I find this puzzle to be so adorable. There’s something I just really appreciate about the design. Maybe it’s the simple colours, maybe it’s the patterns, maybe it’s the strange material I can’t figure out. Buy and Large, there’s something really nice about this puzzle. I can sense it just from holding it.

This is quite a simple puzzle, but something I really appreciate is how it deceives the user. Thanks to an intricate array of rails, and a deceptive outer design, it’s actually quite difficult to understand which pieces move. You likely will have to use guesswork, including some intentional back-tracking to earn the solution you’re looking for.

This is one of those puzzle boxes that if you keep solving it, you eventually take the whole thing apart. The reset process of this becomes quite difficult, and especially when every piece looks the same, it can be hard to set things apart. What I find the best thing this puzzle does is be a little bonus, it’s not a head turner but a little shop along the way.

This is probably the most cheaply made puzzle I’ve gotten to experience. I’ve generally had some good luck when it came to cheaper designed puzzles, but this one absolutely takes the cake.

The main goal of this puzzle is to use a special piece of wood that’s given to you, you use it to slide an internal panel around which will unlock the rest. However, the last step ended up taking a much longer time as I had no clue how to deal with it.

I really can’t give much praise for this puzzle simply because it breaks a personal rule with puzzle boxes, which is that it shouldn’t be made of loose pieces. The extra stick is kind of really ugly, and gets lost easily. Now I have found my own way of solving it without needing that extra stick, but it still goes against the principle.

This puzzle flat out gave me a completely unrealistic expectation of Hanayamas. At first I thought “oh this is so cool! Puzzles made of steel and metal that have been designed with such precision! Whatever could go wrong?” Yeah with the next hanayama I found, it turns out I hate them with a burning passion haha.

In all honesty, this is a really cool puzzle, though it can be a bit difficult to figure out what the goal actually is. I do find the solve to be quite satisfying, as it only takes a bit of intuition to realize what combination of movements and rotations slide everything into place.

The steelwork is something which I do appreciate very much. This puzzle is hefty and solid, it feels like it deserves appreciation. I find that it’s quite a standard cast. There are some BEAUTIFUL hanayamas out there, You’ll see me write about them soon.

I feel like this is what you get when you combine the maze from the cash machine, with a puzzle box, and a perplexus.

I really enjoy that each side feels like it's its own unique challenge. Some sides are pure maze, and are a labyrinth to solve, while other sides vary between obstacles and wheel ergonomics. It’s actually quite impressive what’s all able to fit in.

Unfortunately the drawbacks of such a cool box is that a surprising amount of it isn’t actually utilized too well. Only three of the six sides are actually used for the solution, while the rest are simply decoys or unused. It’s honestly quite disappointing to see a puzzle with so much potential completely fumble itself. I suppose I should expect

Even after writing this review, I’m still not sure if these elements truly synthesize.

I’ve never really been a fan of soma puzzles. It’s all the annoyance of a jigsaw puzzle with all the structural stability of building blocks. Soma’s also are an incredibly narrow term from my understanding. They’re just cubes to be filled in sometimes random orders.

Two things I do like about this puzzle is the fact it is so tiny, this can create some frustrations during the solve, but it does create something genuinely adorable once you put it all together. The puzzle itself fits in this extremely tiny 3D printed crate. It even comes with a slide-on lid, so that every piece will remain together. However, despite these design choices, I still advise you to put it in a plastic bag.

This puzzle is one of the best examples of how theming can really make a puzzle truly exceptional. This was probably one of my first experiences with a 3D printed puzzle, and it definitely paid off.

The mechanics of this puzzle essentially break down into a disassembly puzzle. Your main goal is to remove all of the ribbons from the puzzle to reveal a key. While most of the puzzle revolves around the interlocking ribbon pieces, there still is enough stuff here to keep things fresh, like a gravity element at the end which requires you to essentially drop it on a flat surface, or the removal of parts of the heart box entirely, it makes everything quite captivating to solve.

As for the design itself, it comes in a really nice gold and red colour, something quite unique. I enjoy the way it feels so shiny to look at, The fact it’s a heart does make for a really nice valentine’s day gift to someone. Though if it were up to me, I’d never give away something so awesome. Haha.

I like this one particularly more than the standard Romanian version, namely because it is much better themed.

Let’s address the elephant in the room, this is a puzzle by bits n’ pieces. They usually don’t have stuff that’s particularly good, namely they usually simplify and make every puzzle a lot less interesting. This one is pretty guilty of it too, as there’s no secret compartment behind the mirror, I really used to like that feature, but I’ve grown comfortable without it.

The theming on this puzzle is something to behold though, I love the books on the side that are just cheeky winks and nods to the solution of the puzzle. Even if this puzzle box is VERY commonly known, I still appreciate the design. I also find the colours work nicely, and the painted key is still quite comfortable to use, really making it feel regal. So despite its incredibly cheap presentation, it’s the way they’re incorporated that makes this a decently solid puzzle.

I just can’t enjoy this puzzle. What it essentially boils down to is a jigsaw puzzle. With only a few pieces, it’s a 2D packing puzzle without much substance to chew on.

What else is there really to say about this puzzle? It’s a simple and quite frankly poorly made puzzle from China. The manufacturing really just doesn’t give it any justice.The pieces on the inside are unstable and slip around too much, this puzzle just feels like an exercise in keeping it balanced.

If I were to describe this puzzle in a single word, it would be “unoriginal”, The main shape is unoriginal, the main pieces were unoriginal, and so much more just didn’t really get into place. I think this puzzle can make some people happy, it's just not me. What a lackluster puzzle… at least it was cheap!

I got this one as a Christmas gift. I’ll be honest, I was never the biggest fan of interlocking puzzles since I find them to be quite boring and repetitive. Unfortunately this seemed to match my previous reservations as it just wasn’t that interesting.

The solution is decently easy and you’re able to assume how they interlock, so there’s no funny tricks to it. So it does get points for that. I like that the puzzle itself was hollow, and made for a decently fun solve on its own. I do know alternate versions of this puzzle have a ball in the middle, but mine didn’t have anything like that.

I think its biggest flaw is that the puzzle feels strangely old despite being new. I think that might just be the paint job.

Fun fact, this puzzle can hold random things if you really want it to.

Oh hey! I finally got a puzzle from the famous Cheat3! I really like the different mechanics on this puzzle. I appreciate its wide array of keys that are used, this includes the clever pushback technique seen apparent in one of Brickyorkman’s

There are a lot of cool elements in it, not to mention the design. Despite it being a seemingly random rainbow pattern, each brick gets to feel impactful as it depicts a nice pathway of coloured tiles on the very top.

The best part about this puzzle is still the fact it’s made out of lego. I will always hop at an opportunity to see a puzzle that you could recreate in the future.

I liked this box, it has a small and cute design, but I can never really get over the big issue of its internal logistics. The first half is relatively fine, but pretty quickly it becomes quite confusing due to the internal build quality. I am unsure if this was meant to be some kind of fake out, but I think it just was a construction issue.

The radio design itself is decently well used, with just one dial being the way to solve it, this does technically count as a blind maze, but it’s like one step that it really never feels like it. The problem I had with it, is expecting that the left knob would slide out a bit more upon moving it.

I think this puzzle has some serious potential. If there was some way to REALLY implement a blind maze inside the small grooves of the radio, then I think it is worth looking at for next time. There is gold to be mined with this concept.

And now comes another puzzle I designed out of lego! I think this one was leagues ahead. The idea came to me when someone suggested I should incorporate a gravity pin system to change the sliders ability to move. This sounded like a perfect idea, so I went straight to work.

I enjoyed designing this puzzle, though I did find that it consistently was a big problem when I made the choice to make this puzzle layer by layer. That rapidly increased the cost pretty unnecessarily.

This puzzle is less steps than I would have hoped, but still packs quite a fun punch once you are told which way you have to stand it up in order for the pin to fall. If I were to approach this again, I’d find some way to have another gravity pin that goes from left to right. Oh well, for next time I suppose!

I gifted this one to my cousin again, it was well received.

Ayy! Another Karakuri puzzle! I already knew the solution to this one, so I lost a bit of the fun in solving it. By far this was the most expensive puzzle in my collection, at least when it came to a single purchase. The Jury is still out on whether this truly was worth the money. There are a grand total of 7 steps in this puzzle, meaning that each step cost a whopping 30 dollars each!

I was quite excited to own another karakuri, if they can do one thing right, its their build quality. Every single build they come up with is just so airtight. I appreciate that the functionality of this puzzle was directly related to the box itself. Using a simple gravity mechanism, this puzzle surely was a fun party-trick style puzzle to solve.

I usually don’t like gimmick puzzles too much, though certain times they really do wow me with a certain ingenuity that makes the box itself part of the clue.

This is just a plain fun packing puzzle. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out its six pieces. Generally when it comes to packing puzzles, I prefer ones that have minimal pieces, but make a big effect.

There’s just something about the theming of this puzzle that really wows me each time. It’s so simple, each piece is functionally identical, all that changes is the angles. Each piece is a simple three-ball structure. My friend affectionately called it “Little water molecules”, and that has stuck with me ever since.

I find the solution to be just as entertaining. It’s almost sequential, and the logic just works out really nicely, once you know how each piece can be naturally oriented, everything falls pretty well into place.

I really didn’t like this puzzle. This is probably the only puzzle that gave me aches and pains from using it. The main function of the puzzle is to use a piece as a key-extender… unfortunately you have to position it in such an inconvenient way with your pinkie that it’s painful to gradually finesse it into place.

The craftsmanship on the other hand was a step above the functionality. Not that it really makes it much better. The top slider feels loose and slides around, and almost every part of this puzzle feels like an unintentional fake-out.

The one thing I do enjoy is its theme. Something I really appreciate is the open window clue. One of the pieces has an open window, which lets you know to push it inwards. Overall, I think the puzzle’s biggest issue is that it fails at being a puzzle box. The space inside is completely non-functional because the space is used to transfer the key.

For something found at the dollar store, this is legitimately a good assembly AND disassembly puzzle. Each piece interlocks in unique ways that it makes the solve quite a fun journey of discovery. You are given major hints by the designs on the front, giving away the eventual shape like a jigsaw puzzle, now all you are left to do is figure out the order in how they interlock.

I find it quite fun how the pieces fit together, it’s enough that things slide around quite nicely. It’s a really good mix between a TIC and a typical burr puzzle. The smiling s’more is quite a nice looking theme for the puzzle, making it less like a cube, and rather something more unique.

I really don’t have much to say on this one, it just simply punches above its class. I really do think this is one worth looking for if you ever find it.

I LOVE this puzzle. This is a top notch creation by the Karakuri group. I’m quite surprised that this was the first karakuri I’ve ever owned. I had a particularly successful month so I decided to spend the extra cash on a new Karakuri.

What I really like about this puzzle is its solve pattern.. I will admit I got spoiled for the solution, but that is how I learned about what elevates it above I, II, and III is its solve pattern is a very intuitive binary pattern instead of a 3D version of a traditional Japanese puzzle box.

I had always dreamed of owning a Karakuri, I had heard so much about them, the trick boxes were something that always interested me, especially for their ingenuity. Though I could never justify getting one because they are SO EXPENSIVE! I’ve never seen one that felt affordable until this one.

The craftsmanship on this is impeccable, nothing terribly special, but its a very well put together puzzle. I’d dare even call it a perfect puzzle. This is my top recommendation for anyone who wants to start or find the perfect centerpiece for their collection.

Kind of underwhelming.

This puzzle is just a hidden maze. While blind-mazes can be fun, this just doesn’t do it for me. I find that the technique to solve it is incredibly unsatisfying. You essentially have to get the marble to jump between tracks to get into the secret spot. I just didn’t find it works because it almost betrays the rules that it already established for itself.

This is another example of a laser cut puzzle. And while it doesn’t have any quality difference, I do find that the woodwork is too bulky to really make for an interior space on the inside. Like the space inside there is legitimately

It was the summer of 2023. I had just completed an arduous session of work at a summer camp full of snobby rich kids, and I needed some kind of solace, something fun, something exciting. It was finally time for me to get back into puzzle boxes as an adult.

I finally ordered myself some puzzles with the newfound money I got, and for the locked cabin I was not disappointed. This was a good run of the mill puzzle. It essentially only had one mechanic which was to rotate the windows so that it would free up other spaces. It was very simple, but it definitely felt worth-it simply due to how much of a bargain it was.

I did find that a bit of the mechanics were a bit clunky, though its something I’d be perfectly tolerable of due to the nature and price of said puzzle. It’s definitely worth a buy.

That summer camp was so bad that this locked cabin is probably a full star higher just for the emotional relief it gave me.

Another lego puzzle box of my own design!

I’ll be completely honest, this one just didn’t live up to any expectation I had for it. The main draw was the sliding aspects at the top. I really enjoyed designing puzzles that have a large element dislocated via a sliding mechanism. Unfortunately the piece was too big, and the puzzle was too small for it to be stable. This one falls apart too much for me.

This one was also majorly inspired by BrickYorkMan’s works. Though I feel it’s too derivative to really stand on its own two feet. At some point it might be worth redoing this box once I have some more solid ideas. As for now it stands as my least favourite creation.

If I were to redesign this puzzle, I do have a few ideas in mind. Namely I would focus a bit more on the big shifting elements.