The best packing puzzles

I will write several reviews in the same spirit in the weeks/months to come. This is only my point of view, so you may disagree.

In my mind, packing puzzles are boring and can be too difficult if the goal is just to put a lot of pieces in a tray. What's the fun?....
For me a good packing puzzle does not need a lot of pieces, but needs a good idea and clever steps. Most of the time with just 3 or 4 pieces you can have a very enjoyable puzzle with a challenging level.

So I will put below some puzzles that I like and that are worth playing with. I won't rank them, because it would be a bit difficult for me to say which is the best and which is the less good. For some of them, I may have written a review, for some other I will do so in the future. But ayway, I will put some pictures with quick explanations.

So let go with a selection of 10 nice packing puzzles!!


1. String octet
Designed by Goh Pit Khiam / Made by Brian Menold
The goal is to pack the pieces but you have to draw a continuous line and of course if you reverse the pieces you have another path.
Many challenges and the challenges are far from being easy. A very good puzzle(s)!

2. No holes barred
Designed by Laszlo Molnar / Crafted by Brian Menold
The goal is to pack the pieces inside the box. But you will have to make some rotations and see the box has something unusual. Laszlo designed several puzzles in the same spirits. Both are very enjoyable and challenging.

3. Pack 3
Designed by Osanori Yamamoto
This embodies the parfect packing puzzle with only 3 pieces (and the wood is wonderful by the way). The goal is not to pack the 3 pieces (which is easy) just in the box but to pack them so that no holes are visible like in the picture on the right. Many moves, this is definitely a nice and challenging puzzles. Be careful, something looking too easy has usually many hidden tricks :)

4. Pin block case
Designed by Hajime Kastumoto
Only 4 pieces to pack, but see there are pins (so grooves on the reverse side of the pieces). A very enjoyable puzzle, with several moves

 5. 4L puzzle
Designed by Yasuhiro Hashimoto / Crafted by MINE
The puzzle with only 4 pieces gave a lof of puzzling frustration to many puzzlers. Inside you have a lot (!) of moves to fit the pieces inside the box and the plexi is not here to help you :)
This is a very very good puzzle!

6. Slide packing
Designed by Hajime Katsumoto / Crafted by MINE
It has 4 pieces to fit into this sliding box. What is very interesting is that first it's a sliding box. Then the shape of the pieces look pretty basic. Then the solution is just super nice. This puzzle has a brother called "penta in a box" designed by the same guy. And it has a very nice solution as well.
Very well made, nice solution, it's a must-have!

7. Chain store
Designed by Goh Pit Khiam / Crafted by Tom Lensch
A very unusual packing puzzle, not overly difficult but still challenging

8. Stumbling block
Designed by Goh Pit Khiam / Crafted by Tom Lensch
4 pieces to pack. Not super difficult but still challenging, I am sure that you were amazed (if you have ever played with it) by the sequence of moves. Seriously, you will have you "aha-moment"!!
It has some brothers: road blocks, number blocks. All super nice

9. Magnet mania!
Designed and crafted by Chris Morgan
The goal is to pack the 9 magnets in the holes. I managed to solve it in the not intended way (but I was very lucky). But the official solution is so clever, that you have to still try it. Challenging and interesting mathematical properties

10. One piece packing
Designed and made by Simon Nightingale
The only one packing puzzle with one piece to pack. And this is not an easy puzzle. As you will notice you have magnets. So there are many ways to pack the piece inside (24 if I am not wrong) and you will probably forget what you have done and so try the same configuration several times :)
I really wonder how it's crafted...

Jigsaw puzzle 29

This seemingly innocent puzzle was designed and crafted by Yuu Asaka for IPP design competition in San Diego (2018) and it received a prize!

Many times I wonder why such or such puzzle receives a prize because in my mind it's not deserved. I mean, all puzzles are usually nice, but most of the time (if not always....) the jury committee does not choose puzzles that really deserves to be awarded!!! What's going on in their head?....

So I was thinking: "why the hell did this jigsaw puzzle received a prize"?....until I got one and started to play with it :)

Ok so first it looks very nice: the colors are well choosen.
Then the cuts are very precise and you won't need to use any force at all. I was worried with that point because it can be tricky with plexi puzzles....

Now the serious part, and why in my mind it's a good (and then why it obtained a prize) puzzle: you won't solve it in a "conventional way".
I mean, usually with jigsaw puzzles you know how to start, right? Do the same thing (yes, please do!) won't lead to anywhere and so you will soon realize that you will have to think way more!!
And yes you need to pack all the pieces flat inside the tray :-)

This puzzle is very difficult and could only come from a crazy devilish puzzle designer's mind ;-)

With many possibilities and pieces that have the same color, this puzzle will puzzle you for long time.
With a low price, this is clearly worth the money.

Did I said that Yuu is from Japan and Japan has the best postal service in the world?...Yes it already happened that I got a package 4 days after it's been mailed. Impressive!!

You can check Puzzle Master webshop to get your copy. Maybe you will get too much frustrated and need the solution?

IQ Lolly

IQ Lolly series is designed by Patrick Chan, a Hongkonger who claims that he is always inspired by young people.
This nice looking sliding puzzle has been designed, crafted and presented by Patrick for the IPP design competition 38 (2018) held in San Diego.

What about the look: this is a really nice looking puzzle and guess what? It's made with 3D printers and the quality is, in my mind, stunning. It's indeed very smooth.

The goal of this puzzle is to scrambled the numbers by pushing/pulling/turning the rod and then revert to the initial position.
3 levels of difficulty: the more numbers you have, the more difficult the puzzle is, of course!

The nice features of the puzzle: when you push and release then it's goes in the "middle" position. Same if you pull and release the rod. It's like the cutting corner technique of the famous rubix's cube: it's a way to be faster to solve the puzzle.
Also if you don't turn completely the rod of a turn, there is a little somthing that prevent from screwing up the puzzle (pushing/pulling if the numbers are not horizontally aligned). See below:

When playing with the Lolly you will notice that you cannot turn 2 times on the same way (I mean 2 times clockwise or counter-clockwise).
So far I am not super fast to push/turn/pull, but I think this is just a matter of practice :)

How to solve the puzzle you may ask? Well there are algorithms (see again a common point with the rubix's cube) to rearrange the numbers and several steps to be performed.
Easy if you follow the steps. Way more difficult if you try to discover them...

A nice video of Patrick's skills to solve: HERE

I am not that used to sliding puzzles, not even with 3D printed sliding puzzles and I must admit I like it a lot. Consider asking Patrick a copy of it. I suggest to go with the easiest level ;) Don't be a fool!!

The IQ Lolly comes in 7 different colors: you can see HERE the website (it's still under construction but gives you an idea of the colors.

Did I say that there are some Easter eggs to discover? Patrick mention that on the solution he sends. So far, I have not idea about what they are....

EDIT: I found the 2 Easter eggs. Nice!

Coke bottle in a row

You know the guy and his famous metal puzzles? You may also know his bottle puzzles I am sure.
But did you see so many bottles???

7 coke bottles linked with a long rod and locked on each side and inside!!

A lot of care is needed to handle that. First because it's fragile. Then because if you hold the puzzle on each side you apply pressure in the middle of the rod. It would be a pitty to destroy such a beauty:)

You can unlocked the 2 locks on each side, but how to unlock the inside locks?...

You don't have acces to them with your fingers....probably no tools are allowed....

Seriously I am (b)locked... :-(

Any idea?

Soma tube

Laszlo Molar did it again! Brian Menold crafted it again!!  :-)

Derived from the famous soma cube, this puzzle is this time a tube! I feel that the some cube is so famous that it still gives a lot of idea from designer who enjoy transforming this common puzzle into weird and more difficult puzzles, like this some tube!

Well it's also a restricted puzzle. I am not a big fan of restricted puzzle because it can be difficult to manipulate the pieces making your puzzling experience more a dexterity challenge and less fun.
However with this one, I did not have these kind of difficulties.

With seemingly basic pieces, how hard can it be?
Well, there are a lot of possibilities but only one solutions and let me tell you this is quite challenging!!!
However I managed to solve it (and it did not take me month), maybe I just had the right idea at the right moment, who knows...

My method with these kind of puzzles is the following: try to make a final shape (here a tube) with the puzzles outside of its box. Then try to take pieces off the shape one by one, while looking at the box and if the shape was in the box if the piece you're taking off could really be taken off the box. The continue until the final piece. And then do that in the reverse order to put the pieces in the box.
If the shape you're making does not "suite" the box, then first turn the shape. If it's does not work, make another shape with the pieces.

Usually you have several possibilities to make the shape with the pieces. The real challenge it to put the pieces inside the box.

As usually with Laszlo's puzzle, you will have sliding and rotating moves.

This is again really clever and I really enjoyed it. Buy it if you like packing puzzles that have a little something extra and if you like Lazslo's puzzle and Brian's craftmanship :)


I just have a little worry with the puzzles that use plexi: if the plexi cracks or breaks, then how can you replace it....
I do think puzzle makers who use plexi should find a way to let the solver take out the plexi. Maybe by dividing the box into 2 and using magnets (of course that would increase the final price, but maybe less than shipping the puzzle back to the craftman for repairement....)

PI box by Jesse Born

Another very nice wooden puzzle designed and crafted by Jesse Born!

Jesse updated often his facebook page (and no need to have facebook to follow his progress) about how this puzzle crafting was going on.

I must admit that he is the only puzzle maker who is doing that and I am sure people appreciate a lot (well, I did) to see his progress and issues when there were some. I feel completely like being part of the project.

This puzzle is called the PI box puzzle, the goal is to move the parts on the top and open the box.
Easy? Not that sure...

Quick words about the design: this is a big puzzle, be sure to have some space! And it's a really wonderful puzzle. It must take long time to craft one, imagine the time spent on crafting 50 as he did....!!! 

About the difficulty, this is not an easy puzzle, but it should be manageable. Just ask yourself about the name of the puzzle as it can give you clues.... :-)

You should consider to get this puzzle if there are some left and of course if you have the money. It's not cheap at all. But the quality is worth it.
Just have a look at his website and still tunned for his next puzzles !!!

WOW 5

Designed by Carl Hoff and awarded during a puzzle party, this puzzle is a ring puzzle and seems to look like an hanayama puzzle, but obviously the quality is much better!!

It is made by Jeff, a puzzle ring maker who lives in Asia.

Regarding the quality, seriously Jeff has made a super great job!!
First, it does not look like a cheap puzzle at all, especially because it's made of top quality material: silver. But you can also choose other material like gold. Thenk you don't see where the rings went through each other before the finishing.

In the webshop you can order several size. I chose the biggest (the price is the same) because I don't intend to wear it but keep it with my other puzzles and I think it's much easier to play with a bigger puzzle than a "normal size" ring...but it's up to you!

About the difficulty, this is super easy to take it apart....reassembling is a difficult challenge. As of now, it's still in 5 pieces.... ;)
And I am not super good at this kind of puzzle, but well I will keep on trying.

Either you're a ring lover or you like metal puzzle or you want to ask your other half his/her hand you have to get this puzzle. And if you're all at the same time, then don't hesitate!!
I really like the small box where Jeff put the puzzle, it's a nice display and protect well the puzzle.

And if you want something more customized, just ask Jeff ;-)

What is your favourite puzzle ring??

Loris

Maybe the reason was I did not publish any review recently was because I did like the loris, sleep a lot....?

Well, ok the name Loris is the name of a puzzle box made in corian bu Frank Chambers and exchanged at IPP 23.
This is a massive puzzle, big and heavy and probably the biggest Chambers'.

Pretty unusual to have the warning written on a puzzle. Here it's very clear: no banging/no force of any kind. Indeed you could break the mechanism!!!

Talking about the mechanism, this one is very unique. I have never seen it in any puzzle. It's not a trick at all, but a real mechanism. It's so clever that you cannot imagine what it's really unitil you've opened the puzzle (gently, of course!). Then you can deduce, this is a pretty difficult puzzle.

Patience is required and you should be able to open the box at some point. The name of the puzzle is (supposed?...) to be a hint.

If you see it somewhere, I really advise to buy it. It's not only a nice puzzle but also a nice mechanism.

Obviously I cannot show the solved state as it would completely spoil the puzzle....

Lighthouse

A pretty old puzzle designed by Doug Haigh and crafted by Bits&Pieces which goal is to get the diamond and free the metal ring.

The diamond can be obtained by removing the metal top above the plexi part, but this is not the intended way to do that.

This is a pretty small puzzle but with a nice sequence of steps. I like when many things are hidden in small puzzles. That means you don't need to have super big puzzles in order to have a sequencial discovery puzzle! :-)

While not extremmely difficult, it's still a nice challenge, especially for beginners. But even a seasoned puzzler will find it nice and would need it in its collection.

I am wondering if this puzzle has ever been made by a famous craftman or only by Bits&Pieces. Any clue?

Newton's egg

A nice puzzle designed and made by Stephen Chin, this Newton's egg obeys to the 3rd Newton's law.

The wood choosen is very nice and stand up on a nice display. Well for this kind of puzzles, you'd better have a display stand :-)
The cuts on the eggs are nicely made and look "real".
 

Like all or almost all Chin's puzzles, this one is not super difficult but will still puzzle you a bit of time. And like all his puzzles, the mechanism is not super complicated, but very efficient and well designed!

So far, I have not seen such a "mechanism" implemented in a puzzle and I liked a lot the way of solving it. And it's easy to repeat!

This is an egg(cellent) puzzle :)

Aroma

Aroma is a puzzle designed and exchanged by Iwahiro for IPP 30 in Japan. It consist of a black plastic cage and 3 pieces that need to be put inside.
Note that the shape of the pieces is pretty unusual.

So only 3 pieces, easy? Well yes and no. Yes because you will soon realize how to do, but no because you cannot see if you're doing the proper alignment of the pieces.

As many Iwahiro's puzzle, co-motion will be used!

My technique was to assemble the pieces outside the cage and see how they can be put (but "expanding" them) inside. The fit is perfect, you need precision to solve it!
You just need to understand who the pieces interact. Needless to say that it's very easy to free the pieces outside of the cage. The real challenge is to put them inside again.

In my opinion this is a nice puzzle because it's not big and can be carried out easily. It's for anybody and due to its material it can be played by even a non puzzler as he won't damage it :-)

And regarding the difficulty I would say medium because I am sure that you won't automatically manage to solve it and each time it will take you a bit of time to do it again.

Repair the cube

When nice puzzles are sold out too fast and are not available anymore at the webshop of the seller, don't cry!
Just try to find out other ways to get it, for example in resellers' webshops. I mentioned in a previous post a nice webshop: art of play. And I found this puzzle from them!

This seemingly easy (you're going to be fooled!) puzzle was designed by Andrey Ustjuzhanin crafted and released by Eric Fuller on June 2017.

The puzzle is only composed of 3 pieces, well the cage and 2 complicated pieces. The goal is to use the 2 moving pieces to repair the cube, a cube with a lot of holes by the way.
The puzzle is shipped assembled, maybe because it's safe during the shipping.

Nice woods!!

Normally you should have not too many difficulties to disassemble the puzzle because there are no really dead-ends. It's pretty straight forward. Just move pieces and if it stops, try to move the other one. And after several moves you should disassemble the puzzle. Note that I don't say "solve" because solving the puzzle is repairing the cube :-)

I can only advise you to take pictures of the puzzle while you're solving it. It will surely help you if you're blocked. Obviously repairing the cube is way more difficult as you have several possibilities to put the pieces. Oh did I mention there was a small rotation?.... :-)

It's not because a puzzle does not have a lot of pieces that it's easy to solve. Proof with this one!

I can only advise you to buy it from art of play while it's still available. And I can recommand to buy wunder bar puzzle from them as well. This is a very nice puzzle! You won't regret your purchase.

Nice games

I wanted to speak about a new puzzle shop I discovered on the internet and their puzzles/games they are selling.
It's always good to see more and more shops created as it means more ways to get some games and/or puzzles. The name: Art of Play.

Several things are here: a disentanglement puzzle, a deck of cards, a metal puzzle and a ball of whacks.

The disentanglement puzzle is nice, not easy for a beginner like me but I managed to solve it. Unfortunately I cannot put it in the original state, but I will still try.

The metal coil with the ring to free is a famous puzzle. Very easy and can be solved super fast when you know how to. I will let try totally beginner to play with and see if they can find the trick. Despite being an easy puzzle, the quality is very good, so it's pleasant to solve it again and again. For me it would be more like a stress ball :-)

Now, what about the "ball of whacks"? It's a magnetic toy made out of plastic. The goal is to use your own creativity to create shapes and to try to achieve the challenges (that consit of making such or such shapes with some hidden pieces) written in the book.
I like a lot this concept because you can do what you want (well you're still restricted by the number of pieces) and for someone like me who likes geometry, it's interesting! And the big plus is that it's suitable even for children. Indeed the pieces are not sharp and despite the magnetic attraction that works perfectly (the pieces snap fast and easily with each other), it's not possible to pinch your fingers, which may happen when magnets are too strong. Good point so!

Finally if you look carefully in the first picture, you can notice a deck of cards. What's special about it? Well it's pretty original and looks very nice in my mind. I think some puzzle collectors collect also cards, so it may be worth to get the deck :-)

Have a look at what they offer, maybe you will be able to find things you did not find in other online shops!

Genie bottle

Designed, made and exchanged by Stephen Chin at IPP 2017 in Paris, this wooden puzzle has something similar that you can see in other Chin's puzzles: the wooden circles and the wood turning that he is famous for.

The goal is to open the puzzle and get your reward.

The puzzle has several steps, not unique mechanisms but all the steps are well implemented.

From the picture above there is one wooden ring with something special, maybe this is useful to solve it? (false question, I already know the answer!)

As all Chin's are very difficult to get (especially because he does not make a lot, and does not run a puzzle business), I am very please to have it. Not difficult but nice puzzle.

On the top of the puzzle is something special. Do you think using it will make the genie appear from its bottle? I am sure you will need to use the reward after ;-)

Wunder puzzle take apart

This series of 3 puzzles was crafted in 2011. The original designer is unknown but Eric managed to get an original copy and made some variations of increasing difficulty.

Each dovetail has different mechanism: the first is easy and you should not have any difficulty with it, the other 2 have some tricky mechanism that will challenge you a bit more.

Each dovetail has 2 wooden parts and the devetail joints have a strange shape, well that not the usual shape for these kind of puzzles. And the trick is also, when you have unlocked the mechanism, to slide the 2 parts in the correct way, which needs a bit of practise. No force required!

The craftmanship is very good and very precise. Well, precision is the key for dovetails.

After some time and pain in he hands I managed to open all the dovetails. I liked all of them and there is a real progression from one to the other puzzle. I think this is nice to have made a series of 3 puzzles and not just one puzzle: more puzzling fun! I also like that Eric does not produce a lot of dovetails so, it changes a bit and this is very appreciated.

I won't comment on the precise mechanism, I will just tell you that it's not super complex inside, but well implemented and very efficient.

Plate box by Strijbos

This puzzles was the exchanged puzzle by Wil Strijbos and crafted by Griffoen long long time ago and seems to be pretty rare as it has never popped up at any auctions nor nowhere contrary to supposely rare puzzles that always appear at auction...

Rare means rare, right?...Anyway...

The name of the puzzle suggest that it's composed of plates and we can easily notice that you will have a total of 12 plates to assemble (2 per side of the cube) in an interlocking way.

The box is pretty big but very light. In fact, the material used seems to be not hard woods, but more likely a composite.

If you were to try this puzzle, it would be a more challenging puzzles if it disassemble. Indeed when assembled, it's easy to solve and the first plate is freed after only one move. Then you try to push and puzzle the remaining pieces and at the end: solved!!

Starting with the pieces like below is a way more difficult challenge!

In my opinion, this is an interesting puzzle, I like 2D shapes that make 3D solid at the end. And this puzzle, despite not being made by Strijbos, is associated to him. So in a way, a complete collection of Strijbos' puzzles is nice to have this puzzle.

I am sure that you know Wil's current face. OK. And I am sure you want to see how he looked before. Well, click on the below spoiler button :)

Free the marble

At this year (2017) IPP design competition, there was a puzzle awarded by a new (or let's say someone who is not used to crafting puzzles and does not belong to the puzzle community) puzzle designer: Laurence Grenier.
She designed and crafted a wooden puzzle "free the marble" which, as the name indicates, goal is to free the marble from the interlocking wooden pieces.

The craftmanship is very nice and precise, congrats for this nicely made puzzle!

Several steps are needed to solve the puzzle. First you need to disassemble the pieces, which is not that obvious because you cannot see how the marble intereacts with the wooden pieces. Sometimes it blocks any moves, sometimes a wooden piece can move it the marble is in the correct place.
Then when you have all he 3 pieces that move freely, you can think that the solving process is over. NOOOO!!! You still have a nice challenge which is not that easy. What is funny is that now you see the inside of the wooden pieces and you see the marble. Still, it took me pretty long time before solving completely the puzzle.

Guess what? The wooden pieces cannot be disassembled and that surprised me a lot. Maybe some more puzzling could have been even added with this challenge which would have consisted in separating the 3 pieces. And I am sure it's more difficult to craft 3 connected pieces than 3 separated pieces!

Not many of this puzzle were crafted and I am proud to own a puzzle made by a French person! It changes :)

I think this puzzle is a very nice idea for Hanayama cast series, and I am sure it will be successful. Let's see if Laurence asked them...

Egyptian gloves

This time an unusual puzzle, I'm calling it a "covering puzzle". Why? Because the goal is to cover a geometrical structure with fabric.
Let me introduce you the Egyptian gloves designed and made by Jon Leaman. It was his entrant for 2017 IPP competition contest.

You're provided with 3 different challenges. For the 1st one you need to cover the pyramid with a squared bag. Normally you should not have a lot of difficulties to do so, especially if you've ever played with Iwahiro's puzzles. I managed to solved it. The dimensions are very precise, so no need to use any force at all.
For the 2nd challenge (see picture above), you're provided with a band of fabric and I managed to solve this challenge as well. However, my solution was different than the official solution :-)
For the last challenge, you're provided with 4 triangle pieces, I'm still strugling with this challenge.

I am very pleased to see new kind of puzzles. In my opinion, this is a real novelty and it changes from the "usual" puzzles. Plus, here you have not only one, but three puzzles!

I really like this puzzle: it's original and fun and also challenging. I do hope that Jon will come up with new challenges with the same pyramid or with other shapes.

If you're interested, Jon has an etsy page where he sells his creations and the price is very reasonable.
Enjoy!

Yosegi pattern puzzle box

Not an original name at all, but very representative of the puzzle, and what a puzzle!
Here is the new creation by Jesse Born, a yound US puzzle designer and maker. Always great to see new artists "poping up" in the puzzle market :)

So what's special with this puzzle? Well, if you notice carefully, the finish is very good and is varnished, which is pretty unusual for puzzles. So it gives a nice glossy finish to the puzzle. The puzzle itseft has a good size. And you can clearly that the name of the puzzle box comes from the yosegi on the top of the box.
I saw several videos of making yosegi and I tell you: it takes a lot of time and precision to do that!

The solving process has some new kind of ideas, which changes from the usual banging and spinning of usual puzzle boxes. All the steps have a special things and they are far from being easy to find. They are well hidden and require some thinking.

Once you solved completely the puzzle you will be able to see the mechanism and I am sure you will like it!
Reassembling the puzzle is just following the same steps but in reverse order, should not be difficult.

Always a puzzle to take a picture in the solved state without spoiling!! :)

I think Jesse has enough skills to be compared to all puzzle box masters in this world, and if he still improves his skills and level up each time his puzzle projects I am sure he will be the best.
I really like this puzzle: good quality, great solving process. Did I mention that Jesse is a nice guy to chat with? It has to be mentioned because.... (I am sure you know why!)

He has a facebook in case you're interested! (I am sure you are!!!)