Your list of puzzles to order from X-mas Father

X-mas is coming in a month or so, and it's time to make your wishing list for Xmas-Father !!!

Below are my suggestions. I will put several puzzles with several kind of price. If you've been nice maybe you will get them all under the Xmas tree. Else...maybe nothing??

The order of the below puzzles does not mean anything special. It does not mean that 1/ is my favourite. I just needed to make a list, that's it :) 

Also there are some great puzzles that I would highly recommend, but many are sold out. And it's better to have some puzzles in stock ready to be bought for your X-mas Father, you don't want to receive your presents in January :)

1/ Mecanigma Kit and/or Architecto kit for the people who like crafting things and enjoy big boxes!

Mecanigma Kit is the first big kit to have been released. I advise starting with Mecanigma Kit before doing Architecto. Everything is provided in the kits: glue, sandpaper, laquer, etc. You will just need some tiny manuel screwdrivers (kind of actually) to make tiny holes.

You need to follow the steps as everything is clearly mentioned. So you should not have too many issues. I still need to warn you: it's not that easy and obviously if you already have some manual skills that helps a lot.

As for Architecto Kit, it's a bit more expensive and more challenging to solve because there are LED lights and other things to add.

One more thing: you won't get spoiled while crafting the puzzle because the steps in the solution process don't follow the same order as the steps in the crafting process. Plus I am sure you will be more focussed on making things right, than analyzing the pieces and steps to deduce the solution ! :)

 

2/ Bozo's packing puzzles for the people who loved well-made clever packing puzzles

I reviewed the several puzzles in different posts in my blog. To be honest, I really like all of them. The quality is top, fit is perfect, difficulty is challenging.

His first puzzle was Ugly 4 which puzzled me for long time due to the weird puzzle pieces. Definity challenging.

The other 2: 8cat and Broken Heart are also nice challenges. 8cat has 2 challenges. As for Broken Heart I like the design a lot. For this one, I did not fall into the traps so I did not fully appreciated the difficulty, still liking it a lot.

The latest one MisFit has even improved in terms of quality with a nice tray and a plexi cover. It took me a bit of time. You can choose the colors of the pieces when placing your order.

Let me remind you the coupon code to use when ordering to get a nice % reduction: RPW7ZMDYF6XZ

3/ Trick Locks from Sashko for the metal lover puzzlers who liked to be tricked with locks!

I reviewed in older posts the Titan Locks, Her Key to The treasure lock, and the lastest one: Monoblock.

All are modified locks from existing locks. In terms of difficulty for sure Titan lock is the most challenging with some traps and some unusual steps. Her Key to THe treasure can be solved in different ways (some more elegant than others) and finally Monoblock is the heaviest (pretty heavy actually!) of them all and has nice steps. It's not super difficult but some steps may puzzle you for some time.

His locks can be bought on etsy under the name of "LockPuzzle". He also made available to purchase some lock picking kits to learn how to pick locks. Something interesting I guess (I have never tried so far) !

I've put the link if you click on LockPuzzle, but sometimes links to etsy don't work...so I guess you also may find it by yourself on etsy :)

4/ Some mazes by Doug (aka Inside Cube)

So fare they have released a lof of puzzles from Easy to Mortal (well this is the name of it). The goal is to navigate with a ball from start to end with the maze engraved on the cubes. That does not make the puzzles easy, hell no !!

The first puzzles were called The Original: the easy cubes have fewer levels than the "regular" ones. The phantom ones have 2 ball bearings. Be careful: for the most advanced cubes, you cannot open them. 

The Donjon was released with the idea of using a vegetal plastic. It has a nice shape. I love the design of it.

Finally the Legend puzzles are on one level and have nice stories behind them. Recently there has been a campaign on Ulule to raise some money to create a more advanced Legend with a 2-layer maze. The layers can be taken off the tray, they call it Troglodyte.

Which ones will you choose ?? :)