesting and of course looks wonderful in fancy woods and a 19 piece RD assembly. I meant to make more of this puzzle but a miscalculation ruined about ha...

RELEASED:11.3.2015PRODUCED:39 CopiesDESIGNER:Goh Pit KhiamCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Maple, Walnut, Yellowheart, Paduak, Bubinga, AcrylicCOMMENTS:Another one by Goh Pit Khiam, Fusion is the successor of RetroFit. As you would expect from how tricky RetroFit was, Fusion takes it to another level. The goal, to fit the five polyominoes into the partially covered tray, is MUCH trickier than it looks. Here is what Goh has to say about it: This is a redesign of my Crossroad puzzle. In that puzzle, ...

RELEASED:6.18.2015PRODUCED:47 CopiesDESIGNER:Tom JollyCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Cherry, Paduak, Maple, Yellowheart, PurpleheartCOMMENTS:Another very cool interlocking puzzle from the talented Mr. Jolly. Think Outside the Box has a long name and a moderate level 9.2 solution. However, there's a catch! I found this very tricky to solve and tricky to disassemble as well. Simple in concept and brilliant in execution, this is a design you Jolly well better not miss.The construction of this puzzle...

RELEASED:3.27.2013PRODUCED:37 CopiesDESIGNER:Chi-Ren ChenCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Wenge, AcrylicCOMMENTS:I noticed a lot of interesting board and stick burrs coming out on Ishino's site so I decided to make batch of them. After looking at a couple dozen designs I chose six for their representation of the various concepts and levels of difficulty.This and the Quads and Rings 1 are probably the entry-level puzzles in this category when it comes to difficulty. Worm Inside is fairly basic, with...

RELEASED:5.30.2012PRODUCED:20 CopiesDESIGNER:Mineyuki UyematsuCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:YellowheartCOMMENTS:This fun little kimuki design mostly attracted me because of its shape. For some reason I just thought it was interesting. The puzzle itself is simple yet enjoyable. It's fairly easy to solve, yet very strongly built, so it will be a good one to show / loan to a beginner who is checking out your collection.Each copy is signed and dated; 20 copies made for sale. Construction of this puz...

RELEASED:12.16.2015PRODUCED:48 CopiesDESIGNER:Masumi OhnoCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Shedua and BloodwoodCOMMENTS:I saw this puzzle at the IPP design competition this summer and know I had to make it. I was very happy when Mr. Ohno allowed me permission! Cubane is a three dimensional interlocking maze replete with loops and dead ends. It's very reminiscent of the excellent "Wanderer" puzzle by Oskar van Deventer and Tom Lensch. Navigating from start to finish requires a minimum of 15 moves, in...

RELEASED:1.31.2015PRODUCED:38 CopiesDESIGNER:Dario UriCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Wenge, MapleCOMMENTS:Dario Uri is a new designer (to me at least). When I saw his Uri Three Bars design I knew immediately that I wanted to make it. Luckily Mr. Uri was happy to let me make a batch, so now you can get one too! This is a VERY unusual puzzle and a lot of fun to solve. The goal is to intersect the three open ended pieces such that they push all the way in flush to the base. With a single level 10 so...

RELEASED:12.16.2015PRODUCED:40 CopiesDESIGNER:Markku VesalaCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Purpleheart, NylonCOMMENTS:The 3x3x3 cube is pretty played out. With only 27 units there are only so many things you can do with it. That's assuming tradition block glued to blocks...if you open up edge connections, a whole new world of complexity appears! Markku's excellent Liberal Cube makes good use of these dynamics, with a very confusing and difficult seven piece serial assembly. I would estimate that t...

RELEASED:11.3.2015PRODUCED:42 CopiesDESIGNER:Stephan BaumeggerCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Cherry / WalnutCOMMENTS:Here is another extremely difficult burr along the lines of the Binary and Ternary burrs, and Cutler's cube puzzle. Cubloc bridges the gap between those puzzle, being very difficult to solve and disassemble but without the predictability of the n-ary burrs. The six pieces interact with the cage to form various gates which interact in a complicated way. It is exceptionally difficult...

RELEASED:11.21.2014PRODUCED:45 CopiesDESIGNER:Dan FastCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Maple, Walnut, Yellowheart, PaduakCOMMENTS:Dan's new puzzle is aptly named; it's very difficult and may rupture your brain! With a super tricky level 21.7, this puzzle is no joke. The four internal burr pieces interact with the three looped cage pieces to create a series of gates. The interaction creates an evolving mechanism that contains circles and dead ends. Simply disassembling this puzzle is a challenge!Fin...

RELEASED:11.21.2014PRODUCED:40 CopiesDESIGNER:Alfons EyckmansCRAFTSMAN:Eric FullerMATERIAL:Cherry, Walnut, Maple, Zebrawood, HollyCOMMENTS:Recently there have been a spate of 18 piece designs using 2x3 stick size. All of them were interesting, and I definitely wanted to make a representative puzzle from this style. It was difficult for me to pick one, but in the end the uniqueness of camel and rider locked inside the puzzle caught my eye.Goetz Schwandtner made himself a personal copy of this des...