[Thanks Tyler for the improved Roman Numerals!] I collected the Gill and the Dutch contingent (Wil, Rob K and Louis) from the airport and we headed back to the house for some re-acquainting and some puzzling before the pizza’s came out of the oven and the puzzles disappeared while the pizzas were nommed… in relative silence. After the pizzas there were ice creams and then the puzzling resumed. Will had gifted me a new puzzle box from JCC with some lovely intricate decoration and a prominent heart on the top… it was clear that it would have something to do with the solution, but it stubbornly ..read more

The fist time A horse with a warrior came up for sale I missed out in the lottery, so when the Karakuri-clan announced they’d be making another batch I tried again and managed to snaffle one the second time around.   This little guy is very much a statement piece - somewhat larger than your average Karakuri creation - it’s very obviously meant to be a Trojan beast of burden.  While it’s clearly a horse, it’s definitely not so much of a horse that it’s lost its Trojan roots - those remain very clearly visible… and when you start playing with it there are several nods to that ..read more

<Excuse the short hiatus - we’ve been exploring Fort Lauderdale and enjoying some Caribbean sunshine! Blogging came second…> I’ve written about Alan Lunsford’s little sequential discovery puzzles in the past- but until recently I hadn’t been able to get hold of a copy of his Unsafe Deposit as it usually contains a small bunch of coins and come countries are a little sniffy about folks posting their currency around the world… In a bid to get his puzzles out to a wider audience, Alan has come up with an international-postage-friendly-version, which from my attempts to reintroduce some coin ..read more

This week, dear reader (for there can surely only be one!) I bring you thoughts on a most excellent little set of puzzles – the Minima Series, designed by Frederic Boucher and made by NothingYetDesigns. I missed out on these when they were initially put up for sale (in my defence they didn’t last long!) so I was very chuffed when I spotted a set on Puzzle Paradise at a reasonable price. One or two of my puzzling mates had said some encouraging things about them so I was intrigued. NYD have done a great job of making up the boxes in frosted acrylic – all neatly marked with their appropriate id ..read more

  Yes – our fiftieth actual in person MPP! That’s pretty cool for a bunch of guys who started getting together in my dining room because we thought it’d be cool to meet up and share our puzzles with other nutters. Louis and Mieke arrived on Friday evening fresh from an escape room and a city tour of Oxford. After dinner we settled into some gentle puzzling – Louis had brought over a copy of Michel’s new Mibinity puzzle so I had to have a go at that. It’s a really neat little 2D n-ary design that’s been beautifully made by Jack… I take all the pieces apart and examine them and then realise ..read more

Some folks who know me think that I’m a completist, and I do like a nice set of things… and if they happen to look really good together, AND happen to be excellent puzzles, then I’m a bit of a sucker for them… Radek and Doog’s collection of Demonticons has been steadily growing in a corner of my Rademic shelf over the past few months and the announcement of Scarlett produced a predictable order from Barnt Green. Scarlett is a delightful shade of, err, scarlet and she looks suitably goofy with some seriously exaggerated eyelashes on one side, and, err, not on the other. The supercilious grin i ..read more

Just before Christmas I had an email out of the blue from Mike Toulouzas asking to confirm my address, which was a bit strange as I wasn’t expecting anything from him at the time. We confirmed that he had the right address, and when I asked him why he needed it, he was a little evasive and just said he wanted to send me something… errm, OK. A few weeks later a neat little package arrived courtesy of Royal Mail and Hellenic Post… as I unwrapped the carefully packaged puzzle I found that Mike had been incredibly generous - nestled in a bubble wrap cocoon is a gorgeous little wooden box, comp ..read more

A while back I received an email out of the blue from Fabien Wirig. He described himself as an aspiring puzzle designer and was looking for some thoughts on a new puzzle he’d designed. While I was delighted with the approach, I was also more than a little surprised given that I really don’t consider myself an expert on either solving or designing puzzles (albeit I am an enthusiastic hoarder!), so I did what I thought was the most sensible thing and replied saying that I was flattered, but that he’d be far better off seeking the counsel of my mate Louis who is both a far better solver than me ..read more

I managed to miss out on Andrew Crowell’s TIC Vault when it was first released, but I certainly took notice when it garnered a jury honourable mention at this year’s Puzzle Design Competition… so when Andrew offered some copies for sale I didn’t hold back and one duly arrived at Puzzling Times HQ a little while later. It’s a very handsome puzzle that speaks of a man who has not only designed some rather good-looking puzzles, but also one who has seriously mastered his 3D printer(s)! The quality of the printing is excellent with “inlaid” text on the base and logos all around the sides… it’s a ..read more

The daddy has arrived. For five years now Steve and Ali have been bringing us an evolving series of puzzles - all with precisely the same form factor. In fact, if you just glanced at them, you’d probably think they were all the same thing… spend a little time with them and it immediately becomes apparent that they’re very different! There was the simple standard burr, the one that reminded me of another entire series of puzzles, the one that seemed to be welded together, the one that made you laugh out loud, and now there’s this one… the one entire series has been building up to: Brass Monkey ..read more